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Now! I am ready to go with HOT SHOT Number 9! I hope you’ve been putting the blind contour into practice? Just keep it going and flowing. Use up loads of sheets. Remember it’s the mileage covered in your sketch journey that matters. You really want to just keep it going, if you stop, just forgive yourself and start again!

There’s no better way to get better at anything than to just DO IT! Doing it correctly is what this blog is about, so be ready to give everything you pick up a go! Don’t seek for immediate results, just keep it going, nothing worthwhile ever came overnight!

If you missed HOT SHOT 7 & 8 just click HERE to see what the Blind contour was all about and keep it going. In this HOT SHOT we are going to be looking at practicing sketching of the outline with angles. When I say angles I mean the change in direction of the outline in terms of tilts and angles.

HOT SHOT 9

While sketching you could also start by considering the object in terms of angles. This is one method I use most when sketching the human face. I ways break the face down into simple angles and that helps me with the features too.

 

I am so grateful to God for helping me to get admission to Yaba College of Technology, where I had my first solid lessons in Art! It was while I was in my second year, while doing my National Diploma in General Art, that I was blessed with a wonderful Life Drawing Tutor, called Gbenga Orimoloye. While in the Life class with the model before us. He would come over the top of my drawing  with a soft pencil and say, “JUST PULL THAT LINE, IF IT TILTS, PULL IT AGAIN, IF YOU SEE A CHANGE IN DIRECTION, PULL IT AGAIN!”

 

 

He really did everything possible to breakdown the figure in simple linear angles! After hearing him repeat this time and time again, I got hooked and almost became mad at it. I got a sketchbook and just kept on doing it to everything I saw!

Angles, angles, angles!!!

I tried my best to interpret the right tilt I saw in my sketches! This was a real eye opener for me! With time, after years of adopting this, though I am still learning, I have really enjoyed this technique and because of my love for geometry, it even became more relevant to my sketches.

 

Adebanji Alade's demo for HOT SHOT 9- this is the sketch I worked on the video, I have just worked on it a little bit more and put some other important notes on it.

So this is all about seeing things and breaking them down into different angles. Try your best to do this! Don’t worry about proportions. With practice, the proportions will take care of themselves.

Everyone has the innate ability to master proportions and get them.  I mention proportions because, it’s not just about pulling those lines to the right angle, but also knowing the RIGHT DISTANCE of the line from one point to another.

 

And because I am not dealing with drawing here but mainly sketching, you haven’t got the time to start measuring while sketching, it defeats the whole purpose of the spirit of sketching. What you must master is the ability to rationalize or judge a line or the distance of something in relation to another.

Adebanji's sketches showing angles 1- Looking carefully at these sketches, everything I have done here has been done with angles.

Never underestimate the power of your eyes! If you think this is impossible, then how come you are able to spot a faulty proportion in your sketch or that of another artist?

One of the great draughtsmen of this era, Anthony Ryder, has this to say about proportion, “Students tend to feel a lot of anxiety around the idea of proportion, perhaps because they believe that only a select few possess the special ability to judge proportion correctly. Having postulated the existence of this mysterious power, they come to the depressing conclusion that they don’t have it. Otherwise their drawings would have the seemingly miraculous perfection of the work of the masters. Not. I think that we are all born with an innate, undeveloped sense of proportion. As we grow up, we develop this sense in accordance to the demands of our daily life. thus we learn, from a very young age, how much hot water to put in the bath to make it the right temperature, how much milk to pour into the bowl with our cereal, how loudly we need to yell to get ourselves heard. We get feedback from our  family, neighbours, teachers, and our own senses. We gradually as if by natural law, conform ourselves to the age-old dictum: moderation in all things. Since it takes time and a great deal of experience to acquire a sense of proportion in the rest of our lives, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it takes a while to do the same in drawing.”

 

Adebanji's sketches showing angles 2-again here, especially in those hands and the profiles, angles have been utilized.

 I hope this helps and really gets you flowing into just pulling those strokes with your pen or pencil in the right direction and making loads of sketches that reveal this great exercise!

Adebanji's sketches showing angles 3- Look at the framework for the uncompleted sketch of the man with his hand against his face. That's all broken down into angles. The other two sketches were started off the same way.

 

Adebanji's sketches showing angles 4-Every broad shape, especially the one of the man with the hood, were all done with angles. Watch out for the sudden changes in the angles in the man's face in the middle of the page.

If you have gained something or enjoyed this post, please comment, share or like with social media buttons below. KEEP SKETCHING!!!!

 

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Filed under: Inspiration to sketch • Sketchbook • Sketching Tips

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