CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE, “Margaret Peot Draws a Crow,” to see the lovely video Daniel Levy made of me drawing Crow! Thank you so much!!
At Crow’s publication party, Daniel set up a way for me to draw Crow in front of the room of crafters and parents with an overhead projector. That’s Daniel, my husband, below with the camera:
I get to draw a crow for everyone while they watch!
I resisted initially (I had not planned to do this when scheming up the whole idea of a crafting party to celebrate my book, and planned an almost completely technology-free event!), but it ended up being really nice, and a way for me to share with all the young creators in the room an important fact about how I draw.
Thanks to Brittany Mitchell for these photos!
When I draw, especially when I am working on illustrations, I scribble and scratch in my sketchbook, not erasing, getting the gesture right, and then take my sketchbook home, scan the drawing, print it out larger, and put it on my light table to trace and refine.
Crafters and parents watching the drawing
Crow drawing, complete
I know there are artists in this world who can knock out gorgeous lines full of gesture and life, with no erasures, like my teacher Alex McKibben. However, most of us draw and refine our drawings. But there is something about drawing small in a sketchbook that allows for almost as active a mark as drawing really large. Even without a scanner you can use this technique. On a piece of paper the size of your finished artwork, loosely draw your composition, not worrying about specific details, but really get the feeling of the action happening on the page. Then tape this loose drawing to a window, and tape a clean piece of paper on top of it, and trace your drawing.
Click on the link at the top of the post to see the video!
