Feeling a Little Rusty

The unpredictable and flowing cloud shapes are always great warm up subjects.

To start, dedicate a portion of your paper to the sky and lightly draw the outline of your cloud shapes. Then using your various pencil tones, create your values.

It can have a simple landscape ground, a body of water or you may add other elements such as trees.

Here is an old cottage. A little drawing tip to share with you here, is placing your darks and lights in a way that is more interesting and perhaps pleasing to the eye. For instance, the top tree branch over the little window has a light value just as it crosses the dark window, and it changes to a dark value as it goes over the light tone of the house!
Also, if you are drawing an old building, allowing some of the architectural lines to be uneven, helps portray its rustic character, such as the small wooden steps leading to the porch.

Lastly is a somewhat “neat” sketch. :)

“Every artist dips his brush in his own soul and paints his own nature into his pictures.”
-Henry Ward Beecher