The Natural Way to Draw: Ernesto
In 2020, during the covid-19 lockdowns, I got back into figure drawing. I thought about doing this for a long time. Minneapolis had a few figure drawing co-ops back then but I never got around to attending one. With everything closed, I found drawing co-operatives online that met via Zoom. As I jumped into these weekly virtual sessions, I also read Force: Dynamic Life Drawing, and Force: Character Design from Life Drawing, by Michael Mattesi. Mattesi also has a YouTube channel with weekly life drawing lectures. I grew a lot as a drawer by studying Mattesi’s books and videos, while attending those online sessions.
The past few years, I’ve done a lot less figure drawing. The weekly practice has been on the back burner as I started screen printing again. For 2025, I plan to get back into the weekly practice, but I’ll use The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides. I came a cross this book while browsing thriftbooks.com, which has a lot of old drawings books at very cheap prices. The Natural Way to Draw is a pretty intense drawing course with a practice schedule for each section. It feels like going through a foundation drawing course again. My goal is to work through the entire book by the end of 2025.
I’ve already started, cause why wait, with a Doable Guys drawing session a couple weeks ago.
5 minute drawings
The first lesson, in The Natural Way to Draw, is contour drawing. For this exercise, I’m not allowed to look at the paper/screen while I draw. Nicolaides instructs to look at the model and envision the tip of the pencil resting on them. Then I must move my pencil across the page in unison with my eye following the contours of the model.
These first four drawings are a mess. LOL. Five minutes isn’t a lot of time to draw. Which is fine. Nicolaides says to approach these drawings slowly. The goal isn’t to complete a drawing, no matter the length of time. The biggest struggle was getting my eye and hand to sync up.
10 minute drawings
These next two drawings feel like a good improvement from the 5 minute drawings. Keeping everything in proportion was the toughest part. Which Nicolaides also says not to worry about. The second 10 minute was especially hilarious. Ernesto ended up looking like a bobble head with those proportions.
20 minute drawings
I really love all three of these drawings. I think I need to learn to draw more slowly because I started redrawing things as the time went on. This exercise isn’t about finishing a drawing but instead exploring the subject’s form. Nicolaides explains that, in this context, a contour is more than an outline. A contour is any surface which your pencil can travel across. Michael Matessi talks about a similar concept in his videos. He tells students to imagine themselves as an airplane gliding over the surface of the model.
I think all three of these drawings successfully capture a sense of form and depth. They probably the best blind contour drawings I’ve ever done. I’m looking forward to doing more of these drawings and seeing what other exercises Nicolaides has to teach.