Between Shadow and Light-Drawing Exercises

I'm currently working on yet another class with Ivy Newport, called Between Shadow and Light. It's a mini portrait course, which during the month of September Ivy donated all the class fees to help the victims of the horrible hurricane in Texas. That helped me make the decision to take the class, but I'm really glad I did. Ivy is a good teacher and I'm learning a lot from her! See the sidebar for the link!

Exercises 1, I misunderstood the directions. I deliberately didn't set a timer and sketched these, and the one below, with my non-dominant hand, using magazine photos, and taking no more than 5 minutes per sketch. I used a hard charcoal pencil on 18" x 24" mixed media paper in a large sketchbook.

The models would be horrified, but I wasn't going for a likeness. Besides, who knew I could sketch/draw with my non-dominant hand?!!! So excited!

This sketch, from an old photo of mama, was done with my dominant hand with a hard charcoal pencil on 18" x 24" mixed media paper. Again, I deliberately didn't set the timer, but took only 5, or so, minutes to sketch. I'm amazed that it actually resembles mama!

A few days passed after I did the first exercise, then I re-read the material and watched three more class videos.

I found that I had misunderstood directions on the first exercises and did them over.

 I set timer for 2 minutes each sketch, because I could barely get the head shape down in 1 minute. I used the same paper and pencil as the first ones and did one sketch with left hand, then same one with right hand. I used the same magazine images as the first exercises, only this time I sketched each image using right and left hands on same page. Image 1- Left on left, right on right. Still amazed that I can even sketch with my left hand!

Second image with both hands. Very interesting how my mind shifts with each hand when I compare the two images, and how it feels during the sketch.

For the third image for this exercise I used a photo of my cousin instead of the magazine photo with the hat. In many of these sketches, I prefer the one done with my non-dominant hand. Who knew?!!

A two minute blind contour sketch from a photo of another cousin when she was young, although this one is semi-blind, because I forgot and looked at my paper a few times. Again, two minutes each, one with each hand, same paper and pencil.

Four different color pencils, same paper, using the same photo of my cousin, two minutes each, four overlapping sketches, two with each hand. I forgot to take a picture of the first sketches. This is after I had tweaked and added to them some.

I have a tendency in these classes to get carried away an "do my own thing", so I overdid what the exercise asked for and went over the whole thing with a brush and water, making the sketches very vibrant because three of them were done with inktense pencils. The other was in watercolor pencil.

There is a bonus video on this exercise, which I am currently attempting for practice before trying an actual portrait, so stay tuned for more of my feeble attempts at these class assignments! More photos as I progress...

Plus I have several works in progress from other classes I have yet to finish! :o