Thursday, March 6, 2014

My Earliest Drawing Memory: A Railroad Scene

My earliest memory about art was learning to draw from the John Gnagy book. I may even still have a copy of the book around somewhere that I have picked up since for old time's sake.


 Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

Web-world is wonderful to recapture some of these memories with ease. I don't recall ever seeing him on television though. I was probably 8 or 10 years old.

Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

After catching these www images, I remembered drawing the great dane's head within circumscribed cubical volumes to outline the general shape.

 Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

The Whistle Stop series of six, step-by-step, progressive, instructional lessons for linear perspective is my most cogent and earliest recollection. I must have tried several times to get this drawing right in pencil and charcoal. Trains were still around when I was a child so this was a fascinating subject matter for me. One of my parent's dear friends was a railroad switchman and a dairy farmer in Massachusetts. I have fond memories of many farm and railroad anecdotes and events about that hard-working, jovial Finnish man during that time in my life.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use
Horizons and vanishing points.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

Basic shapes to represent forms.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

Add shading to enhance shape modeling.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

I will never forget trying to get the width of the grain bins and the train tracks uniform.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

By this time, adding the details made my drawing different than the example.


Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use

Lots of smudges had the potential to make the drawing dirty. I remember lots of erasing and try to get the right amount of dark and light contrast.


 Photo Courtesy John Gnagy: Internet Fair Use
I hadn't seen this drawing before but it seems quite rural idyllic. A short walk along memory lane.

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