Everything I Know about Drawing I Learned from a Donut

Art Sketches from Donuts: A quick brush pen and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II (water soluble crayons, here used drily) sketch of a raspberry topped long-john donut on Strathmore 400 series Toned Mixed Media paper.
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Instructor Roz Stendahl shares his thoughts on where art sketches can start.

By Roz Stendahl

Sometimes as artists we reach so hard for the profound we miss the obvious — that our time would be better spent in direct observation and practice. John Ruskin, the 19th century art critic and author of the first mega-hit art instruction book The Elements of Drawing, understood this. He told his students: “Go out into your garden, or into the road, and pick up the first round or oval stone you can find, not very white, nor very dark…”

I find that donuts make a great modern substitute. They are readily available and are three-dimensional. As a still life subject they give us an opportunity to hone our art sketches and they never walk away! Donuts are also portable, stackable, and suitable for all the drawing techniques and games I like to present to my students. And they are cheery, too!

Art Sketches from Donuts: A quick brush pen and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II (water soluble crayons, here used drily) sketch of a raspberry topped long-john donut on Strathmore 400 series Toned Mixed Media paper.
A quick brush pen and Caran d’Ache Neocolor II (water-soluble crayons, here used drily) sketch of a raspberry topped long-john donut on Strathmore 400 series toned mixed media paper.

In my full-day watercolor and mixed media workshop at SketchKon 2018 we will be looking at donuts from every angle to improve our eye, hand, and brain coordination. Here are seven useful exercises and approaches you can add to your daily sketching practice right now.

#1 No Photos for Now

Train your eye to work from the three-dimensional to the two-dimensional by drawing from live, moving subjects or real still life subjects whenever possible. As in, make art sketches of an actual donut on an actual plate. This allows you to translate the three-dimensional onto the flat art surface without the intermediary of a photo. Also, because you are working from a three-dimensional subject you can engage your artistry and play with composition by moving your viewing angle, arranging your negatives space, and adjusting your lighting. For now, put the photos away.

Art Sketches from Donuts: If you want to improve your ability to draw live moving subjects in realistic replica toys make excellent models. Here I worked on values of ink washes as well as angles and proportions as I sketched Carl Too—a Giganotosaurus who is about 10 inches tall. I worked with water-soluble ink on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper.
If you want to improve your ability to draw live moving subjects, realistic replica toys make excellent models. Here I worked on values of ink washes as well as angles and proportions as I sketched Carl Too — a Giganotosaurus who is about 10 inches tall. I worked with water-soluble ink on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper.

#2 Practice finding your focal point

By creating a few quick thumbnail sketches you can discover what caught your attention about a scene or subject in the first place. Was it the angle? The negative space? The Notan (balance and interplay of light and dark)? The story told by the relationship between several subjects?

Try This

Set up a simple still life with three or five objects (odd numbers offer more possibilities for pleasing asymmetric arrangements and surprises). Include objects of different heights and widths. Avoid flat objects. Set up a light to shine at an angle across your subjects and create interesting form and cast shadows. Walk around your arrangement and create a series of quick (30 seconds to 2 minute) sketches from several views. Capture the impression of your subject not the detail. Squint if that helps you to not see the details.

Do at least four thumbnails before rearranging your still life. Do another series of four. Just when you think you can’t do any more thumbnails of these items do another set of four. Often your answer will be found in the final group of sketches because you pushed past the obvious. Art is what’s beyond the obvious…or sometimes the obvious seen in new ways.

Remember that your thumbnail art sketches don’t need to look like something to anyone but yourself. They are explorations to arrive at a focal point and discover a viewpoint. (Fiber-tipped brush pen on bond copier paper.)
Remember that your thumbnail sketches don’t need to look like something to anyone but yourself. They are explorations to arrive at a focal point and discover a viewpoint. (Fiber-tipped brush pen on bond copier paper.)

#3 Take a break

When you’re out sketching live subjects on the move give yourself a break. Get down on paper what you can by working quickly, but then take notes if your subject walks away. It’s the same with donuts. If you draw a blank while trying to devise a visual vocabulary for light bouncing off sugar glaze make notes. Tell yourself what you’re seeing. This focuses your brain to keep working on the puzzle.

Bird Finches art sketches by Roz Stendahl
Working in a journal I made with blue Magnani Pescia I sketched finches in graphite at an indoor aviary at an eldercare facility. Birds accustomed to visitors will return to face you time and again so that you can continue to build your sketch. I recommend that you have several sketches going at one time across your page spread. Return to a sketch when the bird restrikes that pose. Also take a moment now and then to get very quick gestural sketches like the small sketch at the top center. Write notes about their shapes, the proportions, the lighting, as you go along. This all helps you better understand your subjects.

#4 Everything has a gesture — even donuts

It’s important to spend time really observing your subject — even if it is stationary. And practice will make gesture sketches of live subjects possible. Not only do you warm up your drawing mechanism (the eye-hand-brain connection) with gesture drawings but you are discovering more information for your future efforts!

Puffin art sketches by Roz Stendahl
Warming up with gesture sketches is a great way to familiarize yourself with a subject. If you’re working from a live subject like this puffin from the Como Zoo, gesture sketches also help you familiarize yourself enough with your subject to determine when it might hold a specific pose long enough for a color study.

#5 Accept the messy

Work with an attitude of discovery. Be accepting of messy pages. It doesn’t matter if you have a moving subject or a still life subject, getting information down on the page and accepting that messy, creative process as necessary and good is a way to send your internal critic packing while you get your creative work done. Accepting the mess of trying out options on the spot will allow you to discover new approaches and eventually your own favorite compositional arrangements.

Roz Stendahl bantam art sketches
By taking time to make a close study of this sleeping bantam while hanging in there and being open to wider observation I was able to capture the small thumbnail when he woke up and started moving around. The sketches not only remind me of the fun day I had at the Minnesota State Fair, they became the basis for two acrylic paintings back in the studio. (Staedtler Pigment Liner on a pre-painted journal card made of 300 lb. Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor paper.)

#6 Look at values

More than anything else, values will give your subject dimension. Experiment with mark making that supports the values you see, either with linework or with wash.

Peppers art sketch by Roz Stendahl
To sketch means to constantly make choices about how to use line. Practice using line for values not just for contour. (Brush pen on 90 lb. Winsor & Newton Hot Press Watercolor paper.)

#7 Perfect Shmerfect

Free your mind from practice staleness by changing up your media and approach. Often artists practice the same approach over and over without variation. They might focus on the idea of the “perfect sketch” to the exclusion of all else. Instead of improving they might see their goals slipping further away.

Try This

Let go of perfect. Let go of “rules” like “you must draw only in ink.” Instead pick up an orange colored pencil or marker. Quickly sketch your subject. Use light pressure for your initial lines. Don’t worry about accuracy — get marks onto the paper. Allow yourself to feel around the paper with the orange pencil or marker. Relax knowing that you can revisit the lines when you return with the ink. You might begin with a gesture sketch and work your way up to something a bit more refined. Next take a bold black ink pen and redraw the subject clearly or take the sketch to full color with paint. Use the early colored pencil lines as an aid helping you decide where to put your ink lines or paint.

Take time to consider contour and accuracy when laying in the ink or color. You are training your eye to see how the various angles and shapes relate to each other. You are giving yourself practice in accuracy and a “second” shot at approximating.

Art sketches from Roz Stendahl: Dick Montana
Working in a 9 x 12 inch Dylusions Journal from Ranger I used an orange paint marker to sketch in the shape of my husband’s features as he sat on the couch. You can still see the dark orange strokes emerging from the paint around the eyes and chin, and on the shoulder. I did a little bit of refining with a blue metallic pencil (still visible at the neck and up the left side hairline). I then decided to paint the image and went in with 15 mm wide-tipped acrylic markers to define the values and feature shapes. And I finished with some scribbled highlights from bullet-tipped white and pink paint pens.

Remember that just when you think you’ve seen a subject completely you can always look a little deeper. Practicing a variety of exercises with donuts (or rocks if you want to go the way Ruskin recommended) prepares us for eventually working with live moving subjects. What’s more, all the drawing approaches you practice with donuts are transferable to any live subjects that catch your interest. Remember to also keep the fun factor alive in your practice. See for yourself how fun it is to adapt by doing new and different things often. It helps you build momentum and enables you to speed up your response time when you eventually take on those live subjects… though bringing it back to a donut sketch now and again never hurts.

Art Sketches from Roz Stendahl, superior lake series
Gouache painting on 300 lb. Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolor paper, from “Lake Superior Rocks Series.”
Orangutans art sketches from Roz Stendahl
Be open to the movement of your subjects. Start multiple sketches across your page or page spread. Develop images when a pose is held or returned to. Enjoy capturing the movement in the gesture sketches that don’t get built up. Here I used the Staedtler Pigment Liner to sketch live orangutans at the Como Zoo.

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