Learning to sketch

[OldFloridaGuy]

For most of my 75+ years I have denied any ability to be creative with pencil and sketch pad.
“No talent or creative ability” was always my mindset.
Then a couple of years ago I decided to test that assumption and bought a sketch pad and a set of charcoal, and a set of graphite, pencils and decided to give it a go.
After about two dozen pages of scribbles and a few recognizable things, my left hand became a subject.
I have also sketched a few people which I’ll post later

 

[Smuttyandfun]

Keep it up, you've definitely got talent.

 

[KaRD02]

I'm an old Midwest guy who's a draftsman and a maker. I always start a project - furniture, machines, devices - with drawings but I gave up trying to draw the human body or animals at youth, discouraged by my lack of natural talent. Hands were particularly difficult to render so I applaud your efforts and hope that your progress gives you satisfaction and pleasure.

 

[000zing]

I second the above comment. Took to drawing/art in later life and was amazed to find that I, like most people, can manage to produce the occasional something that pleases me... except with people/human body! It's so infuriating and I've found myself having to approach others to produce pictures for me (with extremely mixed results).

Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and apply myself to lots more practice and study so that I can dispense with that kind of thing when trying to get my stuff illustrated. Attend life drawing classes, possibly?

Good luck to the OP. Hope it works for you.

 

[OldFloridaGuy]

I second the above comment. Took to drawing/art in later life and was amazed to find that I, like most people, can manage to produce the occasional something that pleases me... except with people/human body! It's so infuriating and I've found myself having to approach others to produce pictures for me (with extremely mixed results).

Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and apply myself to lots more practice and study so that I can dispense with that kind of thing when trying to get my stuff illustrated. Attend life drawing classes, possibly?

Good luck to the OP. Hope it works for you.

I attended a couple of life drawing sessions - no instruction, just open studio opportunities. The practice was good to have, but watching more experienced artists quickly whipping out beautiful work was kind of daunting. I've attempted to look at a picture on a screen and sketch that, but I never get results as good as when I'm looking at a 3-dimensional live person - and I'm not sure why that is. Logically it seems I should be able to do as well from the flat picture as I can from the live model.

 

[OldFloridaGuy]

I'm an old Midwest guy who's a draftsman and a maker. I always start a project - furniture, machines, devices - with drawings but I gave up trying to draw the human body or animals at youth, discouraged by my lack of natural talent. Hands were particularly difficult to render so I applaud your efforts and hope that your progress gives you satisfaction and pleasure.

I also started out doing drawings using tee square and triangles in "Mechanical Drawing" class in high school 60+ years ago, and still use skills and techniques learned then as I do woodworking projects. I also use an older version of Auto Cad when I need precise measures and neat printed drawings.