Wire Drawing Exercise

1. Part 1
2. Drawing Your Wire 'Sculpture'
3. Wire Drawings

Here's a fun, easy exercise for beginners of all ages. I discovered this exercise in Claire Watson Garcia's excellent book, Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner.
This is one of the first drawing exercises that I use with a new class, as it is non-threatening - because the wire shapes are abstract, you can't really be critical of them. It is also a great exercise in hand-eye co-ordination. Because the wire doesn't look like anything, you can't revert to 'drawing what you think you know' but have to consistently use your eyes to study the shapes.

What You Need:

All you need for this exercise is a length of scrap flexible wire or (as I usually use) an old wire coathanger, carefully snipped open and bent with pliers. Be careful not to stab or cut yourself! Use any old sketch paper and a fiber-tip pen or number 1 or 2 ( B or HB ) pencil.

Drawing Your Wire 'Sculpture'

Bend the wire into any random, three-dimensional shape you like - try a variety of spirals, odd curves, irregular squiggles. With coathanger wire, once it has a few bends in it, you can easily reshape it. Try turning it around at different angles.
Don't try to make your drawing look realistic - just see it as a 'line in space'. Your drawings can be completely flat, or you can use lineweight to create a sense of depth, by pressing harder to get a strong line as the wire comes towards you. Don't worry about shadows or highlights - all we are interested in is the shape of the wire.

Wire Drawings

Keep your line as continuous and relaxed as possible - don't use short, uncertain strokes - a flowing line that isn't perfect is better than a load of perfectly placed but tentative lines. You can do several on a page - remember, this is an exercise, it doesn't matter what it looks like. Take your time and observe carefully - you are training your mind and hand to work together.