Lines, Ellipses, Arcs and Curves

1.  TWO/ 2 pages of Measured STRAIGHT lines horizontally across the page. Use different drawing media...graphite (don’t smear), colored pencil (preferably black), ballpoint and felt pens (keep it at about .05 at the widest nib/tip width)

2.   Diagonals across page at different angles. Remember to repeat the same overlapping line at least 8 to 10 times. the objective is to be able to aim at and repeat the muscle-memory and exactness.

3.   Rhythmic jagged angles (scan example page 5) where you create one straight line and automatically attach at least one other to start building angular shapes. When you get the hang of it try inclosing a shape to create a ground plane.

4.   Arcs & Curves. Draw two vertical borders and then draw left and right curves off of them (example page 6). In different media and remember the objective is to get you to repeat the action of pen/pencil over the same line about 8 times.

5.   Compound Curves/ S curves. Its not just "squiggles" (example Page 7),its training your eye and hand and pencil to work together. Again different lengths and curves (challenge yourself. Don’t make it boring but keep it simple).

6.   Circles and Ellipses (Example Page 8 & 9) These are easy & hard to get the REALLY correct symmetrically and balance to work fluidly. And that’s the key to become practiced and correct. Chances are your fist pass will be out of whack (mine sure were!) but make some very light passes around the shape (you might even make some ghost passes slightly above the papers surface to get the rhythms of it before committing). This is important so do a couple of pages if you have the guts and work ethic.

7.  Last make a page where you show all these various shapes and processes interacting and overlapping. Don’t be sloppy and make sure all of these shapes and lines keep their integrity and line character. Use different media and design the page well. Note I sort of clustered some of the angular shapes into groups then merges them.