LESSON 2: OBSERVATION AND MEASURING

For this lesson, we were sat around a table with random small objects placed in close proximity and asked to draw them. We were given 30 minutes.
I didn't make finish in time and made a mess of things.
It wasn't a complete mess because I did learn from watching Jane Wu and figured out a few basic guidelines for my next attempt.

1. The secret to working this assignment is to lightly block out (lightly sketch) the objects by using the basic shapes from Lesson 1.
   
2. Concentrate on the general shapes without getting distracted by the details of each object.
   
3. Use each object to approximate the size and location by comparing it with it's neighboring object.
   
4. MEASURE
   
   
   • Grip the pencil in your fist leaving the thumb free.
     
   • Hold your arm out straight in a relaxed fashion with the thumb and pencil protruding straight up.
     
   • Close one eye and measure using one object as the basic reference size for all the other objects
     
   • Now hold that measurement from the top of the pencil to the thumb and line it up with the bottom of your last measurement.
     
   • Repeat this process and count how many reference object lengths make up the distance from the top of the other objects to the bottom.
     
   • Repeat this with the width, only turn your pencil to the side (90 degrees from the last orientation).
     
   
   
5. Use your eye to see the negative space
   (the space around and between the subject(s) of an image. Negative space may be most evident when the space around a subject, and not the subject itself, forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape, and such space is occasionally used to artistic effect as the "real" subject of an image.)
   
6. Frequently take a few steps away from your sketch board to compare what you have on paper versus what you see in the subject. Note what you have to adjust and what parts of your sketch is inaccurate.