First exercise

Take some plain cloth. Drape it over a table or the back of a chair - and try to form some basic folds. Then allow your eye to "zoom in" on the folds of the fabric. Sketch or paint in monochrome (i.e. one colour) the folds of the fabric, allowing the fabric to fill the format right out to the edges.

 The above is a painting from one of my students... He started with exercises like the one I've set here. Anyhow give it a go... post your result...

Starting a few weeks late, but I'd like to get one basic art exercise, (I'm a rank beginner hear,) up on this site each week. And I invite anyone to join me on the journey. Most of the exercises will be sourced from books, other sites etc. and will be chosen to cover a fair range of media and technique over the course of a year. The purpose is two-fold. First, I'd enjoy the company of other fledgling painters/drawers. And second, I reckon the old adage, "practice makes perfect" might, for me at least, translate "practice makes better".
About 20 years ago I cut a clipping out of a magazine. Despite the antiquated imagery, (and mixed metaphors,) it still makes a lot of sense. "Drawing primes the pump. you keep feeding something in, nothing happens - then all of a sudden it begins to spark, and the engines begin to function. I'm firing on all 12 cylinders now." (Ian Hunter quoted in the Listener).

So - in the next day or two I'll get the first exercise up.... Cheers.