I am trying to draw more. Drawing by hand, pencil-and-paper drawing. It’s not something I really do regularly anymore.

I was having trouble deciding what to draw, so I drew my mouse. 🙂

Here’s how it came out:

It sounds like a really boring thing to draw, but just comparing the mouse to the photo of the real thing, I notice some issues and now I’m glad I did this. The details are decently accurate, but the overall shape is kinda off. The mouse is too skinny in the middle, too wide at the ends, and the highest point on the mouse should be much further back.

Also, not all the details are right. The rear side button should have an angled edge, and the curve on the side below those buttons shouldn’t go straight down at the bottom, but curve back towards the front of the mouse.

I didn’t notice any of this until the drawing was done.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I think these sorts of shapes-not-being-right issues are fairly common for my drawings. I should probably spend more time studying my subject — both before and during drawing. Once I start drawing, I think I kinda stop seeing the overall shape of what’s in front of me. I should stop more and compare my drawing, overall, to the overall shape of my subject.

So I think my next drawing will also be a still object. And hopefully I can keep this stuff in mind and do a better job next time.