On Tuesday evening March 21, accomplished artist Pat Gauthier provided a guided introduction to drawing in pencil.
Twelve participants tried their hand at sketching, first exercising hand eye coordination. This involved looking at objects and copying their outlines sketching free hand while keeping eyes fixed on the object without looking at their hands.
Then they drew basic lines and shapes, repeating over and over till the movement felt free and relaxed with a big movement from the shoulder.
Pat explained how there are four basic shapes to everything, and by looking at the outline of an object and recognizing basic shapes (circle, sphere, square, rectangle, triangle, cyclinder and cone) one can draw these first.
Sketching shape components of the whole object first helps one more easily combine them to form a accurate representation of the real life object.
After practicing recognizing and sketching these shape components of an object (bottle, horse, shoe, box etc) they then moved on to adding shading by identifying the light source and how the shadows fall.
Then with the basic tools budding artists took to copying the likeness of a print of a bird on a branch.
Pat can be seen here in the photos with her sketch class participants at Pope Mountain Arts, Birch St. Fort St James, where her current exhibition is on display till mid April.