Today in studio we did a series of exercises in landscape drawing. We used watercolours and these soluble graphite pencils. So now I'm very good at drawing desert landscapes, which might be useful if I ever had to work as a renderer in Arizona. I can't even tell you how unlikely it is that I will move somewhere hot and dry, where the politics is conservative and the cheese is unnaturally orange, and do a job that involves drawing all day.
Anyway, I thought I'd show you some of those drawings, on account of how you're a captive audience and all. I will leave out the wash exercises, because frankly they were pretty boring, being mostly designed to explain wash techniques to a bunch of students who mostly had never done any before.
Here's the first little landscape we did, based on a line created by squeezing the pencil very tightly and trying to draw a straight line.
Then we did a series of landscapes from relatively flat to steeply sloped:
Then we spent two tedious hours on shrubbery and trees. I realize there's a value in this, but I find it excruciating;
Now, now-- it's good practice for its own sake. And the trees are really very nicely done. And I'm so glad I'm not in school anymore, and can draw whatever I want, whenever I want, instead of having to pump out ten renderings overnight twice a week. :)
It certainly does give a certain discipline to have to draw what somebody else wants you to draw. But I'm looking forward to being done with school and not having to do this again.