For the past thirty some years I have nearly exclusively drew with pencil. I mostly drew mechanical and electrical drawings. For the past twenty years I have done most of my drawing with a computer. I have become recently interested Manga art and computer animation. I knew that I needed additional instruction to fill in some of the things that I did not know about drawing.
All images on this page were drawn using graphite pencils. I began with still life subjects then worked up to portraits. At first I was afraid that too much graphite would ruin my drawing. Each successive drawing was darker. This is ok since range from dark to light is important. In portrait 1 above not the range of shading as compared to portrait 3. Each drawing should be examined for to see where the darkest and lightest spots are. Usually the darkest areas are where the hair and neck meet and form a shadow. The lightest areas are the teeth and the whites of the eyes. With graphite areas can easily lightened or darkened. The problem that most new art students face id that we think of the pencil as our only drawing tool. Think erasers. Sometimes it is OK to darken the area too much and then pick out areas with a kneaded eraser.
This is a cylinder that is lighted from the right. Light strikes the section right first and creates a highlight. Note that in this example I have assigned values to each shade. This allows the shading of any object by predetermining where each shade should be. Now consider following example. It is a sphere that is front lighted.
Where the cylinder was lit from the side this sphere is lit from the front. As is the case for all object you must know where the highlight and shadowing is. This lack of understanding of lighting helped in a recent nationally broadcast case. The prosecutor of a highly publicize had to match a particular pair of shoes to the accused. A photo was presented that showed the accused wearing the shoes in a published photograph. However, the defense pointed out the the shadows produced by the lighting was from various angles producing shadows in the direction opposite the light source. Remember that all shadows must be consistent with your light source. The prosecutor got caught passing off a, "Photoshopped," image. this sort of thing will become more recognizable as you study and practice drawing.
The reason that I bring this up is when you begin to draw an abject it is most critical that you do all work under the exact same lighting conditions. This also applies to the position that the object is viewed. If you can not ensure that all conditions can always be met then take a picture of the scene or object. The photograph will freeze the object and all lighting so that it can be studied and drawn anywhere at anytime. Digital cameras and color printers are perfect for this sort work. With the prices of this equipment comming down I suggest that all students make reference drawing to help in their drawing.
However there awe even simpler ways that I have learned. First you can trace the contour lines and reference marks on thin tracing paper. Next you can retrace these lines on the back of the tracing paper with a soft lead graphite pencil. Now you can attach the tracing paper right side up onto your art paper and gently retrace your original lines. The soft graphite on the back of the tracing paper will be transferred to your drawing.
A second method is to trace the your reference lines onto tracing paper as before. Next sandwich a piece of graphite transfer between your drawing paper and the tracing paper and retrace your lines. Do not use regular carbon paper. Most products like this are really inked paper and the ink can not be removed from your artwork. Find real graphite transfer paper at your local art supplier. This paper comes in various graphite color so you can choose what works best for you.
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Drop me a line at: dday@davididay.com |
