Division video question

[Valray]

Hi Mike,

It’s Val again with a question about division.

I am right handed. I start my drawing at the top left hand and work towards the bottom right.

Do I divide my drawing into background, middle and front and just complete a small section at a time working top left to bottom right?

Or should I work like your video and complete all the background, then all middle and lastly all front, working all over and not in completing small sections at a time.

Thanks.
Val

[Mike Sibley]

I am right-handed. I start my drawing at the top left hand and work towards the bottom right.

So am I, and I draw in exactly the same manner - so my hand is rarely resting on any existing drawing. And, whether it is or not, I always have a scrap of drawing paper under my hand to prevent oils from my skin contaminating the surface.

Do I divide my drawing into background, middle and front and just complete a small section at a time, working top left to bottom right?

The way I work in the videos is not necessarily the way I work naturally. Completing all the background, then midground, and then foreground removes confusion from a video, but I rarely work that way.

I work area by area. Take a look at Drawing Weeds, and you'll better understand. I always begin with the darkest value. Even if it's only a tiny patch. So, now I have a reference for the entire tonal range at my disposal.

I'll complete the background - its darks and other values - and draw around anything in front of it. Now the midground elements are living within their immediate environment, so I have control over whether they merge into the background or stand out from it. And, as I cannot correctly determine the values needed at this stage, all foreground elements are drawn around.

No repeat the process with the foreground. Then expand that completed area into the next and repeat.

All that said, there are no rules. It's really all based on understanding. The background is usually the easiest to understand, because it might be dark, or a little out of focus, or just be a collecting of random parts of the foreground. So draw that first - just enough so you understand how to tackle the midground. You might then draw the midground and decide to move to the next section and repeat before completing the foreground. Because it might be that you need to understand the new area to help with drawing the previous one. Just develop each area as far as you can before you lose your understanding of it. If you do lose it, move on and return to that section later.

Finally, there's another advantage to working this way - you are never working on more than one element at a time. Trying to draw, let's say, a horse, it's tack, and the field all at the same time simply confuses your mind. Instead of building in everything you know about each element, the confusion results in little or no recall of any of them.