Drawing/Measuring training

Download

You can download the Drawing/Measuring training script from here.

New excercises

The Speed chase exercise consists of then individual exercises/sheets. The purpose is to fill in the missing point as fast as you can. Score is given based on accuracy and time spend. This can give you an indication on how good your measurement intuition is.

The large canvas with a background picture exercise is very close to how it feels when you're actually drawing a portrait. You will se the entire picture in the box to the left. In the box to the right, you will only see an eye which you'll have to use as reference to add the missing points.

Background

These exercises are for those who like to draw. One of the problems in freehand drawing is to know where to draw what. You may have experienced that you have drawn an eye or a nose very well, but since you have drawn it in the wrong place, it destroys much of the drawing.

I came across some very interesting vidoes on Youtube of EclecticAsylumArt where he introduces a technique called triangulation. Using this technique, you will by two points be able to determine the position of a third unknown point. This is done by calculating the angle from the two known points.

What's so great about this technique is that it can be trained and become intuitive. After some training, you will be able to measure very accurately only using your eyes.

The video below shows you how EclecticAsylumArt uses this technique to "paint" the famous Mona Lisa in MS Paint.

The video below is from EclecticAsylumArt's "How to draw portraits" series in which he illustrates the triangulation technique.

Instructions

You will see some pre-defined points in the box to the left. Your goal is to copy them to the box to the right. To do this, click where you think that the point should be.

Start the exercise

Exercise with 7 dots

Exercise with 7 dots and a timer

Exercise with 15 dots

Exercise with 10 dots on a large canvas

Large canvas with a background picture..

Exercise with background picture

10 small exercises with a timer (NEW!)

Training on paper

If you prefer working on paper, you can print this PDF.

Practicing - drawing shapes

Basically, a drawing consists of a combination of shapes in different values. This exercise (shapes.pdf) will train you in drawing shapes and in drawing them at the right place.

The good thing about this exercise is that it would give you some feedback on how successful( or unsuccessful :^) you were. After you are finished drawing, cut the page in half, place them over each other and hold them up against a lamp.