Secrets to realistic drawing

P1 F&W-Secrets to Realistic Drawing (RPS 05-7-102NT) 175L

SECRETS TO REALISTIC DRAWING

33238 I Front Matter 10/21/05 4:58 PM Page 1


Secrets to Realistic Drawing.Copyright © 2006 by Carrie Stuart Parks and RickParks. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means includinginformation storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the

publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in areview. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publi-cations, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236.(800) 289-0963. First edition.

Other fine North Light Books are available from your local bookstore, art supplystore or direct from the publisher.

DISTRIBUTED IN CANADA BY FRASER DIRECT100 Armstrong AvenueGeorgetown, ON, Canada L7G 5S4Tel: (905) 877-4411

DISTRIBUTED IN THE U.K. AND EUROPE BY DAVID & CHARLESBrunel House, Newton Abbot, Devon, TQ12 4PU, EnglandTel: (+44) 1626 323200, Fax: (+44) 1626 323319E-mail: [email protected]

DISTRIBUTED IN AUSTRALIA BY CAPRICORN LINKP.O. Box 704, S. Windsor NSW, 2756 AustraliaTel: (02) 4577-3555

10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication DataParks, Carrie.Secrets to realistic drawing / by Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks.

p. cm.Includes index.ISBN 1-58180-649-3 (alk. paper)ISBN-13: 978-1-60061-572-6 (EPUB)1. Drawing--Technique. I. Parks, Rick. II. Title.

NC730.P25 2006741.2--dc22 2005012853

Editors: Layne Vanover and Stefanie LaufersweilerProduction editor: Erin NeviusCover designer: Wendy DunningInterior design and production artist: Barb MatulionisProduction coordinator: Mark Griffin

Metric Conversion Chartto convert to multiply byInches Centimeters 2.54Centimeters Inches 0.4Feet Centimeters 30.5Centimeters Feet 0.03Yards Meters 0.9Meters Yards 1.1Sq. Inches Sq. Centimeters 6.45Sq. Centimeters Sq. Inches 0.16Sq. Feet Sq. Meters 0.09Sq. Meters Sq. Feet 10.8Sq. Yards Sq. Meters 0.8Sq. Meters Sq. Yards 1.2Pounds Kilograms 0.45Kilograms Pounds 2.2Ounces Grams 28.3Grams Ounces 0.035

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Carrie Stuart Parks and Rick Parks met in the romantic hall-ways of the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. They marriedin 1989 and formed a dynamic and successful team in theirforensic and fine art endeavors, developing composite draw-ings of suspects in major national and international cases, aswell as creating exquisite watercolors and stone carvings. Theytravel across the United States and internationally to teach one-week composite drawing courses to a variety of participants,from large law-enforcement agencies to small, two-personpolice departments, from Secret Service and FBI agents tointerested civilians.

Carrie has won numerous awards for her innovative teach-ing methods and general career excellence and is a signaturemember of the Idaho Watercolor Society. She is the author andillustrator of Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces (North LightBooks, 2003). Rick has received national recognition for hisexquisite art placed on musical instruments.

Carrie and Rick reside in North Idaho and may be contact-ed through their Web site at www.stuartparks.com or by e-mail at [email protected].

Page 2–3 art:

Corinth, Greece 14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm) Graphite on bristol board


http://www.stuartparks.com


ShirleyGraphite on Crescent Lin-Tex board

12" x 9" (30cm x 23cm)Dedicated to the memory of Shirley Marcey Parks

AC K N O W L E D G M E N T S

This book started out so well, but Rick and I ended up with amonster of a year. We’d like to gratefully thank the fine folks atNorth Light Books who were so gracious when we needed itmost. Thank you, Pam Wissman, for your wisdom in gettingour book proposal through the proposal committee. Thanks toBethe Ferguson for your support and encouragement. Thankyou, Layne Vanover, for the most difficult work of initial edit-ing. A very special thanks and a bottle of something to StefLaufersweiler, who gave up a portion of her life to bring in thisbook and edit it so very well.

The people featured in the book deserve a hug and thanks:my brother Scott Stuart, Ethan Stuart, and Pastor Ashley Dayand his lovely wife, Edna.

A big frog sticker goes to our students who so generouslycontributed their work: John Hinds, Sheila Tajima-Shadle,Greg Bean, Ken MacMillian and Matt Tucker. If you are inter-ested in their work or prints, contact us through our Web siteat www.stuartparks.com.

We had so many people who were with us in heart, bodyand spirit this year that it would take the rest of the book to

thank them. We’d like to single out a few and give them a spe-cial note of gratitude: my Art Camp ladies, Mary Ellen, Bren-da, Toni, Marilyn, Judy, Pat, Elvie, Debby and, of course, MissPenny; hugs and thanks to Evelyn, Ron and Gina Prindle, LoriBishop and Debs Laird; lunch and a hug to Shane and MerlinBerger, Frame of Mind Gallery.

Rick would personally like to thank Dan Fleshman, his highschool art teacher who told him that he could make art acareer if he tried when others said he couldn’t. Thanks toHorace Heafner who, as his mentor, provided Rick with theultimate example of a professional artist and a Christian gen-tleman. Many thanks to Bill Emerson, who allowed one of hisbiggest fans to grace his musical endeavors with his art. Loveand thanks to Don Parks, who for nearly fifty years has contin-ued to teach him the meaning of strength, determination andhard work: “You’re my hero, Dad.”

As always, eternal thanks, a world of love and a big noogieto Frank and Barbara Peretti. Finally, and most importantly,thank you to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

DE D I C AT I O N

In Virginia in the early 1960s, my mother watched as I starteddrawing the world around me. She saw not only my love of artbut also an ability to excel in it. For the rest of her life sheoffered constant encouragement and, more importantly, shenever discouraged me in my dream of becoming an artist.

It’s because of her that I used my art on some of America’sbiggest cases, taught thousands of others to draw and helped toproduce the book you now hold in your hand. Her example ofencouragement to me as an artist is the most important lessonin this book. God bless you, Mom.

—Rick Parks


http://www.stuartparks.com

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S

INTRODUCTION 8

!The Right Stuff 12If you want to become an artist (and look the part!),

you must arm yourself with the right tools. Find out

exactly what you need, from pencils and erasers to

sources of inspiration.

$ So the Problem Is… 28

Understanding the role your mind plays in drawing—and the roadblocks it can throw your way—is the firststep to becoming a successful artist.

%Making Your Mark 38

Good drawings begin with solid technique. Learn how tomake your mark, then how to blend and erase it to makeyour drawings look realistic.

Q Site 50

This is just another way of saying proportion and scale. Dis-cover how to make these correct in every drawing you do.

W Shape 64

Drawing is all about observing. Learn how to look at theshapes that make up your subject and translate what yousee into an accurate depiction.

E Shading 78

You could merely call this the icing on the cake, but it’sso much more than that. Bring your drawings to life withdetailed shading.

RDrawing Practice 94

It’s time to face the drawing board head-on. Apply every-thing you’ve learned by trying your hand at several step-by-step projects.

CONCLUSION 124

INDEX 126

TA B L E O F CO N T E N T S



Ethan StuartGraphite on bristol board17" x 14" (43cm x 36cm)



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IN T R O D U C T I O N

So many times I have heard some-one throw down the sword—make that the pencil—and issue

this challenge to me: “Yeah, but youcan’t teach ME to draw!” Yes, I canteach you to draw, even if you can’tdraw a straight line—or draw bloodwith a knife. You’re reading this book,which means you’ve met the only cri-teria I have: a desire to learn.

Drawing is a very learnable skill. Ifyou haven’t learned to draw, yourdrawings are weak or some art teachertold you to take up knitting instead,you just haven’t had the right instruc-tion. I’m not promising that you’llbecome Leonardo da Vinci by the endof this book, but I do believe you willdraw better than you have ever hoped.All you must do is apply (and prac-

tice!) the drawing tools taught in thisbook. You’ll soon discover that learn-ing to draw is less about talent andmore about learning to perceive theworld around you differently.

Getting ThereMy own artistic journey is just color-ful enough to make for a good, andhopefully inspirational, story.

I’d always found certain types ofart easy. That is, I could look at somethings and somehow draw them fairlyaccurately. I grew up in a small min-ing town in northern Idaho where thepublic school system could barelyafford textbooks, let alone an artscurriculum. My parents did the bestthey could to encourage my talent,but when I announced that I was

Apple BlossomsGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)


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going to be a professional artist, theycould barely mask their horror. Artwas fine as a hobby, but a career?After much soul-searching, they brave-ly sent me off to a nearby communitycollege to study commercial art.

I soon found myself floundering.Lessons consisted of the professorsplacing a mess of white shapes on atable and having us draw them. Whiteballs, white shoes, white drapery and,well, more white stuff. I could neverfigure out the point. What is so spe-cial about white? Then we got topaint. We did paintings of the whitestuff in the primary colors of red, blueand yellow. Egads! I just wanted todraw something that really lookedlike something.

After a year of not getting it, Ichanged majors and figured my artcareer was probably going to becomea hobby after all. I envisioned myselfas a gray-haired lady puttering with

bad oil paints on Saturday mornings.For several years I drifted from col-lege to college and major to major. Ibecame the consummate professionalstudent.

Then one day I attended a galleryopening of watercolor paintings. As Iwandered around the room studyingthe paintings, it hit me: I can do this! Ican paint at least this well. So whatwas the difference between this artistand me? How did she get her own artshow and not me? My husband drylyprovided the answer: “She did it.” Shetook the time and effort to actuallycreate enough art for a one-womanshow. I made up my mind then andthere that I was going to be an artist,too, despite my collegiate setbacks.

The Story ContinuesAfter some time as a watercolorist, Ifound myself developing a fascinatinguse for my drawing skills: I started

working at a crime lab as a forensicartist. Part of my job was sketchingcrime scenes. I would love to tell youthat I was originally hired to workthere because I was a brilliant artistwith the crime-solving ability ofSherlock Holmes, but that would bestretching it. In 1985, I attended ashort course on composite drawing atthe FBI Academy in Quantico,Virginia. Composite drawings are the“Wanted” drawings you see of crimi-nal suspects on the nightly news. Theyare usually created by combining sep-arate facial features that the victim orwitness of a crime selects from a bookof faces. The composite is used toidentify an unknown suspect. I wasinvited to the course only because theFBI wanted participants from a vari-ety of regions throughout the UnitedStates. My face-drawing skills werestill dreadful at this point, but I wasinspired to improve.

Ir ish WolfhoundGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)


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I worked hard and paid attentionto what it would take to do a goodjob. I became Carrie Parks, PencilSleuth. I loved drawing faces andbecame addicted to forensic art. Ifinally finished my college degree witha double major in social science andart—with honors, no less. My mottowas, “I have a pencil, and I’m notafraid to use it!”

Now my husband and I travelacross the nation teaching compositedrawing and forensic art courses. Wehave taught all kinds of people of vary-ing skill levels, from FBI and SecretService agents to civilian adults andchildren. We have won awards for ourteaching methods, and I’ve even writ-ten a book exclusively on drawingfaces. And to think, at one point Ithought art could only be a hobby!

So, the Point of This Is …You, too, can realize your dream ofbecoming an artist if you set yourmind to it. This book aims to teachyou what it takes to do just that. I’mnot going to set a bunch of stuff infront of you and expect miracles.Instead, I’ll cover all the essentials,

If it’s meaningless to you, you’ll neverlearn. Art needs to be stepped out,explained and demonstrated. If it wereas simple as just drawing something,you would already be doing it!

Focus. The artists who develop thebest drawing skills usually have thebest observational skills. This meanshaving an eye for the details as well asthe overall picture. This takes concen-tration and training but is well worththe effort.

Practice. To be good at anything, youneed practice. One of my studentswas so thrilled by his new skills thathe started drawing everybody, every-where. I believe he had a sketchbookfirmly in hand wherever he went. Ofcourse, he is a fantastic artist nowbecause he practiced his skill.

Talent. Some artists may have it, butyou don’t have to have natural talentto draw well. In my opinion, it takesfar more training and skill develop-ment than actual talent to become asuccessful artist. Anyone can learn todraw by applying her desire and inter-est. I’ll supply the good instruction ifyou focus on and practice what you’relearning. Everyone will then be con-vinced that you had talent all along!

SwordGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

teaching you the secrets of realisticdrawing one step at a time. Beforeyou know it, you’ll be turning out pic-turesque landscapes, stellar por-traits—any subject that you like!

In my many years of teaching art,I’ve discovered that there are certaincharacteristics that define success asan artist. My short list is as follows:

Desire. Desire doesn’t just mean want-ing something, but wanting it badlyenough that you’re willing to try a dif-ferent approach to get it. At first, youmight not like it, might not do welltrying it, or might not find it useful,but still you are willing to try. Thischaracteristic is what will allow you togrow and improve your artistic skills.

Interest. It’s hard to whip up a fasci-nation for drawing Harley-Davidsonmotorcycles when you love to ridehorses. You need to draw what inter-ests you, and practice your drawingon the things that interest you.

Good instruction. This is my role.Good instruction is not up to the stu-dent, it is up to the teacher. If you’veever taken a class where you weretold to draw something in a particularway but were never told why or how,you haven’t failed—your teacher has.


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Finding the right pencils to use for yourdrawings is the first step toward develop-ing your artistic identity. The pencil is,after all, the primary tool of our trade.We can’t work without it!

Though the selection of pencils avail-able in most art stores may overwhelmyou at first, you’ll get the hang of it in notime. Each pencil is clearly marked andlabeled according to the brand and typeof graphite, making your shoppingadventure that much easier. You’ll soonenjoy seeking out the perfect drawingimplement. Look at it this way: The artstore is like a candy shop without theguilt or the calories, and you can have asmany pencils as you want!

As with all tools, it’s important toexperiment with a wide variety to findthose pencils that best suit your individualtastes. Here are some of your options.

Something to Draw With

No. 2 PencilThis is the standard yellow pencil youalways forgot to bring to class when youwere a kid. The grade of lead, actuallygraphite, is called “HB.” Don’t ask mewhy—maybe those were the initials ofthe inventor’s mom. It’s a nice, middle-of-the-road pencil to draw with.

Hard (“H”) PencilsPencils labeled “H” have hard graphite.(You could say the “H” stands for“hard.”) A hard lead doesn’t like todraw. The harder the lead, the lighter theline. The higher the number precedingthe “H,” the harder the graphite. A 2Hpencil is harder than an HB (our old yel-low buddy), but not as hard as a 4H. Bythe time you reach 6H, you have a veryvengeful pencil indeed—it can actuallyindent the paper if you push too hard.Despite your best efforts to erase, itsmarks will remain scored on your paper.

You might consider avoiding theseharder pencils altogether, but they can beuseful when working with certain types ofpaper. For instance, harder leads take wellto Clearprint or other drafting papers.You might use 2H pencils to do some ofthe lightest shading on your drawingbefore moving on to an HB and the dark-er leads. They can be used for any subjectbut require a very gentle hand.

Soft (“B”) Pencils“B” pencils contain softer graphite thatresults in a darker line. (“B” could standfor “bold.”) The higher the number, thedarker the line. A 2B pencil is darkerthan an HB, but not as dark as a 6B. Softpencils are nicer to your paper, but they,too, have a nasty side: They don’t wantto leave. If you dive into a major 6Bscribble and then decide to erase it, therewill always be a faint reminder of youroriginal scribble on your drawing.


Standard Yellow No. 2The same pencil that was perfect for filling in all those circles on multi-ple-choice exams you took in school is fine for drawing.

What the Letters and Numbers MeanHard pencils are labeled “H” and result in a lighter line. Soft pencilsare labeled “B” and create a darker line. The higher the number, thelighter (for “H”) or darker (for “B”) the line. An HB pencil (like the yel-low no. 2) falls in the middle.

Psssssst!For the illustrations in

this book, we will use

regular standard leads ranging

from a 2H to 6B. No matter the

pencil, it is crucial to keep it sharp.

A pencil’s sharpness is directly

related to the success of your

drawing. Just remember a dull

point equals a dull drawing.

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Lead HoldersThere are a variety of substitutes for thewooden drawing pencil that you can try,including one of my favorites, the leadholder. Rick and I prefer to use leadholders because they sharpen better thanregular drawing pencils and can holdvarious leads. They do, however, requirea special sharpener, which in turnrequires a bit of practice.

Mechanical PencilsMechanical pencils are often mistakenfor lead holders. Both implements holdlead in a metal casing that can bereloaded when empty. The difference isin the size of the lead. The lead holderuses 2mm leads; the mechanical pencilholds .3mm to .9mm leads. The lattertranslates to itty-bitty leads, which breakeasily and can’t be sharpened well. Stickto the lead holder.

Other PossibilitiesI have also tried Ebony pencils, whichare very dark. Many artists love them,and certainly they’re fun to experimentwith. I also bought a box of woodlesspencils—pure graphite bound in lacquer.They work fine but waste a lot ofgraphite when they need to be sharp-ened.

Pencil SharpenersYou can keep your pencils sharp by usingstandard sharpeners or special sharpen-ers that accommodate certain types ofpencils (as is the case with lead holders).Some artists use razor blades or othersharp instruments to whittle the woodback off the lead point, and then sharpenthe exposed graphite with a sandingblock. I personally avoid sharp objects,as I tend to get hurt, but if you’re profi-cient with such tools, whittle away!

Soft LeadsThese are all “B” pencils with soft lead (actually graphite), but theirmarks vary quite a bit depending on the number.

Lead HoldersLead holders have the advantage of being able to hold various leads.They also sharpen better than regular pencils but require a specialsharpener that takes a bit of practice to use correctly.

Psssssst!An important point

about pencils, if you’ll

pardon my pun, is to avoid drop-

ping them. If you drop a pencil

on a hard floor, the lead inside

can break. When this happens,

the pencil point will keep break-

ing off as you try to sharpen

the pencil.

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Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend anda dog may be man’s, but an eraser will beyours. Not only can it eliminate yourmistakes, but it also comes in handy forexecuting shading techniques and creat-ing amazing textures. (You’ll learn howto do this a little later.)

Unlike pencils, erasers are not lined upand cunningly labeled for the shopper’sconvenience, so you’ll need to investigateyour options before making a purchase.There is a wide selection of erasers avail-able, each varying in hardness (or firm-ness) and messiness (how much eraserresidue is left behind). The upside,though, is that with so many optionsyou’re guaranteed to find an eraser thatsuits your needs.

Pink Rubber EraserIf you’re looking for something that real-ly gets the lead out, it’s hard to beat theclassic pink rubber eraser. Its firmnessmakes it an industrial-strength option,able to remove all traces of graphite.Think of it as the eraser wearing blackleather and riding a Harley—it’s onetough eraser! Be warned, though: pinkerasers are rather abrasive and canroughen up the surface of your paper, soexercise caution when using on delicatesurfaces.

Something to Erase With (or, Your New Best Friends)

Kneaded Rubber EraserThis eraser is a must for every artist. Itstarts out as a neat little square and soonresembles something you might have toscrape off your shoe. This eraser is bestat removing a layer of graphite (asopposed to erasing down to the whitepaper) and gently cleaning up certainareas of your drawing. You can mold orknead the eraser as needed to reach tightspots without disturbing other nearby

areas. You can clean the accumulatedgraphite off the eraser by folding it backon itself.

For years, the kneaded eraser onlycame in standard gray, but now colorsare available. Faber-Castell offers a supe-rior kneaded eraser in red, blue or yellowthat is softer and more pliable than thetraditional gray erasers. Check aroundand you may find other similar options.


Pink Rubber Eraser

Kneaded Rubber Eraser

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Gummed EraserProbably the messiest of all erasers, thegummed eraser is gentle enough toremove unwanted smudges or markswithout damaging your paper, but itleaves behind a dandruff-like residue inthe process. Even the cleanest gummederaser will still make a small mess, so finda brush for whisking your paper clean.

White Plastic Eraser Portable Electric Eraser

Gummed Eraser With an Artist’s Horsehair Dusting Brush

White Plastic EraserI love the white plastic eraser. It canremove pencil marks cleanly and com-pletely. Better still, it leaves behind noresidue, and its nonabrasive qualitymakes it safe for all surface types. It’salso quite easy to cut if need be. If theedges of the eraser have worn dull, youcan use a knife to make a fresh, sharpedge that’s perfect for erasing thin lines.

Portable Electric EraserNothing, I mean nothing, is more fun,more useful or more cool than a portableelectric eraser. This battery-poweredmechanism has a white plastic eraser tipand works fantastically for erasing intight spaces or correcting small details.The only setback: It sounds like a den-tist’s drill!

Psssssst!Some artists “fix” the graphite on their

finished drawings with spray fixative. Per-

sonally, I don’t usually use such a product because,

well, I’ll come right out and say it: It stinks. Even if

you spray outside, the smell lingers on the paper

and will subsequently stink up the house. There are

some “odor-free” spray fixatives that smell less

awful. Some artists use hairspray, although I’m not

sure how safe it is for your art over time. You could

simply handle your artwork with care, store it

between tissue paper and frame it behind glass at

your earliest convenience.

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There are several other items you’ll wantto purchase for your budding art career. I find the following tools to be indispen-sable when drawing, and I know youwill, too!

A Ruler, Circle Templates andFrench CurvesIf you choose to draw anything architec-tural or mechanical, such as a building ora B-52 bomber, you can either opt tokeep it sketchy or aim for a truly realisticlook. For the latter, you will need a fewspecial tools: rulers, French curves andcircle templates.

None of us can draw a perfectlystraight line, so a ruler is a must. Even ifyou’re not drawing a complex subject,you’ll want a ruler for such tasks aschecking proportions and angles. I prefera plastic C-Thru ruler, as it has a veryuseful grid on it and a centering row ofnumbers. You can find a similar ruler atthe fabric store.

Circle templates and French curvesare useful for the more uniform parts ofthe drawings you might do. They areusually made of plastic. Circle templatescontain multiple circles of varying sizes,and they are useful for drawing precisecircles or arcs. French curves are tem-plates that help you draw other complexcurves and shapes. Both of these toolswill be discussed at length later in thebook.

A Few Additional Fun (and Very Useful) Tools

Erasing Shields and Blending ToolsMade of thin metal, erasing shields haveopenings of various shapes that allowyou to carefully erase lines, highlights orother details without disturbing nearbyareas. They are usually available in thedrafting section of office supply stores.

Paper stumps and tortillions are usedto smoothly blend pencil strokes. Apaper stump is a compressed wad ofpaper, pointed on both ends, that can beused on its side or tip to smooth andshade pencil marks. The tortillion isrolled paper with one pointed tip for usein tiny areas that need smudging.

Ruler Circle Templates and French Curves

Erasing Shields, Stumps and Tortillions

Psssssst!If you don’t have a

fancy art box, a fishing

tackle box is perfect for toting

around your newly acquired draw-

ing supplies. It has plenty of

compartments for storing your

goodies.

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Getting It StraightThere’s no law in art that says a manmade object with straight edgeshas to look mechanically drawn. Freehand lines are very nice, charm-ing in fact, and can look realistic. If you desire to have the object lookeven more realistic, though, then you should use some type ofstraightedge such as a ruler.

Navigating CurvesA variety of French curves can be of great help when drawing mechani-cal or uniform curving shapes such as those found on musical instru-ments, cars, jars with curved sides and arches on doorways.

Intricate ErasingAn erasing shield is a handy little device thatis quite inexpensive, yet priceless. You can useit to erase various shapes, clean up edges andmake even the slightest adjustments.

Smooth Blending and ShadingThe paper stump (shown here) may be used on its tip or side, unlike the tortillion which isdesigned to be used on its tip only. If you have a large area to blend, use the stump; save thetortillion for smaller areas. These tools can do more than just blend previously pencilled marks;they can pick up and retain graphite to be used for making their own marks.

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You can draw on almost any surface.Certainly, there isn’t a right or wrongpaper, only a preference for a certainlook or feel for your drawing.

One of the first things to considerwhen choosing paper is thickness. I liketo do my finished drawings on bristolboard. It’s very heavy and forgiving,allowing me to correct many mistakeswithout jeopardizing the surface. Thin-ner surfaces like newsprint are more sen-sitive to erasers and harder to blend on;they just don’t work that well. The onlyreal benefit in buying thinner paper isthat it saves you some cash.

Another consideration is surface tex-ture. The texture, or tooth, of yourdrawing paper is determined by touchand makes quite a difference in the finalappearance of your work of art. Thepaper designated as smooth or plate fin-ish allows for a finished drawing withlots of detail. The individual pencilstrokes tend to blend together wellbecause the graphite will fill in evenly onthe paper surface. The bristol board I usehas a smooth finish.

Papers labeled medium, regular orrough have more texture, causing thesurface to grab the graphite in an unevenmanner. The rougher paper holds moregraphite, allowing for deeper shadowsand more contrast, but results in agrainier drawing.

In addition to buying paper for yourfinished drawings, you’ll also want tostock up on tracing paper. Tracing paperis useful for a number of tasks, such askeeping your drawing paper clean andspotting (and correcting) errors in yourdrawing. Later we will cover the use oftracing paper in more detail.

A Surface to Draw On

Smooth SailingThis fuchsia was drawn on smooth bristolboard. Smooth paper gives your drawing asofter, less sketchy look. It works well forsmooth skin tones, glass and other slick sur-faces. Of course, you could intentionally userougher paper for smooth subjects to createinterest.

Evelyn’s FuchsiaGraphite on bristol board10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm)

In the RoughThis one was drawn on regular drawingpaper, which has more tooth. Rougher paperadds texture to your drawing, which makes ita good choice for highly textured subjects likelandscapes, animals, stone and so on.Between these two drawings, I liked thesmoother surface better, as the drawing looksmore delicate.

Evelyn’s Fuchsia I IGraphite on regular drawing paper10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm)

Psssssst!If you buy paper in a spiral-bound pad, place

a piece of cardboard underneath the page

you’re working on so you don’t score the page under-

neath. After you finish the drawing, put tracing paper

over it to protect from unwanted smudging.

And while we’re on the topic of pads: Either buy

sealed ones, or if none are sealed, take from the bottom

or back of the stack. Pads that are unsealed or in the

front may have been fondled by other shoppers, and

the oils from their fingers ruin the paper.

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Now you need a place to lay your sup-plies and go about the business of draw-ing. A full-size drawing table provides afirm, steady surface and enough room torest your arm as you draw. The tableangles so that your drawing paper is par-allel to your eyes, which minimizes thechance for visual distortion as you work.

Your pencils, erasers, sharpeners andother tools should be arranged in anuncluttered fashion and made easilyaccessible for drawing. It helps put youquickly in the mood to draw if you canleave your art materials set up in a desig-nated area. I have a studio where I keepmy table, along with a taboret (or art-supply caddy), pencil tray and a light.

A Place to Work

Rick, of course, has two drawing tables,and they’re bigger than mine. It’s one ofthose things I have learned to live with.

If you have limited space or want tocarry your studio with you, consider aportable drawing table. I have a dandyone that has a handle for easy transportand whose angle is somewhat adjustable(though not as much as a larger drawingtable). Homemade drawing surfaceswork just as well, as long as they are firmand steady. Use a clipboard or a piece ofsmooth material such as Masonite orplywood with the addition of bulldogclips or drafting tape to hold your workin place.

Back to the Drawing BoardThis portable model can make any place your art studio.

Psssssst!To protect your art sup-

plies from damage or

loss, put them away after each

use. Otherwise, husbands, wives

or kids may grab your favorite 2B

pencil the next time they take a

phone message and promptly

lose it. Or worse, your cat or dog

might find your kneaded eraser

an interesting toy or munchie,

ruining the eraser and possibly

getting a tummy ache. Be kind to

your supplies, and to your pets!

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Once you’ve rounded up all the essentialsupplies, where do you find inspirationfor your drawing? Chances are that longbefore you picked up your pencil, youknew what you wanted to draw. Maybeyou wanted to draw the adorable actionof one of your kids or grandkids, theway the sunlight lit up a particular rosein your garden or the swans you saw onthe lake during your last vacation. Thedesire to capture something meaningfuland personal to you for all time in aunique expression is the motivation thatdrives most artists.

You’ll make your life a lot easier andyour drawings a lot better if you startwith a good photograph. For one, pho-tos freeze an exact moment in time, alle-viating the pressure to memorize a sceneor face. Add to this the fact that youdon’t have to deal with squirming sub-jects or changing lighting conditions, andthe argument for using reference photosis pretty solid.

Not just any photo will work, though.Here are a few important considerationsfor shooting and choosing good photos.

Size MattersAs obvious as it sounds, you need to beable to see the information in a photo inorder to draw it. Use a photocopier orscanner to enlarge smaller images so thedetails are able to be seen. And when you do enlarge the photo, make sure thedetails are still clear enough to drawfrom. The more you enlarge a photo, thegrainier the quality will become.

Stay FocusedOnly work with photos that are in focus.The reasons behind avoiding blurry pho-tos are pretty obvious. You can’t see thedetails, so you might have to make themup. All in all, a bad idea.

Drawing From Photographs

Candid CameraMost of us have quite a few shots of ourvacations, family gatherings and favoritecritters. You have a new assignment:shooting photos with future drawings inmind. Don’t just take a photo of AuntMillie in front of a waterfall. Photographthe waterfall itself, the rocks around it,the moss on the surrounding trees, thebutterfly that landed on a nearby wild-flower … you get the drift. Become ashutterbug if you’re not one already. Getclose to something, really close, then stepback and try shooting from anotherangle.

Pay attention to the effects of light onyour subject. Don’t just take a picture ofyour friend—have her put on a nifty hatthat filters light in an interesting pattern.Set a basket of vegetables you gatheredfrom your garden near a window thatreceives early-morning sun. Then try set-ting it in a different window during thelate afternoon to see how the light fallsdifferently on the veggies.

Shoot at least half a roll of film on anygiven subject, and several rolls when it’s aparticularly exciting subject. Go to placesthat lend themselves to getting great

shots, such as a zoo or national park.And by all means, ask others for assis-tance. We have asked bird breeders tobring their feathered friends over forphoto shoots. (The drawing on page 64came from such an experience.)


Think BigDon’t expect to turn out a good drawing ofyour subject if your reference is too small togauge details. Trying to do a facial portraitfrom a photo in which the face is a dot isself-defeating. Rick is so far away in this pic-ture that there’s no way I could accuratelydraw his face!

Psssssst!It may be tempting to use a photo from a book or magazine, but

these pictures are copyrighted. So are studio portraits taken by

other photographers. Bottom line: If you don’t own it, you shouldn’t draw

from it. I know you’re saying, “But I just draw for myself. What does it mat-

ter?” However, because it’s a good, clear photo, you’ll inevitably turn out a

nice drawing, and you’ll want to show someone. They’ll say, “Hey, that’s

great! You should put that drawing in a show!” And before you know it,

you’ll get a call from so-and-so’s lawyer that you have infringed on some-

one’s copyright. Don’t take that first fateful step down the path to ruin!

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A photo captures what’s there, but artistsaren’t limited to the photo. Just because atree is in a certain spot in your picturedoesn’t mean you need to draw it thatway—or even draw it at all. Although weemphasize the use of photos, you’re not ahuman copier machine. You can simplify,rearrange, include, exclude, change andexaggerate the various elements of yourreference photos to make the drawingyou want. You want your drawing to domore than merely record, as a cameradoes. You want it to tell a story, to reflectyour view of the subject—and ultimately,to captivate the viewer.

Editing What You See

Reference PhotoA few years ago I took a trip to Scotland,where I photographed this statue on theWilliam Wallace monument in Stirling.

Finished DrawingRick simplified the legs, removed thestonework surrounding the figure and dark-ened the shadows, allowing for more drama.

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Combining Photo References


Not only do you have the ability tochange what you find in a single photo-graph, you can combine several photosfor a single drawing. After all, trying tophotograph a litter of puppies, four littlechildren, or both sets of in-laws who livetwo thousand miles apart is waaaay toomuch work. You can also create a com-posite drawing of family members whohave passed away, every dog you’ve everowned, or other things that could neverbe grouped together for a photo. Com-posite drawings can enhance reality ormake the impossible possible.

Let’s look at how the drawing on theopposite page was created using a num-ber of different photos.

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25


Finished CompositeThis composite drawing was derived from seven photos taken at Wolf Haven in Tenino, Washington. The wolves were arranged in aninteresting pattern, and the ground was implied, not drawn. Ricknamed it Monday Morning because he thought the body language of these wolves resembled the appearance of his fellow workersaround the watercooler after too short of a weekend.

Monday MorningPastel pencil on toned paper24" x 36" (61cm x 91cm)Collection of Frank and Barbara Peretti

Psssssst!There are two tricks to making good composite

drawings. The first is getting the proportions of

the combined elements correct so that everything looks

like it naturally goes together. The second is a consistent

light source, especially when the lighting is different in

every photo. You may need to do a bit of research or ask

questions when combining images.

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I used to do most of my drawing fromlife—rendering the subjects in front ofme rather than working from a photo. Iwasn’t attempting to be artsy, I just did-n’t own a good camera. One way todraw from life is to draw on location,which the French refer to as plein airdrawing. The idea is to hike somewherewith your drawing equipment, sit on thewet ground, swat at bugs, unwittinglyfind poison ivy, get sunburned and drawa so-so sketch which gets soaked in asudden monsoon on the way back toyour car. Sounds fun, huh?

Why Bother?You might think I’m not too fond ofplein air sketching. That’s not entirelytrue; drawing on location does have itsbenefits, and I’ve been known to takeadvantage of them occasionally. Plein airsketching, along with general drawingfrom life (which doesn’t necessarily haveto occur outdoors), allows you to registerthe mood of a location and the immedia-cy of the scene. However, it also forcesyou to deal with unwanted movementand ever-changing lighting conditions.

Drawing From Life

For these reasons, it can be a lot harderthan drawing from a photo.

One time I sketched a black Labradorretriever for a lady. He was a very nicedog, holding still for long periods of timeand moving only very slowly. Unfortu-nately, because he moved so slowly, I did-n’t catch the fact that his head wasslightly turned to the left when I starteddrawing the top of his head, facing mestraight on when I drew his eyes, andslightly turned to the right by the time Ifinished his nose. Not my best work,believe me!

The best of both worlds is to toteyour camera, sketchbook and notebookon location when you draw. Photographthe scene or subject from several angles,then sketch and make notes about yourfeelings, the colors (if you plan on even-tually turning this into a painting) andyour ideas for incorporating what yousee into a finished work. Think of thepossibilities! You can take that great oldphoto of Grandpa McCandless and placehim in front of the antique car on displayat a car show. Keep a collection of yoursketches, photos and notes, which will

come in especially handy on those rainydays when you’d rather make a drawingthan watch another rerun on television.

Drawing on location can be bothexciting and beneficial to the artist, butit’s not as easy as working from photoreferences. It’s more challenging becausethe wind tosses the leaves, critters wanderoff and people don’t hold still. Drawingfrom photos in the comfort of your stu-dio or workspace means you can takeyour time, a luxury you usually don’thave when you draw from life. Givedrawing from life a try, but don’t beatyourself up if you find it to be difficult.

26

Taking It All InIt can be exhilarating to take in a scene first-hand, as it provides you with an opportunityto use all of your senses. Choose a comfort-able spot with a good view. And be sure tocheck the weather forecast before headingout!

Hold Still!Rick and I have a herd of turkeys that hastaken a shine to our land, so naturally wephotograph, sketch and paint them. Turkeys,being, well, turkeys, do not hold still. This isone of the many challenges of drawing fromlife.

A Plein Air SketchRick couldn’t capture all the feathers or theshading, but he did try to get the feeling ofmovement and the roundness of the turkey.

Psssssst!Always carry a camera

with you when heading

outside to draw. That way if the

experience is not all it’s cracked

up to be, you can at least get

some good reference photos

out of it.

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Finished DrawingPlein air drawingscapture a freshness,spontaneity, actionand movement thatis unique to the art.This finished drawingwas created mostlyfrom the roughsketch with a fewmore details addedfrom a photo takenthe same day. It isdeliberately loose inexecution.

A Plein Air SketchThis is a sketch of our upper field and the dirt road that leads to ourhouse. The hillside was covered in flowers, which in turn were coveredwith bees. Rick quickly sketched the scene, seeking the variousshapes, shades and textures of the vegetation on a summer day.

Cheat SheetWhen first starting to draw, you will need:

• an HB graphite pencil (a yellow No. 2 will do)

• a pencil sharpener

• a white plastic eraser

• makeshift blending tools—facial tissue, a makeupsponge, etc.

• a ruler or other straightedge

• drawing paper or a sketchpad

• a steady, firm drawing surface

• a place to store your supplies

• photo references or live inspiration

It would be nice to have:

• a variety of pencils ranging from 2H (hard) to 6B(soft), or the same size leads with a lead holder(plus the special sharpener it requires)

• additional erasers—kneaded, portable electric

• paper stumps and tortillions for blending (plussandpaper for cleaning the stumps)

• bristol board

• French curves and circle templates

• erasing shields

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33238 I Chapter 2 10/21/05 3:56 PM Page 28


$

So the Problem Is…Why haven’t you been able to draw up to this point? The usual

response is that you’re not an artist or that you lack the tal-

ent. Actually, if you can’t draw it’s probably because you

never truly learned how. Drawing is like reading, a skill learnable by

almost everyone. Some people end up loving to read, maybe even writing

books, while others can barely get through an e-mail. In each case, the

fundamental ability to read is there. The only difference is how much you

enjoy (and therefore practice) the task.

To understand why it’s difficult for many people to draw well natu-

rally, we are going to look at how our brains work (or don’t work, in

some cases). I’ll share the immediate and practical observations I’ve had

while teaching people how to draw. Once you understand how your mind

processes the world around you, you can then train yourself to really see your

subject and move on to creating accurate, realistic drawings.

Drawing Is SeeingLearning to draw involves learning to see.To draw this buffalo, Ken worked from ref-erence photos taken in his native state ofWyoming. Although he already had a keeneye for drawing animals, Ken attended ourcourse on composites to hone his face-drawing skills.

Wyoming PrideKen MacMillanGraphite on bristol board9" x 12" (23cm x 30cm)

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Let’s continue with the analogy of read-ing to address some of the fundamentalsof drawing. You first learned the alpha-bet as a series of shapes. You committedto memory the shapes of twenty-six let-ters (actually, fifty-two when you countboth lowercase and uppercase). Youmemorized the letters and the soundsthey made. You might even have learnedby placing the alphabet into a song: “A-B-C-D …” and so on (although the letter“ellameno” took some time to figureout!). Then you combined the letters toform simple words like cat, dog, run and see.

The ABCs of Drawing

In drawing, there are really only twokinds of shapes to learn: straight andcurved. These simple shapes can be com-bined to form simple, recognizableimages. All of us are able to combinestraight and curved lines to create thesimplest of drawings.

In reading, you eventually progressedto more and bigger words. With eachpassing day, you acquired more andmore words for your memorized diction-ary. Then you strung the words togetherto form sentences. In art, you might havetaken a turn at drawing a more complexcritter or car.

Here’s where the natural artists andthe rest of the world part. The naturalartists develop a few skills to move onand draw more accurately. Everybodyelse figures there’s no hope and throwsdown their pencils in disgust.

So what’s the problem then? Whycan’t your drawings progress past thismost basic stage? Understanding howyour mind works can help you overcomethis roadblock.


Duplicating the ShapesAfter a bit of practice, you were able to recognize all letters of thealphabet and the series of curved and straight shapes needed toduplicate or write each letter.

Combining the ShapesOnce you memorized the entire alphabet, you could then combine let-ters to make words. Likewise in art, you can combine basic straightand curved shapes to form simple drawings like this cat. You’ve gottenthis far in your drawing skills already. The goal is to move forward.

Mastering the ShapesLearning how to read demanded that you memorize the shapes thatmade up each letter. Learning the letter R, for example, required youto learn the series of curved and straight shapes that combined toform the letter.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N

O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

cat ran the see look

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The human brain is very efficient. Itprocesses information at an astoundingrate, then places that information into amemorized pattern so it makes sense tous in the future. For instance, we learn torecognize letters of the alphabet by mem-orizing their shapes. Once memorized,these shapes are stored in the brain andrecalled when necessary. It is this abilityto recall information that prevents youfrom having to relearn the alphabet everytime you sit down to read.

The same process applies to objectsaround us. Your brain records a recog-nizable pattern for each object andrecalls that pattern when necessary. Sowhy doesn’t the object in your drawinglook like it does in real life? The answeris simple: When you draw, it is the mem-orized pattern that you usually reproduce

Thinking in Patterns

on paper, not the reality of the object infront of you. Anything unique about theobject you see may be lost when yourbrain recalls the pattern on file.

Along with stubbornly adhering tomemorized patterns, your brain recordsonly essential visual information, notevery single detail. To prove this point,try drawing a one dollar bill withoutlooking at it, and then compare it to thereal thing. Notice any differences? Eventhough you’ve seen the dollar bill count-less times, your brain hasn’t recorded theexact details. In fact, you’ve likely onlystored enough information to distinguishthis piece of currency from any otherpiece of paper.

This means our mental patterns ofmost objects we want to draw are miss-ing the details necessary to make the

object appear realistic. You may be won-dering, then, how veteran artists are ableto crank out realistic drawings withouteven breaking a sweat. This is becauseour brains continually add shapes andimages to our dictionary of patterns. Forexample, you have learned to read a sen-tence regardless of the font or handwrit-ing style used. The same happens withdrawing: Artists who have been drawingfor some time have a large dictionary ofpatterns that they have been adding toover time. They have probably sketchedthem many times as well.

So how do you build your dictionaryof patterns and ultimately improve yourdrawings? It’s all about understandingperception, which we’ll talk about next.

The Problem of Primitive PatternsWhen we write, we rely on our memorized shapes to communicate. That’s fine for writing butlousy for drawing. Memorized patterns seldom help us create realistic drawings when we’restarting out. This is the case with each of the objects pictured here. Sure you can recognize theobjects, but they are a far cry from realistic representations. You must expand your mental dic-tionary of patterns if you want your drawings to improve.

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Psssssst!When you first begin to

draw, your mental dic-

tionary of patterns is limited and

untrained, and your perception fil-

ter is in full effect. Test your knowl-

edge of the objects around you by

drawing them without looking.

This exercise results in repetition

of known shapes. If you have

learned that object accurately, you

will be able to reproduce it accu-

rately. If you practice this often

enough, eventually your filter will

change to allow more details in.

One of my favorite poems explains the role perception plays in our lives. In “The Everlasting Gospel,” WilliamBlake writes:

This life’s five windows of the soul,

Distorts the heavens from pole to pole,

And leads you to believe a lie,

When you see with, not thro’, the eye.

The five windows Blake refers to arethe five senses, the means through whichwe understand and record the worldaround us. We call this perception, andlike Blake suggests, sometimes our per-ceptions can lead us astray. However, ifyou have a proper understanding of per-ception and how it affects your view ofthe world, and thus your art, you’ll bebetter equipped to develop strong, soliddrawing skills.

A good definition of perception is theprocess by which people gather, process,organize and understand the worldthrough the five senses. Keeping this

Understanding Perception

definition in mind, there are two impor-tant points that every artist should knowabout perception.

First, each of us has a filter that affectsour perceptions. By shaping your filter tomeet your interests, you can build uponyour dictionary of patterns and developyour artistic skills. However, it can be achallenge to alter your perception with-out study and practice.

This brings us to the second point—perceptions are powerful. So powerful

that they don’t change unless a significantevent occurs. In drawing, this significantevent is training.

Shaping Your FilterPerception filters exist solely to keep usfrom overloading on too much informa-tion. If we didn’t have filters in place, wewould suffer from sensory overload. Ashandy as your filter may be in everydaylife, it needs to be shaped or altered foryou to become a proficient artist.

Training the EyeAs an artist, you must be able to hone your perception of a subject and articulate what yousee. Your average dog lover might look at this Great Pyrenees and see a pretty white dog, buta dog show judge or breeder will be able to rattle off the characteristic details that make it“pretty.” You want to be able to see with the eyes of a judge or breeder.

32

33238 I Chapter 2 10/22/05 1:51 PM Page 32


I Can See YouKen MacMillanGraphite on bristol board9" x 12" (23cm x 31cm)

33

Imagine for a moment that you’re at a dog show and a beautifully groomedGreat Pyrenees trots by. If you are anaverage guy who has a soft spot for ani-mals but who doesn’t possess extensiveknowledge of dogs, you might think,“what a pretty white dog.” However, ifyou are a judge or Great Pyrenees breed-er, you might think, “good oblique eye,excellent shoulder layback and leveltopline.” The judge or breeder has honedhis ability to look past the filters and

really see all the details of the object he isdealing with—or at least enough detail toknow a good Pyrenees when he sees one.

Just as the Pyrenees expert developedaccurate perceptions by shaping his filter,you too must alter your filter to really seeyour object of interest. Becoming a suc-cessful artist means training your eye torecognize key information and retainingit in your dictionary of patterns. If youdon’t alter your filter, your perceptionwill continue to be shaped by the limited

A Good Reference and a Perceptive EyeA clear reference photo and the ability to perceive its many detailsallowed this artist to capture the reality of the cat.

original patterns stored in your brain.Your drawings will never improve untilyou learn to see all the details that makeup your subject.

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Drawing With an Untrained EyeThe average person with no art training willdraw a portrait like this one. Even looking ata reference photo won’t help; they’ll stillmake the same mistakes. For example, theartist of this portrait placed the eyes in thetop one-third of the face. In reality, the eyesare typically located about halfway down theface. This fact is clearly provable by looking inany mirror, yet it was missed here. Your per-ception, fueled by the original patterns storedin your mental dictionary, is so powerful thateven the most easily checked data is invisibleto you.

Getting It RightAlthough I have drawn faces for years, I have to study the face I’m drawing just as diligentlyevery time as I did for my first drawings. I have to make an effort to really take in each individ-ual face that I draw. Easy? Not at all. To make your drawing of a person resemble your source,you should be aware of standard rules of thumb (or patterns) for drawing faces, but you can’trely entirely on them. Almost every drawing book on faces contains at least one drawing mis-take, generally in the size of the iris or the length and width of the nose. In my forensic artcareer, I’ve had the chance to really study, record and measure faces because I’ve had access tothousands of mug shots in my composite drawing classes. I’ve projected them and measuredthose thousands of faces, recording the subtle information in the reality of the photos, not theopinions of other drawing books.

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35

So you’re aware that your filter must bealtered to change your perceptions andimprove your drawings, but how do yougo about doing this? After all, our percep-tions are so steadfast that they usuallydon’t change unless a significant eventoccurs. Exactly what will it take to get thisstubborn ball rolling into motion, then?You guessed it—training. Without train-ing, you will probably be discouraged byyour own efforts to learn. Any progressyou had hoped to make will be stunted bythe frustration of not being able to drawwhat you see. Don’t worry, help is here!With this book and some practice, you’llbe able to draw anything realistically.

There are four main components tomaking a good realistic drawing of any-thing: site, shape, shading and accuracy.

You Can Improve—Here’s Proof!

You need to know what the parts looklike (shape), where they go (site), whatthe finished product looks like (how tomake it real—shading) and how to fixthe wobbly parts (accuracy).

After practicing basic pencilling tech-niques, we’ll work on the four compo-nents. By developing each of these skillsyou will change your perceptions andimprove your drawings at a vastlyincreased rate. I will share every secret Iknow and hold back no technique thatwill help you achieve your dreams ofbecoming a better artist.

I promise it’s possible! Don’t believeme? Check out the before-and-afterdrawings on the following pages, doneby two students from my compositedrawing courses.

Before InstructionIn our composite drawing classes as well as our portrait classes, Rick and I begin by explainingabout pencils, erasers and paper. We then ask the students to draw a face. These two exam-ples by John Hinds (left) and Greg Bean (right) are average pre-instructional sketches. John wasthen a detective with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department in Everett, Washington. Hisgoal was to draw and he was determined, but he had never drawn anything more advancedthan a smiley face. Greg, also a detective with the police department in Bellevue, Washington,enrolled in the class convinced that he would never learn to draw, but he felt it would improvehis identification skills.

Psssssst!Don’t trash your old

drawings! Save them

as you go. Embarrassing as they

may be, they will help you chart

your progress and someday

show just how far you’ve come.

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Psssssst!Those who draw the

best tend to have

the best observational abilities.

Thankfully, this is something we

can work on rather easily.

After InstructionJohn immediately put his newfound drawingskills to work. One of his earlier compositesidentified the largest serial arsonist in UnitedStates history. John retired from the depart-ment and was drawing portraits and teachingart within a few years of his first one-weekdrawing class.

John’s more recent drawing of his wife,Merry Beth, shows how he has learned to letlights and darks create the image. He’s movedaway from outlines and developed his ownstyle. He’s simplified some of the shapes andsuggested others, focusing the viewer on Mer-ry’s eyes.

Merry BethJohn HindsGraphite on bristol board10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm)

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P37 F&W-Secrets to Realistic Drawing

After InstructionGreg seldom let his pencil out of his handsand within a year was advanced enough tohelp me with a new class. It’s been about fiveyears since Greg took his first class, and theresults of his diligent practicing are apparentin his drawings.

JeremyGreg BeanGraphite on 8" × 10" drawing paper

Cheat Sheet• Drawing is a very learnable skill, much like reading. Both involve the ability

to recognize shapes and then combine them for words or drawings.

• Your brain stores limited information about what you see, then recallsthese memorized patterns when you try to draw something.

• Beginning artists have a very limited dictionary of memorized patterns.

• Your drawings will greatly improve if you can learn to see objects as theyare in reality instead of reproducing a limited pattern from your memory.

• You can expand your mental dictionary of patterns to become a better artist.

• Everyone has a perception filter that limits what we process when welook at something. Otherwise our brains would be overwhelmed withinformation.

• You will see and draw your subject better if you shape your filter—thatis, train your eye to recognize key information and retain it in your dictionary of patterns.

• With solid training (this book!) and frequent practice, anyone can learnto draw well.

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Chances are you’ve already tried to draw your favorite subject on

your own. If you didn’t get the results you were hoping for—and

you most likely didn’t if you bought this book!—your inaccurate

(or incomplete) perception of your subject may not be the only culprit.

Your technique of putting pencil to paper may take some of the blame.

Maybe your rendering was close, but not quite right. That’s okay! The first

step is to actually get off your duff and give it a try. From there it’s all

about practice.

Before ballet dancers start dancing, they practice their positions.

Singers go through pre-concert vocal warm-ups. A writer might start the

day with some journaling or maybe a cup of coffee. As an artist, you’re in

the same boat—you need to warm up before you cut loose. Consider this

chapter your pre-drawing warm-up. It’s designed to get you drawing and

using your tools correctly. All the tools, techniques, secrets and ideas won’t

help you without some practice, so grab your box of drawing goodies and

let’s get going.

Up Close and PersonalThe artist used his pencil in tight strokesto create this highly realistic drawing. Theman’s whiskers were erased (or lifted out)and then defined in pencil, a techniqueyou will learn in this chapter.

The BumMatt TuckerGraphite on 300-lb. (640gsm) cold-pressed illustration board21" x 16" (53cm x 41cm)Collection of the artist

Making Your Mark

%

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Reference PhotosI used this shoe and copper teakettle to complete the contour draw-ings on the next page. You can practice contour drawing with justabout anything you have laying around the house.

40

One excellent warm-up practice is to doa contour drawing. There are two kindsof contour drawings: regular and blind.Both types involve placing your pencil ona piece of paper and not lifting it untilthe drawing is complete. The idea is thatas your eyes are moving across the sub-ject you have chosen, your pencil is mov-ing across the paper in the same manner.

How do these two types of contourdrawings differ then? The answer lies inwhether or not you look at your handwhile in the process of drawing. In a reg-ular contour drawing you have the free-dom to look at both the subject and your

Contour Drawing Warm-Up

drawing as you work. But a blind con-tour drawing, as the name suggests,requires that you lock your gaze on thesubject entirely, never looking down atyour hand as you draw.

Now, contour drawing may soundstupid or like a waste of your time, butthe point is to train your eye and hand tomove together at the same time and atthe same pace. This ultimately forcesyour eye to slow down and more careful-ly observe the object so your hand cankeep up. Just give contour drawing ashot—it’ll be fun, I promise!

Psssssst!Contour drawings don’t

always have to be of a

lone object. You can do a contour

drawing of an entire scene or land-

scape. Though your pencil shouldn’t

leave the surface of your paper when

you are drawing just one object, it is

okay to quickly lift your pencil when

drawing multiple objects if there is

dead space between them. Only do

this when necessary, though: The

space between the objects should be

significant enough to justify lifting

your pencil.

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Regular Contour DrawingBegin this drawing in the same way, only don’t bother turning yourbody so that you can’t see your hand. This time, you can freely lookback and forth from your paper to the subject, but you still can’t liftyour pencil from the paper until the drawing is complete. No cheating!Your regular contour drawing will more closely resemble the actualsubject.

Blind Contour DrawingChoose a starting point on the object, then place a piece of paperunder your drawing hand and put the pencil down on the paper. Turnyour body so you can’t peek back at your hand. As you start drawing,your eyes and your hand should be in sync. That is, as your eyemoves slowly around the object, your hand should record the exactpart of the image on which your eyes are focusing at any given time.Let your eye explore each shape and area of the object as your handdoes the same. Don’t lift your pencil from the paper until the drawingis complete—and no peeking at your paper! When you’re finished, youshould end up with a scribble that kind of resembles your subject.

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Psssssst!The techniques of hatch-

ing and crosshatching

are often used by pen-and-ink

artists to create shadows.

42

Drawing is as simple as placing pencilmarks on a piece of paper. The selectionof drawing marks available to you is asvaried and unique as your own hand-writing. There are no correct or incorrectmarks, only more or less effective ones inmeeting your drawing goal.

This is not a comprehensive list ofmarks, only the types we will be usingfor the illustrations in this book. You canuse these marks for creating interestingtextures and shading, as well as just plainfilling in the spaces of your artwork.

Pencilling Techniques

HatchingHatching involves drawing parallel lines onyour paper. These lines should be varied atthe points where they begin and end to pre-vent unwanted hard edges from occurring.Vary the distance between the lines to createlighter or darker areas.

Generally, your lines should follow theform of your subject, indicating roundness—though drawing all the lines in the samedirection can be a style choice done purpose-ly for an interesting drawing.

CrosshatchingCrosshatching starts the same way as hatchingdoes, with parallel lines. Once the first set oflines are drawn, a second set is placed overthem at an angle. If more depth is needed, athird and fourth layer may be added. Thecrosshatching may continue for as many layersnecessary to create the desired darkness.

Start Light

Using a 2H pencil, smoothly scribble backand forth over a distance of several inches.Halfway across, start to lighten the pres-sure on your pencil so that the end strokesare quite light.

Repeat With Darker Lead

Now take an HB pencil and repeat theprocess going over the 2H scribble, but thistime end your strokes at the halfway pointof your first scribble, where it began tolighten.

Continue to Darken

Now switch to a 2B pencil and repeat theprocess, again stopping at the halfwaypoint of the previous scribble. You nowhave a smooth gradation of dark to light.

PRAC T I C E BU I L D I NG UP L AY ERSA more challenging technique, but beautiful when completed, is using multiple pencils with different grades of graphite to create shading. You create the changes in lights and darks bygradually and gently lifting your strokes. Although this technique requires more hand controland is rather labor intensive, the advantage is that corrections such as modifying your darksare easier to make.

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43


Putting It All TogetherI used hatching and crosshatching extensively in this drawing. Thefinished work has more texture and is less smooth than what youget with other techniques. In areas such as the shadow under thehorse, all the hatching goes in a single direction. In other areas, the hatching and crosshatching define the form of the horse.

Psssssst!Whether you prefer to sketch using pencil

lines, circular motions, scribble shapes or any

other technique, that’s fine. Don’t let someone come

along and say it can’t be done using a certain technique.

Exploring is how you develop your own personal

style of drawing.

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44

To make your drawings look more life-like, you’ll want to blend your pencilstrokes for realistic shading. I call thistechnique smudging.

I remember taking a composite draw-ing class a number of years ago with anaccomplished and well-known instructor.He paused at my desk and stared in hor-ror as I smudged my drawing, finallygrabbing the offending tool from myhand.

“Don’t smudge!” he said. “You’regrinding the graphite into your paper andyou’ll never be able to erase it!” He thenwalked away, taking my stump with him.

He was right. Smudging your drawingdoes indeed grind the lead into the paper,making it difficult if not impossible to“clean back out” to create the lights. Ipondered his reasoning for the rest of theday before seeing the flaw in his point.Then it dawned on me that he was an oilpainter, and oil painters work from darkto light. I am a watercolorist, and sincewatercolorists work from light to dark,we are used to preserving our whites orlightest areas beforehand. It’s not a prob-lem to use the technique of smudging forshading if you remember to keep awayfrom the areas you wish to remain light.

I smudge my shading with some formof blending tool. These tools could be apaper stump, tortillion, chamois cloth oreven a makeup sponge or facial tissue.Never, never smudge with your finger.Fingers contain oils that will contaminateyour drawing and mess it up.

Smudging Techniques

Large SmudgingA paper stump is typically used on its side, although you can use thetip for smaller areas. Don’t hold it as you would a pencil, however,when blending large areas. Place the stump across your hand, asshown in the first picture, then turn your hand over to use the toolcorrectly. This spreads the graphite over a larger area without placingtoo much pressure on a small area.

Small SmudgingMade of rolled paper, a tortillion is designed to be used on its tip, whichwill mash down if pressed too hard. This tool is meant to be used insmall areas. It does not blend larger areas well because too much pres-sure is placed on too small a tip, creating a streaky appearance.

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Gently Scribble

Draw a line on a piece of paper. Gently scribble with a soft 4B to6B pencil next to the line, putting less pressure on your pencil forgradually lighter lines as you work to the right.

Smudge

Blend the scribble with your stump, using long strokes in the direc-tion you drew in. Now draw your stump over an area that has noshading. The graphite on your stump will transfer to the drawing.

Repeat

It will take several applications of graphite and smudging to adequately develop the darks in your drawing.

Start NeatIf your scribbles are sloppy to begin with, you will still see the sloppystrokes when you are done blending. Smooth, even strokes blend well together.

Getting DirtyWhen you smudge, you are blending your pencil strokes together. The blending tool starts off clean and picks up the graphite from yourpencil, smoothing and blending the strokes. You can accelerate thisprocess by scribbling with your 6B pencil on a scrap piece of paperand rubbing your paper stump in the graphite.

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Psssssst!When your paper stump gets dirty and

dull from blending, you can clean it up

and sharpen it with sandpaper. And if you acci-

dentally mash down the tip of your tortillion,

unbend a paper clip and use the wire to push

the tip back out.

PRAC T I C E SMUDG ING I N L AY ERSUsing a paper stump involves shading in layers. Your goal is to gofrom darkest dark to light by blending in one direction. The darkestareas of your drawings will take numerous applications of pencil scrib-bles and smudging.

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46

Putting It All TogetherThe darker areas of this horse were blended together with a paperstump. Several applications of graphite built up the desired level ofdarkness in the darkest areas. No pencil strokes were used on the mid-tones; the shading came entirely from the graphite residue on thepaper stump. Some lines were deliberately left showing to indicate hair.

Psssssst!Stay away from the “H” leads for smudging

purposes. There just isn’t enough graphite

transferred to the paper to smudge well. Also, be a bit

cautious of your paper stump transferring too much

graphite. If it is too dirty, instead of creating a gently

blended area, the stump will blob too much darkness onto

your drawing. Do a practice smudge on scrap paper with

your stump before applying it to your drawing to be sure.

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Psssssst!As children, we tend-

ed to think of erasers

as mistake-fixers. They’re far

more than that. In art, we erase

as much as we draw, using the

eraser to create lights, lighten

midtones and make texture

(think wispy white hairs or wind-

blown grasses). Look closely and

you’ll see that erasers were

used extensively in the drawings

throughout this book and

often share equal billing with

the pencils.

47

Your eraser is a remarkable tool.Although you’ve been erasing things youhave written since at least the first grade,you’ve probably never truly appreciatedit. Sure it can correct mistakes, like light-ening a too-dark area, but its use can beso much more deliberate than that. Intaking away graphite, an eraser can addtremendous interest to your artwork.

My two favorite erasers are thekneaded rubber eraser and the portableelectric. If you haven’t yet succumbed tothe benefits of the portable electric, I sup-pose you could use a standard whiteplastic eraser. We’ll also practice erasingwith the help of an eraser shield.

Erasing Techniques


Kneaded Rubber EraserThe kneaded rubber eraser will clean up mistakes just fine, but I loveit because it will lift graphite from a drawing without leaving a harsh,unnatural edge. You use the eraser by dabbing—pushing it straightdown, then lifting straight up—not by rubbing it side to side. Themore you dab at a spot, the lighter it gets. This works wonderfully fordeveloping the form of your subject (by creating light areas amongdarker ones) or for lifting out highlights.

Erasing ShieldsErasing shields are best used as a way toclean up small areas on your drawing. Youposition the shield so the shape that will bestcorrect the problem is over the troublesomepart of your drawing, then erase through it.Erasing shields are also useful for creatingnew shapes.

Outside the LinesWhen I shade by smudging, I use a largeerasing shield to clean up the outside edgesof the subject. This allows me to make longsweeping strokes with the paper stump,which makes my drawing look smoother.

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You can create a variety of unique effectsby making a custom template. Start witha piece of clear acetate, which you canfind as transparency sheets or plasticreport covers in just about any office sup-ply store. Take a craft knife and cut outthe shapes you desire in the sizes youwant. Then you can lay the template onyour paper and draw or erase the specificshapes through it. You can reuse thesetemplates again and again for countlessdrawings.

Give Templates a Try

Create the Shape

With a craft knife, carefully cut the templateinto the desired shape. In this case, theshape had a sharp point, so the acetatewas reinforced with a piece of tape so itwouldn’t tear.

Draw Through It

The template may be used to draw throughto create a small, sharply defined area. Italso could be used to build up a darkerarea on an already shaded area.

Erase Through It

You could use the template like a customerasing shield. It may be placed over areasthat have been previously shaded to createlayers of values (or lights and darks).

Psssssst!Custom templates are incredibly useful for the

repetitious elements in a drawing. To avoid

repetition that’s too predictable (and therefore boring),

change things up a little. Cut various sizes of the element

on your template, or try flipping the template over and

using the reverse image in areas.

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Draw or Erase With TemplatesI used a small, curved custom template todraw in this blade of grass over a shadedarea, then used the same template to erase ablade away.

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Putting It All TogetherIn this landscape drawing, the cattails, thetips and stems of the cattails and the trunksof the trees in the background were erasedusing custom templates. Some of the tem-plates were reversed to create matchingsides.

Look Closer …The ripples in the water were also erasedthrough a custom template.

• Contour drawing, in which you don’t lift yourpencil from your paper as you draw, trains youreyes and hand to move in sync and forces youto really observe your subject.

• Three common pencilling techniques for filling inyour drawing are hatching, crosshatching andbuilding.

• Hatching involves drawing parallel lines of vary-ing lengths. Vary the distance between the linesto create lighter or darker areas.

• To crosshatch, layer sets of parallel lines overeach other at different angles until you reachthe desired darkness.

• Multiple pencils with different grades ofgraphite are required for building, a techniquein which pencil tones are gradually layered.

• Blending or “smudging” makes your pencilstrokes smooth and gives your drawings a finished look.

• You can blend using tortillions (ideal for smallareas), paper stumps (best for large areas butusable in smaller ones) or household items likefacial tissue, but never with your finger, whichcan deposit unwanted oils on your drawing.

• In drawing, erasers don’t merely remove mistakes—they are used purposely to lift high-lights, soften hard edges and create realistictextures.

• Erasing shields and templates can give yougreater control in pencilling in or erasingshapes.

Cheat Sheet

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33238 I Chapter 4 10/21/05 4:09 PM Page 50


SiteSite refers to the general location of the different elements of your

subject on the paper. Tied to this concept is the idea of proportion or

scale, which involves making those elements the correct size in rela-

tion to each other. For most artists, the drawing starts here. Once you’ve

figured out how everything will fit, you can go about the business of devel-

oping the details.

Many artists get caught up with using only one technique to find the

sites or locations of the parts of their subject. The grid method, for exam-

ple, is a popular technique in which you divide a photograph of your sub-

ject into a grid of equally sized boxes that corresponds with a grid drawn

on your paper. Then you re-create what you see in the photo, box by box.

Quite frankly, life is too short to use a grid system for every drawing. I

have some secrets to share on what works best in different circumstances.

Finding the correct scale and location for the various elements of

your drawing often brings out such tricky terms as vanishing points, two-

point perspective, horizon line and eye levels. Relax—we’ll achieve all that

with the simpler concepts of measuring, optical indexing and flattening.

Correct Site Helps Make Your Subject RecognizableThe exact location of each ridge and jaggedmountain is not important if you’re justinventing a scene. However, if you desire todraw a specific scene, such as this one ofCooper Lake in the Washington Cascades,you need to know how to properly scaleand proportion those areas.

Cooper Lake, WashingtonGraphite on bristol board10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm)

Q

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Among my regular activities I’m a pro-fessional speaker, and I sometimes use anillustration to make a point in my pre-sentations. I’ll take a clear glass jar andplace four or five good-sized stones in it.Then I’ll ask the audience if the jar is full.About half the group will say yes; theother half will stare at me as if I hadsprouted horns.

Next I’ll add smaller stones, filling thejar further. I’ll ask the question again: “Isthe jar full?” This time seventy-five per-cent will respond with no, anticipatinganother clever move on my part, and theremainder will fold their arms and stareat the ceiling. I’ll pour sand into the jarnext and repeat the question. Ninety per-

A Lesson in a Jar

cent will say no, and the remaining tenpercent will check their wristwatches.Finally, I’ll pour water into the jar. “Is thejar full?” I ask. By now the entire audi-ence has been snagged by my antics. Yes,they all admit, the jar is finally full.

The point is this: if I don’t put in thebig rocks first, they’ll never fit. As a bud-ding artist, you need to get the big stuffdown first. Work from the large, overallshapes to smaller, specific details. I can’temphasize this enough as you continuethrough the chapter: no amount of spec-tacular detail can “fix” a drawing whosemain shapes aren’t placed correctly.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff … YetThe next time you’re in a hurry to get to thedetails of a drawing, remember this jar ofrocks!

First Things FirstGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

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You already have a basic knowledge ofproportion and scale. You know about itbecause you learned it, and examples ofit surround you in your everyday exis-tence. You learned that a cocker spanielis a very small dog when compared to anIrish wolfhound, but not so small com-pared to a chihuahua. You learned thatyou’d better measure the rooms of a newhouse and all the furniture you’d like tofill them with if you expect everything tofit. You learned that a large milkshakeisn’t that much bigger than a small one(that is, until your bathroom scale setsyou straight).

So, what did you actually learn? Youlearned to compare things to other thingsthrough measurement, whether by eye-balling it or getting on your hands andknees with a tape measure. This is howwe check proportion or scale—the sizerelationships between objects. In art, youwill use measurement to put the propor-tions within your drawing to the test.

The Art of Measuring

Baselines and Why You Need ThemIn correctly drawing an object to scale,one technique is to establish a baselineand draw from that. A baseline is a com-mon term used to describe the standard towhich we compare something. After all,size is relative to what is being compared.A ruler is really a type of baseline, becausewe use it to measure linear objects.

In drawing, you will compare a base-line in the image in front of you to some-

thing else within the same image. Forexample, the width of a window in yourreference photo might be a baseline. Thebuilding the window belongs to maythen be considered about five windowswide, and the trees surrounding it abouttwo windows wide each. Baselines areespecially handy when drawing people.Drawing the width of the face, forinstance, is much easier when you thinkin terms of how many “eyes wide” it is.


Early Lessons in SiteYou’ve already had quite a bit of experience evaluating and adjustingproportion and scale. Think back to penmanship class in grade school:You learned there was an appropriate size and location for words onyour lined paper.

What Can Be Used as a Baseline?Anything that is smaller than most of theobjects in the drawing makes the best base-line. For example, the diameter of the quartermay be compared to the length of the key:the key is about twice a long as the quarter.The diameter of the quarter may also be usedto measure the length of the screwdriver.

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The easiest way to measure objects witha baseline is to use a photo. Photos aretwo dimensional and easy to manipulatewith your ruler or measuring tool. Mea-suring the proportions in your referencephoto not only helps ensure that yourdrawing will be accurate, but it allowsyou to enlarge your drawing with ease.

A simple measuring system worksbest when the image is, well, simple andconsists of mostly straight lines. Take thewindows and door of a building, forinstance. Since we are dealing with allfairly straight lines, a ruler works justfine for establishing proportions. Wemight find the window is 2 7⁄16 incheswide, so we draw a line on our paperthat is 2 7⁄16 inches wide. The ruler meas-ures it out for us. No big deal. Boring,but not hard.

But what if you wanted to make yourdrawing two and a half times bigger thanthe photo? You could do the math. Let’ssee, two and a half times 2 7⁄16 equals—well, maybe the math was a bad idea.Sure you could simply round your num-bers up or down for easier arithmetic, butdo you need to number crunch at all?

There is an easier way, minus themath. All you need besides your refer-ence photo and drawing paper are a thinscrap of bristol board, an HB pencil anda ruler.

Simple Measuring and Enlarging With Photos


Choose a Baseline From the Photo

Make a cheat sheet. On the scrap paper,write “photo” on one end and “drawing” onthe other. This is to remind you to use thephoto measurement to measure the photoand the drawing measurement to measurethe drawing. You may think this is overstat-ing the obvious, but you still keep forget-ting where you left your car keys, so there’sa remote chance you’ll forget which sidemeasures what. Select a short, straight parton the photo (we’ll use the inner part of thewindow) and mark that width on the paper.

Create a Baseline for the Drawing

You can choose any size for your drawing:a smidgen bigger, smaller, twice as big,whatever. Decide how big you want todraw the image and, on your cheat sheet,mark what will be the width of the windowon your drawing.

Compare and Measure as You Draw

Start your drawing using this as a baselineor standard of measurement. Everything inthe picture is either the same size as,smaller than, or larger than your measure-ment. With your one baseline and piece ofpaper, it is possible to scale everything inthe photo to the size you need it to be foryour drawing.

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Measuring objects with straight lines isfairly straightforward, but what happenswhen you must measure something withcurves? In my experience I have foundthat many beginning artists, and a fewexperienced ones, have a consistent prob-lem drawing curves correctly. Curves can

Measuring Curved Subjects

be tough to master. A curve that’s tooflattened will make something lookincorrectly enlarged. Too rounded acurve will “squish” your drawing. Let’slook at two subjects containing curvesand use the same technique to measureboth.

Exercise #1My brother Scott was very unhappy that his mug didn’t make it intomy last book, so we’ll use it in this one. To measure the curve of theside of his face, first select a baseline, which should be a fairly smallshape on the face. In this case we’ll use the width of his eye. Mark thewidth on a piece of paper, then see how many eye widths it takes toget to the side of his face from the curve of his chin (about one and ahalf eyes). Now turn the paper sideways and see how many “eyes” ittakes to get to the widest point on the side of his face (three-and-a-smidgen eyes). The side of his face, therefore, will curve betweenthese two points. Exercise #2

This time we’ll measure a baby carriage. Take a smaller measurementfor the baseline—say, the width of the wheel—and compare it towhere the carriage curves around in the front. It’s one “wheel” out andone “wheel” down. That was easy!

baselines

Psssssst!A small confession here:

I draw first and use the

measuring system at the end or

midway through to check how

well I’ve scaled out the drawing.

It’s faster than measuring ahead

of time and it trains my eye to

pay attention to scale.

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Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

56

This next measurement exercise is a bitmore challenging. Our goal is to correct-ly proportion our drawing of a buildingstructure and have it show the sameangles as the reference photograph. Itinvolves the same process of measuringthat we used in the previous example,but we have added perspective, the ideathat the structure has depth and parts ofit appear closer to us or farther away.

Getting the Angles Right

Reference PhotoLet’s figure out how to accurately draw the angles of these ancientcolumns in Corinth, Greece. When doing this with one of your ownphotos, work on a photocopy instead of marking it up.

Draw a Reference Line

Using your ruler, draw a line across the top of the structure on thephoto. This line touches the highest point of the columns and runsfrom one side of the photo to the other. This gives us a referenceline from which to measure. Lightly draw a corresponding lineacross your drawing paper. We will be erasing this guideline later.

Establish Your Baseline

We need to select a baseline measurement from the columns—ashort, straight area that we can use to measure the entire drawing.I chose the height of the near corner as shown. Mark a piece ofscrap paper with this measurement.

horizontal reference line horizontal reference line photo baseline

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Psssssst!A straight line is an artist’s best friend.

It provides a concrete reference point that

assists our eyes in recognizing even the most subtle

angles and curves of our subject.

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Decide the Size of Your Drawing

If you want your drawing to be the same size as the photo, simplytransfer the measurement to your paper. If you want it to be larger,make the baseline slightly larger when you transfer it, as I didhere. If you want to make your drawing smaller … you get the drift.

Add a New Vertical Line

Draw a vertical line at the end of the columns on the photo. Makesure it is parallel to the photo baseline. The correct angle of thecolumns is now bracketed between the lines. Measure the distanceover and down on the photo; that is, from the top of the photobaseline (at the near corner of the structure) straight across to thenew vertical line at the far corner, then from this point down to thetop of the far corner. The horizontal distance is almost four base-lines, and the vertical is about one and a half baselines.

Measure Your Drawing

Using the drawing baseline, measure the same amount of base-lines over and down on your drawing. Make a mark at almost fourbaselines over and one and a half baselines down, and you havethe correct reference point for your angle.

Transfer the Angle to Your Drawing

Use a ruler to connect the points and form the correct angle. Thestone in the photo is not a perfectly straight line, but for now aruler gets us in the ballpark.

horizontal reference line drawing baseline horizontal reference line photo baseline new vertical line

horizontal reference line new vertical linedrawing baseline

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Don’t Assume

Don’t assume that the far corner of the entablature (the block heldup by the columns) is the same height as the corner nearer to thecamera. Measure. When I did a comparison measurement, the farcorner was slightly smaller—which makes sense, since thingsappear to be smaller the farther they are from you.

Compare and Mark

Measure your drawing with a slightly shorter mark than the draw-ing baseline to indicate the height of the block.

Finish the Angle

Connect the dots and voila! You have correctly recreated the anglein the picture for your drawing. Now the entire drawing may bescaled by using your baselines and measuring. Psssssst!

Any baselines or other lines of reference

should be drawn very lightly. Seeing these

guidelines in your finished work is kind of like noticing

someone’s wearing a beautiful new shirt, then seeing

that they forgot to remove the price tag!

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Corinth, GreeceGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

59


Then a Miracle Happens …Okay, so a couple of lines on a piece of paper does not suddenlymorph into a drawing like this. It’s a good start, though. If you can getthe angles and proportions correct, you’ve achieved the first step andlaid an excellent foundation for your finished drawing. We’ll work onhoning your eye, clarifying your drawing and creating realistic shadingas we progress through the rest of this book.

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Having just shown you how to measuresomething on a two-dimensional photo,let’s touch on measuring something “onthe hoof” as it were. The next site tech-nique we’ll look at is flattening.

What if a fantastic elk stepped out infront of you while you happened to beon a nature hike with your sketchbook?This very accommodating elk strikes apose and holds it long enough for you tosketch him at your leisure. Okay, this sce-nario may seem a little far-fetched, butyou need to know how to work out theproportions in a three-dimensional situa-tion no matter what your subject is.

Working out proportion in threedimensions is a lot like working in two

Flattening

dimensions. Two-dimensional objectshave height and width. What is a three-dimensional object? One with depth.How do you perceive depth? By lookingat something with both eyes. But whenyou are drawing something on a two-dimensional piece of paper, you don’twant that depth perception. So what doyou do?

Close one eye. One eye on its ownwill not perceive depth. Closing one eyewill flatten the world around you andhelp you draw a three-dimensionalobject on your two-dimensional paper.

Don’t believe me? Try this: Open bothyour eyes and place your finger in frontof your face. Look beyond your finger at

the background. Your eyes will actuallysee two fingers, and you can’t see bothyour finger and the background at thesame time. Now try the same thing withone eye closed. Aha! One finger and abackground.

Let’s look at how to establish a base-line on that three-dimensional, ever-so-patient elk.


Select a Baseline on the Subject

Choose a portion of the subject to use asyour baseline. Remember, it should be afairly small line, either vertical or horizontal,because a smaller line will be easier tocompare to everything else in your drawing.

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61

Measure the Baseline

We’ll select the height of one antler as ourbaseline. Extend your arm fully and straightout in front of you and close one eye. Holdyour pencil so that it’s parallel to yourbody. Use the tip of the pencil to mark thetop of the antler. Use your thumb to markthe bottom of the antler. This measurementis your baseline.

Compare the Baseline Measurementto the Subject

Using the measurement of the tip of thepencil to your thumb, you can now com-pare the antler baseline to any other partof the elk. For example, you may discoverthat, compared to the antler, the elk isabout four baselines long.

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baseline

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Optical indexing is a fancy way of sayingthings line up. The idea is that if youhave one object in your drawing placedcorrectly, you can use this as a point ofreference to check the locations of every-thing else in your drawing. If certainparts of your drawing line up or arespaced appropriately according to yourdrawing reference, then you have a cor-rectly proportioned piece of artwork.

Many artists use either a few simplehorizontal or vertical lines or a more

Optical Indexing

thorough grid system to check the align-ment of the elements within their draw-ings. Both methods make it easy to spotmistakes in placement and proportion.Some artists begin their drawings withthese guidelines to prevent problemsfrom the get-go; others pull them outwhen they are in the middle of a linedrawing that’s not quite right. How youdecide to use them is entirely up to you.

Bring On the GridMany artists use grids, but they are laborintensive and not needed unless it is a com-plex image you desire to draw. This pile ofcats is a complicated series of shapes. This isa good time to use a grid system.

Draw the SquaresPlace a grid of equal-size squares over the reference photo, or drawone directly on a copy of the photo. Then draw a grid of equal-sizesquares on your drawing paper. If you use a grid of one inch by oneinch (3cm x 3cm) squares on your photo and the same on your draw-ing, the drawing will be the same size as your photo. For a largerdrawing, make a larger grid on your paper.

Fill In the SquaresDraw the shapes you see within each square. Keep your finger (or othermarker of some kind) on the reference-photo square you’re currentlyworking on so you don’t get lost. (It may sound silly, but there are kittypaws and tiger stripes going in all directions.) Once you have the shapesdrawn in, carefully erase your grid. Looking at the various parts of a com-plex subject in this way makes drawing them much more manageable.

Psssssst!You can make a reusable grid in a variety

of different ways:

• Create a grid on a computer and print it on a sheet of clear acetate.

• Draw a grid with a permanent marker on a sheet of clear acetate.

• Draw a grid on regular paper, run it through a copierand make copies on acetate.

• Make a grid on a clear insert or folder, and slide yourphoto into the insert.

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Cheat Sheet• No amount of spectacular detail can “fix” a drawing whose site, or loca-

tion of shapes, is incorrect.

• Every drawing needs a baseline or standard of measurement to whichall the other parts of the drawing are compared. This ensures correctproportion.

• Measuring elements according to a baseline is easiest to do with a pho-to because it is two dimensional.

• Establishing two baselines—one for your reference and one for yourdrawing—makes it easy to enlarge or reduce the elements for a largeror smaller drawing.

• Make a horizontal reference line to help you check angles for accuracy.

• To measure a three-dimensional subject, “flatten” it by looking at it withone eye closed, extending your arm straight out in front of you, andmeasuring a baseline with your finger.

• If certain parts of your drawing line up or are spaced appropriatelyaccording to your drawing reference, then the drawing is in proportion.

• Use a complete grid or just a few horizontal and vertical guidelines tocheck how the elements in your drawing line up.

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Reading Between the LinesThese two Great Pyrenees puppies are much less complex than the pile of kittens. A grid couldbe used, but often just a few lines are necessary to measure the distances between elementsto make sure you’re in the ballpark. Try drawing these puppies first, then take a ruler and seewhat lines up in your drawing compared to mine.

Check LocationsFor example, when I place a horizontal rulerunder the jaw of the puppy on the right, itlines up with the top of the left puppy’s nose.

What Lines Up?Here we find that the inside corner of theright puppy’s eye lines up with the edge ofhis nose. Choosing a few different features orparts of your subject to spot check is usuallyenough measuring to make sure your drawingis in correct proportion.

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ShapeWe tend to see shapes around us without really paying attention

to them. For example, you use the ability to recognize shapes

in order to read and write. Of course, because our mind isn’t

really paying attention as we read and write, at least not to the shape of

the letters, we’re not aware of the automatic processing going on. Instead

we are focusing on the thoughts and ideas expressed by the words.

In a sense, it’s the same with drawing. We see the subject—a land-

scape, a face, a group of flowers—but we are focused on the ideas the

image suggests. The nostalgia of the place, the love of the person, the

beauty of the garden. As artists, we must push away, at least for the

moment, our ideas and thoughts about the subject and focus on the

mechanics of the subject.

Shapes are recorded in our subconscious, but to draw those shapes, we

need to bring them into our conscious mind. Doing this takes concentration

and focus. You must make your brain slow down and pay attention. In

our fast-paced, high-speed, drive-through society, this is a foreign concept.

The world is rich in information, and we are on data overload. The tools pre-

sented in this chapter will assist you in training your mind to slow down and

pay attention. Use one or more of these tools (more is better!) to help iden-

tify and draw the shapes around you.

Think Shapes, Not “Stuff”The feathers in this drawing of a Moluccancockatoo were not thought of as feathers,but rather as shaded curves. You maythink you can’t draw feathers, but curvesare simple.

HoganGraphite on bristol board17" x 14" (43cm x 36cm)

W

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of objects easy to see. Unfortunately, theworld around us is not outlined in black.It’s more subtle and the shapes are harderto see. When something is more demand-ing, many move on to other subjects orinterests.

Artists continue to seek those samesimple shapes. It’s really not so hard,because no matter how “decorated” theyare, shapes are basically either straight orcurved.

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Most children find they have the abilityto make simple drawings that satisfythem. Popular with this young set arecartoon characters. They often graduatefrom drawing such animated friends asthe Little Mermaid to the exaggeratedcomic book superheroes. Then … noth-ing. Their art interest often drops off.What happened? It could be that foot-ball, girls, boys, dances, music and life ingeneral takes over, and they simply move

Seek to Simplify

Humble BeginningsWhen we were children, most of us at leastmade an attempt to draw our favorite cartooncharacters. We grabbed a crayon or marker andstarted drawing lines, imitating what we saw.

Artistically AdvancedWinnie has no hard edges and certainly noblack outlines. In fact, she’s actually some-what outlined in white. The basic shapes inboth the cartoon drawing and this one areessentially the same, even though they aren’tquite as obvious to the eye in Winnie.

WinniePastel pencil on toned paper20" x 16" (51cm x 41cm)

on to other new and exciting pursuits. Isuspect that is often the case, but I alsothink that once their interest in comic-strip characters wanes and the buddingartist wants to try drawing somethingelse, it proves to be difficult and theysimply give up.

It was easy for the untrained eye tofind the well-inked outlines of the car-toon characters and comic book images.The black-inked edges made the shapes

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round shape

curves

straight lines

partial triangles (or acute angles)

Seeing Patterns, Not ThingsPhotos like these are exceptionally good forhelping you understand how to look pastsubject matter and see only shapes. An artistis more interested in the patterns in thesepictures than the fact that they show columnsand palm fronds.

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It’s really not enough to say you see ashape such as those clearly shown inthese pictures. Artists think of the objectsthey are drawing in terms of shape. Theythink about drawing circles, curves,straight lines and so on. If you askedthem to say aloud what they were think-ing as they drew, it would be phrased interms of the shape, not the subject itself.Changing the way you think and namesomething will help you see it better forthe purposes of drawing.

Rename What You See

Take your camera out and recordsome of the shapes around you, or digthrough your old pile of reference pho-tos. Select a photo and draw its shapes—and only the main shapes, not all thedetails. The contour drawing exercisesyou learned in chapter three are perfectfor training you to see and draw theshapes of things.

Everyday ShapesLook at the simple shapes found in this photo.Don’t think “flower” as you draw; think straightand curvy lines, round and angular shapes.

Psssssst!Don’t fall into the rut

of drawing all trees,

rocks, flowers and so on the

same when they are not. To help

avoid this, describe what you are

drawing in terms of its shape.

This will help you recognize the

things that make it unique,

which will in turn make for more

realistic drawings.

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Just as a musician may practice a portionof a melody and a dancer may practicethe same movement over and over, anartist often breaks up a subject such as ahuman figure and draws just the hands,feet or facial expression.

Isolating and studying shapes is veryimportant. I don’t know how manytimes I’ve looked at a drawing or paint-ing that was well shaded and fairly wellproportioned, but the trees were badly

Isolate Parts of the Whole

rendered on a landscape, the eyes wereincorrectly drawn on a portrait or thenose of a dog looked like a double traintunnel. Take apart the subject you wishto draw and look at its parts. Separatethem and draw them in individualsketches. Make it a habit to carry yoursketchbook with you and work on theselittle studies to improve your overalldrawing.

Where Do I Start?One look at this cat and many begin-ning artists would be too overwhelmedto even consider drawing it.

Psssssst!Cut a square out of the

center of a piece of

white paper and place it over your

reference photo. Move the paper

around the photo to force your

eyes to focus on the shapes in the

particular area shown.

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There, Now That’s Not So Bad …The cat seems manageable when you try drawing just an eye or thenose before attempting to render the entire head with all its featuresand fur patterns. Along with the view shown in the full drawing areviews of the cat’s left eye and nose from slightly different angles. Isolat-ing the cat’s features like this helps you recognize the subtle differencesthese different points of view create.

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70

The dictionary defines “relate” as bring-ing into logical or natural association fora reference. We have been using a formof relating every time we draw a line nextto the subject. We relate the subject tothat line.

I came to realize that I was usinganother technique similar to drawing aline for reference—I was also using a cir-

Recognize How Shapes Relate

cle for reference. A circle has certainproperties that I can count on, much likea line. I can use these properties to helpme see to draw.

You can use any circular shape inyour subject to help you see the correctplacement of other shapes. Using a circleas a point of reference can help you drawbetter.

Lines and CirclesStay with me on this one—we’re going somewhere. If I see a line that crosses the circle, I candetermine where to place that line in a drawing by using the properties of the circle. A linethrough the center is easiest to duplicate because the line crosses at the fattest part. Lines inthe top third area, bottom fifth area and so on cross the parts where the circle is getting small-er or larger, respectively.

Looking RoundIt’s pretty easy to determine the midpoint of a circle. If I were to fill in this circle to the halfwaypoint, I would simply fill in to the fattest part.

Psssssst!Any completely round

shape may be used as

a reference point to figure out

the proper placement of other

items in a drawing. For example,

a tire, a wheel or an orange may

be used to establish the location

of the rest of the car, wagon or

bowl of fruit.

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The Eyes Have ItLet’s apply what we’ve learned to a familiar object. I find using a circlefor reference most useful when drawing eyes. When I look at an eye, Ilook at the perfectly round iris (the colored part) to determine wherethe eyelid should go. The location of the lid gives the eyes theirexpression, and if it’s located at the wrong spot, the look is off.

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72

We addressed measuring in the last chap-ter where we looked at how somethingcan be compared to something else. Thesame holds true of measuring and com-paring the shapes within a subject. Onceagain, if it is in front of you, whether in aphoto or in person, you can measure it.All you need is to choose a baseline, astandard measurement by which all elseis measured. Pick something fairly small,with a clearly defined beginning and end,that can be measured with a straight line.

Remember, Everything’s RelativeLearning to draw is a process of trainingyour eye to see the things in front of you.Okay, so I’m repeating myself, but thereis an important word in this sentence:process. It doesn’t happen overnight. Youcan’t go to bed with a drawing bookunder your pillow and expect to drawwell the next day any more than you canput a diet book under your pillow andwake up thin. I know, I’ve tried it!

There is a subtlety to angles that takesa practiced and trained eye to see. Weneed clues to tell us that something is notexactly level in front of us. Think abouthanging a painting or photo on the wall.How do you know if it’s straight or not?The blankness of the empty wall aroundthe painting provides no feedback. Toguide us, we look at the line where theceiling and wall join, or the level of thefloor, and determine the level of the art.I’ll admit some folks actually use a level-ing gizmo to help, but for the rest of us,it’s the old comparison system. We stepback, eyeball the painting, compare thetop edge to the ceiling and adjust.

It’s the same concept in drawing. It’seasier to make a relative judgment aboutsomething than an absolute judgment.It’s easier to say a work of art is level

Compare by Measuring

compared to the ceiling than by justlooking at it. It’s easier to describe some-thing’s exact color, say red, as comparedto a red shirt that someone is wearingthan to describe a shade of red without astarting reference.

A Baseline for the FaceThe eye is a good choice. Its width is usually clearly seen, can bemeasured from inside corner to outside corner, and is small enough tobe used to measure the different parts of the face.

As I focus in on smaller details, I can choose another baseline todelineate more information on the drawing. For example, the width ofthe iris (the colored part of the eye) may be compared to the width ofthe entire eye.

Ethan StuartGraphite on bristol board17" x 14" (43cm x 36cm)

The space betweenthe child’s eyes isabout one eye width.

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I discovered this tool coming home on along plane trip. A young boy, about tenyears old, sat next to me, drawing pic-tures on a sketchpad. I asked him if hewanted a drawing lesson. He agreed, so Itook the magazine I had been readingand found a photo of a lady walking ona windy day. I placed my finger on herhead and asked the young man, “Whatshape is this?”

“Oval,” was his rather smart response.“Draw an oval,” I said, and he

sketched the oval. I placed my finger onthe edge of the lady’s neck and said,“What is this?”

“It’s a straight line,” he replied.“Is it straight to the bottom of the

page?”“No, it stops and goes in a different

direction.”“Where does it change direction?”“Across from the bottom of her chin.”I continued moving my finger around

the woman’s outline while the boy ver-bally identified the direction and lengthof each edge before drawing it. When wewere done, the creditable drawing wascompleted.

Several things happened in thisexchange. My finger on the photo helpedhim “keep his place” on the image, muchlike small children will place their fingeron the words of a story as they read. Sec-ondly, I was training his eye to see therelationship of shapes without drawinglines. When he told me the neck of thewoman started at a particular point onthe head and ended at the chin, he hadsuccessfully identified the length of theneck by using another part of the head.Additionally, he was forced to articulatethe drawing, which made him focus,concentrate and understand what washappening.

Ask Questions

Now, most artists don’t sit at theirsketchpads muttering, “Okay, now theline goes down and to the left and …”while they trace the image with their fin-ger. Their eye naturally finds the relation-ships and keeps its place, just as mostadults no longer use their finger and

move their lips when they read. For thosejust learning to draw, however, this tech-nique may help you draw better.

Articulate Out Loud What’s HappeningI started at the bottom of the stairway wall for no particular reason.This edge goes up and at an angle. It does not go off the paper; itstops and something else happens. Ask yourself what happened (theedge ended), what else is going on at this point (the ledge at the topof the steps begins) and in what direction does something occur (a hor-izontal edge begins). Does the new horizontal line go on forever? No, ittoo ends when it begins the edge of the third line, which now goesstraight down. This internal conversation causes you to really analyze,in terms of the formed shapes of the subject, what you are drawing.

1

2

3

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Psssssst!One tool that helps

artists more easily

identify negative space is the

viewfinder. A viewfinder is a

square piece of cardboard

with an open middle, or you

can make an adjustable one with two L-shaped pieces.

Viewfinders help you define edges and see relationships.

74

No, this is not a New Age reference to aplace with bad vibes. Negative space isthe area around and between the positiveshapes that you tend to devote most ofyour attention to when you draw. If I’mdrawing my hand, for example, the handis the positive shape and the spacesbetween my fingers and around my handare the negative spaces.

Negative space and positive spacework together to form the whole of theimage. I’ll admit that sounds like themost obvious thing in the world. I statedit because what it means is that if Iobserve and draw the negative space, thepositive shapes will be correct as a result.They don’t have a choice. Aha! Thatmeans by concentrating on the negativespace when I draw something complicat-ed, the positive will be correctly drawnand properly proportioned.

Be Aware of Negative Space

Think Negative, Not PositiveThe negative space around this elk doesmuch to define its form.

negative space

Negative space existsaround and between theparts of your subject.

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tool is after you’ve made your drawing.Once something is drawn using a refer-ence photo, inverting both the drawingand photo helps us see the corrections wemight need to make.

Whenever I teach my drawing classes, Iposition the students in a “U” shape andI stand in the middle of the “U.” Thismeans whenever I assist a student in herdrawing, I’m looking at it upside down.Students are initially convinced that I’m asupremely gifted artist because I canimmediately spot the problem in theirsketch, despite the view. What they don’trealize is that it’s often much easier to seesomething more accurately when it’sinverted, or upside down.

You’re thinking, sure, right, whateveryou say. It’s true, though: When some-thing is upside down, it looks weird (pro-found thought). If it looks weird, yourbrain can’t make assumptions, place pre-conceived patterns and otherwise shut outthe reality of what you are viewing. In asense, you are slowing down your brainand forcing yourself to focus on what is

Invert Your Drawing

really in front of your eyes, not what youmerely think is in front of your eyes.

If the inversion tool is so eye-opening,why not just use it from the beginningand make your line drawing upsidedown? The answer is because it is hard—very hard and frustrating. You can getpretty lost when trying to draw from anupside-down photo. Inverting somethingto draw it works better if you areattempting to copy a line drawing likethe one on this page as opposed to aphoto. However, the best time to use this

A Whole New ViewTurning a line drawing upside down like this will help you see your sub-ject as a bunch of shapes rather than the familiar image. Try recreatingthis line drawing upside down as shown here to see what I mean.

Reference Photo

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76

We have a cat named Big Fat Kitty. Shedoesn’t seem to mind the name, whichshe earned because she is, well, a big fatkitty. This is not a subjective judgment.Objectively, Big Fat Kitty, when com-pared to the other cats residing with us,is at least ten pounds heavier.

It’s not unusual for us to compare onething to another. We use many compari-son systems in art as well. Let me shareanother comparison technique that willhelp you draw better.

Compare by Tracing

Often your brain has trouble pullingone particular feature out of a complicat-ed background. Have you ever despairedover not being able to draw the lips cor-rectly on a portrait, or get the angle of abuilding’s roof just right? If for amoment you can look at the lips apartfrom the rest of the face, or study theroof apart from the remaining structuralelements, your task will be easier.

You’ve probably always been toldthat it was cheating to trace something.

Compare the Tracings

Look at the two tracings. Subtle differencesin shapes become very apparent when sim-plified into a line drawing and removedfrom the busy background.

Trace Over the Photo

Place a piece of tracing paper directly overthe photo and trace the troublesome shape.

Trace Over the Drawing

Cover the shape you’ve just traced withyour hand. No peeking! Place the samepiece of tracing paper over the pesky prob-lem area in your drawing. Trace it so thatthe two tracings will end up side by side.

Psssssst!Tracing paper is a

fantastic multi-

tasker. Not only can it help

you work out problematic

shapes, but if you place it

beneath your hand as you

draw, it will keep you from inadvertently smudging those

shapes in your finished drawing.

Tracing the shape, however, allows youto see that shape in its simplest expres-sion, separate from its busy surround-ings. To try this technique, you’ll need apiece of tracing paper, the original photoyou’re trying to draw and your some-what-completed drawing.

! $ %

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In chapter four you learned how to visu-ally flatten a three-dimensional image tomake it easier to draw on your two-dimensional paper. This technique ishelpful whether you’re sketching theoverall scene or focusing on one particu-lar part or shape.

Flatten the Three Dimensional

Visual Flattening for Easier DrawingWe can visually flatten three-dimensionalobjects in front of us to make them easier todraw. Even though a bottle before you may berounded, by closing one eye and extendingyour arm, you can do two things: Flatten thecurve of the top and bottom, and measure it.

• Seek the simplest expression of a shape in theform of straight or curved lines.

• Label or name the subject you are drawing interms of its shape, not what you know it to be.

• Break up your subject into parts and practicedrawing those parts before you tackle the entirething.

• Ask yourself questions about what it is that youare actually seeing so that you truly understandwhat you’re drawing.

• Measure a smaller shape in your drawing andcompare it to other larger shapes to help keepyour shapes in proportion.

• You can use any circular shape in your subject,similar to how you would use a line, to help youcorrectly place the other shapes.

• To better see the positive shapes of your subject, pay attention to the negative space around and between them.

• Turn a line drawing upside down to help you see shapes and spot problems more easily.

• When you can’t get a particular shape right,compare a tracing of that shape from the refer-ence photo to a tracing of your drawn attempt.

• Close one eye to flatten a three-dimensionalobject into two dimensions for measuring pur-poses and to check for angles and curves.

Cheat Sheet

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33238 I Chapter 6 10/21/05 4:29 PM Page 78

ShadingIsuspect that thus far in this book you have probably been more

impressed with the shading in the finished works than the fact that

they were drawn correctly. Shading is the icing on the cake; it’s what

brings your drawing to life. However, all the wonderful shading in the

world won’t help if the image is drawn inaccurately, assuming that your

goal is realism. That’s why shading comes after site and shape: It’s the fin-

ished step that catapults your art from a single-dimension line drawing to

a three-dimensional image. This chapter addresses and demonstrates how

this is accomplished.

The process of getting the site and shapes right tends to be a bit

mechanical, but may be accomplished fairly quickly with a few easy-to-

grasp tools and techniques. Shading, however, is what typically separates

the soon-to-be artist from the skilled pro. Why? Because shading takes

practice. It takes an even pressure on the pencil, a smooth touch and an

experienced eye. In chapter three we learned various pencilling, smudging

and erasing techniques, all of which are used to shade. In this chapter we’ll

put those skills to practice.


E

Shading With Pencil StrokesThis cougar was shaded with the pencilrather than smudged to create the differ-ent values. Whether you choose tosmudge, hatch, crosshatch or build layersof graphite, your shading becomes likeyour handwriting—your own unique styleand expression.

Dave’s CougarGraphite on bristol board17" x 14" (43cm x 36cm)

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hand and are used to separate my handfrom the rest of the paper. The reality ofmy hand is that it is not outlined: Thereisn’t a black mark that goes around theoutside of my hand.

What our eyes see in reality are notdistinct, sharp lines, but changes in value.The term value means the relative light-ness or darkness of an area. It’s the dif-ferent shades of gray that range from thewhite of your paper to the darkest darkyour pencil can make.

So, it is the changes in value, howeversubtle, that allow you to see where the

80

In chapter two we learned how the mindplaces everything into patterns of percep-tion, memorizes those patterns, then useswhat’s recorded in the mind rather thanthe reality of what’s in front of us. Per-ceptions are more powerful than facts.And truth be told, most of the lines youdraw are a perception, not a fact.

Say you are looking at a room paintedwhite. How do you know there are wallsand a ceiling? After all, they’re all white.You might respond by pointing out thatthey have angles you can see. Lookagain. Why do you know there are

Define With Values, Not Lines

angles? Are there lines drawn on thewalls and ceiling to tell you there areangles? What do you actually see?

To answer this question, first we needto understand what a line is. The mostcommon definition of a line is “the short-est distance between two points.” Butthat’s not an artist’s definition. A line,when used in a drawing, is a mark madeon the paper to represent an edge ofsomething—where one thing ends andsomething else begins. If I’m drawing myhand on a piece of paper, the lines I origi-nally make represent the edges of my

Reference Photo Line DrawingWe initially draw the edges of the subject, placing them in the correctsite and with the correct shapes.

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walls end and the ceiling begins in thewhite room. One of your goals in shad-ing is to make sure that you end up withvalue changes rather than lines definingyour subject. There are very few reallines in this world, but there are count-less value changes. Realistic drawingsshow value changes, not outlines.


Bad ShadingNow it comes time to shade. Those same lines, useful at first to indicate the edges of things, are not truly lines at all. But the emergingartist leaves them in place, and the drawing looks amateurish as a result.

Good ShadingAlthough both drawings are correctly drawn, this one is clearly drawnbetter. What’s the difference? The lines left in the first drawing, wherethere are no lines in reality, change the work from professional to strug-gling artist. A much more realistic drawing is created when you use val-ue changes rather than lines to define your subject. Don’t leave lines!

Psssssst!The closer in value two things are to each

other, the less you can separate them with a

line. In classic art training, you would practice your

shading on a bunch of stuff painted white. This exercise

forces you to practice subtle shading to define edges.

It also simplifies things because you’re not dealing

with color.

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Okay, so now you know that most of thelines in your drawing have to go in orderfor it to look realistic. How do you goabout doing this? There are several waysto get rid of lines that were originallyused to mark the edges in your drawing.

Absorb LinesThe background may be darkened so the linewill be absorbed.

Blend LinesThe line may be blended into the image where there’s a gradual value change.

Erase LinesThe line may be erased so only the valuechange remains.

How to Get Rid of Lines

gradual value changes

gradual value changes

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Combining Line Removal TechniquesMost drawings will require you to use a variety of techniques to eliminate lines: absorbing some, erasing others and blending someinto the shadows.

Pastor and Edna DayGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

erased erasedblended

blended

absorbed absorbed

Psssssst!In your drawings, examine areas that were

originally drawn as lines. When deciding

which lines will stay and which will go, look at each

line and ask yourself if it really appears as a line in

the reference photo or live reference, or if it is a

value change.

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Psssssst!Although not technical-

ly the same as the

classic “squint,” another tool for

seeing value changes is a piece

of red acetate. Colors have a way

of interfering with our ability to

distinguish values. Hold the

acetate in front of your face or

place it over the reference photo

and it renders your subject into

only values, removing the distrac-

tion of color.

84

The answer to the age-old question“How do you eat an elephant?” is this:One bite at a time. How do you shade acomplicated subject? One little part at atime. Isolate the individual parts of yourdrawing and see them as shapes with dif-ferent values.

In spite of the parental admonitionthat squinting may cause your face toremain in that pose, squinting in art is arather useful tool. When you squint,edges blur and you are left with lightsand darks. Artists know this and oftensquint at the subjects they are drawing tomore clearly see value changes.

Although I’m encouraging you to iso-late specific areas and concentrate on thevalue changes, you’ll need to be sure youlook at the entire drawing and adjustaccordingly. Make it a habit to shade asingle area, walk away, then return andcheck that the value is correct to theoverall image.

Isolate and Squint to See Values

Squint to See Values EasierSquinting at these shells encourages our eyes to focus on seeing values, not details.

Break Down the ComplexIt turns out that there wasn’t just one lesson in that jar back on page 52. That image has a verycomplicated series of shadows and lights, so the drawing was broken up into smaller sections.The different parts, such as the section shown here, were isolated and viewed as shapes:square light shapes, rectangular midtones and rounded darks. The shades (values) are nothingmore than shapes. Don’t try to analyze why something is round or square, dark or light. Justduplicate what you see.

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It is always easier to make relative judg-ments rather than absolute judgmentswhen it comes to art. Something is “toobig” or “too small,” “too light” or “toodark,” in reference to something else.

A value scale is an invaluable aid forcomparing values as you shade. You canbuy a value scale or easily make oneyourself with a piece of bristol board anda pencil. A value scale contains ten blocksof values ranging from black to white,with tones of gray in between. A hole isusually punched in each block. Place thescale over the different areas of the refer-ence photo you are using to determine thecorrect amount of shading needed toduplicate what you are drawing.

Compare Values and Avoid the Guessing Game

Don’t Guess at What You Can’t SeeOne very important question to askyourself when drawing is: Why do I seethat? Force yourself to answer. You actu-ally see something because there is a val-ue change. Something is either lighter ordarker than something else. When youask this question, you are forcing your-self to analyze rather than guess at thevalues.

This question becomes especiallyimportant when you can’t see everythingin the reference photo, such as whendetails are lost in the dark areas. Manyartists think they need to fill in the miss-ing details. Guesswork like this can leadto drawing disaster. If you don’t see it,

don’t guess. Don’t try to figure out what’shappening in that mysterious dark area,because you’ll be running it through yourperceptions of reality instead of seeing itfor what it is.


Value ScaleThis is a handy tool for working out the valueproblems in a drawing.

Guessing at RealityThis is what commonly happens when anartist tries to fill in the blanks of what theycan’t see in a reference photo. Scary!

Leave a Little MysterySo what if we can’t see every single detail of the dog’s face? The draw-ing is better for it.

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I have come across many competent artstudents who are able to render beauti-fully drawn art, but their drawings aren’tparticularly interesting. It’s because theylack contrast. Usually the drawings arevery light in appearance with no truedarks. An interesting drawing rangesthrough the full value scale, from whiteto black, with tones in between.

Let’s take the following washed-outdrawing from so-so to spectacular byheightening the contrast and adjusting itsvalues.

A Drawing With No DrawThis is a nice but boring drawing. The values were created with a very timid hand. The shapesare dead-on and everything’s well proportioned, but will the viewer even notice?

Revisit Your Reference

The drawing needs more contrast, but where do we begin? Go back to the photo and finda place on the subject that’s dark—really dark. The dog’s nostrils and lips look like thebest bet.

darkest darks

Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

Punch Up the Contrast

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Get Dark

Now take a 6B pencil and begin darkening those spots on your drawing. Push hard. Harder. There, now you can take a deep breath. That was the hardest part.

Adjust the Other Values

In order to fix this drawing, you now have to adjust the remaining values so the darkestvalue you just created no longer awkwardly jumps out of your drawing. Start small withthe hair at the tip of the nose and the tongue.

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Psssssst!If your drawing looks

pale, place a single

black mark on the paper. This

forces you to adjust the values,

making the rest of the drawing

darker and therefore more

interesting.

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Keep Going

Progress to the dog’s eye and the corner ofhis mouth, adjusting values as you go.Notice the variety of techniques used: closepencil strokes for darker areas on the furand spaced-out strokes for the lighter areas;smudging for midtones; and erasing (or lift-ing graphite) for highlights on the nose, eyeand tongue. Using an eraser to lift verysmall groupings of hair strands not onlyadds depth to the values of the drawingbut also creates the realistic texture of fur.

And Going …

Work your way back to the dog’s ear. Just remember not to darken everything—the darkvalues will only be effective if they appear next to lighter ones.

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… There! Much Better

The reworked drawing has much more depth, realism and interestthan the original. Well-executed values and enough contrast canmake all the difference between a ho-hum drawing and an eye-catching work of art.

Ir ish WolfhoundGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

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Regardless of your choice of shadingtechnique, you need to learn how to spotthe different characteristics of light andshadow on your subject and recognizethe potential challenges of recreatingthem on your paper. The effects of thelight source are different depending onwhether your subject is round or angular.

Working in the RoundI received a call a number of years agofrom a friend in Long Island about anupcoming portrait drawing class. In athick New York accent, he informed methat he was going to start the class byhaving everyone “drarl a bull.”

This was a new one for me, so I askedwhy he would want to teach a class to“drarl a bull.” He replied, “Because theface is based on a bull.” Now, I wasraised on a ranch, and I know a bitabout bulls and cows in general. I hadnever observed the similarity between ahuman face and a bull. I thought thatmaybe the breed of bull made a differ-ence—I mean, an Angus looks differentfrom a Scottish Highlander bull—so Ipolitely asked about the breed. Therewas an astonished silence; then in a quietvoice, he said, “A bull, a round bull.What was I supposed to call it, asphere?”

So, let’s talk about bulls—I meanballs. Round stuff. Most drawing classesrequire you to shade a ball and oftenother round things like cylinders andcones. Why this obsession with round?Because there’s a pattern of darks andlights that occurs on something roundand because it is affected by a lightsource. If you can shade using this pat-tern, you will create the appearance ofsomething round and capture the three-dimensional feel of the subject.

Seek to Understand the Effects of Light

Round objects have a predictable pattern of lightest light, dark, reflect-ed light and cast shadow that helps to define their shape.

Angular subjects like this cube will show more abrupt value changesthan what you see on rounded objects.

lightest light

dark

reflected light

cast shadow

Psssssst!Objects lit by natural light will have a

predictable shadow because light rays

travel in parallel lines, whereas artificial light may

come from more than one source and cause more

than one shadow.

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The pattern of lightest light, dark,reflected light and cast shadow may beplaced on any subject and it will createthe appearance of roundness. Now, Irealize I just said, “If you don’t see it,don’t draw it.” This is the exception thatproves the rule … or something like that.

Angular SubjectsUnlike round objects that shade gradual-ly from the highlighted area throughmidtone grays into the dark shadows,angular subjects have abrupt edges andrelatively little value changes within theflat surface. There may be reflected light

Developing the patterns of light and shadow on any subject will helprealistically define its form.

on an angular surface—for example, aflowerpot sitting on a porch may cast aglow onto the wall behind it—so wewant to be on the lookout for interestingplays of lights and darks. The techniqueof squinting will serve you well whenobserving more angular surfaces.

lightest light

dark

reflected light

cast shadow

cast shadow

lightest light

dark

reflected light

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You’ve spent quality time with your pen-cils, established a working relationshipwith your eraser and finally (FINALLY)completed your drawing. Congratula-tions! Now, there is still a chance, albeitremote, that your art might not lookquite right. Let’s talk about checking foraccuracy.

In the beginning of the book, I intro-duced the concept of patterns of percep-tion. The mind organizes the items wewant to draw into patterns, memorizesthose patterns and trots them out whenwe draw. It is these often limited percep-tions that keep us from drawing well.

We need to learn a few techniques tobreak up these patterns and refresh ourminds. This will make it easier to deter-mine what is incorrect in our drawings.Most of these techniques have beenaround for awhile, and many artists usethem without thinking about it toomuch. To make your drawings better,routinely add some of the following tech-niques to your drawing process.

Invert for a New PerspectiveInversion, as we learned earlier, means toturn something upside down. At somepoint in the drawing process, turn yourartwork upside down to gain a new per-spective on it. If you are working from areference photo, invert it as well andplace it beside your drawing. You mayspot errors or problems more clearly.

Get Some DistanceChances are you’ve hovered over yourdrawing from a fixed distance as you’veworked on it. Now you need to changethe distance. Get up and view yourdrawing from further away. Post it on awall. Changing the distance will make

Check for Accuracy

the value problems more pronouncedand will give you better insight into anypotential problems.

Take a BreakShortly after you began your drawing,your mind processed it and committed itto memory. You need a break from yourart and the image you are drawing. Goget a cup of tea, check the weather or callyour mom. Physically get away fromyour work, then return and study it. Youwill have a small window of time to seethe errors before your mind reprocessesthe work. Have a pad of paper with youand immediately record the errors. Oth-erwise, you’ll forget.

Use Your New ToolsIn this book I’ve described a variety oftools to help you draw well. These toolscan help you see your artwork better.Take a ruler to your drawing and makesure things are where they should be.Look at your drawing through a piece ofred acetate to check your values (or justsquint). Put your tools to good use, andthey will serve you well.

Shift Into ReverseHold your drawing up to a mirror andlook at the image in reverse. Like inver-sion, this time-tested technique changesthe look of the art and may help youspot (and fix) previously unseen prob-lems.

Ask Friends and FamilyAssuming you have members of yourfamily or friends that will be helpfulwithout reducing you to shark chum,you might want to ask them what theythink of your drawing. They may not be

artists themselves, but they are yourviewers, and they can give you a differentperspective you might want to consider.They may wonder what the black blobat the bottom of the sketch represents—the blob that you thought was an artsytouch.

Once I asked my mom about a por-trait I had completed. I thought it wasreally creative. She wanted to know whyI made the nose blue. That’s all she saw:that blue nose. As my purpose was notto create an artistic statement on bluenoses, I decided to change the piece.

Approach Other ArtistsFellow artists can help critique yourdrawings, too. Some artists and buddingartists are members of art groups, butnot every art group critiques each other’swork. If you’re not a member of a groupthat reviews each other’s art, try visitinga teacher at the local art center or askinga friendly artist-type neighbor for aninformal critique.

Try a CombinationThe best way to check your art for accu-racy is with a combination of several ofthese techniques. I walk away from mywork, wait a bit, come back, make notes,ask my husband and look at it upsidedown. Find a set of techniques comfort-able for you and try it.


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Make Accuracy Checks a Part of Your RoutineThis composite sketch was completed by astudent from one of my drawing courses.Even though a facial composite drawing is animage made from putting together the fea-tures of different faces, each element must bechecked for accuracy against the features inthe individual reference photos selected bythe witness. Sheila is an outstanding artist,partly because she is always on the lookoutfor possible errors occurring within the draw-ing. For artists like Sheila, accuracy-checkingtools such as reassessing a drawing after tak-ing a break from it, or viewing it from a dis-tance, are a matter of course.

Pretty BoySergeant Sheila Tajima-Shadle, FremontPolice Department, CaliforniaGraphite on bristol board10" x 8" (25cm x 20cm)

Cheat Sheet• The lines in a line drawing are meant to represent the edges of things. Leaving these outlines

in your finished drawing will make it look amateurish and unrealistic.

• Use changes in value—that is, the lights and darks—to ultimately define your subject, not lines.

• You can get rid of lines by absorbing them into a darker background, erasing them and leav-ing only a value change, or blending them into a value change.

• Simplify complex subjects by isolating parts of the drawing and seeing them as shapes withdifferent values.

• Squint at your subject to see the value changes more clearly.

• Use a value scale to help you build a range of values in your drawing.

• Draw what you see; don’t guess. Leave an area undetailed if that’s how a part of your refer-ence photo looks.

• If your drawing looks boring, add more darks and adjust the values accordingly for more contrast.

• Pay attention to how the light source affects round and angular subjects.

• Your drawings will be better if you use a number of accuracy-checking techniques.

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Psssssst!Before you can begin

to shade your draw-

ing, erase all the guidelines,

marks, aids and notes that you

used to get the image right. I

know, it sounds like a reminder

of the obvious, but it’s easy to

forget and almost impossible to

remove them once the shading

process has begun.

96

This fellow was lying in the dappled shadealong the path at the top of Logan Pass atGlacier National Park in Montana. We willuse a number of different pencilling, blend-ing and erasing techniques to not onlyaccurately draw the goat, but also to render the light effects on its body.

Reference Photo

Make a Line Drawing

Make a line drawing from the photo, or copy this one. This drawing was renderedextremely light and may be hard to see. You’ll want to keep your drawing as light as pos-sible at first. Erase any guidelines that you use.

Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

Rendering Hair on a Mountain Goat

!

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Add Some Midtones

There’s no rule that says a particular areaof your subject needs to be drawn first. Justselect a midtone and jump right in. There isa secret, though, to drawing fur: “Comb”the fur with your pencil. That is, your pencilstrokes should go in the same direction asthe fur or hair.

Add Darks

Pencil in those darks so the range of valuesis in front of you. A 6B pencil is a goodchoice for this. Don’t be shy—rememberwhen we looked at drawings that weren’tinteresting because the value range wasn’tpresent?

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Adjust Values and Continue to Darken

Now that the darks are in place, we canadjust and reshade to correct the values.

Blend

With a paper stump, blend your strokestogether to create the shadows. This willlighten the drawing and you’ll lose some ofthe fur-like look. Don’t worry, though; we’llcome back and fix it.

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Comb the Fur Again

Take an HB or 2B (very sharp) pencil andrecomb the fur to provide the correct tex-ture and reestablish the direction of thehair. Darken the areas that got lighter whenyou smudged.

Erase

Erase the dappled sunlight back out. If youare using an electric eraser, place it on asomewhat rough surface, turn it on andcreate a point in your eraser. Use it like apencil and comb white hairs in the fur.You’ll lose the point as you go on, so you’llneed to repoint the tip as you erase. Ifyou’re using a white plastic eraser, simplytake a craft knife and whittle a sharp edgeto do this.

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Adjust

The eraser is not hair-fine, so go back to those erased “fat” hairsand use your pencil to thin the hairs and break up the whites.Soften the highlights and adjust the values yet again. Ground thegoat using a soft graphite pencil in short strokes to add grass.

Glacier Mountain GoatGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

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This is an 1864 light calvary saber withseveral unique drawing challenges. Theman-made shapes need to be renderedwith some type of mechanical assistanceif the finished drawing is to be realistic.That’s not to say it can’t be drawn free-hand and kept more sketchy, but if youchoose to make it as real as possible,French curves and rulers are recommend-ed. The different metallic surfaces, someshiny and some matte finished, are also achallenge and require different pencilstrokes.

Drawing a Detailed Sword Handle

Reference Photo

Make a Line Drawing

The sword was drawn freehand and the guidelines erased. Copy this drawing. Rememberto not push too hard if you’re using a harder lead, as those lines will score or gouge yourpaper. Some of the areas that will later be shaded are outlined or marked.

Step-By-Step D

emonstratio

n

!

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Mechanically Clean Up the Drawing

We learned earlier in the book about theuse of mechanical aids. This is a drawing ofa mechanical, manmade object, so the useof French curves renders a more precisedrawing. Go back over the initial handleand make it more mechanically perfect. Usean HB pencil to darken the links.

Establish the Range of Values

In this first shading, establish the darkest areas, some midtones and the lights. This pro-vides the full range of tones that will be present in the finished drawing. The darkness inthe handle should be shaded away from the highlights and to the outlined edge. Darkenthe details of the chain-like shapes.

DetailThe French curve allows for greater controland smoother lines when you’re drawing thecurved handle.

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Adjust Values and Eliminate Outlines

Using the pencil only—no smudging at this point—adjust the tones of gray (the values)over the entire sword. The goal at this point is to eliminate the lines originally used tosketch the outline of the sword by absorbing them into the various values.

DetailNotice that the pencil strokes are smooth, even in tone and very close together.

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Blend

Using a paper stump, blend the strokes together and smudge the highlights.

DetailNow the handle begins to look truly realistic.

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Erase Highlights

Using an electric eraser, restore the highlights to white. Use akneaded rubber eraser to add texture by pushing it straight down,then lifting straight up.

SwordGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

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Our dear friends Dave and AndreaKramer have their own personal lakecomplete with a picturesque corner ofwater lillies. I’ve painted them manytimes in watercolor, but never drawnthem in pencil. There were several chal-lenges in this subject, including thenumerous values of gray and renderingthe petals so they appear to be underwa-ter. I started the drawing without firstcreating a black and white version. Thatwas a bad idea. I originally shaded basedon color changes, not value changes.

Reference Photo

Make a Line Drawing

Make a line drawing based on the photo. If you use guidelines or a complete grid, erase them completely before moving on tothe shading.

Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

Building the Values of a Water Lily

!

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Place a Midtone

Find a middle value in the photo andshade that area of your drawing. Check itby using a value scale.

Establish a Range

Now find a good dark area and a goodlight area and establish the range of valuesthat will appear in your drawing. The varia-tions in values may be rather subtle insome places as you develop the rest of thedrawing, so check to see that everythingisn’t ending up looking the same. Keepreturning to areas and adding the darks soyour eye always has a range of darks infront of it.

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Think Shapes, Not Stuff

Earlier in the book we talked about howthe mind can form a filter and prevent usfrom drawing well. At this stage in thedrawing when you’re developing the shad-ing, it’s important not to fall into thinking,“Ah, that’s a petal! And that’s a leaf!”Instead, think, “That’s a square of mid-grayunder that white thing, with a black line onthe one edge.” I even put my finger on thespot so I don’t lose my place. If it is drawncorrectly, the shading will resolve itself.

DetailsI originally left a white area between two shaded areas. When I blended the two midtone values on either side, I just ran the blending tool over the white and it formed the proper valuewith just the graphite on the blending tool.

DetailEvery time you addgraphite, you makesomething darker anda bit rougher. If youblend after addingthe pencil, yousmooth and lighten.You may go back andforth between shad-ing with your penciland blending withyour paper stumpmany times.

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Work Over the Whole

As you continue to shade and adjust andthe flower starts to emerge, look more atthe overall picture and less at the little puz-zle pieces.

Place Big Darks Carefully

I usually don’t put in a really big dark untilI’m well into the drawing, because I mightsmudge it on the rest of the work. Proceedwith caution!

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Keep Going

Keep building values all over the drawing.Do the leaf shading by using the randombuilt-up graphite on the paper stump anddrawing it across the leaf in the directionthe shading is indicated.

Take some breaks and check your workafter the break. It may look fine when youleave, but you may notice it needs adjust-ment when you return.

Darken, Adjust and Clarify

See? The drawing needed to be darkenedsome more and the shading smoothedagain. The leaf on the left of the flower isfurther defined with values. Use a sharp-ened electric eraser to clean up the sliversof white highlight on the flower.

Detail

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Dave and Andrea’s Pond (Water Lily) Graphite on bristol board 14" x 17" (36xcm x 43cm)

111


Psssssst!This isn’t a book on design, but design is

part of art. Design and composition are

often used interchangeably. It refers to the way the

objects on the work of art are handled: Line, color,

space, texture, value and a host of other factors join

together to add to the design of a work of art. In a

book as basic as this, our goal is to make the drawing

look interesting and deliberate, not like an accident.

Here are a few suggestions to help you:

• Try to keep your drawing from having a single

object in the center (the bull’s-eye look).

• Think about connecting your drawing to the

edges of the paper, but don’t look like you ran

out of paper.

• Divide the objects or elements of your subject

into groupings that provide variety.

• Pay attention to what you see first when you

look at the drawing. Do your eyes bounce back

and forth between two equal (and therefore

competing) objects, or do they flow from one

object to the next?

• When in doubt, cut the paper to better frame

the drawing.

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We’ve talked about becoming a shutter-bug and taking pictures of everythingaround you for possible artwork. Thisskull was part of the decorations in therustic lodge at Busterback Ranch in theStanley Basin in Idaho. This photographwas taken more than fifteen years ago.Subtle as well as dramatic shading willbe required to render it in pencil.

Reference Photo

Make a Line Drawing and Begin Light Shading

Make a line drawing from the photo and compare it to the line drawing shown. Don’t for-get to erase any guidelines you use. This particular subject has many complex areas oflights, midtones and darks. Rather than sketch the edges or outlines of where the differentvalues come together, we look at these areas as shapes and lightly shade them in. Other-wise we’d have to mark them or somehow note to ourselves, “Ah, this little area shapedlike Florida is a midtone.”

Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

!

Capturing the Values in a Skull

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Establish Some Darks

Find a dark area and really darken it with your pencil so the full range of darkest darks tolightest lights is now in front of you. With a 2B to 6B pencil, go over the entire sketch andreassess the values, adjusting them so the range of lights to darks more closely matchesthe photo.

Detail

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Blend

Using the side of your paper stump, blend the pencil strokes together for a smoothappearance. This will lighten the dark areas of the drawing somewhat as you are liftingthe graphite, but don’t worry about it; we’ll go back and re-adjust later. Work your stumpevenly over the areas that will be considered white in the finished drawing, adding a lighttone to these areas.

Detail

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Erase Out Your Whites

Go back to the areas that were originally white and blended to a light value in step three.With a sharpened electric eraser, or a white plastic eraser with a sharp edge, erase out thewhite areas.

DetailAn electric eraser is incredibly useful for erasing out the most intricatewhites, which will result in true-to-life texture.

DetailThe whites were established around the eye sockets, among otherareas.

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Re-Darken

Using a 6B pencil, go back to the areas that were originally your darkest darks and re-darken them, emphasizing the lighter areas. This is where you can fuss your little heartout over the itty-bitty details.

Detail Detail

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Finish

The lines that originally went around the skull have now beeneliminated by the shadow or erased. A few more areas were erasedand texture placed by lifting those areas with a kneaded eraser.

Skull—Stanley Basin, IdahoGraphite on bristol board14" x 17" (36cm x 43cm)

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lifted withkneaded eraser

lifted with electric eraser

streaked withkneaded eraser

blunt 6B pencil

line eliminatedwith shadow

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118

This drawing is from a photo we took ofone of the Greek sculptures at theParthenon. I did the initial shading, thenturned it over to Rick to fine-tune it. Heworked on just one side, the right, so thedifference would be abundantly clear.This demonstration shows just how real-istic you can make your drawings if youtake the time to refine the details.

In the Beginning …

This was the original drawing I gave to Rick. I thought it looked pretty good. Watch Rickwork his magic with the pencil, stump and eraser to make it even better.

Step

-By-

Step

Dem

ons

trat

ion

Fine-Tuning the Shading on a Greek Torso

!

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Darken With Pencil

The first thing Rick did was to go over the right half of the drawing with a pencil, darken-ing my shadows but keeping the textures in place.

Psssssst!It doesn’t matter what technique you choose

to use for shading. The technique, whether it’s

hatching, crosshatching, smudging or a combination, is a

matter of personal taste, skill and the statement you

want to make with your drawing.

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Blend

He now blends his strokes together,smoothing out some areas where the stoneis smooth and using short, random strokesto create the rougher parts of the stone.

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Detail

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Back to the Pencil

The blending step will take some of the more linear texture out ofthe drawing, so the pencil is again used to reestablish the cracksand smaller roughened areas.

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Lift Texture

Using a kneaded rubber eraser, some ofthe uniform dark areas are lifted. This cre-ates the naturally uneven look of stone.

Erase

Fine white areas are erased with the electriceraser, which has been sharpened to apoint. If you lift too large an area, you cancome back in with a pencil. Remember, youalso learned how to create a template ifyou need to make a very fine line.

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Finished Drawing (Well, Almost Finished)Wow! What a difference the fine-tuning makes when you compare the improved right side tothe original left. There’s no limit to how realistic you can make your drawings if you have theright tools, practice, and, of course, a little time.

123


Psssssst!Never let your brain con-

vince you that you’re not

learning anything. Instead, outsmart

your control panel by tracking your

progress. You can do this simply by

choosing a single image to draw at

various points in the learning

process. Be sure to pick something

you like since you’ll be drawing it

over and over again! Once you’ve

settled on an image, sit down and

begin your first drawing. Don’t tear

it up whatever you do, even if it’s

awful. Just hide it somewhere and

save it for later. When you come

back to it two dozen drawings and

several months later, you’ll notice

the marked improvement and quiet

your fears.

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125

Through the years, I’ve taken great delight in seeing the doubts of my studentsfade as they realize just how learnable drawing can be. I want to share a notewith you from Greg Bean, one of my students and a contributing artist fea-

tured in this book:

“Carrie caught my attention when she stood up at the beginning of that first

class and said, ‘I am not here to teach you to draw, I’m here to teach you

to see.’ That seemed like a crazy thing to say to a room full of experienced

detectives and police officers, but nothing could have been more true, or in

my case, more profound. I was 39 years old, with more than fifteen years

experience in law enforcement. Yet after that first week in class, I felt like I

had been issued a brand-new pair of eyes—a much better pair. It literally

added an entire new dimension to my life. I find beauty in almost every face

I see, and in all sorts of other unexpected places. What an incredible gift!

Learning to draw takes some work, but it is infinitely worth the trouble! I

can’t even explain how much I love to draw.”

Whether you choose to draw just for your own enjoyment or to share and sellyour work, rest assured—you can draw. Learning to draw can also mark the start ofyour artistic journey. Drawing skills open the door to a variety of different applica-tions: oils, watercolors, pastel pencils and so on. Push on, my friend, toward yourartistic goal. Remember what the great philosopher Lao-tzu wrote: “The journey of athousand miles begins with a single step.”

Almost Too Real for RealityA slide of this drawing was sent to an artshow and rejected due to “bad photogra-phy.” What the show organizers didn’t realizeis that the taped edges and tag are actuallypart of the drawing! Now that’s realism.

The Illusion of a Yard SalePhotographMatt TuckerGraphite on 300-lb. (640gsm) cold-pressedillustration board24" x 18" (61cm x 46cm)

CO N C L U S I O N


126

AAccuracy checks, 92-93Angular subjects

effects of light on, 90-91measurement exercise, 56-59

BBaby carriage, 55Baseline, establishing, 53-61Blending

lines, 81-82pencil strokes, 45, 114 tools, 18

Buffalo, 28Building up layers, 42

CCast shadow, 90-91Cat, 30, 33, 62, 68-69Circle

as reference point, 70template, 18-19

Cockatoo, 64Composite drawing, 25, 93Composition, 111Contour drawing, 40-41Contrast, 86-89Copyrighted images, 22Cougar, 78Craft knife, 48Crosshatching, 42-43Curved subjects, measuring, 55Curves. See French curves

DDesign, 111Distance, changing, 92Dogs, 10, 32, 63, 66, 86-89Drawing

components of realistic, 35composite, 25, 93contour, 40-41inverting, 75landscape, 49line, 96, 101

IN D E X

plein-air, 26Drawing board, 21Drawing table, 21Dusting brush, 17

EEbony pencil, 15Electric eraser, 17, 99, 105, 115, 117,

122Elk, 60-61, 74Enlarging, 54 Erasers, 16-17Erasing lines, 82-83Erasing shields, 18-19, 47Erasing techniques, 47Eyes

cat, 69human, 71, 72

FFace, 8, 34-38

baseline for, 72composite sketch, 93measuring curve of, 55width of, 53

Filter, perception, 32-33Flattening, 60-61, 77Flowers

apple blossoms, 9fuchsia, 20light and shadow on, 91water lily, 106-111

French curves, 18-19, 102

GGreek columns, 56-59Greek torso, shading on, 118-123Grid system, 51, 62Gummed eraser, 17

HHair

dog (Irish wolfhound), 86-89mountain goat, 96-100

Hard ("H") pencil, 14-15

Hatching, 42-43Highlights

erasing, 105lifting out, 47

Hillside, 27Horse, 46

IInversion, 75, 92

JJar of rocks, 52

KKneaded rubber eraser, 16, 47, 117, 122

LLandscape drawing, 49Layers

building up, 42smudging in, 45

Lead holders, 15Life, drawing from, 26-27Light, effects of, 90-91Line drawing, 96, 101Lines

absorbing, 81-82blending, 81-82as edges, 80erasing, 81-82lifting, 117reference, 56-58straight, 56

MMeasuring, 53-59

angles, 56-59compare by, 72curved subjects, 55with photos, 54

Mechanical pencil, 15Midtone, 107Mountain, 50Mountain goat, 96-100




127

NNegative space, 74No. 2 pencils, 14

OOptical indexing, 62-63

PPaper, 20Paper stump, 18-19, 44-46, 98, 104Patterns

of light and shadow, 91memorized, 31-33

Pencil sharpener, 15Pencilling techniques, 42-43Pencils, 14-15Perception, 32-33Perspective, inversion for, 92Photograph. See Reference photosPink rubber eraser, 16Plein-air drawing, 26Portrait, 8, 34-38Proportion, 53-54

QQuestions, asking, 73

RRed acetate, 84Reference line, 56-58Reference photos

combining, 24-25drawing from, 22editing images from, 23enlarging with, 54on location, 26seeing patterns in, 67

Reflected light, 90-91Reverse image, 92Round objects, effects of light on, 90-91Ruler, 18-19

as baseline, 53establishing proportions with, 54

SScribbling, 45Shading, 79-93

fine-tuning, 118-123values and, 80-81 See also Smudging

Shadowlight and, 90-91lines eliminated with, 117Shapes, 65-77

cutting template, 48isolating, 68-69memorizing, 30objects as, 67relationship between, 70-71simplifying, 66straight and curved, 30tracing, 76

Shoe, 40-41Site, 51-63

flattening, 60-61jar lesson, 52measuring, 53-59optical indexing, 62-63

Sketch, plein-air, 26Skull, 112-117Smudging, 44-47Soft ("B") pencil, 14-15Spray fixative, 17Squinting, 84Stairway, 73Supplies

protecting, 21See also specific supplies

Surface, 20Sword handle, 11, 101-105

TTeakettle, copper, 40-41Templates, 48Texture, of surface, 20Three-dimensional image, 60-61, 77Tortillion, 18, 44Tracing, compare by, 76Tracing paper, 20, 76

VValue scale, 85Values

building, 106-111changes in, 84-85comparing, 85defining with, 80-81establishing range of, 107squinting to see, 84

Viewfinder, 74Visual flattening, 77

WWhite plastic eraser, 17White on white, 98Whites, erasing out, 115



Drawing Realistic Pets From Photographsby Lee Hammond ISBN 1-58180-640-X, PAPERBACK, 128 PAGES, #33226

Everyone has photographs of their favorite pets,and now you can use bestselling author Lee Ham-mond’s mastery of the subject to capture them asart. Learn all the basics of drawing your pet accu-rately from a photograph using the step-by-stepdirections, break down of animal features andideas for backgrounds that will really bring yourdrawings to life.

These books and other fine North Light titles are available at your local fine art retaileror bookstore or from online suppliers.

Learn to draw and paint like the pros

with these other fine North Light Books!

Drawing People by Barbara Bradley ISBN 1-58180-359-1, HARDCOVER, 176 PAGES, #32327

Are you looking for a complete course in drawingthe clothed figure? Learn the tricks behind thefolds and draperies of clothing and the proportion,perspective and values you need to portray themaccurately. With approximately 700 black and whiteillustrations, this book can teach you everythingyou need to know.

Painting with Brenda Harris, Volume 2:Precious Times by Brenda Harris ISBN 1-58180-698-1, PAPERBACK, 112 PAGES, #33357

Follow popular PBS instructor Brenda Harristhrough thirteen easy-to-follow paintings in acrylic!With patterns supplied for each project and Bren-da’s warm encouragement, you will complete abeautiful painting in just a few hours.

Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces byCarrie Stuart ParksISBN 1-58180-216-1, PAPERBACK, 144 PAGES, #31995

Learn how to realistically depict the faces of yourfriends and family! Award winning forensic artistand teacher Carrie Stuart Parks teaches you how tomaster proportions, map facial features, drawshapes and bring values to life. Follow her clearstep-by-step instruction to more convincing faces.

No Experience Required: Drawing andPainting Animals by Cathy Johnson ISBN 1-58180-607-8, PAPERBACK, 112 PAGES, #33165

The six demonstrations and many exercises in thisbook will have you seeing immediate improvementin your work. Covering many popular mediumsincluding watercolor, pencil and pen and ink, aswell as all your favorite animals, this book hassomething for everyone looking to fine-tune theiranimal drawings. Try it today!


Secrets to realistic drawing

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