Found - Online Sketching

An interesting piece of programming. Harmony, a project by designer and developer Ricardo Cabello, is a web based sketching program. Similar to the freehand tool in other programs, Harmony allows you to draw using your mouse or trackpad. A quick demonstration video embedded below. Harmony has been used to create an App for iphones and ipads allowing for mobile electronic sketching. If people are talking paperless work places, this is definately somethign to look into.



Try it out, click the link below:

Online Sketching

Sketches - Gourds

The following are sketches based on exercises that the first year class are doing in Arch 110. I am helping out and participating in the class and these are the most current. Each student was given the opportunity to select a gourd and then the drawing began:

Draw a circle on your page. Now, turn that circle into the gourd that you selected.

Imagine a larger circle. A circle that surrounds your page. Now, turn that circle into the gourd that you selected. The stepping up of scale made you focus on a different level of detail, and as a result, a different set of lines. You can see a similarity but the shift is evident.


A few gourds fell and were broken so I changed the subject of the sketches but continued with the same exercise.


With this change of scale, more of shift can be seem than in the previous gourd.

The final one from this series was an investigation of my own. I was interested in the interior of the gourd and what make the ridges so pronounced on some. We cut one open to see what was going on. I drew the plan and elevation as a study of that.

Sketches - Washington D.C.

I was away in Washington D.C for a few days and did some sketching. Also, I am going to be experimenting with some different scanning techniques over the next little while and would welcome the feedback.

Sketches - Sandcastles etc

Here are two more sketches from the sketching class. No real theme here, just some interesting examples of different types of subjects.

The first is a sandcastle that Hugh Thompson had built previously. I tried something a little different with this one. More just a recording of shadows. Differing depths of shadow generating the form. There were very few (read "one") materials to render so it fell on a different technique to get it across.



The second is just another house from the west side of Cambridge.

Sketches - 25 Wentworth

Another from the sketching class. I am actually quite proud of this one. To me, it is the most successful to date. The perspective is correct. It is set nicely in the landscape around it. There is sufficient detail to understand most of the materials and elements.

Sketches - People and Hockney

From a previous post, you can see how Hockney, with a few lines and gestures, can create a compelling sketch of another person. I had tried to do something similar with the 25 Second Sketches. I was a little bored one day during sketching class. Maybe "bored" isn't the right word; distracted may be better. I was distracted one day and thinking about the Hockney sketches that I had been looking at. I was a little envious of the ease by which he seems to be able to sketch people. As a result, I thought maybe, instead of just trying it with buildings, I should see what I could do with people. Below are 3 sketches of people who were around me (and unaware that I was sketching them).

Sketches - O'Donovan House

More from the sketching class:

25 Second Sketch - Collection 2

These are the second grouping of sketches from the "25 second" idea. They are drawn under the same guidelines are the previous set so I won't go into the explanation again. As per many peoples comments, these are posted in chronological order. Starting from the bottom of the set, up.

There is, however, one change to criteria for this set. From now on, all of these sketches will be done with one line. The lifting of the pen was always a moment of indecision; a pause in the process. This allows the mind to better filter to the hand.








These are the second grouping of sketches from the "25 second" idea.

25 Second Sketch - Collection 1

I had been thinking about this project recently, after looking into the sketches of Hockney (there is an image in an earlier post). His sketches of people seemed so loose and off-hand, yet they still carried a definite impression of the subject. I started doing the same thing with people around me; really quick, free-form images. Normally without their knowledge, I would take 30 seconds and quickly sketch out what I was seeing. I will post some of those once I get that sketchbook back. Could the same thing be done with buildings? I didn't see why not.

Staying within the confines of previously used numbers, I would give myself 25 seconds to sketch out a building. To see what was recorded, what were the major elements were and what the eye immediately identified. It is very much about the connection between the eye, the mind and the hand. How fast can you process certain information and then record or translate (transcribe might be a better word).

This is the first collection to date; House - Cambridge. I hope to come up with a better name than that, but that is what it is called for now.

Sketches - Langdon Hall

Here is the last of the sketches from previous weeks. What I will be posting from now on will be one sketch a week as I do them. This sketch is from Langdon Hall in Cambridge, Ontario. I decided to take the view from further away, to allow me to include more of the surrounding area. To set the scene, as it were. Also, the longer distance gave me the opportunity to skip over a lot of the finer detail. In my opinion, this is the first successful "sketch" that I have completed for this class. I must remember, in the future, to scale the sketch appropriately to the subject being drawn as well as the medium that I am using. With the fountain pen that I have been using, this seems to be the way to do it. I may try to use the ball-point pen that the professor has been promoting. Which, I have a feeling, will take time to get used to.

Sketches - Composition

This is the next sketch from Cruickston Park. As you can see, there is more progress made on level of detail and, as a result, the number of lines. I chose something on a smaller scale and left much of the detail to the imagination. I hinted at grass around the paving stones with a few simple lines. The bricks that make up the wall gestural, but the viewer understands what is going on.

This sketch seems to have fallen apart when I tried to fill in the background. With so many objects and the field of depth, I tried to include as much as I could to fill in the scene. I am beginning to wonder if my choice of viewing position is having an effect on the level of detail I think is required. When picking a scene to draw, I need to be more careful with what I am including. Currently, I am including everything I see, which has been my problem. I don't need to include every detail of what is in front of me, only the important portions. I can hint at what else is there, but I don't need to draw every line to get that across. Enough to give the impression of what I am sketching.

Sketches - Lines

I have been have a conversation with various people about the sketches. What makes sketch, what make a successful one, etc. In this conversation the topic of lines came up. The amount of lines used seem to be a deciding factor in the idea of a sketch. Accomplishing a drawing with minimal lines. Conveying enough information to get the subject across with turning it into a drawing. I went and looked at a few artists sketchbooks as a result. I have four more coming into the library in a few days, but I thought I would start with David Hockney, who was suggested to me as an example of the minimal sketch.



The above sketch is entitled "Celia Sleeping" from 1972. The simplicity of the sketch amazes me. From the expression on the woman's face to the bedding hanging off the bed, Hockney has managed to capture an entire scene with only a few well placed lines.

Below is the next sketch I had completed from my sketching class. I will be posting all my sketches as they are finished, but over the next few days I will be posting all the ones to date.

As you can see, there is a difference in the line content and amount of detail included. I feel like I am starting to get a handle on that aspect. There is still a ways to go yet. I find it difficult to exclude much of the detail that I can see. I normally end up doing portions of a building or the entire building from much farther away. Just so I can omit details in good conscience. I need to learn to pick what is important and only draw those lines.

Sketches - Sketch vs Drawing

Here is the first sketch from the class I mentioned in the last post. This, to me, is more of a drawing then a sketch. There is a difference between the two, but I am not looking for definitions of each. Just acknowledge that there is a difference and to figure out the uses and advantages of each.

This sketch borders on a drawing. The level of detail and amount of work put into it pushes it beyond sketch. A sketch should be simple. It is meant to concisely convey some aspect of the subject. That aspect is why you decided to sketch it in the first place. You saw something you wanted to record. Whether it be a detail you want to remember, a scene that caught your eye or just the fact that you were there. I will be writing about the sketching more in the coming weeks and posting one of the sketches I do from every class.

Observation - The Human Perspective

Yesterday was the first day of the sketching course that I am taking and the Professor, Hugh Thompson, said something that I had been thinking about for a while. We were discussing sketching building in some sort of landscape and two people came up; Bonington and Railton, both of who are accomplished Draughtsmen and artists.

While looking at some of their work, Hugh mentioned the preference for lowering the horizon to bring the view point more of a human scale. It is that which started me thinking. When creating a perspective, be it a sketch or a finished drawing, from where should it be taken? I understand the decision to create sketches from a human position, it makes sense. You draw what you see before you. It makes the drawing more believable to the human eye. This seems to hold true to what I have observed in previous drawings. Viewing the building so that there is some relationship between what is being viewed and what the viewer can relate to, the objects they see on a daily basis. It lends familiarity to the subject being drawn, and as a result, the drawer can be less accurate or less realistic in the actual representation. The drawing can be simpler if the viewer is presented with spacial relationships they already unsterstand.

Of course that doesn't mean that you shouldn't add the detail or make it less realistic. It just means that when creating a drawing, use how people understand space and buildings to your advantage.