Basic Drawing with Gary Tucker - Shapes

About the author
Gary Tucker is a watercolor artist/ instructor living in the Boston area. He offers online workshops , in person workshops, and a catalogue of watercolor videos on technique and design
My on-line store www.gumroad.com/garytuckerartist
My web site www.garytuckerartist.com
instagram page / garytuckerartist
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Learning to See !
It sounds like a very strange thing to say "learning to See" but it is very much a part of the skill that a visual artist cultivates throughout their career. Of course we see things around us. We are primarily visual creatures. We can perceive a star in one second and a firefly in the next. Yet most of the time our vision is based in practicality, in other words if what we see is not going to have a bearing on our survival or pleasure we quickly pass over it, and we continue to scan the surroundings for the next predator or threat or treat , that is the way we are designed. When we sit down to draw something for the first time we realize that there is another world that we did not see before. This is because our intent now is different - we are actively looking at the subject - admiring it simply for its visual beauty. It is a very satisfying moment. That satisfying moment is quickly followed by a terrifying moment. How to we go about capturing all that we see? Where do we begin.!
That is the main objective I have in this class is to teach you some skills that will make such a overwhelming task manageable.
Angles, points, and axis
Imagining and using the invisible!
Do you remember the trick of drawing the 3-dimensional cube. I remember that moment clearly, it was learning a magic trick. Suddenly with a few lines I could transform a flat square into a 3- dimensional cube. This bit of geometry and other imaginary lines can give us an edge in drawing objects more accurately. Let's look at one such tool which is the axis. This line is completely imaginary and contrived by us to show the center line in any object. How about our apples and grapefruit? Let's look for the axis in each. How about our plate or other objects! Angles, points, and axis are imaginary concepts more commonly associated with geometry and than in art. Still they are visual concepts and can be used to help the beginner to simplify a complex world!
These examples show you how finding a line moving through your object(grapefruit) can help you to capture the posture of that grapefruit - slightly leaning to the left. Also a line across the top of the lemon slice can help you to gage their angles relative to each other. If you observe the length of this line you get some valuable information on how much this slice is foreshortened.
We will continue to explore this idea with symmetrical objects in a later lesson

[@dr.robertt.mullaneiii1561]

There is not a video of yours in which I am not reminded of or introduced to an important concept that helps me in my art. Thank you.

[@GaryTuckerArtist]

Thank you Dr Mullanei - always happy to hear that these lessons are having a positive impact