I often have the patience of a hyperactive flea or a hummingbird. But watching you produce an accurate, neat, manageable, proportionate shape is calming like meditating and it works. This whole series has boosted my confidence that I can learn to draw anything. I've practiced relentlessly though not consistently 100's of all forms and shapes -- lines, curves, cones, etc. which has kept me plugging along toward my goal to be able to draw anything I see. But my proportions were off when I'd try to scale up an image from a book or magazine, etc. I didn't do it often because I didn't want to get frustrated, or worse give up because I trust the process. I was just intimidated by Andrew Loomis' use of lines like this because I didn't have the directions for how to manage this. I have double vision which makes a gaggle of lines as noisey and disruptive to seeing as a group of yacking ducks! I am going to work these Charles Bargue plate exercises for three months so the ideas you spoke with words and charcoal in this series begin to become second nature for this detailed person. As you spoke about reading the reference top to bottom, and left to right I felt this approach would also enhance my museum-going experiences, along with looking to the largest forms and shapes. I really enjoyed my first formal introduction to reading art. Thank you.

Thank you

These videos are gold!

great videos

Hi Mandy, thank you for the top quality of your lessons. I am wondering if you think we would loose some accuracy if we take a smaller inner notional space box, e.g. around the fist, so that it’s easier to draw follow-through lines ? It would less pollute the overall drawing with shorter construction lines, wouldn’t it ?