Many times I am asked how I draw, and what materials I use. The “How do I draw” question is often the most difficult for me to answer. While I do possess a natural talent for drawing what I see, anyone who has the passion and wishes to learn the skill CAN! Like any skill, drawing involves lots of practice that will eventually yield the results that you’re looking for. In this day and age most people want instant results and gratification. I wish it were as simple with drawing, or starting your own endeavor to quit your day job, but it isn’t easy. It takes hard work, dedication, long hours, passion and self motivation. However, if you’re passionate about something you’ll find it less like work, or a chore that has to be done, and more like a sense of fulfillment doing what you love to do. I’m sure I could go on and on with this topic, but that’s not what you’re here for. You wish to learn how to draw so let’s get on with the finer details!
The first step is know what materials to use. Over time you will discover what works best for you as you discover your own technique. My personal favorite drawing papers are those made by Strathmore. They come in a variety of sizes, textures, brightness, and weights. For my professional works I currently use the Strathmore 400 series and use Bristol board vellum finishes mostly. The Vellum finish has more ‘tooth’ or texture and I get the widest range of gradients and textures with the pencils I use. Make sure the paper is acid free. For general practice and sketches I use their sketch books in 300 series.
My favorite drawing pencils to use vary between mechanical, and the wide range of hard and soft leads that are available. My brands of choice are Derwent, Staedtler, Faber-Castell, and Kimberly (made by General Pencil Company). My main pencil grade ranges are HB, 2B, 4B and 6B. Sometimes I will use the lighter or harder lead pencils like the Hs and Fs for light sketch and line work. I rarely shade with these harder leads as it is more of a challenge (for me anyway) to get a smooth gradient from dark to light.
Other necessities are erasers, pencil sharpener, a dusting brush and a smooth clean drawing surface as your work station with plenty of light. These are highly up to your personal preference, of course. I would caution against using electric pencil sharpeners to sharpen your drawing pencils as they tend to eat up more lead than a handheld pencil sharpener. I prefer pencil sharpeners that do not have a built in shaving canister and like the feel of the metal sharpeners. I use two kinds of erasers, a rubber eraser to erase mistakes or extra lines not needed, and a kneaded eraser for picking out highlights or lightening darker shades.
I typically use photo references for my drawings as I can get the most accurate details this way. I work from photos that are free stock, or from my own personal stock. Use caution and your own judgement when working from the photography of others. For practice work it’s not such a huge deal as long as the finished drawing remains in your personal collection. Learn from them, but under no circumstances should you sell or claim as your own design a finished drawing without the expressed written permission from the original photographer themselves. An absolutely fabulous place to get free stock photography to work from is www.deviantart.com. There is a huge community of free stock photographers who offer much of their photos for artists to use. Just follow their rules and you’re good to go!
Once you have your photo chosen from which you would like to draw from, set-up your drawing area to be a comfortable sanctuary where you can give 100% of your attention to your work. Distractions make the learning process more difficult.
Tips before you begin:
- Wash your hands before you begin to keep your paper clean. Make sure your hands are dried thoroughly
- Keep your pencil sharp throughout the drawing, if you’re not using a mechanical pencil
- To keep from smudging your drawing during shading, I recommend placing a sheet of paper between your drawing hand and the working surface of your drawing. There are special sheets even gloves that are made for this purpose. I personally just use a sheet of copy paper or take care not to rest my hand on shaded parts of the drawing.
- Make sure you have good lighting and are comfortable
- Relax and breath
- Stretch your wrists, hands and fingers to get the blood flowing
I will be using the example of drawing a horse through the following steps though many of the techniques can be applied to any subject.
1) After you are situated, study your photo for a few minutes. Take a mental picture of it by following the outline of the subject with your eyes. Take your time with this step and look at the details, the shading, the highlights, what you feel when looking at the photo and pick up any details you may want to emphasize. I always focus on the eyes.
2) Start by making a light sketch of the subject using the HB pencil of your choice, though I encourage you to find the pencil that works best for you in this stage. If I’m drawing a horse, my starting point is always the head and I draw from the top of the head down and around the nostrils, then the neck following the crest of the neck and upward arc under the neck and sketching in some hints of the mane and muscle. I follow the line of the whithers and the back, and down the rump, following every curve, angle and detail of the hocks, and back of the legs as I see in the photo. I move back to the front of the horse and follow the line of the chest, front legs, and belly, lightly sketching in details such as where the muscle is, the mane and the tail, and the hair. These lines will act as a guide when I begin shading and my aim is to make them disappear to achieve the greatest amount of depth and detail.
3) Once satisfied with your sketch of your subject, the position of it on paper (composition), the detail work, and cleaning up stray lines not needed, you can begin shading.
Shading:
There are many different techniques used by artists to shade their works and each is uniquely different from artist to artist. As for me, the pencil marks I make are like cross hatching but my lines are much much closer together and spread evenly across the paper to create a smooth gradating effect. I adjust the pressure of the pencil as necessary from dark to light, pressing harder for dark areas and lighter for light areas. Areas with texture such as hair, my pencil strokes are adjusted using any one of the following techniques for the desired effect: stippling, cross hatching, curved lines, straight lines, circular, etc, that all vary in length, shade, and thickness depending on the lighting, and the direction and flow of the texture.
I repeat this shading technique throughout the entire drawing generally starting with the eye and face. My pencil strokes in the beginning are applied lightly at first and then I gradually apply more and more pencil, layer after layer. You don’t want to press too hard into the paper as this can tear the tooth or oversaturate it, which doesn’t leave much room for correcting or putting in highlights with a kneaded eraser. I constantly use the photo as a reference guide matching as close as I can the detail of the subject. As I get closer to finishing the drawing I will bring in a 4B or 6B to emphasize darker shaded areas.
If you are just beginning drawing, I recommend practicing with line art first and develop the skill to draw what you see. A good exercise for this is taking an inanimate object like a plant or chair or crumpled piece of paper, and draw the details you see without looking at your paper as you work. Do not worry about how the drawing looks as that’s not the goal of this exercise. It’s to help develop hand eye coordination and become good at looking at details and applying those same details to paper. Pay attention to negative space, that is the space between each line, highlight or shadow. Become aware of irregular shapes and patterns in the subject and just draw the shapes as you see them. Eventually they will connect into a whole.
I hope this helps you on your way to becoming a master at drawing! Remember my technique is just one of many, so do some research, follow other tutorials online or in books or workshops. You’re sure to find what works for you.
Happy drawing!
Dana
