Five Things To Know About Drawing

He calls himself “the graphite guy” and he doesn’t hesitate a bit in remembering the first steps of his journey as an artist.

“My mom handed me a pencil when I was four and she told me to be quiet while she watched her soap operas,” Tim Mandese said. “I’ve been drawing ever since.”

And now, said Mandese, “I like passing on what I know and watching other people, who never had any drawing experience, draw things they never thought they could.”

Mandese is the current president of the Brandon League of Fine Arts and an art instructor at the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, where he teaches the “Light and Shadow” class Mondays, 10 a.m. to noon, and Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Before his Jan. 18 class, he offered these five things to know about drawing:

1. Wash your hands before you start drawing. “It keeps fingerprints off your drawing, so your drawing doesn’t look like a CSI crime scene,” he said.
2. Buy quality pencils (and keep them sharpened). “Because with the cheap ones you get inconsistent results,” Mandese said. “It’s worth what you pay for them. Basically, buy artist-grade materials.”
3. Study your subject. “Pick out as much detail as you can, draw it in your head, observe,” Mandese said. “Just stare at it until you know it.”
4. Repeat step No. 3.  “Observe, observe, observe, as long as you can,” Mandese said. “Observe, observe, observe and you can draw, draw, draw.”
5. Be patient and don’t rush it. “Take your time drawing, pay attention to the details you observed, don’t rush from one side of the paper to another,” Mandese said. “Just draw the details you see in a particular area and then move on to the next area.”

For information about the Light and Shadow class, visit Center Place online. The price is $40 for members and $50 for non-members and new students can sign up at any time. Visit Mandese online at www.graphiteguy.com.