444 Interiors Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. Sketching Exercises for Eye-Hand Coordination There are several simple, common eye-hand coordina- tion exercises to begin with as you learn to sketch. Try the following. Exercise One Choose a 5- by 7-inch or 8- by 10-inch photo of a friend, family member, or famous person. Place the photo upside down in front of you. Keep your wrist loose and use a pencil to draw the portrait. Start anywhere you wish. Do not try to figure out what you are drawing. Do not try to identify parts of the portrait. Do not let yourself erase any lines. Instead, if you put a line where you do not want it, just continue to draw over it. The objective of this exercise is to truly see the lines of the portrait. Once you finish, avoid the temptation to turn your drawing right side up. Instead turn it 180 degrees and view it. See Figure 13-16. Exercise Two Use the same technique as in exercise one, but choose an 8 1/2- by 11-inch picture of an interior space from a design or architecture magazine or from a design-related website. Select one with relatively little detail. Once you make your choice, turn the image upside down. Use your pencil to draw the room. Avoid looking for recognizable shapes or forms. Do not worry about the perspective of the room. Simply draw what you see. After you finish, compare your drawing with the photo. See Figure 13-17. Exercise Three This exercise is often the first drawing skill taught in a sketching class. The goal is to perceive the edges of objects through drawing contour lines. Contour drawing follows the visible edges of a form. You will not put any shading on a contour drawing. Different line weights will make the contour of the object pop out on the paper. Strong, dark lines make that part of the contour visually advance and light, thin lines will appear to recede. To begin, set an everyday object on the table in front of you. For instance, you might use a set of keys or one of your shoes. Then use the following instructions for each exercise. See Figure 13-18. ■ No lift. The objective of this exercise is to learn that every line is important and that there are more details in the object than previously thought. To begin, look at the object you will draw. Set your pencil or roller pen down on the paper and begin drawing the object(s) without lifting up your tool. Use line only. You can look between the object(s) and the paper, but cannot lift your tool. Alter the pressure to change line weight, but keep the line continuous from start to finish. Use about 1 to 5 minutes for this sketch, but do not hurry. Sherilyn (Lixue) Yin, International transfer design student, CSU, ECNU/ Shidong Yin , Senior Photographer Figure 13-16 Creating a sketch of a photo upside down forces you to look at the lines of the portrait.