I blur her chest a bit with a facial tissue. The lower part of her chest is not as in focus in the picture as her face. Her personality that is reflected in the photograph is beginning to pop through in the drawing. Another trick is to squint your eyes, which helps reduce the detail that you can see and helps visually pull out the major shades in a picture rather than all the little details. When first learning to draw in pencil, it is sometimes easier for an artist to take the reference picture into a photo editing program and convert it to grayscale. As I begin to do more work on the face I observe the areas in the picture that should be lightest, darkest, and the mid-tones. By using the full range of tones, from white to black, it creates an impression of dimension. I use the flattened side of my pencil to make course hairs and the very tip for fine hairs.Ĭontrast is what gives any drawing a three dimensional look. Short hair uses short strokes longer hair uses longer strokes. The length of hair must also be observed. It is important to pay attention to the direction that the hair lies and make your pencil strokes in the same direction.
I use a piece of paper under my hand to prevent smearing the areas I have completed and the oils in my skin from contacting the paper. I like to work from the right to the left and top to bottom. The eyes are VERY important to the finished drawing and I like to complete them early on. I like to start with my darkest values first, which in this case, is the nose, eyes, left ear and some of the gums. I find it allows me good accuracy and enables me to enlarge my sketch to any size from even a small photo. I generally use the grid method to get my initial value sketch. The value sketch can be attained in whatever your preferred method is: a grid, freehand, tracing, etc. I draw in lines to indicate shade changes and major body parts (eyes, nose, etc.) I prefer a fairly detailed value sketch for accuracy. This is the reference photo that was provided for my drawing of "Sadie."įirst I lightly sketch an accurate line drawing (this has been significantly darkened to be easier to see).
7mm mechanical pencil with HB lead on smooth Bristol paper. The completed drawing will be 8x8" in size, drawn with a.
In this piece I have elected not to add a background, so my concentration will be on the main subject.
Follow along with me as I demonstrate how to draw dogs and other furry critters in graphite.