Learn to Draw - a lesson for beginners

The material used is black conté on ivory colored Fabriano Ingres drawing paper. In in a darkened corner set up a rumpled old shoe – the more beaten up the shoe is the better – and light it in a manner that well expresses the shoe’s volume and character. We will not be using tone in this exercise. Instead the focus is on using line both structurally and expressively.

Foreshortened objects can be a vexing problem for the beginning artist. The primary culprit for this is our preconceived notion of what a given object should look like. Consequently many beginning artists will struggle to combine what they see and what they think an object should look like. The result is generally not a good one.

An easy way to understand foreshortening is to envision your shoe in a, well, shoe box. A simple box in perspective is readily understood. The same principle applies to the shoe, or any object for that matter.

However, rendering a foreshortened shoe vis-a-vis a perspectal drawing is a daunting task. There are simply too many planes and variables to be dealt with.

The most efficient approach to drawing a foreshortened object is by accurately striking its arabesque. This encompasses both the shape and proportion. I prefer the term Arabesque as it implies gesture and dynamic relationships rather than Contour which implies a flat outline.