Measuring and proportion was a good tool but I need more practice. Learning to use nagative space is also a good tool. I need to see the nagative shapes in shapes and I thing that will help.

Another one, this time a pear.

I appreciate Liz sharing her pencil and thumb technique step by step, because I was only informally using proportional measuring before. As mentioned by another student, the biggest challenge for me comes with eyesight. Switching between my paper and a distant subject gets very blurry. Learning to adapt to aging eyes is the main struggle, but hey, I'll figure it out!

Negative space is a challenge for me. Maybe I'm over thinking it, but I always end up falling back into following the outline of my subject and losing attention to the space that is not my subject.

This technique is very helpful. I’m not an artist but I enjoy drawing birds and habitat. 

Proportions can be challenging to master since none of us are robots, but the more practice I put into it, the better my drawings look. The pencil trick is the handiest trick I've learned and will be of great use in the field! Though trying to capture a moving object with this tool is nearly impossible, some objects are willing to work with you and get their drawing done right! As well as making you look like an expert, it also gives you the confidence of an expert and prepares you for the next big drawing! Thanks, Liz!

I drew a banana.How does it look?

I found this exercise to feel familiar - it reminds me of quilting designs where you work in proportions and patterns as well.  I think that I may be like one other participant and do most of this by eye and only reference this technique when I don't think my eye is getting the proportions right.

It was another fun exercise and I feel very comfortable using this one.

To be honest, I did a better job just eyeballing proportions than using this technique. I had a difficult time seeing the end of my pencil ( close up) and the object I was trying to measure ( far away) at the same time because I wear progressive lenses and either one or the other was out of focus! 🫤 Maybe I am doing something wrong??? I did find that using negative space was very helpful however!

Using the proportion tool was helpful in gauging the length of the dying sunflower petals to determine their length and distance from the sunflower head to the leaves beneath. It's difficult to get the right sense of 3D using water colour.  I have a bit more success when using pencil shading to create depth and shadow.  Lots still to learn.

Negative space has been very helpful and has made me feel much more confident about drawing, I need to practice measuring proportion more, especially in the field. The practice drawings were from photos.

This exercise was very useful because, alongside the one about negative space, it made me a lot more conscious of the distance between objects and between different parts of the same object. I did apply the logic of using a part of the subject (e.g. the head of a bird) as my unit of reference to establish proportions of the other parts (e.g. the body of the bird), but it was never a systematic approach, just an intuitive one.

The exercise with the negative space was really valuable, and even in this poinsettia drawing, it helped me realise that I was on my way to overlapping two leaves, while in fact there was a very small space between them. I hope I can incorporate this attention to negative space in my drawing practice on a regular basis.

PS. Apologies for the (very!) poor quality of the photo

This was a very helpful exercise. I was able to really focus on the shape of the leaves and flower, and draw the curve of the leaves with an eye on negative space.  Will try this with more leaves....once we have some this spring!!

I practiced with my indoor orchid.  I found the measurement tip and taking into account the negative space very useful.

Measuring proportions in the field was very helpful! I was able to figure out the length of the stem and leaves based on the length of the flowers.

Measuring proportions and negative space are already familiar techniques. I find measuring the angles useful as well. These were fun to practice because I haven't drawn in decades. It's almost midnight and pitch dark. I will try these techniques tomorrow in the garden.

Measuring was okay, but executing on paper was not so easy.
A patch of zinnias from my back yard.

I confess that I did not draw anything outside.  We have had non-stop weather in the ninties it seems like forever, so I took a picture from my vacation and used negative space and proportion to draw a Great Blue Heron.  The thinking about negative space helped me to get negative space much better and the measuring (I used the length of the bill)  totally helped to make it look more like the bird I was drawing. I am proud of this drawing. Thank you!

When I measure proportions, I always compare the angles of different lines. This is because I find that I can't get the proportions right if I concentrate on the details of the object. Focusing on the angles of the different lines gives me a general idea of the subject.

This technique helps me to focus on the length and proportions of each subject. It also helps me to compare the distance, size and position of each object.

This tecnique is very helpful in creating more realistic drawings. The proportions for complex images, such as a landscape, was a bit more difficult than single objects at first.