Drawing- Again and Curiosity

This past weekend was the Old Port Festival in downtown Portland. What a wonderful event it is!
Folks wander, look, play as they meander the old cobble stone streets.
It is always a show in which a number of people show great curiosity about art. I have more people stopping in the booth to study works as well as ask questions about vision and technique.
This past weekend was no exception. A common theme this day amongst my visitors was, "How can I learn to draw?" Most have dabbled in drawing or sketching. But clearly these folks want to explore their world through a pencil.
My suggestion is always invest in the book Drawing Lesson from the Masters by Robert Beverly Hale. Hale thoroughly develops the method of how to see the human body as geometric shapes and therefore teachers the mindset of seeing volume. Volume is the root of western painting. It is the skeleton on which all else is built. Volume also can define the shapes those abstract pieces upon which realism can be built.
As I wrote in a previous blog, we really need about 5 more words to describe drawing and sketching. For by distinguishing the differences we can actually become sensitized to all the different ways of depicting what we are witnessing.