Drawing Drawing Drawing

The pencil Pencils are made from Graphite. Graphite is a mineral which is mined from the ground. The graphite is then mixed with a binding material, usually clay. This graphite/clay mixture is known as the core of the pencil. You can, however, buy something called a Solid Graphite Pencil. These don't have a wooden casing, and no clay binding. They are used by artists to achieve more control over things like shading larger areas. Other types of pencil you can buy are: Charcoal, Carbon, Grease, Watercolour and, of course, coloured pencils.

The pencil Standard pencils come in different strengths of graphite. They range from Hard to Black. The most common pencil is a HB pencil. The image above only shows a small range of pencil types. You can actually buy them from 9H to 9B.

The pencil TASK: Experiment with various pencil types to create different tones. TIP: Always keep your pencil sharp.

The pencil grip The images show you two ways to hold your pencil, the Detail Grip and the Shading Grip. Practice holding the pencil in both ways till you feel comfortable

The pencil grip The Detail Grip is great for drawing lines with the point of the pencil. The Shading grip allows you to use the side of the pencil point. Practice shading with the side of the pencil. Aim for some thing like the shading on the left, in the image on the right:

Three Golden rules Drawing Rule 1: Don’t press too hard! Task: Write your name pressing as hard as you can:                                                                   Now try to rub this out. Can you? Repeat this exercise pressing lightly. Do you notice the difference? Just by drawing lightly your drawings will improve enormously. When learning to draw you WILL make mistakes. Mistakes are an important part of the learning process. You have to learn to not be afraid of making mistakes.

Therefore, make the pencil sharpner your friend: Three Golden rules Drawing Rule 2: keep a sharp pencil One of the most common drawing mistakes is trying to draw with a blunt pencil. Therefore, make the pencil sharpner your friend:

Three Golden rules Drawing Rule 3: Sketch lightly, smoothly and quickly Sketching confuses your brain! Your brain is brilliant at spotting every tiny mistake. It sees every flaw in the left circle but thinks the right circle is more accurate, even though it is made up of lots of ‘wrong’ lines. So if we sketch with multiple light lines our drawings will look better! Task: Spend 5 minutes or so drawing circles and other shapes by sketching them smoothly, lightly and quickly.

Three Golden rules Drawing Rule 3: Sketch lightly, smoothly a quickly Task: Place an object in front of you. Draw it in three minutes. Then draw it in two minutes. Then draw it in one minute. Then in 30 seconds! If you repeat often your skills will improve quickly.

To sum up, here are my three golden rules of drawing: Drawing Rule 1: Don’t press too hard! Drawing Rule 2: Keep a sharp pencil Drawing Rule 3: Sketch lightly, smoothly & quickly

What Were the Three Golden Rules of Drawing?

The Drawing Process Step 1: Looking LOOK at the object you are drawing. THINK about what shapes make up the object.                                                In the drinks can above, you can see that it's made of circles and a rectangle.

The Drawing Process Step 2: Measuring stage MEASURE how big to draw the shapes, do not use a ruler. SKETCH lightly, do not press hard. EVALUATE Is it correct? Make changes if you need to.                                               

The Drawing Process Step 3: Building stage ADD DETAILS Improve the drawing, looking at the shapes inside the shapes BUILD the drawing, measuring and sketching lightly EVALUATE Is it correct? Will I need to alter anything?                                              

The Drawing Process Step 4: Finishing Stage DETAIL Look for the fine details now and add as much as you can see. FINISH Are you going to paint your design? Or shade it with pencil? Perhaps you want to experiment with art materials, collage, etc                                           

Drawing from Simple Shapes Everything in our world is made from simple basic shapes. These are the building blocks of our world. When we draw, we have to look for the shapes contained within.

Still Life: Drawing from simple shapes In the image below, you can see that the shapes used for the drawing are various forms of circles and rectangles:

Still Life: Drawing from simple shapes Look at a still life object and study it. Try to work out what shapes you will need to draw it. Can you work out which shapes make up these objects? Sketch just the shapes.

Still Life: Drawing from observation using simple shapes Select about six objects and study them to work out what basic shapes they are made from. Then sketch the basic shapes lightly to draw the object. Fit six objects to one A3 sketchbook page.

Still Life: Drawing from observation using simple shapes Choose several objects to draw in more detail. Arrange them in an interesting way on a table or surface in front of you. Sketch the basic shapes, then press harder to build the detail of the object into a more complex drawing. Add tone and shading

Still Life: Drawing from observation using simple shapes Choose ONE object to draw in more detail. Sketch the basic shapes, then press harder to build the detail of the object into a more complex drawing

Geometric Shapes The objective of this lesson is to understand how flowers grow in simple geometric shapes, to be able to identify these shapes and their properties so that we might be able to improve our drawing skills.

Geometric Shapes Flowers grow using geometric shapes. Can you see the 2D shapes contained with this flower? Place a piece of tracing paper over your chosen flower photograph. Then draw points at the tip of each petal. Join them up to find a shape.

Geometric Shapes So the flower is made up from a pentagon. But can you find even more shapes contained with this flower?

Geometric Shapes But if we study the flower even further there are more shapes hidden! Can you guess what they are?

Geometric Shapes Knowing how to find these shapes can help us to draw better Task: Now use these geometric shapes to draw the flower.

Shading A Ball Exercise When light shines on an object it creates Highlights, Tones and Shadows.

Shading A Ball Exercise The first thing to do is to apply a light, soft tone all over the ball. Make sure you are neat at the edges. Leave a white blank area for the highlight. Your drawing should look something like source below (you don't need to draw the light source):

Shading A Ball Exercise Next, add darker tones around the left side of the ball (In a moon shape), blending them with the lighter tones:

Shading A Ball Exercise Once you're happy with your shading, add an even darker layer of tone at the very edge of the left side edge of the ball, blending it to your earlier tones to look natural:

Shading A Ball Exercise The final step is to apply a really dark shadow underneath the ball. It should be darkest where it is close to the ball, and fade out as it gets further away. Your final drawing should look like this:

Shading A Ball Exercise Task: Now use this same technique to draw another object from observation. A good example would be a bottle, vase, jar or fruit.

Reference Points A reference point is a key part of a drawing that helps you to measure points and angles. Artists pick out reference points to help them to see where things begin and end. Artists will identify the key areas where measurements can be taken from. Task: Set up a simple still life group on a table and look at it. Try to identify where the reference points might be. Use these reference points to help you do a quick sketch.

TEXTURE Each of these drawings shows artistic interpretation of everyday items using LINE and TONE.

Scumbling What is TEXTURE? Each of these drawings shows artistic interpretation of everyday items using LINE and TONE. Here are some DRAWING TECHNIQUES for you to try: Cross-hatching Stippling Hatching Random Hatching Contour-hatching

Dark Tones Background Why do we use a dark background like this?

To make our object stand out. To make it seem import To make our object stand out! To make it seem import! To make it PRECIOUS!

Rembrant Shoes

Memory Test Study an object for 5 minutes and commit it to memory. Trace the object with your fingers, feel the textures, study the proportions and sizes, look at the details. Take the object away from view then draw the object again, from memory. NO PEEPING! Many famous artists drew in this way. It helps you to make more creative, expressive drawings, not just copying. You should draw like this regularly.

Blind Drawing By placing a piece of paper over your hand, you will stop looking at the drawing and look at the object. The purpose of this exercise is to shut off the left brain that has a negative impact on our drawing. You will draw much more freely and naturally.

“I do not have a good hand-eye coordination - when I am not allowed to look at my drawing, it simply becomes a mess. The purpose of this exercise was to focus on the motive and don't bother about the drawing“ Blind Drawing

Continuous Line Draw a scene/object/animal/person with out lifting your pen/pencil from the paper.

Negative Space

Negative Space in Action Do you see a Vase or two faces?

Negative Space Only fill the space around the object/s

Negative Space drawing. Ink and charcoal

Your final Piece Look back through all your observational research and drawing experimentation for this project. Choose a drawing technique and arrange a composition of objects. Complete a series of observational drawings and choose one to submit as your final piece.