A small starting guide
A simple session for exploring rounded hand-built shapes and pebble-like profiles, with room for your own observations.
A modest beginning
Keep a sketchbook and a soft pencil nearby and begin with rounded forms. Choose a small question about rounded hand-built shapes and pebble-like profiles rather than trying to cover the whole subject at once.
Begin with a drawing and a small hand-built study using a material you already know. Keep the aim narrow: a curve, an opening or a relationship between two shapes. These notes focus on form and observation. Follow the clay, glaze and studio instructions for handling, drying and firing any actual ceramic work.
A five-step session
Use this temporary checklist during one session. It clears when the page is reloaded.
0 of 5 steps checked
Make the note your own
View a piece from the side and from above before changing it. Draw the opening as carefully as the outer profile. Record the material and the stage at which each observation was made, because wet, dry and fired pieces are different references. A series of modest studies can reveal more than repeatedly correcting one ambitious object.
Choose a first page
A pebble outline gives you a concrete exercise. You can also browse the whole journal and begin with the subject closest to hand.