I've been at my new college drawing class (first ever real college art course) for an entire week so far. Even though that's only 2 sessions so far I'll hopefully learn a lot and feel it might be good to share some tips as I come across them in class. We have to critique our classmates as well as receive criticism too.

This week's assignments:

gesture drawing

- keep your eyes on the subject more than your paper
- draw at arm level at 90 degrees to your subject (w/ easel)
- hold the charcoal horizontal (I realized like a violin bow grip) and not like a pencil so that you draw with your whole arm and body rather than just your wrist
- do lots of quick marks and work to get shape and size down
- practice capturing a quick sense of the "whole"
- find appropriate angles and size/distance by measuring with a pencil at arm's length for scale (compare what seems to be an accurate length to your drawing and use that as your "inch" increment)

shading

- explore with lots of textures and laying down and picking up color (with a kneaded eraser) before tackling a piece
- get down your lines, angles, and perspective first
- do a few practice drawings (gestural) before starting on good paper
- once you have your lines, lay an even shade over the entire piece
- now you add details and pick up color for lighter tones or shade darker for shadow
- if you lay out details before shading, they get covered up anyway so be patient
- try practicing first with a corner that has a distinct light source

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That's what I've got for now. I've got to work on my piece a lot tomorrow and if I figure anything else out I'll post again.

Ciao!