There are many styles
of drawing, and every artist has their favorite. Maybe "cartoon-like"
drawings, quick sketches, or doodling is
what you like. But if you are like me, you always want your drawings to look as
realistic, and "3d" as possible, hoping that it will end up looking
like a real photograph! :-) There are so many AMAZING artists out there that
make hyper-realistic drawings, and I definitely have a lot to learn to get to
their level, but I thought I would share with you what I know, and that is the Top 4 Points to a Realistic Drawing:
1. Light and Shadows
Which on
paper translates into...Shading and Highlighting! Cartoon drawings usually do not have much, if any, shading and
highlighting, which makes the picture look flat. But, if you look at a real
photograph, you will notice dark areas which "sink in" to the image,
and light areas which pop out at you. So when you are drawing with graphite
pencils, those dark shadows, bright
highlights, and all the tones in between
will be imitated by different shades of gray mostly, and then accents of black
and white. Be careful not to use too much contrast though! A drawing that is
just pure black and pure white won't look very realistic! ;-)
2. Blending
There are times when it is necessary
to have harsh lines, and visible pencil strokes on your drawing, because of the
texture you are trying to portray. But for the rest of the time, blending is
key! Take a look at the portraits below for instance:
The one on the left is a
picture I drew about 6 years ago, of a person I saw in a book. It does
have shading and highlighting, but no blending was done, so her skin has visible pencil strokes on it,
which is not very realistic at all! :-) The one on the right is a picture of my
mom, that I drew a few months ago. As you can see, it is MUCH more smooth and
soft looking.
I will be writing a blog post
soon on how to blend and layer, but these are what I use to do it:
These are called paper blenders, or tortillions, and they are
actually pretty cheap (about $5 for a set of 10) and they come in all sizes. I
bought mine on Amazon and at the craft store...
3. Proportions
This one is
really important because well , you know, if your horse has too short of legs,
it might end up looking like a donkey! Or when you are drawing a person's face,
even the slightest change in proportions can make them look like a totally different person. Using a grid to get the initial outline of the
subject, and the correct placement of the facial features can be very helpful.
4. Details
The last
important point to remember is the details! Put as many details into the
picture as you have the patience to. Don't get frustrated if you don't finish
your picture in one sitting! Remember, it does take time to put in all those photo-realistic details. ;-)
Hope this helps you out with your drawings! The next post I
will be doing will be titled "Getting Started", where I will explain
more about getting proportions right, by making use of a grid, when starting
out on a drawing. ;-)
Thanks for reading!!
~Laree
~Laree
