Willow Charcoal – Wingback Chair Drawing
Aug 11, 2009 On my Easel
Here is the latest in my attempt to get back into drawing in my sketchbook and working from life. This is the view from my couch!
The chair was a lucky find at Value Village. I’d always wanted a wingback and one day, there it was! It’s covered in a very retro blue velvet. Eventually, I plan on learning how to re-upholster furniture and then I will cover it in something more contemporary.
I did this drawing in willow charcoal. I love willow charcoal! It’s a very soft, delicate type of charcoal that gives a very richly textured gray. If regular charcoal is like wood or metal, willow charcoal is like velvet. It’s easy to blend and great for building up layers. If you haven’t tried it, I recommend you do!
There’s something about the simplicity and starkness of this composition that really strikes me. I find myself drawn to this image. It has an everyday sort of feel, but at the same time it seems a little unnatural and out of place.
I have an urge to paint this image. I did a series of still life paintings a couple years back that had simple compositions, and this reminds me of them. There’s a canvas on my easel right now that used to be an abstract painting. It wasn’t going well so I painted it out completely.
I think I’m going to go play!
Graphite Drawing – Water Glass
Aug 7, 2009 On my Easel
Well, here’s my water glass finished. It definitely has some issues…. but at least it got me drawing!
I will admit, I did this in front of the TV! Sometimes a little background noise helps me zone out and focus better.
I think I will try another version and see if I can’t fix some of those problems. Hooray for sketchbooks!
How to Grid a Reference Image and Draw From It
Jul 12, 2009 Drawing
I’ll be the first to admit it: gridding is tedious. It’s boring. It’s the last thing you want to do when you have a great idea for your next drawing. But it’s also one of the most important steps and the best way to get a good, accurate line drawing. The time spent gridding your reference is very much worth it. In fact, if you aren’t currently using the grid for your drawings, I suggest you try it. You will see an immediate improvement in the accuracy of your work!
The great thing about the grid is that it allows you to draw anything! You can apply this technique to any type of image, a car, a face, or a flower. The grid breaks a complicated image into small, manageable chunks. By drawing what you see in each individual square, and using the edges of the square to gauge distances, you get a more proportionate representation.
Some might argue that using a grid is somehow “cheating” and that a true artist shouldn’t need one, however the grid technique has been around for a good long time and many of the great master painters used it. Gridding is a tool used for drawing accurately from an image. It can help teach people to see things they would otherwise miss, but there is also great value in drawing from life. Using both of these techniques will be advantageous to your artwork.
Gridding by Hand
The first method of gridding you can do is by hand. This is the easiest and most accessible: all you need is a fine-tipped pen and a ruler. If you’re working from a copy, simply draw the grid right on top of the image. If you are working from an original, you will need to get some kind of acetate or other clear sheet to grid.
There is some math involved… It all depends on the size of your reference and the size that your drawing will be. Grid your paper into one inch squares. Now take the length of your reference drawing and divide it by the number of squares across the length of your paper. This is the size of the grid squares in your reference. For example, let’s say the length of your drawing will be 10 inches, and the length of your reference is 4 inches.
4 divided by 10=0.4
Now you mark the grid lines on your reference at 0.4 inches, and that should give you ten squares across the top. The tricky part is when your reference isn’t proportionate to your drawing. If your drawing is 8″x10″ and your reference is 4″x6,” you will need to trim some off the edges of your reference. An easy way to do this is to take the dimensions of your drawing and keep dividing them until the measurements will fit inside the reference.
8×10 divided by 2 = 4×5
This tells you that you need to trim an inch off the length of your reference to make it proportionate to your page. What you need to remember is that the squares in your grid should be perfectly square, and that there should be the same number of squares in the reference as in the drawing. If not, you’ve done something wrong!
Making your Grid Digitally
I find this to be a much easier and quicker way to grid, but of course it only works if you have access to a computer, the right software, and possibly a scanner if your image isn’t digital already.
You need some kind of software that allows you to have rulers that show inches. I use Corel Draw. Once you know the dimensions you need your reference to be, drag a guide lines from the rulers to create a box that size. Position your image inside of that box and re-size it as needed. I like this way better because it’s easier to move your grid around to find the best composition in the cases where part of the reference needs to be cropped.
Once you have your image positioned inside the correct sized box, use a line drawing tool to draw in the grid lines. At this point my reference is usually in gray-scale, so I use a mid-tone gray line that will stand out against the lights and the darks. Make sure the lines you use are quite fine. Remember that a wide line will cover up portions of the image that could be important. When you draw your picture on a bigger scale, the missing portions get bigger too.
Print your image and you’re ready to go!
Drawing from the Grid
Once your drawing paper and your reference is gridded, you can start the actual drawing! You can do this by drawing one square at a time, making sure things line up at the edges. You can also do this by drawing the major shapes, but doing it slowly, making sure that your lines pass through the grid at the right points. If I’m drawing the an eyelid, for example, I look at my grid square and mentally divide it in half, and half again if I need to. That way I can see if the eyelid crosses the grid-line at the middle of the square, or in one of its quarters.
When doing your basic line drawing, don’t just draw the nose, eyes and mouth. Look for the shadows around these features as well. Outlining the major shadow shapes will help you big time when it come to the shading. Also, very lightly define the highlights as well, so you know where to shade up to.
The main thing is to use your grid. You spent all that time working on it, make sure you look at it!
Tags: better drawings, drawing tips, getting started, portraits, proportions, shading
Shading Techniques: Hatching, Scribbling, Pointillism
Jun 29, 2009 Drawing
I have already talked about smooth, blended shading, which is what most people are familiar with. Today I am going to touch on some other shading techniques that allow the artist some creativity when it comes to texture. These techniques create patterns and texture through mark-making. You can do realistic shading with pretty much any mark, as long as you pay close attention to the tonal value and adjust your mark-making accordingly.
For darker areas you can use a softer pencil or a wider pen, make your marks darker and closer together. For the lighter areas, use a harder pencil or a thinner pen, press lightly and space your marks out. You can use these techniques with almost any medium: pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel, etc.
If you’re thinking, “but I want my drawings to look realistic,” don’t worry! It is absolutely possible to achieve photorealism with these techniques. Drawings done like this can be very interesting because from far away, they look like a picture, and as you get closer you begin to see the patterns. For an excellent example of this, have a look at Chuck Close. His large scale portraits are extremely realistic from a distance, but closer up they dissolve into a combination of coloured marks.
This type of shading can be useful in portraying an emotion or a personality along with a likeness. Different techniques can even be combined to create different textures. Scribbled shading on a sweater, for example, can show that it is soft and fuzzy in comparison to smoothly blended skin.
The best part about this is that its fun and challenging! If you’r comfortable with smooth blending, or just want a new challenge, give this a try. It’s a great way to practice your drawing and observation skills.
Hatching
Hatching is a series of short parallel marks. The marks can be going diagonally, horizontally, or vertically, but they should all line up. You can also try cross-hatching, when the marks cross over eachother at perpendicular angles. This piece shows hatching done in charcoal.
Scribbles
This was done in ink by scribbling the pen back and forth. This piece happens to have all vertical marks, but you can also try a more messy approach to scribbling.
Circular Scribbles
This is the same type of scribbled shading, but this time the marks are all circular. Done in graphite, this could also be blended using circular strokes.
Pointillism
Pointillism is done with a series of dots. It is very time consuming can produce some great results!
Tags: better drawings, drawing tips, pointillism, shading
How to Shade Your Pencil Drawings
Jun 14, 2009 Drawing
An important part of drawing realistically is shading: the variation in value from shadows to highlights that describe the shape of something. By improving your shading you can greatly improve the quality of your drawings. All you need to do are three simple things: control your pencil, understand light, and blend!
There are many ways to shade a drawing, but for the purpose of this article, I will focus on smooth shading. These tips apply to all subjects, but I’ve also done a more detailed tutorial on how to shade a sphere.
Control Your Pencil
One of the keys to smooth shading is controlling the pressure of your pencil. For darker shadows you will need to press hard, then slowly lessen the pressure as you work away from the shadow. Keep your pencil strokes even and regular, don’t scribble. This is easier if you hold your pencil at more of an angle, using the side of the lead to draw. Also, try to keep your pencil strokes going in the same direction, this will give you smoother results.
don’t do
do
Understanding Light
It’s also important to understand the way light works. In your drawings, you will generally have one light source., which affects the location of highlights and the direction of shadows. The highlight is the place where the light hits the object directly, and will be the lightest value. The area facing away from the light source will be in shadow, and everything between the highlight and shadow is considered the midtones. As well as a highlight, midtones and shadow, objects will also show some reflected light. This happens when light passing an object bounces off another surface and hits the shadowed side of the object. These values blend into eachother smoothly. The only place you will find a hard edge is when there is a cast shadow. In portraits, you will often find cast shadows under the chin or under the nose. The cast shadow is darkest closer to the source of the shadow, and fades out as you get farther away. This can be applied to most drawing subjects, but is easiest to demonstrate with a sphere.
Blending
The last step to smooth shading is blending. This can be done with a blending stick. Use your blending stick just like you use your pencil: on an angle in short, regular strokes. You can also try blending in small circles. Start at the lighest value and work towards the shadows. If your blending stick gets too dark, wipe it on a clean sheet of paper, or press it into your kneaded eraser. After blending, you may find that you want to go back and darken some of your shadows, or carefully lighten your highlights.
Learning how to shade well isn’t difficult, but it will take practice. With each drawing you’ll find yourself getting better. Remember, don’t be too timid wtih your shadows; a nice dark shadow will give your drawing depth.
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Tags: art tips, blending, drawing tips, getting started, shading
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