Week 2: 100 Stroke Sketches

The first lesson of the class focused on getting to be comfortable using a graphic tablet for drawing. The assignment was simple: make 5 sketches using exactly 100 strokes in each drawing. The drawings should use long, filling strokes instead of outlining the object.

All images were done using Adobe Illustrator on my MacBook Pro. To become more familiar with this skill, I bought an inexpensive WACOM graphic tablet to outside of class.

The top drawing is of a 3-stemmed candle holder. I used this image as the thumbnail because I felt the most comfortable drawing this object. Using a graphic tablet takes practice, and this image felt fluid. The drawing uses both vertical and horizontal lines to represent the rectangular edges on the base. A 2pt brush was used.

This was my first image: a soda can. Honestly, this was a "warm up" image. There wasn't much detail in a can, and it gave me the opportunity to really explore my strokes. A 1pt brush was used, creating a scratchy look.

The coffee cup sketch allowed me to work on my vertical stroke...something I already recognize as a weakness. I actually drew this image 3 times...this is the drawing I chose to keep.

The candle holder was an image I tried with a smaller brush. I found the smaller brush to be tougher to use, and that it renders a scratchy look to my drawings. Like the coffee cup, I drew this image several times before choosing to keep this one. In the future, I will prefer to use at least a 2pt brush.

The hexagonal vase proved to be a tough image to draw for two reasons. First, it used vertical strokes exclusively. Second, the shape of the object presented some issues I'd not foreseen...issues in the fact that I am not a artist and I could not sufficiently render the dimensions of the object. In it's defense, the vertical strokes felt more fluid in this drawing.

These objects were all found in the friary where I live. I have the Adobe Suite, version 5.0 installed on my MacBookPro and am able to do my graphic design from my own personal computer. Here is an image of my desktop. (I run a dual-monitor configuration and only captured the Mac desktop):

Thanks for viewing.