Last week I got a drawing board – one of those you put on the desk and can adjust the angle in several steps. At one of my old art schools we had large adjustable drawing tables, which were fabulous (even though things would sometimes roll onto the floor….) A drawing board means you still have the table top for putting all those pencils and other bits and pieces on, and I just love it! The thing about working on a flat surface is that it sometimes makes it hard to avoid elongating (especially if you’re drawing faces), as the eye tends to adjust to the foreshortened viewing angle… for large drawings I tend to use the easel to overcome this – and also to get more stepping-back and moving around space… but with smaller drawings I’ve either drawn flat or with the sketchbook on my knee… So it was very exciting to set up the new board and get to work!
Well… drawing is really comfortable and it’s easier to get good lighting because there’s less reflection on the paper. I was probably too excited about the board to look properly with the first drawing ;) – When finished and scanned I discovered that instead of elongating (or getting it right…) I was still in “flat mode” and had ended up squashing my poor daughter’s face… I decided to keep the peace by making a few adjustments to the scan before I coloured her…
I did a line-drawing of my son too, which I’ll post once I’ve finished colouring it.
And here’s a charcoal pencil drawing of the two of them together:
Thanks for visiting and take care!
Annette :)
