Monday Art Class: The Kitchen Chair– Part One

This Monday, we are going to get a little messy. Grab some charcoal, some newsprint paper (or your sketchbook, but you can get pads of newsprint for dirt cheap), and your kitchen chair, stool, bench – whatever you sit on. I choose this subject, since most people will have some sort of chair at their disposal.

This exercise was inspired by one of Vincent Van Gogh’s chairs:

You are going to draw the chair you have chosen in many ways. You’re not going to be super detailed about it…this exercise is just to loosen your hand up a little bit and warm you up.

So place the chair in front of you and draw it as you see it. Use the charcoal very lightly to get outlines, and apply it more darkly as you zone into detail. When you are done, move the chair and draw it again. Move it again, draw again. Keep doing this until your page is filled up (or if you have a small page, until many pages are filled up).

It is a good idea to have the chair is some ‘not-so-usual’ angles as well – it makes you let go of the fact that it is a chair, and forces you to focus on the shape elements of it.

Here is my page of chairs:


Keep this page for next week. We are going to continue to use the chair in another exercise, and these drawings will help you choose how you wish to approach it.