Timeout for Art – Let’s Draw a Toucan!

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Drawing, How to draw a toucan, Timeout for Art, using a grid for drawing

OK, aspiring artists! Sharpen your pencils and get ready to draw!

Hold that pose!

“Drawing is rather like playing chess: your mind races ahead of the moves that you eventually make. “— David Hockney

While scrolling through the photos taken over the past week, I critiqued the series of toucan photos with a disciplined eye.   Four are shown below; “A” shows the personality of the toucan. “B, C and D” were similar with subtle differences, but one seemed stronger to me. Which is your favorite? If you were about to draw one of the four, which would you chose and why?

Which would you chose to draw?

Two of the eight or so photos were my favorites, and I toggled between the two to decide which one would be the best candidate for a painting.  The two photos are below:

Toucan B

Toucan C

“B” bird seemed relaxed in its environment.   It also seemed heavy on the right side, as if an invisible line was pulling the bird toward the ground.   “C” seemed to tap into its survival sense, and though I was almost hidden from the bird’s view, it seemed to sense a foreign presence. “D” pose amused me; like many humans who are suddenly aware of a photo about to be taken, this bird lifted its beak just a bit and displayed a classic profile. Most likely, it was definitely aware of a foreign presence, and it was preparing to take flight! For a painting, however, it looked too perfect, although I really liked the backwards “S” curve of its throat and neck.

Toucan D held a classic pose, but it seemed too perfect…

After appreciating the toucan’s body English, I tried – through a teacher’s eyes – to decide what made “C” more pleasing to my eye. It appeared more balanced.   My analytical skills automatically stripped the images into basic shapes and directions, and I realized that I should slow down, decipher my methods and share a few easy ways to stay on track when drawing.

Timeout for Art: Blocks

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Drawing, magic carpet, Painting, Timeout for Art Blocks

A simple line drawing, photographed (gray) and converted to black and gray.

“When I can’t paint, I can draw, and this simple but very powerful tool gets me back to the very door of creativity.”  (Pat Corbin Henson)

Sometimes when I find myself going ’round in circles, I look through my archives and play with the designs waiting in limbo.   Rolling this drawing into a ‘bronze’ application on Irfanview provided a much-richer work of art with zero effort!

After tossing around options on the computer, I am usually eager to return to my pencil, which in turn preps me to return to my paints!

Timeout for Art: Drawing & Paying Attention

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Drawing, Drawing from Life, Drawing from Nature, Pencil drawing, Quotes about Drawing, Quotes about Observing, Timeout, Tree Drawings

(Palo de Agua) – Detail of pencil drawing

“The very act of drawing an object, however badly, swiftly takes the drawer from a wooly sense of what the object looks like to a precise awareness of its component parts and particularities.”  (Alain de Bottom)

Timeout: Leonardo

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Art Quotes, Bamboo Art, Drawing, Drawing Quotes, PENCIL DRAWINGS

Lapiz – Pencil Punta- Point

Sharpening my Ebony pencil, I present the first of a series of drawings paired with quotes pertaining to  the importance of drawing and art.   This will discipline me to take a timeout each week for the joy of drawing and share those drawings with you!    Here’s the first quote of the series: