Why you should draw LARGE!

I remember sitting in a park with a sketchbook, I was about 10 years old and I was having lunch with my Godmother. I remember showing her a drawing that only fit on the corner of a page. “That is very good … Draw it larger … always draw large”. As a kid it never made any sense to me. It always seemed that drawing small was easier. working on this comic I have started to see what she was talking about .

I carry a sketchbook everywhere … I mean everywhere . its not uncommon to see me with not only one pencil in my hand and one in each ear. Here is the problem with that .. as convenient as a sketchbook is I tend to draw small. When drawing small you limit your self to a certain size, you limit how you can draw and the amount of detail you add to your image. where if you draw large not only are you not bound by those limits but you can also “Shrink” your image down if you need it smaller … Making something larger and keeping the same quality is not always possible .

This all came to my attention when I went to scan in some images of Alex. I had drawn several versions of Alex’s face on a single page. The idea was to practice expressions and if I liked any of them I would add them to my database of sketches of Alex .. so I could quickly add it to a background and POW I have a post to keep the storyline going. (does that make me lazy … YES IT DOES … but that is a different Blog post )

Example of a Small drawing of Alex.

Notice that the bottom image (Drawn on an A3 sheet of paper that took up most of the page) looks much better then the image above it (drawn on a corner of a 8×11 inch sketchbook) I blew up the top image and reduced the bottom. See what I mean.

So this is what I have done .. My sketchbook is now a A3 size. Not as convenient to carry around however it is a good conversation starter on the train. It does make scanning an issue due to the size of my scanner but that is something that I can work with.

So yesterday my daughter brought me a drawing (by the way she is getting very good at this).. I told her “Wow that is awesome .. you are getting better .. now draw it larger … Always Draw Large.”

Thanks Connie !

 

 

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