How to Draw: A Beginner’s Guide - Part 1 of The Drawing Laboratory

1. Trailer: Drawing is not a talent. Drawing is a skill that you can learn. But to learn to draw, you need to change the way you see the world and everything in it. I'm Bret Teviston, welcome to How to draw a Beginner's Guide, the first course in my new drawing laboratory series. When you watch a skilled artist draw, it can look like magic. My role is to demystify the drawing process and to show you that with good instruction and practice drawing is a skill that you can learn. We'll start at the very beginning where you'll learn things like how to hold the pencil and how to draw basic shapes. Then you'll learn how to draw any subject by simplifying it into its most basic shapes. You'll learn to draw these shapes with light lines that can easily be changed or erased. Next, you'll learn to bring your drawing to life with beautiful and descriptive lines and marks. Finally, you'll learn to finish your drawings by adding detail, texture and value. You'll also learn the basics of measuring to make sure that every drawing you do is in proportion. You'll even learn how to manage your mind and how to turn mistakes into opportunities for improvement. This course contains eight lessons. Each lesson in this course will teach you a set of essential drawing skills. Every lesson ends with a project designed for you to get the most out of the skills you've just learned. Once you've completed the lessons, you're invited to draw along with me as I demonstrate the entire drawing process from start to finish. These full length drawing demonstrations will show you how to take everything you've learned and put it into action. The tools and techniques you'll learn in this course can be applied to any subject. This beginners course will give you all of the skills necessary to get you started drawing the things that you most want to draw. Whether you've never drawn before, or you're a more experienced artist looking to strengthen your fundamental skills. Learning to draw is a life changing experience. So if you've ever wondered if you can draw, the answer is yes, come learn with me. I'd be honored to be your teacher. So join me in the first course in my drawing laboratory series, how to draw a beginner's guide here on Skillshare. 2. Introduction: I'm Brant Eviston. Welcome to the drawing laboratory. The tools and techniques you'll learn in this course will allow you to draw any subject. We're going to start at the very beginning of the drawing process. You'll learn things like how to hold a pencil, how to draw basic shapes, and how to use those basic shapes to draw any subject you want. By the end of this course, you'll understand how to start any drawing and how to bring it to life with beautiful texture, details, and shading. This beginner's guide to drawing will teach you everything you need to know to start drawing. Now, this course is designed for anyone interested in improving their drawing skills, whether you're an absolute beginner or a more experienced artist looking to strengthen your fundamentals. But before we get to any of that, we need to address something right here at the beginning. So many beginning students are concerned about talent. They worry whether or not they have any talent, whether they need talent to learn to draw. So I'm going to get this out of the way right here at the beginning. Drawing is not a talent. Drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. All that's required is good instruction and practice. I know this because I've been teaching drawing for more than 25 years, and over and over again, I see students learn to draw. These are ordinary people who don't have any special skills or ability, but they are able to improve their drawing skills through good instruction and practice. No, not everybody becomes a master of drawing, but if you're willing to commit to practice, you will absolutely improve. And I think you'll be amazed at how far you can go and how much you can learn. So right here and now, I want you to let go of any concerns about talent. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that you have a sincere desire to learn to draw. And if you can bring that to this course, then the art and science of drawing will get you where you want to go. Now, I'd like to address another common drawing myth. So many beginners think that good artists get it right the first time. They imagine that an artist just picks up a pencil or paint brush and starts making line after beautiful line until a finished work just magically appears on the page. But this is not how drawing actually works. So to illustrate this, let's start by looking at this drawing by Michael Angelo. Now, when you see a drawing like this, it's so easy to get caught up in all of the shading and the anatomy. But let's look a little closer. Around the edges of this drawing, you'll actually start to see very, very light lines. These light lines are the first attempts at the form, and you'll notice that there are multiple attempts. This is because Michael Angelo did not get it right the first time. We can see this most clearly at the foot. You can see light attempts at the foot that he had to change. This is because he made a first attempt, but he didn't get it right the first time, so he needed to alter the drawing. Next, let's take a look at a drawing by Rubens. Here we see the same technique in action. Rubens is starting off with these incredibly light lines. He's working out the basic forms of the subject. He's doing this because he knows he's not going to get it right the first time. He only adds the dark lines that are intended to be seen by a viewer after he's worked out the forms using incredibly light lines. Next, let's take a look at a drawing by DG. Here you can see that D Ga put the entire foot in the wrong place and had to move it up. We can see as light first attempt right underneath the finished foot. Over and over again, we can find artists who start their drawings with incredibly light lines. Even the best artists who have ever lived are starting off their drawings by making a series of missteps. This is perfectly normal, and you're going to go through the same process. So now that you know that you can learn to draw, the drawing is not a talent and that it's okay to make mistakes at the beginning, let's take a look at the entire drawing process. First, you're going to begin by laying down a light foundation of basic shapes. You're going to start off lightly because you know you're not going to get it right the first time. You're going to start by drawing a collection of light shapes on the page, and just as if they were a lump of clay, you're going to shape them until they capture the forms of your subject. None of these lines are intended to be seen by a viewer. They are just for you as you work out the basic forms and proportions of your subject. Once you have the basic forms of the subject down on the page, you can start to add dark lines. You're going to solidify the edges of the forms with contours. You're going to learn how to use different kinds of lines and marks to describe the forms of your subject. Once you've crafted the contours of your subject, you can then add all of the detail and values. You can bring your drawing to life with texture and shading. Now, this is what the drawing process really looks like, and this is what you're going to learn in this course. This is a straightforward approach that anyone can learn and it will allow you to draw any subject. So now, let's talk about how to use this course. This course has eight lessons. Each lesson focuses on an essential drawing skill. And at the end of each lesson, there's going to be a project. So once you've watched the lesson, you're going to do the project, and then you'll be ready for the next lesson. Now, I recommend going through one lesson per day, but you are more than welcome to design your own schedule. If one lesson per day is a little too much, that's totally fine. Just get to the lessons when you can. But the most important part here is that you're doing the projects. Practice is critical. Just watching these lessons is not enough. You need to be doing the practice. Now, it's important to note that I'm going to be giving you the minimum amount of practice you should be doing. If you want to improve more quickly, I recommend increasing the amount of practice you're doing. Okay. Once you're done with the eight lessons, you can move on to the full length drawing demonstrations. These demos will show you how to take everything you've learned in the lessons and apply it to real subjects. By the end of this course, you will have a deep understanding of the drawing process. You'll know how to start any drawing and how to bring it to life with detail texture and value. Now, this is just a beginner's guide to drawing. There is a lot more to learn. But if all you ever learn is what's in this course, you will be far ahead of most people who are learning to draw. This course will demystify the drawing process and allow you to create beautiful drawings and enjoy the process. Now, before we get to the first lesson, we need to talk about materials. Now, one of the things I love about drawing is that the materials are so simple and accessible. If all you have is a leftover pencil and some cheap scraps of paper, that is totally fine. You can absolutely participate in this course. You do not need to spend any extra money on any special art materials. A skilled artist can make a good drawing using even the most humble materials, and even the most expensive materials will not help somebody who doesn't know how to draw. So I want you to feel free to use whatever materials you have on hand. No matter what you have access to, you can learn to draw. Now, that being said, if you want to upgrade your materials, here is the recommended materials list for this course. You're going to need a drawing pencil of any kind. Now, there are a lot of different kinds of drawing pencils out there. Any of them will work. Now, graphite pencils are the most common. I prefer colored pencils and either blacks, browns, or dark reds. The one kind of pencil I don't recommend is charcoal. Carcal can be very messy. So even if you eventually want to learn charcal, I recommend starting with pencil first. You can move on to Carcal once you have some basic skills. Next, you're going to need some paper. I recommend using paper that is no smaller than 8.5 by 11 ". Now, I recommend using 18 by 24 inch paper. I know this seems large to a lot of you, but I really like to have room to move. So in this course, you're going to see me drawing exclusively on 18 by 24 inch paper. But ultimately, the size of the paper is also up to you. You're going to be doing a lot of practice drawing in this course. So I recommend both a pad of newsprint and a pad of white drawing paper. You're going to need a pencil sharpener. Now, I just use a basic electric pencil sharpener, but any kind of pencil sharpener will work. I recommend a drawing board that is appropriate for the size of your paper. The goal is that your drawing board is just a bit bigger than the size of paper you're using. Now, if you want to, you can get an eraser, but it's optional, and I really don't recommend them for beginners. The reason is that most beginners, when they get access to an eraser, tend to erase just as much as they draw. So that's the list of materials. It's pretty simple. You're going to need a drawing pencil, some drawing paper, a drawing board, and a pencil sharpener. You can buy these at a local art store or you can order them online. Now, in the bonus section of this course, I will include a video that goes much deeper into materials. Now, if you're looking for a more specific list of materials and recommendations on where to buy them, I recommend visiting my website. Now I know some of you want to know if you can take this course using procreate or other digital drawing media. The answer is yes. I've had thousands of students go through my courses using digital media, and they say it works great. You'll be amazed how easy and straightforward it is to take what you're learning in this course and adapt it to whatever digital media you're using. So now let's talk about setup. Now, I know a lot of people like to draw with their paper flat on a table in front of them. But the problem with this is that the bottom of the sheet of paper is going to be much closer to your eye than the top. This can distort your drawings. So you want to make sure that your drawing surface is upright and the top of the paper and the bottom of the paper are the same distance to your eyes. Now, to do this, you can use an easel. You can use a drafting table, a drawing horse. But you don't need any special drawing equipment in order to have your paper be upright. Instead, you can simply place the bottom of your drawing board on your legs and rest it on the edge of the table. This is one of the most common ways that people draw while taking this course. This also works great at a desk where you can see the paper that you're drawing on as well as your computer screen while you're taking this course. Now, just like the materials, you do not need any special equipment in order to draw. You're welcome to participate in this course with whatever works for you. Hopefully, you have a sense of the kind of materials you're going to need for this course, as well as how to set up your drawing station. You're welcome to start with whatever materials you have on hand. You can always upgrade your materials later when you're ready. So before we get you to your first lesson, I just want to remind you one more time. Drawing is not a talent. Drawing is a skill that anyone can learn. All that's required is good instruction and a commitment to practice. I can provide the instruction, and if you are willing to commit to practicing with me, I promise that you will learn to draw. Your ultimate drawing skills are only limited by your desire and your willingness to practice. So go ahead and gather your drawing materials, and I will see you in the first lesson. 3. How to Begin: Welcome to Lesson one. In this lesson, you're going to learn how to hold the pencil and how to draw lightly. Now, in the introduction, you learned that nearly every drawing you do is going to begin with incredibly light lines. The reason for this is that we know we're not going to get it right the first time. We're going to use these light lines to create very basic shapes, and we're going to work with those shapes until they capture the form and the proportions of our subject. Now, when we see a drawing like this, it's so easy to get caught up in all of the details, texture and shading. But the question we're trying to answer is, how do we start a drawing like this? Now, many people assume that drawings like this begin with all of these details, but that could not be further from the truth. Now, despite all of the complexity in detail we see in this drawing, it actually started off with incredibly light lines and basic shapes. Let's go back to the beginning stages of this drawing. This drawing, like every other drawing I do, began with these incredibly light lines and basic shapes. Remember, the idea here is that we're using these light lines to draw basic shapes and to work out the simple forms of the subject. Before we add any detail shading, texture or contours, we must figure out these basic forms first. So if a drawing begins with light lines, we first need to learn how to create light lines. And for that, we need to talk about pencil grips. Now, I know learning to draw lightly may seem very, very simple, but it's a skill that so many people skip. Now, drawing lightly is an easy thing to remember to do if that's all you're focusing on. But in my experience, when students start trying to draw an actual subject, they often defat to making dark lines again. So before we learn anything else, I want to focus on drawing lightly just on its own. Now, once you're comfortable drawing lightly, we can move on to drawing shapes and recognizable objects. But before we get to drawing other things, it's essential that we focus on light lines. So this is where we're going to start. I know it may seem simple, but it's so important for you to get comfortable with drawing lightly before you learn to draw anything else. So to learn to draw lightly, we first need to learn how to hold the pencil. So let's head to my drawing board, and let's learn about pencil grips. So in this lesson, we're going to talk about two different grips, the tripod grip and the overhand grip. Now, the tripod grip you're probably familiar with. It's what most people use to write. It's called the tripod grip because it uses three fingers to hold the tip of the pencil. Now, the tripod grip is primarily used for writing, and for good reason. When you're using the tripod grip, most of the motion comes from the fingers. The tripod grip engages the tip of the pencil. And it puts out an even dark line. Perfect for writing. Now, in drawing the tripod grip is great for two different things. First, it's great when you need to bear down on the tip of the pencil and to create dark lines. The tripod grip is also great for hatching and cross hatching. But the tripod grip does come with some serious limitations. First of all, it only engages the tip of the pencil. This means that it's very difficult to vary the thickness or softness of the line. The tripod grip tends to put out pretty even strokes, and you can make lines that are darker or lighter. But again, it's very limited into how much we can vary the thickness and the softness. Now, there are artists who draw using the tripod grip. But most artists, including myself, are using what is known as the overhand grip. The overhand grip engages the side of the pencil, allowing us to make much softer, thicker strokes when we need to. But it's also a very versatile grip. If we tilt it up or depending on the angle of the pencil, we can also get very Dark and sharp lines. So the overhand grip is a much more versatile grip, allowing us to make different kinds of lines and strokes with varied thickness, softness and darkness. I do the vast majority of my drawing using this overhand grip. I only switch to the tripod grip when I want to make very dark values bearing down on the tip of the pencil or when I am hatching and cross hatching. Now, I highly recommend learning how to use the overhand grip because when you're drawing lightly, we also want to be able to draw softly. These light soft lines are so much easier to work with or erase, if needs be. As you saw in the rooster drawing, most of the time, I simply leave these light lines in the drawing. I find them beautiful and interesting. So I'm going to assume that you're already familiar with the tripod grip and you don't need to learn that here. But I'm going to teach you how to use the overhand grip. So if you're unfamiliar with the overhand grip, here's what I'd like you to do. Set your pencil down on your paper in front of you with a tip facing away from you. Next, you're going to take your thumb and pointer finger and you're going to place them on either side of the pencil just below the tip. So it looks like this. Next, take your remaining fingers and simply rest them on the shaft of the pencil. You can rest your pinky finger on the pencil itself, or you can rest it on your palm, whatever's most comfortable for you. This is the overhand grip. And again, this is the grip that I use probably 90% of the time when I'm drawing. The overhand grip can create gorgeous, soft edged lines as well as harder, darker, sharper lines when it needs to. Now, in this series, you're going to see me do the vast majority of my drawing using the overhand grip. And I highly encourage you to put in the time and effort it takes to get comfortable with this grip. Now, of course, there are artists who only use the tripod grip. But again, I just want you to understand the limitations that the tripod grip comes with. You're giving up a lot of expressive capabilities by only using the tripod grip. So now that you have a sense of the tripod grip and the overhand grip, let's learn how to draw lightly. Now, I know that drawing lightly may seem like a simple way to begin. But in my experience, so many people skip learning how to draw lightly, and they tend to struggle with it. Drawing lightly on its own seems pretty easy, if that's the only thing you're focusing on. But as soon as you start to draw a more complex subject, many beginners find that they default to making darker lines. So we're going to begin by learning how to draw lightly. So using the overhand grip, I'm going to make some marks, again, engaging the side of my pencil, and I'm going to make them as lightly as I can. So a few things I'd like you to note here. First of all, you'll notice that when I'm using the overhand grip, my fingers and wrist move very little. Most of the motion is actually coming from my shoulder and my elbow. Drawing using the whole arm allows me to make long fluid strokes. And these are the kind of lines that we want to start with at the very beginning of the drawing. By engaging the side of the pencil, I'm able to make very light and soft strokes, and these light soft strokes are much easier to erase if we need to. Now, right now, I'm not trying to draw anything in particular. I'm just getting used to moving my pencil across the page, making long fluid strokes using my entire arm. Now at this stage, I know many of you are thinking that you can barely see these lines, but that's the point. The light lines you use to begin a drawing should be dark enough that you can see them as you're drawing, but light enough that they almost disappear 10-15 ft away. So for today's project, you're simply going to practice drawing light lines. Let me get a fresh sheet of paper here. And talk just a little more about the kind of practice I want you to do. So once again, you're going to make light soft edged lines using the overhand grip. The overhand grip is going to engage the side of the pencil lead, not the tip. The motion is going to come from the whole arm, and your fingers and wrists are going to move very little. You want to get good at making long fluid strokes, not short strokes. These long fluid strokes are going to be essential for drawing the basic shapes you're going to learn in the next lesson. One great exercise to get comfortable drawing these light lines is to try figure eights. So this is what you're going to practice today, simply making these light soft fluid strokes using the overhand grip. So by now, you should understand why we start drawings using light lines. You should understand how to hold the pencil and how to practice drawing lightly. So here is your project for this lesson. You are going to practice drawing lightly for a minimum of 15 minutes. Your goal here is to get very comfortable making light soft lines. These are the kinds of lines you're going to use to start nearly every drawing. You're going to use these light lines to work out all of the basic shapes and proportions of your subject before you add any detail shading, complexity or dark lines. So I'd like to address a couple of common questions. First, students often ask how light should my lines be? Now, you want your light lines to be as light as you can make them, but so that you can still clearly see them on the page in front of you. So this is what we're going for. Lines that you can clearly see on the page right in front of you, but lines that almost entirely disappear from about ten to 15 feet away. Another common question I get is, do I have to use the overhand grip. Well, that's a bit of a complicated question. I would highly recommend that during this course, you learn how to use the overhand grip. Again, it is so much more versatile than the tripod grip. The overhand grip can produce a beautiful calligraphic line that can go from thick and soft to hard and thin in a single stroke. The tripod grip does have its uses, but it also comes with severe limitations. Now, when learning how to use the overhand grip, students often say that it feels a little awkward at the beginning. They tell me that they want to stick with a tripod grip because it feels more comfortable. But let me ask you something. Did the tripod grip feel comfortable when you first learned it? If you can remember back, the answer is almost certainly no. When we learn to write with a tripod grip, it too feels awkward and clunky. It takes time to learn a new grip. Now, to be clear, there are incredible artists out there who only use the tripod grip. They don't use the overhand grip, and they produce incredible artwork. That being said, I have never had a student who has regretted taking the time to use the overhand grip. Ultimately, the grip you use is up to you. But I highly recommend exploring the overhand grip. It may feel a little awkward at the beginning, but I promise with practice it will get more comfortable. Thank you so much for spending this time with me. Now, let's get you to your project. Once you're comfortable drawing light soft lines, you'll be ready to go on to the next lesson when you're going to start to learn how to draw basic shapes. 4. Circles & Ovals: Welcome to Lesson two circles and ovals. In the first lesson, you learned that every drawing you do is going to start off with incredibly light lines. The reason we do this is because we know that we're not going to get it right the first time, and we want to start our drawing with lines that are going to be easily adjusted or erased. You've also learned that any subject, no matter how complex, can be simplified into basic shapes like circles, ovals, rectangles, triangles, and squares. Today, you're going to learn to draw two of these shapes, circles and ovals. So to understand why circles and ovals are so important, let's take a look at some drawings. Now, when you look at a drawing like this, it's so easy to get caught up in all of the details texture and shading. But this drawing began as a collection of circles and ovals. Mostly ovals. The bird's head is an oval, its body is an oval, even the wings are constructed of ovals. Nearly every aspect of this drawing began as some oval. Now let's take a look at a figure drawing. Once again, you can see that nearly every part of this figure can be understood in terms of ovals. Now, most people understand that the head can be thought of as a circle or an oval. But every aspect of this figure is circular or ovular in some way. The upper torso containing the rib cage is an oval. The lower torso containing the pelvis is a circle. The shoulders are circular, the upper arms are ovular. The forearms are ovular. The legs are ovular, the knees are spherical. Now, of course, there's a lot more to figure drawing than simply drawing circles and ovals, but hopefully this gives you a sense of how important these shapes are even when we're drawing incredibly complex subjects like the figure. Remember, the drawing process you're learning is rooted in the idea that all form, no matter how complex can be simplified into basic shapes, and that by understanding how to draw those shapes, you'll be able to draw any subject. Now, circles are notoriously difficult to draw, but that's because of the method that most people use when they're drawing circles. Most people try to draw a circle by starting at a point and slowly moving their pencil around and hoping that by the time they get back to the beginning, it will be circular. This is one of the hardest ways to draw a circle. So I'm going to teach you a method today where we're essentially going to use our arm as a compass. Now, before I do this, it's important to note that circular perfection while drawing free hand is nearly impossible. Even if you could draw a perfect circle free hand, it's not a particularly useful skill. If you ever need a truly perfect circle, I recommend using a compass or a stencil, or you can trace around the edge of any circular object like a plate or a bowl. But the free hand circles you're going to learn to draw today will serve most of your purposes. Now, most of the subjects you draw are not going to be perfect circles. One good example is something like an orange. An orange is not a perfect circle. It's circular, but it's not a perfect circle. A hand drawn circle, even if it's imperfect, will be an excellent foundation for something like an orange. Okay, so let's get into it. What I'd like you to do is pick up a pencil and follow along with me for just a moment. I'd like you to hold your pencil out in front of you. You can keep your elbow soft, and I'd like you to make the motion of a circle in the air. Now I'd like you to watch the speed of my pencil. You don't want to go so fast, you're out of control, but you don't want to move it slowly, either. Try and match the pace of my pencil. Now, I'd like you to watch your pencil as you're turning it in the air. I want you to note that you can actually see what shape is going to come out of the pencil if it were in contact with paper. Now, this is a critical thing to understand. We're going to begin by pantomiming a circle before we draw it. This way, you'll be able to tell if what you're going to draw is actually going to be circular before you make the shape. So how you're going to draw a circle because you're going to start by pantomiming the motion of a circle with a tip of the pencil right above the surface of the page but not touching it. Once you see that your pencil is making a circle, you're not going to stop this motion. You're just going to tip the pencil down, make contact with the page, and go around not just once, but multiple times. What you're going to find is that each individual pass will not be a perfect circle, but they will coalesce into a very workable circle. Now, I'd also like to remind you today that we're still going to be drawing lightly. Remember, these basic shapes are going to lay a light foundation for subjects that you want to finish later on, but they need to begin as light, simple shapes. We don't want to add any dark lines or detail until much later in the drawing process. Okay, let's set to the drawing board so I can demonstrate. So now I'm going to demonstrate the technique we just talked about. Got a fresh sheet of paper. I'm going to start by simply making the motion of a circle. You'll note that I'm using the overhand grip, and I'm using my whole arm to make this motion. The motion is originating from my shoulder and my elbow is moving a little bit as well. So what I'm doing here is I am watching for the moment that the shape becomes circular. I am pantomiming the shape of a circle. Now, this is such a critical skill to have. One of the reasons this method works so well is because you can tell If you're going to draw a circle before your pencil ever touches the page. For example, take a look at this. What shape would my pencil produce if I tipped it down? Now, I think you can almost certainly tell that it's not a circle. This would create an oval. And again, you can see this before the pencil ever hits the page. So once again, I'm going to begin by simply pantomiming the shape of a circle. Note how fast the pencil is moving. I'm not going so fast, I'm out of control, but it's not a slow motion either. You want to get up a good momentum. So once you can see that your pencil is going to create a circle, not an oval or another shape, you're not going to stop this motion. You're simply going to tip the pencil down and go around not just once, but multiple times. Now, what I'd like you to note here is that no individual pass is a perfect circle, but they tend to coalesce into a pretty workable circle. I'd also like you to note that I'm still drawing very lightly. Remember, now we're practicing two things at once. We're practicing drawing circles, but we're also practicing drawing lightly. So I'm going to demonstrate this a few more times. Now, of course, with circles, we can draw them at different sizes. So I'm going to demonstrate this with a smaller circle. And an even smaller circle. And one thing students often ask is, do I use this technique to draw circles that are tiny? And I usually do. Again, this is one of the best ways I have found to draw a circle. So let's see it again. Go to make the motion of a circle. I'm going to watch to see when my pencil appears that it will actually create a round circle, not an oval or another shape. Once I see that, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm going to tip the pencil down and not go around just once, but go around multiple times. So a few other notes, as I demonstrate some additional circles. Students often ask if it's okay if their hand comes in contact with the page. So for example, before I draw, you can actually hear this sound. That's actually the sound of my pinky rubbing across the surface of the page. Now, when you're first starting out, this can provide some extra stability. It might make you feel a little more secure. However, as the drawing process continues, as you start to make more and more dark lines, and especially when you get to shading, you tend to want to lift your hand off of the page because it will smear pigment. Another question I'm often asked is what direction people should go. Now, in my experience, most students tend to be more comfortable moving their hand counter clockwise. Now, of course, most students are right handed. Most left handed students seem more comfortable moving their hand clockwise. But it's really up to you. Part of what you're doing while practicing this skill is experimenting to see what works for you. So hopefully, now you get a sense of this process. And I'd like you to look at these circles. Again, they are not perfect circles. But remember, perfect circularity can be achieved with a compass, a stencil, or other devices. We just need a reasonably round circle, and this is going to serve most of our purposes when you're learning to draw. Now, oval drawing is remarkably similar to circle drawing. Just like withdrawing a circle, you're going to begin by making the motion of an oval. You're going to begin just by pantomiming. And just like with circle drawing, we can see the shape that's going to come out of the pencil before we ever tip the pencil down on the page. So you want to make sure at this stage, if you're making an oval, if it's at the size you want and at the placement you want. So let me demonstrate. Again, I'm going to make this motion. I'm going to watch to make sure it's the shape that I want. When I'm ready, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm simply going to tip the pencil down and go around not just once, but a few times. Let me demonstrate again. I'm going to make the motion of an val. Once I see that it's the shape that I want, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm going to tip the pencil down and go around not just once. But a few times. Just like with the circle, each individual pass is not a perfect oval, but they coalesce to form a very workable oval. A few notes about the differences between circles and ovals. Ovals have a directionality to them. This direction is called an axis. Every oval has an axis. We determine an axis by drawing a line down the length of the oval. These two ovals have a horizontal axis. But of course, we can draw ovals in any direction. Here is an oval that is tilted. Of course, we can tilt ovals in any direction that we want to. These ovals have a tilted axis. Again, we determine this by imagining a line going through the long axis of the oval to get a sense of how it's tilted in space. Now, like circles, ovals can be big or small. But another difference between ovals and circles is that ovals can be drawn more opened or more closed. Let me explain what I mean by that. An oval that is more open is closer to a circle. An oval that is more closed is closer to a line. So again, with ovals, we have an axis what direction the oval is tilting? We have its size, Ovals can be big or small. Ovals can be more open, which means they're closer to a circle, or ovals can be more closed, which means they're closer to a line. So I'm going to demonstrate more oval drawing. And as I do this, I want you to note the size of the oval, its axis or its direction in space, and whether it's more opened or closed. So just like with our circles, I want you to note that these are a little rough around the edges, and that is completely fine. Remember, these shapes are going to be used for our under drawing. When we use these shapes in an actual drawing, these are not intended to be seen by a viewer. These are just the simple shapes we're going to start off with to construct our basic forms. Dark lines, details, shading and texture come later. So hopefully, this gives you a sense of how to draw ovals and some of the attributes that ovals have. So one final essential idea regarding ovals. If we were to actually draw a line through the long axis of our oval, we want each side of the oval to be symmetric. We want them to mirror one another. So I'm going to try this again. I'm going to draw a line down the long axis of our oval. And again, we want these two sides to roughly mirror one another. We don't want one side to appear more smashed down or more narrow. Now, again, perfection in this is nearly impossible But this is just a great way to start to evaluate whether or not our ovals are working. If you draw a line down the long axis, you don't want one side to appear more flat and the other side to appear more rounded. Instead, we're looking for ovals where each side mirrors the other along the long axis. So at this point, you should have a good understanding of how to draw circles and ovals. So let's get you to your project. For today's project, you're going to draw a minimum of 100 circles and a minimum of 100 ovals. Now, to some of you, this may seem like a lot, but let me tell you a story. When I was learning to draw, I had an instructor who told me that if I wanted to get really good at the fundamentals, I needed to engage in some pretty extreme practice. So he told me that I should fill ten pages with circles front and back, every day for a year. Now, I'm sure that I missed some days, but I really tried to get into the spirit of this kind of practice. Now, I'm not suggesting you need to do this, but what I am suggesting is that you want to get so familiar with this process that it becomes second nature. You want to be able to draw a circle at any size and at any place on the page. You want to be able to draw an oval at any size, place or tilt on the page. Now I know drawing circles and ovals may seem simple to some of you, but there's a lot more going on here than you may realize. We're not simply practicing circles and ovals. You're also practicing drawing lightly. You're getting used to the overhand grip, you're training your arm to make long fluid strokes. All of these are essential skills you need to master. Yes, they're basic, but they are also at the foundation of every drawing you're going to do. Take this practice seriously. Now, I'd also like to remind you not to get caught up in the success or failure of each and every circle as you draw it. Let me save you the suspense. Your first circles are not going to work out. And that's totally fine. This should be expected. This is why we practice. The more you practice, the better your circles and ovals will be. But it takes time. So once you understand that you're going to be drawing hundreds of circles, you can just let go and enjoy the process. It's totally fine if some of them don't work out. That's to be expected. Learning to draw will not be a linear process of improvement. You'll have ups and downs, and that is perfectly normal. The goal is that over time they get better. So I don't want you to be frustrated or disheartened if after 20 circles, they're not perfect. It takes time to develop muscle memory, it takes time to develop these habitual patterns of motion. You'll get there. I'd also like to take the opportunity to remind you that in these lessons, I'm giving you the minimum amount of practice you should be doing. It is always okay and encouraged for you to double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of practice that I'm giving you. So if you want to increase your rate of learning, if you want to get good faster, Try drawing 200, 300 or even 400 circles, and 400 ovals. One thing that most masters of drawing share is that they never tire of re engaging the fundamentals. Remember, you should always be looking for reasons to practice more, not less. Alright, let's get you to your practice. Thank you so much for spending time with me here today. I will see you in the next lesson when you're going to learn how to draw straight lines and straight edged shapes. 5. Straight Edged Shapes: Welcome to Lesson three. In this lesson, you're going to learn how to draw straight lines and how to use those straight lines to construct squares, rectangles, triangles and other straight edged shapes. But before we get to that, I'd like to congratulate you for making it this far. I know a program like this can be daunting to begin and you've made it to the third lesson. But I hope that in addition to watching these lessons, you're also doing the practice. Practice is critical. You need more than an intellectual understanding of these concepts. You need habits. You need muscle memory. You need to actually be able to perform these skills. I know that projects like drawing lightly or drawing circles and ovals may seem a bit simple, but remember, when we get to drawing actual subjects, you're going to be constructing them out of these basic shapes. It's so important that when you're drawing an actual subject, you're already comfortable drawing circles, ovals, straight lines, and straight edge shapes. As soon as you recognize that you need an oval or a triangle to draw a subject, you want to be able to draw it with ease. It should be second nature to you. So if you're just watching these videos and not doing the practice, I highly recommend you go back and do the practice projects for lessons one and two. I promise that doing this practice, getting comfortable with basic shapes, and drawing lightly is going to make the drawing process so much easier once we get to actually drawing subjects. So, assuming that you've done the practice in the last couple of lessons, let's get to today's lesson. How to draw straight lines and straight edged shapes. So when you learn to draw circles, you learn that perfect circles are nearly impossible to draw free hand. And, luckily, there are things like compasses and stencils that'll help you with that. Straight lines work the same way. Drawing a perfectly straight line without a ruler is nearly impossible to do, and it's not a useful skill anyway. That's what rulers are for. If you ever need a perfectly straight line, I recommend using a What you're going to learn in this lesson is how to draw straight lines free hand. And just like with circles and ovals, your straight lines are not going to be perfect, and that's okay. You don't need perfectly straight lines in most drawings. What you're going to learn today is a strategy that will allow you to draw reasonably straight lines by hand, so you don't need to get out a ruler every time you need a straight line in your drawing. Let me show you an example. Let's take a look at a drawing of a train I did a while back. So here's the finished drawing. But if we strip away all of the shading in detail, we're left with a collection of straight lines and ovals. So hopefully, you can see that the straight lines in this drawing have a handmade quality, which I think really works for this subject. I actually think if I had used a ruler in a drawing like this, it might have looked too technical. It might have looked a bit cold and uninviting. Now, if we took a ruler to these lines, they would not be perfectly straight, but they work for this drawing. Just like these kinds of lines will work for most drawings you're going to do. So I'd like you to note that this drawing was constructed from very lightly drawn straight lines and ovals, exactly what you're learning. This is why it's so important to practice these basic skills. We want to draw an actual subject, you're ready. You're not going to be struggling with light lines or basic shapes. Being able to draw straight lines is essential for most human made objects, and in particular, architecture and furniture. But you'll also find straight lines in drawings of more organic subjects like landscapes in the human figure. A horizon line is a straight line. Many branches or edges of mountains will appear as straight lines. On the human body, forearms or knees often appear very box like, which require straight lines. By combining straight lines and curved lines in a drawing, you'll get a nice variety of line work. You'll be able to create an interesting and dynamic drawing. A couple of notes before we head to the drawing board. First, today, we are still going to be drawing lightly. Remember, our goal is that you use these light lines to lay a foundation for more finished work. Later on in this course, you'll learn how to darken those lines, but for now, keep your lines light. I'd also like to remind you that just like with circles and ovals, the motion that we're going to be using to draw these straight lines is going to originate from the shoulder. You're going to be drawing with your whole arm. Now your fingers and wrists are going to be pretty stable. So most of that motion is going to come from the shoulder with some movement at the elbow. All right. With all of this in mind, let's head to the drawing board. So we're here at the drawing board, and once again, pantomiming is going to play an essential role. Now I'm going to start drawing a horizontal line. So just watch. Now, there are a few things we want to look for when we're drawing a horizontal straight line. First, I want you to know that once again, I am pantomiming back and forth and forth. And just like with circles and ovals, you can get a sense of how long the line is going to be, the direction that it's going to go, and its placement on the page. You can visualize this line. Before I draw a line, I'm just going to begin pantomiming. There are a few things I'm looking for. First, I'm looking at the placement. I'm also looking at the length. I also want to see if there's any curvature in the line. Note that if there's some curvature here, you can see that while you're pantomiming. While you're pantomiming, you want to watch the pencil go back and forth and make sure that it appears straight. Again, I'm going for a horizontal line, so I want to make sure that it's not slanted one way or the other. Before I draw anything, I'm going to pantomime the line. Okay. Check its length. I want to make sure it's horizontal and not slanted one way or another. And I want to make sure it's straight. I don't want to detect any curvature. Once I'm ready, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm just going to tip the pencil down and go back and forth a few times. Now, just like with our circles and ovals, this is not a perfectly straight line, and that's okay. Remember, most of the time, you don't need a perfectly straight line. That's what rulers are for. But you want to get comfortable making straight lines free hand that are as straight as you can get them. So I'm going to make a few horizontal lines here. And again, they're not perfect, but for most drawings, these are going to be perfectly workable straight lines. Again, just like with our circles and ovals, no single pass is perfectly straight, but they tend to coalesce together to form a reasonably straight line. Now, one thing you can do to help you draw these straight lines is you can create two dots on the page and work on pantomiming back and forth between them. This is a really great exercise. Watch the pencil go back and forth. Again, once you're ready, you can tip the pencil down and complete that line. Now, when you first start off, you will likely notice some curvature in your lines. That's very normal. Again, you just want to consciously practice these straight lines. Okay. If you see any curvature in the lines that you draw, try and correct for that in the next line. Now let's try some vertical lines. Vertical lines work in a remarkably similar way. But of course, we're going to be moving up and down, not side to side. Same thing, I'm going to watch to make sure it's straight. I'm going to look for the length that I want once I'm ready. I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm just going to tip the pencil down. Go back and forth. Again, these lines are not perfectly straight, but for most purposes, these are going to work just fine. That one got away from me a little there. But again, this is to be expected. Let's try again. There we go. Again, we are not going for perfection here. We just want reasonably straight lines. If you ever need a perfectly straight line, you can use a ruler. Okay. So now you're going to learn how to use straight lines to construct some basic shapes. We're going to start with the square. So I'm going to visualize the placement of the square on the page before I draw a single line. So I want the square about here. I'm going to draw the base of it down here. Again, we can start with any edge, but I'm going to start with the base. So I'm going to pantomime horizontal line. Once I'm ready, I'm going to draw it. Now again, I'm drawing very, very lightly here. So now I've got the bottom edge of my square. Now, I've made this line longer than I need it. The reason is that I don't want to have to try and stop my pencil right at the exact moment the corner is going to be. Remember, the whole process you're learning here is how to start lightly, to lay a very light foundation of lines and shapes, and then to darken the lines you want to be seen by a viewer later on. So this is just the light foundation. So next, I need a vertical edge. Again, I'm going to pantomime and notice that I'm intentionally moving this line past where the corner will be. Again, I can darken the square that I want later on. When I'm ready, I'm going to lightly draw the left side of the square. Now, at this point, I could make my square, very small or very, very large and even going off the page. So it's not until we put one of the other edges down that we will define the proportions of our square. So I want the top of the square about here. Once again, I'm going to pantomime. Once I'm ready, I'm going to tip the pencil down, get that horizontal line. Once again, notice that I've overshot the corner. Now, when you are drawing a square, the goal is that each side is of equal distance. You want to think about where you want to put that final line. You don't want it to be too narrow to create a rectangle, nor do you want it to be too wide because again, that's going to create a rectangle. One thing you can do is use your pencil as a proportional measuring tool. I'm going to put the blunt end of my pencil right here next to the top of the square, and I'm going to mark with my finger the bottom. What this gives me is the length of this edge. Now I'm going to pull it over here, and I want to see where this line needs to come where the next line needs to come up. So it's going to roughly be about there. You'll learn a lot more about proportional measuring a little later on in this course. But while you're constructing a square, that is a great technique to use. Now I know where the final line needs to be. Once again, I'm going to pantomime. Once I see my line is straight and vertical, not tilted one way or the other, I am simply going to put my pencil down on the page, go back and forth. So here we have. A reasonably square shape. Now at this stage, we're not going to worry too much about darkening edges, but at this point, if you want to, you can go back and darken only the edges of the square that you want seen by view. Again, we don't need to worry about this too much. But one note here is that darkening a shape that you've already figured out with light lines feel so much more stable. Then starting from scratch and just trying to put dark lines around the edges. Now, if you want to, you can even go back with an eraser and lighten some of these construction lines. But again, for the most part, particularly when you're just practicing, you're welcome to just leave them. So constructing a rectangle works the exact same way. You're going to start by pantomiming some straight lines. You're going to overshoot the corners. Again, we are not worrying about the corners at this stage. Okay. We're just trying to get our shapes horizontal and vertical. Again, we can construct a nice foundation for a rectangular shape. Once again, at this stage, feel free to darken the lines if you want to, but again, this is not required. You're going to learn a lot more about darkening lines later on. There we have our rectangle. Hopefully, you can see that even though these lines are not perfectly straight, they are still perfectly fine for these types of shapes. There are two more shapes I want to talk about. First, let's talk about triangles. Now, triangles, of course, have three sides. Now, triangles are really fun to draw because we start to use lines that are slanted. So when we're drawing triangles, the lines don't need to be perfectly horizontal or vertical. So you have a little more freedom to play with the direction. But hopefully, you can see I'm using the exact same process here as I was with the squares. I am overshooting the corners, not worrying about the angles that are created by the straight lines until I've constructed the basic shape. And then again, I can always go back and darken the lines that I want seen by a viewer. And of course, there are so many different kinds of triangles that you can make. You can make them tall and slender, you can make them short and wide, can make them with equal sides. Right now, what you want to get good at is first, drawing horizontals and verticals. You need to recognize true horizontal and true vertical. The other thing you want to get good at is drawing lines that are going in any direction, not just straight up and down or side to side. Now, let's talk about quadrilaterals. Quadrilaterals are four sided shapes that don't necessarily need to have any right angles. So once again, we're going to start with straight lines, and I'm just making these shapes up right now. But I'm not worried about creating right angled shapes right now. Here is a quadrilateral. Again, quadrilaterals can come in nearly any orientation, but this gives you a sense of a four sided shape that has no right angles. Now, quadrilaterals can have right angles if you want them to. Here's a right angle, but then of course, you can shift the shape to go in a different direction. Now, quadrilaterals are very, very common when you're drawing different kinds of subjects, as you will see later on in this course. Of course, the shapes don't end there. We can have a five sided shape or beyond. So here we have a shape with no right angles that has five sides. Hopefully, this has given you a sense of how to construct basic straight edged shapes using straight lines. This is great practice both to familiarize yourself with different kinds of shapes and to practice drawing lines going any direction, horizontal, vertical or slanted in any direction. Hopefully, you now have a good idea of how to draw straight lines and how to use those straight lines to construct shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, quadrilaterals, and beyond. So let's get you right to your practice. Your project today is going to have two parts. First, I want you to draw 100 straight lines. These lines should include horizontal lines, vertical lines, and lines that are slanted. You want to practice lines going in all directions. You'll notice that drawing a horizontal line feels different than drawing a vertical line. You'll move your arm differently. It'll engage different parts of your body. When you're drawing slanted lines, once again, it feels different as you move. Trying to get the line reasonably straight require different movements depending on what direction you're drawing. By practicing drawing lines that are horizontal, vertical, and slanted, you'll get a good idea of how to keep your lines straight no matter what direction you're drawing them in. After you've drawn 100 straight lines, I want you to draw 100 straight edged shapes. Just like you saw me demonstrate today, you should draw squares, rectangles, triangles, quadrilaterals, and beyond. Now, when you're drawing squares and rectangles, remember to try and keep your horizontals and verticals true. Being able to recognize and draw true horizontal lines and true vertical lines can be an important skill. I'd also like to remind you to start by drawing these shapes lightly. Once you've completed a shape, if you want to, you can darken the edges, but that is not required. The important thing is to develop a skill and comfort with drawing straight lines and using those lines to construct straight edged shapes. After this lesson, we're going to do one more lesson on shapes, and then you're going to learn to bring all of these shapes together to draw actual subjects. So make sure you're doing the practice. When we start drawing actual subjects, we want to make sure that you are comfortable making these basic shapes. Remember, these are the building blocks of every subject you want to draw. By understanding how to draw these basic shapes, you can then combine them to create An drawing of any subject, no matter how complex. Well, thank you so much for letting me be your instructor and for spending this time with me. I will see you in the next lesson. Okay. 6. Beyond Basic Shapes: It. Welcome to Lesson four. In this lesson, we're going to go beyond basic shapes and explore more complex shapes. The reason for this is that when you start drawing actual subjects, the shapes you will encounter will not always be as simple as circles, ovals, squares and triangles. You're going to encounter shapes that are a little more complex that you won't always have names for. The goal of today's lesson is to expand your vocabulary of shapes to make sure that you have a way of conceptualizing and drawing shapes that are more complex than basic circles, ovals, triangles, and squares. And remember, the process that you're learning in this course is how to use basic shapes to draw more complex subjects. The more shapes you can recognize and draw, the more successful your drawings will be. That is the most critical skill here at the beginning to look at any subject you want to draw, translate it into basic shapes, and understand how to get those basic shapes, on your page at the right size and at the right place. Using this method, you can draw any subject by first laying down a solid foundation of basic shapes that are in proportion. So in the next lesson, you're going to learn how to take all of the shapes you've learned so far and combine them to draw any subject, no matter how complex. But this is why it's so important that we focus all this time and energy on shapes now before we start trying to draw actual subjects. So a couple of quick notes before we head to the drawing board. First, while I'm drawing these more complex subjects, you're going to notice that I'm not simply tracing all the way around an outline. I'm constructing some of these shapes curve by curve and line by line. This allows me to really focus on each individual section of the shape while still keeping the overall shape in mind. And I'd like to once again remind you to draw lightly and use long fluid strokes. You don't want to draw using short, scratchy strokes or with very slow strokes. We want lines that are fluid and confident. Now, one of the important reasons for this is that when you draw with more speed and fluidity, that eliminates a lot of the natural handshake that can occur when you draw more slowly. So even though we're going to be constructing shapes line by line and curve by curve, I still want most of the motion of your pencil to originate at the shoulder. All right. With all of this in mind, let's add to the drawing board for a demo. So we're going to start off today learning about ovoids. Now, the word ovoid is just a geometric term for egg shape. So when you hear the word ovoid, we're essentially talking about egg shapes. Now, what makes an egg shape different from an oval is that egg shapes tend to have one larger area and one smaller and more narrow area. Now, when you drew circles and ovals, you made the motion of the shape, and then you put the pencil down and made a pass around the entire edge of the shape. But when we're drawing ovoids, we're actually going to construct each section of it separately. So let me give you an example. So I'm going to draw a very characteristic egg shape. I'm going to begin by first drawing a light circle, and this circle is going to be the bottom segment of our ovoid. Now to draw the more narrow part of the ovoid, I'm going to rock my pencil back and forth. And just like with our circles ovals and straight lines, I'm just going to pantime first, and visualize what that line is going to look like before I draw it. Once again, pantomiming is such a great way to get a sense of the shape before you commit to any marks. So once I'm ready, I'm going to tip my pencil down and rocket back and forth to get that narrower part of our egg shape. Now, of course, I've drawn this very lightly, but once I have my basic shape, if I want to, I can darken the areas that I want to. Again, this is so much easier. Once I've drawn the lighter shapes underneath. Darkening it becomes much easier. Now, just like with ovals, we can change the shape and proportion of an ovoid. We can draw some ovoids wider, So they have more of a squat shape, or we can draw them much more narrow. Of course, just like ovals, they don't just have to move up and down vertically. We can change the axis of an ovoid, so it is tilted. Here you can see this ovoid appears to be tilting. Traditionally, ovoids are symmetric, meaning if we draw a line through the center through this long axis, one side mirrors the other. I've drawn these other ovoids having a vertical axis. But this one I've drawn slanted. Of course, ovoids can be big or small and they can go at any axis. And of course, you can see, I'm still drawing these very lightly. Now, ovoids are very common and useful when you're drawing living things, in particular, people and animals. Now we're going to build on this idea, and we're going to draw ovals and ovoids that are starting to bend. So if you can imagine taking an oval, grabbing the sides and start to bend it down, we would get a shape something like this. I want you to watch how I construct this shape. Once again, I'm not just going to trace around the contour, I'm going to construct each curve separately. So I'm going to start off by making the motion of an oval, But instead of drawing the full oval, I'm just going to draw that top line. Next, I'm going to draw a curve on the side and come draw the curve on this side, and now I'm going to draw a line that arcs up to connect these. So you can see that this gives us a shape that appears to be an oval that has been bent. It's like somebody took an oval and bent it down on the sides. Once again, these kinds of shapes are incredibly useful when you're drawing people, animals, and all kinds of other natural objects. So here you can see that I have done the same thing, but with an ovoid. So this is like an ovoid that's been bent. And remember, the difference between an oval and an ovoid is that an ovoid has one larger section and one smaller or more narrow section. Now, of course, when we start to bend ovals and ovoids, they don't have a straight line axis anymore. But you can imagine a curving line going through the center, so they have a curved axis. So this is a great way to think about these shapes. So imagining this curved axis is a great way to start to think about these shapes, their direction and how they're oriented in space. So I'm going to construct one more bending ovoid. Again, I'm going to start with one section of the ovoid. Then I'm going to Construct the next part of the curve, the next part of the curve, and I'm going to then draw the concave line. So again, I'm not just starting at one spot and tracing around the contour edge. I'm constructing each part of the shape, really paying attention to each curve. Now, before we move on, there's another idea I'd like to introduce. Take a look at this part of our shape here. Now, when a line curves inward toward the center of a shape, we call that a concave curve. You can see these three bending shapes each have a concave curve that goes inward toward the center of the form. Here is the concave curve here. Here is our concave curve here, and of course, here is this one. So the opposite of a concave curve is a convex curve. So when we're drawing circles, ovals, and ovoids, really we're dealing with convex curves, curves that are curving outward or away from the center of the form. But a concave line curves inward toward the center of the form. One way that I like to remember this is that word cave. A cave is something that goes into the side of a hill or a mountain, and a concave line is something that dives in toward the center of a shape. So I'd like you to keep these ideas in mind. A convex line curves outward from the center of a form, and a concave line curves inward toward the center of a form. So another important difference between these bending shapes and more traditional ovals ovoids and circles is that ovals ovoids and circles, Tend to be symmetric. Again, one side mirrors the other. Now, this is an idea we've talked about quite a bit, but you'll notice that when we get to bending ovals and ovoids, they are not as symmetric. Particularly when we bend an ovoid where one part of it is bigger than the other, there is no line of symmetry here. So a traditional ovoid, tends to be symmetric where one side mirrors the other. But a bent ovoid has no line of symmetry. Now, you can make a case that a bent oval like this does have a line of symmetry where one side mirrors the other. But as soon as we start bending ovoids, we are no longer dealing with symmetric shapes. These are ideas, I'd just like you to keep in mind as we're moving through these more complex shapes. Are they symmetric, or are they a symmetric? Do they have a straight axis or a curved axis? When you see curved lines, are they convex? Or are they concave. Now, this is not a geometry lesson. I don't want to get too caught up in these ideas, but I do think it's important that you have some way to think about and talk about shapes. Now, before we move on, there is one more type of curved shape that I'd like to teach you. To chambered shapes. So let me explain what I mean. A two chambered shape is related to a bent ovoid. What we're going to do is start off with one shape. In this case, I'll start off with a circle at the bottom, but then I'm going to draw an oval And what I'm going to do is I'm going to bring a convex line and connect one side of this shape, but the other side of this shape, I'm going to trace around the edges. So what we have are two shapes, a circle and an oval coming together, and on one side, we have this lovely convex curve, but on the other side, these dive in and create an angle. These kinds of two chamber shapes are incredibly useful when you start drawing people in animals. What you tend to get with those shapes are a shape that looks like this, where you have the upper chamber containing the rib cage, which is just an ovoid and the lower chamber containing the pelvis, which is quite spherical. So these shapes are particularly useful when you're drawing people in animals. So let me construct just a couple more. I'm going to start with a circle. Then I'm going to draw another shape. I'll draw another circle this time, and I'm going to connect one side with a convex line, but on the other part of it, I'm going to allow it to dive in and meet at an angle. So again, I think of these as two chambered shapes. One shape occupying each section of the form. And of course, we can change the proportions quite dramatically depending on what we're doing. So these two chambered shapes, you can stretch, you can bend, to make them whatever you want. Now, before we move on, I'd like to point out one more thing. Take a look at the quality of these lines. These lines don't seem nervous or skittish. I'm trying to draw with some confidence and some fluidity. These strokes are long. They are fluid, they are drawn with some speed. I think lines like this convey confidence. It looks like I am enjoying the drawing process. They don't seem timid. They seem bold, they seem fluid. And to me, lines like this are much more beautiful and interesting than lines that are drawn really slowly. So hopefully you can start to get a sense of this as well. So from here on out, we're just going to be exploring different kinds of shapes. So I'd like to start off by applying this concept of bending to triangles and rectangles. Just like we can bend an oval, we can bend a triangle. So here we have a triangle that has been bent. So we can draw a triangle that's bending just a little bit, or we can have a triangle that is bending quite a lot. Once again, you can see me constructing these shapes using fluid line work. Of course, we can also bend rectangles. Here I'm taking a rectangle. I'll square off the edges here. We get a shape like this. One thing you will occasionally see, although not that often is a triangle or rectangle that bends not just once, but twice. We get a shape that looks something like this. So what I'm trying to do is give you a way to conceptualize these kinds of shapes. And this idea of taking a shape that we recognize like a triangle or a rectangle and bending it is a really great way to start to think about what these shapes are, how you arrive at these kinds of shapes. So often we'll have shapes in between. So one common shape that we'll find in drawing creatures with long necks is a rectangular shape that tends to narrow as it goes toward the top. So we might get a shape that looks something like this. So if you imagine the neck of a brontosaurus or something like that. A shape like this isn't quite a rectangle because it's narrowing as it gets closer to the top, more like a triangle. But it's also not quite a triangle because it's blunted at the top like a rectangle. Of course, it's bending twice. It's bending here and then it changes directions and bends the other way. There's not necessarily a name for this shape. But again, I want to give you a way to think about these kind of shapes. We're expanding your vocabulary. Because remember, when you start drawing actual subjects, not everything is going to be as simple as circle, square, or triangle. You need a way to think about a broader range of shapes. So Here's where things get really interesting. Let's talk about composite shape. A composite shape is when we combine two or more different shapes together. So for example, we might get a composite shape that one section is a circle, but the other end is a triangle. This creates almost a droplet shape. You might get a shape that is squared off at one end and becomes more ovular at the other end. You'll find all kinds of different shapes. Now, when you are drawing actual subjects, it may be easier for you to simplify this into something like a rectangle that's been slightly bent and an oval, and that's fine. But I'd like you to start thinking about shapes in a more complex and sophisticated way. Here's another composite form. We might start off with a rectangle and then put a curved line on top. So this could be part of a circle or an oval. Again, we can construct all kinds of shapes by combining them together. Okay, one more concept. Another way we can start to construct shapes is by what I call taking bites out of them. Here we've started with the circle. Now, if we were to draw part of a second circle here, we can construct a shape that appears to have this bite taken out of it. So we're left with a bit of a moon shape here, almost a crescent. Of course, we can start with any simple shape and take not just one bite out of it, but multiple bites out of it to create all kinds of unique shapes. So if you were to encounter a shape like this and you were trying to draw it, again, it's very difficult to start tracing around the edges and hope you get it right. But if you can recognize that it's based on an oval with a triangle cutout and part of another oval or circle cutout, it becomes much easier to conceptualize these kinds of shapes. It can also be very interesting when you start off with shapes with straight edges, and then add some curves to them. Okay. And again, you can construct any kind of shape you want to. So part of what this section is all about. Is exploring and experimenting with shapes just to see what you can create, and again, to familiarize yourself with different kinds of shapes. Hopefully, at this point, you have a number of new ways of thinking about shapes. You can bend shapes. You can bend shapes more than once. You can combine different shapes together to create composite shapes. You can also start with one shape and use another shape to remove a section of the first shape. You can combine all of these techniques together to create some very beautiful and interesting, complex forms. And remember, shapes can be symmetric where one side mirrors the other So we have this shape is symmetric. Can you find another shape on this page that's symmetric? Right here. We draw a line. The line of symmetry between these two sides, where this side mirrors this side. We have lines that are convex that curve outward from the center of the form, and we have lines that are concave that curve inward toward the center of the form. Hopefully, this gives you a sense of how to construct all kinds of different shapes by bending them, combining them, and using shapes to make cutouts. So at this point, you should have a good idea of how to take basic shapes and modify and combine them to create more complex shapes. The goal of this lesson is for you to explore shapes and to expand your vocabulary of shapes. Now, as useful as circles, squares and triangles are, when you're drawing actual subjects, you're very likely to encounter more complex shapes. So hopefully, now you have a way of conceptualizing these shapes, a way to understand the shapes that you're going to be seeing and how to draw them. All right. Let's get you practicing. For your practice today, I'd like you to draw 25 ovoids, 25 bent ovals and ovoids. I'd like you to draw 25 bent rectangles and triangles. And finally, I'd like you to draw 25 composite shapes that include both straight and curved lines. Now, I'd like you to have fun with this project. I want you to be able to explore shapes, to invent, to see what kinds of shapes you can come up with and to figure out ways to construct them. Remember, this is an exploration. There's no right set of shapes you should be drawing here. See what shapes you can come up with. I want you to explore all of the methods that we talked about today. And of course, you're free to go beyond what I've taught here and find your own ways of making unique shapes. I would once again like to remind you that I am giving you the minimum amount of practice. You are always encouraged to increase the amount of practice. Remember, you should always be looking for ways to practice more, not less. So, have fun with your project today. I will see you back here in the next lesson where we're going to take everything you've learned so far and put it together to do actual drawings. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I'm thrilled we're on this voyage together. I'll see you in the next lesson. 7. How to Simplify Any Subject: Well, congratulations on making it to Lesson five. Now, I know many of you have been anxious to start drawing actual subjects. But today, you're going to find out why it's been so important for you to practice these basic shapes before trying to apply them to an actual drawing. In this lesson, you're going to learn a straightforward process that will allow you to simplify any subject into basic shapes. But before we get into the lesson, I really want to make sure that you have actually watched the previous lessons and that you've done the practice. In my experience, beginning students have a much easier time going through this drawing process if they've put in the time and practice to learn how to draw basic shapes and learn how to draw them lightly. Now, I know the previous practice might have seemed basic, but at this point, I'm going to assume that you are comfortable with drawing all kinds of basic shapes. So if for any reason, you've arrived at this lesson and you haven't watched the previous lessons and done the practice, I highly encourage you to go back and do so. Well, assuming you're ready, let's move on. In lesson one, you learned that even the best artists rarely get it right the first time. Therefore, we start off with very light lines that we can modify and erase if necessary. In Lesson two, you learned how to draw curved shapes like circles and ovals. In Lesson three, you learned how to draw straight edged shapes like squares, rectangles and triangles. In Lesson four, you learned how to draw ovoids and you learned how to draw more complex shapes by combining different shapes together. In this lesson, all of that practice is going to pay off because you're going to learn how to take all of these shapes and combine them to draw any subject. Now, before we get to today's demonstration, there are a couple of things I'd like to cover. Now, the kind of drawing that we're doing where we look at a subject and try and represent it realistically on the paper is called observational drawing. Now, most people are familiar with this concept of looking at an object and drawing what you see. But what many people don't realize is that while you are learning to draw, you should spend far more time observing your subject than actually drawing it. In fact, for beginners, the ratio that I recommend is spending about 70% of your time observing your subject and only about 30% of your time with pencil to paper. Now, as your skills advance, as you gain more experience, this ratio can shift. But right now at the beginning, I highly encourage you to spend most of your time observing and analyzing. Now, I've been teaching drawing for a very long time. And one of the things I've realized is that my job is not so much to teach you techniques with a pencil, although I will be doing a lot of that. But the most important part of my job is to teach you how to manage the conversation you are having with yourself in your mind as you draw. Helping you manage the conversation going on in your head as you draw is far more important than any pencil technique I can teach you. Whatever and however you are thinking as you draw will determine what comes out on the page. What you notice, what you don't notice, what you decide to draw, how you decide to draw it, how you interpret information, how you handle mistakes. Even your moods can have an impact in the quality of your drawings. So in this lesson, I'm going to teach you some ways to focus and structure the conversation that you are having with yourself in the privacy of your own mind as you are drawing. So right now, I'm going to introduce you to a list of five questions that you're going to ask yourself while you're drawing. First, I'm just going to go through the list. Then I'm going to teach you how to use these questions to actually get a drawing of a subject down on the paper. So, here are the five questions. Question one. What is the biggest shape? Question two, What is its axis? Question three. How big should it be? Question four. Where on the page should it go? Question five, what changes do I need to make? All right. So here's how you're going to use these questions. Once you're set up to draw, before you put pencil to paper, you're going to ask yourself the first four questions. Once you've asked and answered those four questions, you're going to make your first light attempt at the shape. You're going to make your first attempt at getting that big shape down on the page at the right axis, at the right size, and at the right place. Now, as we've talked about, inevitably, you're probably not going to get it right the first time. This is perfectly normal. So now we move on to question number five, what changes do I need to make? This question presupposes that there are changes that need to be made. Once you've made any necessary changes to your first attempt, you're going to go back to question number one with one small change. Instead of asking, what is the biggest shape, you're now going to ask, what is the next biggest From there, you're going to repeat this list of five questions until you have captured your subject on the page. By using these five questions, you will always know what to do next. So our subject today is a scrub jay. Now, I love working with birds for projects like this because they simplify beautifully into basic shapes. All right, let's get to our demo. Now, when you see a finished drawing, it is so easy to become consumed with details, texture and shading. But the reality is that none of those details make any sense unless they are meticulously arranged in relationship to the larger shapes. So that's where we're going to begin with the shapes of our subject. So let's begin with our first question. What is the biggest shape? So hopefully, you can see that the biggest shape is the oval for the bird's body. Now that we know that, let's move on to our second question. What is its axis? Well, we can see that the axis is not vertical, it's not horizontal. It's slanted. I would say it's pretty close to 45 degrees, but not quite. Now, it's not important to figure out a numeric angle for the axis, but we want to get a good idea of how the oval is oriented in space. What is that axis? Now, what helps me to visualize the axis is to lay my pencil across the page at the axis I think a shape is going to be. So this is approximately going to be the axis for the oval. So we know what shape we're going to draw. We have a general idea of what its axis is going to be. Let's move on to question three. How big should it be? Now, for the first shape, we're going to answer this question in relationship to the page itself. The question of how big should it be is going to determine the size of the drawing on the paper. So I don't want the drawing to be too small, I don't want it to be too large. I'd like the drawing to fill most of the page, but I'd like to leave room above and below to make sure that the drawing doesn't feel too tight or constricted on the page. So let's move on to question four. Where should it go? Now, for the first shape, once again, we are answering this question in relationship to the page. I'd like the bird to be on the right so it is gazing into the emptiness of the page on the left. So before I make a single I know what shape I'm going to draw, what its axis is, how big it's going to be, and where on the page it's going to go. Now that I've answered these first four questions, I'm ready to make my first attempt. So keeping all four questions in mind, I'm just going to begin by pantomiming the shape. Once it's the shape that I want, at the right axis, at the right placement, and at the right size, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm just going to tip my pencil down and not just go around once, but go around a few times. I'm drawing incredibly lightly. Now, I know that this shape is very, very light and that it's barely visible. But remember, that's the point. As long as you can see that it is an oval and get an idea of where it is on the page, it is dark enough. I know that I rarely get it right the first time and that I'm almost certainly going to make a change to this shape, so I want to draw it as lightly as I can. So despite all of the thought I put into this first shape, I don't want to assume that I got it right the first time. Remember, even the best artists rarely get it right the first time. So before we move on, I'm going to ask myself the fifth question, what changes do I need to make. Now, what I love about this question is that it presupposes there are changes that I need to make. The idea of making adjustments and making corrections is built right into the process. Making changes and adjustments is not something to be frustrated at or upset about. It is a normal part of the drawing process. So what changes do I need to make to this oval? I think this oval for the bird's body is a little too upright. I think it needs to tilt down a little more. I'd also like to move the entire oval just a little bit higher. So once again, I'm going to begin by pantomiming just to make sure that I'm going to make the changes that I want. Okay. Once I'm ready, I'm going to tip the pencil down and not just go around once but go around a few times. Okay. Now, notice that I've drawn my second attempt slightly darker than the first. This allows me to differentiate between my first attempt and my second attempt. So this is a visual shorthand that I use often. I tend not to like to erase, especially at the beginning. So now I can tell which is my first attempt and which is my more accurate second attempt just by looking at the line weight. I know that the darker shape is the more accurate second attempt. So now we've gone through all five of our questions, and it has allowed us to get an oval on the page that accurately represents the bird's body. This oval is at the proper axis and it's at the size and placement I want it to be. Now, for ovals, I'm also looking at the level of openness. Now, I may make some additional changes later on, but right now, I'm feeling like this oval is working for the body of the bird. So now we're going to repeat this set of five questions with one important difference. For question one, we're going to ask, what is the next biggest shape? So hopefully, you can see that the next biggest shape is the rectangle for the tail. Now, often, when I'm teaching and I ask students, what is the biggest shape, they'll often give me an answer like tail. Now, tail is the correct body part. But remember, tail is not a shape. We always want to translate what we're seeing into basic shapes that we know how to draw. So the next biggest shape is the rectangle for the tail. Now, the bird's tail is not a perfect rectangle, but that's okay. We're just trying to figure out what is the closest shape to the form we're trying to draw. Later on, we can shape these basic forms into the more specific parts of the bird that we're seeing. But for now, we just need a basic shape. So let's move on to question number two. What is its axis. So once again, you'll see me lay my pencil down on the paper to try and get a sense of the axis for the bird's tail. Is it more raised or is it lowered? I just want to get a sense of this axis. Laying the pencil down helps me visualize the placement and the axis of the tail. So once I have a sense of the axis for this rectangle, I can move on to question number three. How big should it be? As we go through this set of five questions, the second time, we already have a shape on the page. So instead of asking this question in relationship to the page itself, we're going to try and figure out how big the shape needs to be in relationship to the oval that we've already drawn. We need to compare the size of the rectangle for the bird's tail to the oval for the bird's body. Now, the rectangle for the tail is almost but not quite as long as the length of the oval for the bird's body. So you can look back and forth from the reference image to your drawing. So hopefully, you can see this with your eyes alone. Take a look at the reference image and look back and forth from the bird's tail to the bird's body and ask yourself, which is longer. Now, if you're struggling to see this, that's okay. In the next couple of lessons, you're going to learn some additional strategies that will help you measure your subject. But again, for now, we just want to get a sense of it. You'll be amazed how far you can go using your eyes alone to evaluate proportions. So we don't need an exact measurement here. We just need to get a sense of the size of the shape before we draw it. So let's move on to question number four. Where should it go? Once again, we are answering this question in relationship to the oval that's already on our page. So we know that this rectangle will need to project out from the oval for the bird's body. But the rectangle is not simply going to be projecting straight out from the center of the oval, it's going to be raised up. It's going to be closer to the top of the oval. Okay, so I know I'm going to draw a rectangle for the bird's tail. I know that it's not going to be quite as long as the oval for the bird's body. So with the answers to these first four questions in mind, I'm going to make my first attempt at the rectangle for the bird's tail. Once again, I'm going to pantomime. And when I'm ready, I'm going to make my first attempt. At the shape for the bird's tail. So once again, I've drawn this very, very lightly because I assume that I have not gotten it right the first time and that I will need to make changes. So before we move on, I'm going to ask myself the fifth question. What changes do I need to make? So question five doesn't just have to be about shape correction. We can modify the shapes as we're drawing. For example, the bird's tail seems just a little more rounded, and I thought it could be just a little more narrow. So I'm going to go ahead and make those changes. So now we have the oval for the bird's body and the rectangle for the bird's tail. So once again, I'm going to repeat this set of five questions. But instead of guiding you through each question individually, I'm going to speed up my evaluation. So I think that the next biggest shape is the oval for the bird's head. The oval is tilted up slightly. It is approximately a quarter or maybe even as small as one fifth of the oval for the bird's body. Remember, right now, we're just making these evaluations with our eyes alone. The oval needs to be above the right side of the oval, but it's not in line with the edge. It's going to be in just a little bit. Now that I have all of those questions in mind, I'm going to make my first attempt at the oval for the bird's head. I think it's a little narrow. I think the shape could be a little more open. So I'm going to go ahead and make that change. So with practice, these five questions start to become intuitive. You'll start making these kinds of evaluations immediately and without even thinking about them. The more you practice these five questions, the more you practice translating your subject into basic shapes, the quicker you will get. Now, of course, there is a lot more to drawing than just basic shapes and these five questions. But you'll be amazed at how far you can actually get only using these simple strategies. This is what the drawing process is all about. You start lightly, you try and capture the biggest forms and slowly work your way toward the smaller forms. We assume that we're not going to get it right the first time, so we can just go about the process of making whatever changes we need to without getting frustrated. Making changes is built right into the process. So we can continue on with these five questions until we have drawn a foundation of basic shapes that addresses the entire subject. Can draw the long rectangle for the bird's leg. I think it needs to be moved up just a little. So again, I'm just going to make that change. We can draw the triangle for the bird's beak. We can draw the circle for the bird's eye. Now, I'm always paying attention to the axis, size, and placement of each shape in relationship to all of the other shapes on the page. The more experience you get with these questions, the quicker you will be able to make these evaluations and get these shapes on the page. But to get to this point, you must practice and you must train your mind to make these evaluations quickly. Now, at this point, I'd like to remind you that none of these lines or shapes are intended to be seen by a viewer. They are only here to serve as a foundation over which I can draw the dark lines, all of the details texture and shading that the viewers will see. This light drawing just serves as a foundation. Later on in the drawing process, I'm going to cover this foundation with all of the dark lines, the detail, the textures and the shading that will make this drawing come alive. But this light foundation is just so I can get these basic shapes on the page at the right place, at the right size, at the right axis, and in proportion to one another before I draw darker lines over it. Now, it's important to remember that not all shapes are as basic as circles, ovals, rectangles and triangles. Some shapes you encounter, you may not have a name for. This is why we practiced some more complex and composite shapes earlier in this course. So let's take a look at the bird's wink. We have this organic shape that's sort of triangular. Sort of like a quadrilateral and almost has elements of an oval to it. Now, it doesn't really matter how you conceive of this shape as long as you can get something on the page that represents what you're seeing. Remember, there's no single right way to break any subject down into shapes. The shapes that you see may differ from the shapes that I see, and that's perfectly fine. And as your drawing develops, you can go a little beyond basic shapes. So I don't need to simplify the shape of the bird's neck to be able to connect it. I can connect it using lines alone. Okay. And as the drawing continues, I can add more and more forms and shapes to really start to bring this subject to life. Okay. This is how this kind of a drawing starts, simple, lightly with basic shapes and forms. Now, we know that this drawing is eventually going to have a lot of detail to it, but it starts very simply at the beginning. Later on, when I add detail, when I add texture, when I add shading, I don't have to worry about whether or not my drawing is in proportion. I don't have to worry about the head being too big or too small or not being in the right place. I don't have to worry about the bird's tail being the wrong shape. I have figured out all of these things in advance with light lines that I can use as a guide as I darken lines and add detail in shading. Okay. Now, of course, not every subject simplifies into shapes as basic as ovals, rectangles, triangles, and so on. Now, many of the subjects you draw, you're going to need to construct from more complex shapes, the kinds of shapes you learned about in lesson four. For example, take a look at this drawing. Now, although there are more basic shapes like the oval for the head and the triangle for the beak, this subject is made up of more complex shapes. For example, the bird's body is ovular, but one side of this oval is much more flat. The back of the bird's body is a much more traditional oval shape. But the front of the body is much straighter. This shape should remind you of some of the shapes that you worked with in lesson four. But even though this shape isn't as basic as a simple oval, we can still think our way through it using the five questions. It's just that we need to think of this shape in a slightly more complex way. Now let's take a look at the bird's wing on our left. Now, even a simplified version of the wing is a more complex shape than we've been working with. Now, the left side of the wing can be simplified into something very ovular. So you should be familiar with shapes like this all written. But the top of the wing flattens out almost into a straight line as does the very bottom of the wing. And here, where the bird's wing connects to the body, we can see it curves once again. Now, of course, this is a more complex shape, but we can still think our way through it using the five questions. Even though we don't have a name for a shape like this, it still has attributes that we recognize. It has an area that is very ovular. It has areas that are very flat, and it has areas that are rounded. We can also get a sense of its axis, its size and its placement on the page. The shape for this wing is very ovular except it tends to be pointed at the end. So again, very similar to a shape that we know with a slight change. And, of course, just like more basic shapes, if we need to, we can make changes. For example, this shape needs to be a little bigger. It needs to come out just a little more on the left. The bird's tail is more trapezoidal. We can see it has some curved edges. This line is slightly concave. This line is slightly convex, and this line curves outward before straightening out at the connection of the bird's body. So all over the place, we see basic shapes, shapes that we recognize, like this ovoid here for the head, and shapes that we may not have names for, but that we can still think through, like the shape for the wing. I want you to pay attention to the moment when these basic shapes that we can recognize, like ovals, like circles, like triangles, Stop appearing to be just shapes and start to resemble an actual subject. Now, when we're trying to draw something, it's important that we just think of the shapes. But as the drawing progresses, these shapes start to transcend their basic qualities, and they start to become something greater than the sum of their parts. The more and more shapes you lay down on the page, the smaller and smaller the shapes become, the more the drawing stops looking like basic shapes and gives way to the illusion of life. So hopefully, you now have a sense of how you can use these five questions to draw a foundation of basic shapes that accurately capture your subject. Now, it's important to note that at this stage of my creative life, I don't rigorously go through these five questions every time I draw. But I've engaged in this enough that it's become intuitive. Translating a subject into basic shapes has become second nature. But here at the beginning, as you are learning, I highly recommend that you do go through these five questions in a rigorous way. You want to get this process ingrained. Looking at a subject and simplifying it into basic shapes should become second nature to you. Now, in this demonstration, I tried to give you a realistic sense of what the drawing process looks like. And at the beginning stages, it's messy, it's rough. That is perfectly normal. I'd like to remind you of this metaphor of sculpting a piece of clay. We just need to get something down on the page, even if it's wrong, even if it's rough, and we can work with it. We can shape it into the subject that we want to capture. That's the drawing process. It is not about getting it right the first time Now, the more you practice this process, the more intuitive it's going to become, and you'll get to a point where you don't have to think about it. Your natural reaction to getting a pencil in your hand will be to start simplifying everything you see into basic shapes. Okay, let's get you to your project. For today's project, I want you to practice simplifying subjects into basic shapes. I recommend starting with birds, and in fact, I've included some images of birds for you to draw from. You're also welcome to find your own images. But remember, keep your subjects simple at this stage. The reason I like to work with birds is because they simplify into basic shapes in a very clear way. I don't recommend figure drawing or more complex animals at this stage. Now, over the next two lessons, you're going to learn some additional tools and techniques that will fill in a lot of the gaps of this process. So, by the end of this basic skills course, you will have a whole suite of skills that will allow you to look at a subject and get it down on the page. But this initial strategy of translating your subject into basic shapes is going to form the foundation of all of these other drawing skills. Now, I'd like to remind you that for your practice today, you are not doing finished drawings. The goal of this project is for you to lay down a light foundation of basic shapes that are at the right size and at the right place. You want to bring your drawings to about the same level that you saw me bring my drawing to in the demo. Now, this light foundation of lines is never intended to be seen by a viewer. This project will help you understand how to lay that solid foundation that you will later build upon that you will eventually learn to cover up with beautiful dark lines that are intended to be seen by a viewer. That process starts here. So let's get you to your practice. I'll see you in the next lesson. 8. The Basics of Measuring & Proportion: Welcome to Lesson six. Now, in the last few lessons, you've been learning about basic shapes and how to get those shapes on the page at the right axis, size, and placement. Now, basic shapes in the five questions that you learned in the last lesson are a great start. But in the next two lessons, I'm going to teach you some additional tools that will ensure that the basic shapes and forms that you start your drawing with are going to be accurate and useful later on in the drawing process. Remember, later on, you're going to cover these foundational forms with dark lines, shading and texture. But until then, our most important goal is to get the basic forms on the page accurately. So to help you do that, in this lesson, you're going to learn how to measure any subject and determine its proportions. Then you're going to learn how to get those proportions into your drawing. Now, measuring in proportion can be somewhat technical, but this is an essential skill to master if you want your drawings to be accurate. Learning how to measure your subject will help you avoid many common proportional errors, like getting a part of your drawing too big or too small. Now, for those of you who are interested in figure drawing, proportional comparison is an essential skill because it allows you to figure out the proportions of the figure and to accurately represent those proportions on the page. Now, if you're drawing a tree, people may not notice that much if the proportions are inaccurate. But if you're drawing a human figure, everybody will notice if it's out of proportion. But regardless of what subjects you want to draw, understanding measuring and proportion is an essential skill for every aspiring artist. Before we get to today's demo, let's explore what proportion is. Proportion refers to the size relationships between the various parts of your subject. Now, when your drawing accurately reflects the proportions of your subject, your drawing is in proportion. But if your drawing doesn't reflect the proportions of your actual subject. If you're drawing a figure and the head is too big or an arm is too long, then that drawing is out of proportion. So for a drawing to be in proportion, all aspects of that drawing must reflect the actual proportions of the subject. To help you understand proportion, let's take a look at a simple square. The distance from one side of the square to the other is its width. The distance from the bottom of the square to the top is its height. On a perfect square, the width and height are exactly equal to one another, giving us a proportional ratio of one to one. Now, if we double the height of this square, we arrive at a shape that is twice as tall as it is wide. The ratio of width to height is now one to two. And when we talk about proportion, the width always goes on the left side of the colon and the height always goes on the right side. Now let's take a look at a shape that is twice as wide as it is high. The ratio of width to height is now two to one. Now, of course, not all ratios of width to height occur in whole numbers. So now let's take a look at a shape that is 1.5 times as tall as it is wide. This shape would have a ratio of one to 1.5 or one to 1.5. Being able to divide distances is an important skill that we'll cover in the demonstration. Now, it's important to note that not all measurements are this clean. When you're drawing, you'll encounter many measurements that don't happen in whole numbers or even easily recognizable divisions like halves or quarters. But a proportion does not have to be clean in order to be useful. So going back to our shape that has a proportional ratio of one to 1.5, let's raise the height just a little bit. So at this point, this shape is not exactly one to 1.5. It's a little taller, but this is still useful information. We can always use our eyes to help us determine how much taller or wider something is if it doesn't match a proportion exactly. So in today's demonstration, you're going to see me go back and forth between taking measurements from the actual subject using a measuring tool and just using my eyes to measure. So now, I want to show you how to use a measuring tool to actually take measurements from the subject that you're drawing. So first, let's talk about measuring tools. You're going to need a tool that is straight, long, and slender. Now, typically, I just use a pencil to take proportional comparisons. But if you need something that's longer, many people use knitting needles or a slender paintbrush. Feel free to use whatever suits you. I like to use my pencil because I can take a measurement with it and then just get right back to drawing. But again, this is a personal choice. So what I'm about to show you will work whether you're sitting or standing, but you want to get set up to draw. And when you're measuring, you want to make sure that you're upright and you stay in the exact same location. You don't want to lean side to side or backward or forward as any shift in your position can alter the proportions that you're going to see. So the object we're going to be working with today is a French press coffee maker. It consists of a large cylinder, a round lid, a spout, and a handle. In the demonstration, you're going to see me measure and draw each of these elements. So to take a measurement, you're going to raise your drawing arm with your measuring tool in hand. You want to make sure that your arm is out straight with your elbow locked. Now, I often use my free hand to help support my drawing arm. While taking a measurement, it can help to close one eye and lean your head toward your drawing arm. This helps minimize any distortions, particularly if you're taking measurements off of a larger subject like a figure. As always, we're going to start by figuring out the larger forms and working our way down to the smaller forms. First, I want to get a sense of the width to height relationship of the entire object. Now, I tend to like starting with smaller dimensions first and comparing them to larger dimensions, but this process can work both ways. To start, I want to figure out the width of the cylinder of the French press. So to do this, I'm going to raise my arm with the measuring tool and I'm going to hold it up so that the end of the pencil appears to line up exactly with the left side of the cylinder. Next, I'm going to move my thumb so that it appears to me that my thumb lines up exactly with the right edge of the cylinder. So now I have the width of the cylinder on my pencil from my point of view. Now I want to compare this distance to the height of the French press. So to do this, I'm going to keep this exact measurement on my pencil. I'm going to turn the pencil vertically, and I'm going to move it so that my thumb now appears to be aligned with the very bottom of the cylinder of the French press. Now, I'm going to pay very close attention to the location of the end of the pencil. I want to know how far up it comes on the French press. So we can clearly see that the French press is considerably taller than it is wide. But we already knew that. We want to get more specific. I want to know how much taller. So keeping my eye locked at the location of the end of the pencil, I'm going to carefully move the pencil up until my thumb now occupies the location where the end of the pencil just was. Now take a look at the end of my pencil. You can see that it goes up to the top of the French press. This tells us that this object has a proportional ratio of one to two. It is twice as tall as it is wide. So at this point, you should understand how to take a measurement from a part of your subject and how to compare that measurement to another part of the subject. In this case, we found the width of the French press and compared it to its height. We discovered that the French press is twice as tall as it is wide, giving it a proportional ratio of one to two. So now, let's learn how to take a proportional ratio and get it into a drawing. So we know that the French press is twice as high as it is wide. So first, we simply need to establish this proportion on the page. Now, at this stage, we're just focusing on drawing the object, so I'm not worried about composition. So to that end, I'm just going to put the object directly in the center of the page. So what about size? Now, we know the French press is twice as tall as it is wide. As long as we maintain this proportion, we can make the drawing as big or as small as we want. Now, I'd like the drawing to fill most of the page but without feeling cramped. So first, I'm going to establish the height of the object. I want to make sure that I leave room for the plunger and the rod rising up from the top of the French press. So I'm going to place the top of the French press here. And I'll place the bottom about here. Now, whenever you're working with a symmetrical object, it's best to start with a center line. A center line makes it easy to compare one side of the subject to the other and to make sure they mirror one another. Now, the French press isn't perfectly symmetrical. It has a spout on one side and a handle on the other, but the cylindrical part of the object is symmetrical. So I'm going to start with a vertical center line. I'll pantomime this line to make sure it's going the direction that I want. Once I'm comfortable, I'm not going to stop this motion. I'm just going to tip the pencil down and go back and forth, not just once, but a few times to make sure that I've got a nice straight center line. Once again, I want to note, these are hand drawn lines. They are not perfect, and that is totally fine. If you need perfection, you can always use a ruler. So now we have a reasonably straight center line. So now I have the height of the French press on the page from the very bottom of the cylinder to the top of the lid. Now, I know that the width of the French press is half of the height. So to establish the width of the press in my drawing, I need to divide this height in half. To begin, I'm going to make my best guess and then use my pencil to compare the top half to the bottom to see if they're the same length. So my best guess as to where the halfway mark is It's right here. So now I want to see if I've accurately divided this in half. So to do this, I'm going to take my pencil and put the end of it at the halfway mark and move my finger down the pencil until it is at the location of the bottom. So with this measurement on my pencil, I'm going to move the pencil up to see if they line up. And as you can see, the bottom section is just a little bigger than the top section. So I'm going to make a second attempt right here. Now, let's compare this measurement once again to the top segment, and that is getting very close. So I'm going to move this line down one more time, just a little more. There's my third attempt, and I'm going to check it again. Get this measurement on my pencil. There we go. That appears to be exactly half. Now, these kinds of corrections are very common when you're working with proportion. It's all part of the process. So, as always, if you don't get it right the first time, don't worry about it. You should expect that you're going to need to make many corrections. So now that I've divided the height of the French press in half, I need to get this distance up to the top. So I know that the French press is twice as tall as it is wide. Half of the entire height is equal to the width of the French press. So to get this measurement on the page, once again, I'm going to get the measurement on my pencil, and I'm going to pull it up. I want to get a sense of how wide the French press is. So I'm going to lock my eye where the end of the pencil is on the page. So I'm going to make my first guess right here. I'm going to guess that the other side is right here. I'm going to connect these two with a line going horizontally between the two of them. So here's where the center line really comes in handy. I can already see that this segment is longer than this segment, and I want each side to be equal because I want each side of the cylinder to mirror one another. So I'm going to get this measurement on my pencil once again. I'm going to pull it up here. So I can see here that this mark is too far out. So I'm going to make a mental note of the distance from my first attempt to where my second attempt is going to go, and I'm going to lock my eye on that location. So now that I have something there to compare it to, it's much easier to make that distinction. This is why we don't erase our mistakes right away. So here was my first attempt. Here is my second attempt. Once again, I'm going to get this measurement on my pencil. To see how it compares. All right. So I think I can move this one in, the tiniest little bit. And I think that should provide us with the width of the French press. Now, another thing you can do while you're measuring an object is to create a box that the object is going to go within. So this proportional box will guide you as you draw the rest of the object. So once I've made a reasonably straight line here for the bottom. Okay. I can do the sides. Just like we practice, I'm actually going to extend this line beyond where I think the corners are. So now I'm going to pantomime, the straight line for the left side of our proportional box. And when I'm ready, I'm going to tip my pencil down and draw that line. Start off very lightly, and as I gain confidence, I'm going to darken it. There we go. And we're going to do the same on this side. So now we've created a box that has the proportions of the French press. We know that the base of the French press is going to be here and that the top of the lid is going to be here. We also know that the French press is twice as high as it is wide, and we have a proportional box that reflects that. We've also drawn a center line because the majority of the French press is symmetric, and this will allow us to compare one side to the other to make sure that they are mirroring one another. So at this stage, you should now know how to take measurements from an actual subject that you're drawing and how to get those measurements onto your page. Now remember, there isn't just one right way to do this. There are many plausible ways we could have measured this object, but this is the way that makes the most sense for me. So next, I want to find the location of the bottom of the lid. So we know the top of the lid is here. We know that the bottom of the lid is going to be somewhere around here. Now, of course, I always have the option of evaluating this by eye. But if I want to increase my level of accuracy, I can take a measurement. So just as you saw me demonstrate before, I'm going to hold my pencil up to the actual French press, and we're going to get the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom of the rim onto my pencil. So with this distance on my pencil, I want to compare it to a proportion that we already know. So I'm going to compare it to the width of the French press. Now, I am actually taking my measurements from the object itself, but I'm going to show them to you through these diagrams to make sure you understand exactly how I'm thinking. So when I compare the height of the lid to the width of the cylinder, I can see that it doesn't even get us halfway across. So I am going to visualize dividing this distance into thirds. Now, being able to visualize fractions is an excellent skill to have. In this diagram, I am trying to show you how I am thinking as I am measuring. So when I visualize this distance divided into thirds, it seems clear that if I take one of these thirds and add it to the length, it gets us nearly exactly halfway across the cylinder. We now have four equal units of measurement going from the edge of the cylinder to the middle. I know that the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom of the rim is equal to three quarters of the distance from one edge of the cylinder to the halfway mark. So here is how I'm going to get this proportion into my drawing. I need to know what three quarters of this distance looks like. So I'm going to extend a line across half of the width of the cylinder. I need to divide this line into four equal segments. So to do that, I'm going to start by dividing this line in half. So after making my first attempt, I can see that this side appears just a little longer than this side, so I'm going to move it over just a little bit. I can always use my pencil to compare. So this looks exactly halfway between the edge to the center of the cylinder. And now I'm going to divide this segment in half, and I feel pretty confident in making this evaluation with my eyes alone. And we can divide this 1.5 as well if we feel like we need to. So I know that the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom of the rim is equal to three of these units. So I'm going to get this distance on my pencil. I'm going to pull it up to the top of the French press. I'm going to make a mental note of where my pencil lands on our center line. I'm going to lock my eye in that location. I'm going to move my pencil and make my best attempt at where I think it's going to go. Now, I always like to double check. So I'm going to go back to our original measurement. I'm going to get it on my pencil. I'm going to pull it up and I want to compare. So this looks very close. So I now know where the top of the lid is and where the bottom of the rim is going to be. So right now, all that we have is a proportional box. We haven't actually drawn any part of the subject yet. Now, at some point, we may start to forget what all these little lines and marks represent. So we may actually want to draw some of the object. So I'm going to start with the rim of the lid. Now, before we do that, I want to take you through my thought process. Do you recognize the shape of the rim? Now, hopefully, you can see that it is essentially the bottom of an oval. So here we are back to straight lines and ovals, just like you've learned about over the past few lessons. But I want to take note of where the corners of the oval would be. So just with my eyes, I can see that they are not even halfway between the bottom of the lid and the top. Now, we always have the choice to measure something by eye or to use our pencil. Now, I feel pretty comfortable measuring by eye. So I'm going to make a line going across That marks where I think that the corners of the oval are going to be. So this line looks to me like it's tipping a little, so I'm going to straighten it out just a little. So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to make the motion of an oval like you've practiced before, And instead of drawing the entire oval, I'm going to focus just on drawing the bottom edge to go around not just once, but a few times. Now, I want to extend this oval out beyond the edges of the cylinder just a little bit because the lid is a little wider. So now, this oval looks pretty rough, but I can use it as a guide. So once it's there, I can take my pencil and just darken the part of it that I think is more accurate. So hopefully, you can see how the rough shape informs the second and more accurate attempt. Now, we don't need to remember what this mark is because we've actually drawn the rim of the lid. So at this point, we have the overall height and width of the French press. We have the location of the rim of the lid. Now, I'd like to draw the handle. So as I was measuring from the top of the lid of the French press to the bottom of the rim, I noticed that the top of the handle was in horizontal alignment with the location of the rim of the lid. So simply by observing this fact, I determined the location of the top of the handle. So as you are measuring, I encourage you to look around the object to see what is directly to the side of what you're measuring? What's directly above? What is directly below? What we're looking for are horizontal or vertical alignment. You'll be amazed at how often you will find these happy accidents where two parts of the subject will line up on either a horizontal or vertical line. So looking for parts of your subject that align vertically or horizontally should become a very natural part of both your drawing and measuring process. So we now know where the top of the handle is. Now, I feel very comfortable just observing with my eyes so we can see that where the handle connects to the cylinder is just below the level of the top of the handle. So I feel pretty comfortable just making a mark where the handle connects. I don't feel like I need to measure that. But again, I always have the option to. Remember, the goal is not to measure every little thing. So, where is the bottom of the handle? Where does the bottom connect to the cylinder? So to figure this out, we should go back to a known measurement. Now, generally speaking, I like to compare smaller dimensions to larger ones, so I'm going to go back to the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom of its rim. So I'm going to go back to the actual French press. I'm going to get this measurement on my pencil, and I'm going to compare it with the height of the handle. So starting at the top of the handle, I can clearly see that the height of the handle is longer than one of these units. So I'm going to lower my pencil to see what it looks like if we double this distance. So by doing this, I can see that the height of the handle is slightly more than twice the length of the height of the lid. Now, this is not a clean measurement. So if you think back, the height of our French press was exactly twice as tall as it was wide. It was a good clean measurement. But here, we're discovering that the handle is slightly more than twice the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom. Now, even though this measurement isn't clean, it is still valuable. Remember, a measurement doesn't have to be exact for it to be useful. So I'm going to get this distance on my pencil. I'm going to pull it over here to see how far down one of these units gets us. I'm going to mark that distance. I'll double check. So, I'm assuming at this point that you have a good sense of what we're doing. So I'm not going to narrate every tiny thing. So if I double this distance gets us here, and I know that the bottom of the handle where it connects with the French press is slightly more than twice the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom. So I also noticed on my way down that twice the distance of this unit of measurement got us pretty close to the connection point of the inside of the handle. And I feel pretty comfortable marking the very bottom of the handle where it connects. So now I know where the top of the handle is. I've made my best guess as to where the top of the handle connects to the cylinder of the French press. I know where the inside of the connection of the bottom is, and I'm guessing that the very bottom of the handle is approximately here. I've just made this evaluation with my eyes alone. So now I want to know the width of the handle. So once again, I'm going to go back to the unit of measurement of the top of the lid to the bottom of its rim. I'm going to go to my actual French press. I'm going to get that measurement on my pencil. I'm going to turn my pencil horizontally. I'm going to see how this unit of measurement compares to the width of the handle. So this unit of measurement lines up nearly exactly with the inside edge of the handle. It doesn't quite get us all the way across to the far edge of the handle, but again, this is very valuable information. So going back to the drawing, I'm going to get this unit of measurement on my pencil. I'm going to pull it over here. I'm going to line up the edge of my pencil with the side of the cylinder for the French press, and I want to lock my eye exactly where my finger is. So one thing you can do is with your other hand, you can kind of mark that location. Keep it there. So I'm going to make this mark here. I want to double check. Those proportions look pretty good. So now I know where the inside of the handle is, and I feel comfortable marking where I think the outer edge of that handle is. So now, I know where the top of the handle is. I know where the bottom of the handle connects. I know where the inside rim of the handle is, and I've guessed at where the outer edge of the rim is. So at this stage, I feel much more comfortable starting to actually the object itself. So I'm always looking for the moment where I can simply return to drawing the object and not worrying too much about the measuring process. So hopefully, you can see how all of these ideas work together to arrive at a very close representation of the object. And just like every other part of the drawing process, we can continue to shape how our drawing until it more accurately represents what we're viewing. So a few other quick proportional comparisons. If I want to place the bottom rim of the entire French press, I want to take a look at the corners of the oval at the bottom. So a quick evaluation reveals that the distance from the very bottom of the French press to about the level of where the corners of the ovals are is equal to about half of the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom. So I'm going to get that into my drawing. So now I have a nice axis line for that oval. Once again, I'm going to pantomime and then lower the pencil down, so I can get that oval into my drawing. And I'm going to make my second attempt once I have the initial line to guide me. That will give us a nice oval for the base of our French press. Now, this unit of measurement from the top of the lid to the bottom has proved very, very useful. I'm also seeing that the distance from the edge of our cylinder to the end of the spout is about halfway of the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom. So I'm going to go ahead and make that mark there to represent that distance. And I'm going to go ahead and sketch in the triangle. So at this point, I'm getting comfortable just drawing the rest of the object. Remember, I'm always looking for that moment where I can just get back to making evaluations with my eyes and drawing more naturally. Once again, you'll see me make first attempts and then go back and correct them. Remember, this is what the drawing process is all about. Now, remember, you don't need to measure every little thing. I feel pretty comfortable placing the base of the plunger extending a straight line up. Now if I make the height of the plunger a little too high or a little too low, it's not going to affect the rest of the drawing that much. But I am noting that the distance from the top of the lid to the bottom of the lid is about the same distance as the distance from the very bottom of the plunger rod to the ball at the top of the plunger. I'm going to take that measurement I'm going to mark where the bottom of that plunger is. I think that's just a little high. I'm going to lower it down just a little bit, and I'm going to draw the shape of that plunger. Once again, this is like a very squat ovoid shape or an egg shape. So hopefully, you can see how remarkable these processes can be when you are trying to develop accuracy in your drawing. Again, perfect accuracy is nearly impossible. But using these kinds of measuring techniques, we can get remarkably close. So here we are, a drawing of the French press with the proper proportions taken from the actual object. I've used a combination of proportional comparisons, horizontal and vertical alignment, and good old fashioned measuring by eye. Hopefully, you can see how powerful these techniques are at getting the actual proportions of your subject onto the page. Now, measuring in proportion are critical skills that I highly encourage you to master. That being said, accuracy is not everything in drawing. Perfect accuracy while drawing by hand is nearly impossible, and it's not necessarily desirable. Part of what we want to do with a drawing is to communicate something to a viewer, which often requires exaggeration. But I think it's important for you to understand how proportional comparisons work and how to use them in your drawings. Now, I tend to like to measure just enough to give me a sense of the proportions, but I don't like to measure everything. But ultimately, how much you design to measure is entirely up to you. Some artists will meticulously measure every part of their subject, while others hardly use measuring at all. Again, this is entirely up to you. But if accuracy is important to you, then learning to measure is essential. Now, I recommend that at the very least you investigate the width to height relationship of every subject you draw, even if you don't measure the smaller details. That'll help you get the basic proportions properly drawn on the page before you add any dark lines, shading or details. As always, I really want to prepare you for the learning curve here. Measuring is technical, and it does take a lot of practice to learn. You should expect that the first few times you apply these techniques to your drawings, they probably won't work out. In fact, many beginning students report that when they're learning how to measure, their drawings actually get a little worse before they get a lot better. The more you practice these measuring skills, the more accurate your drawings will become. But have some patience and give yourself time to practice, allow yourself the time to let these skills develop. Now, for those of you who are interested in learning to draw figures in animals, proportional comparisons are fantastic. One common technique is to figure out the size of the head and compare that to every other part of the body. That way, you'll have a universal unit of measurement that you can use throughout the entire drawing. So, here's your project. I want you to determine the proportions of a simple subject. I don't recommend starting off with complex subjects like figures or animals. Start simply. The kitchen is a great place to go for basic objects. A cup and saucer, a coffee mug, or a simple bowl will work very well for this project. I recommend starting with smaller measurements and comparing them to larger measurements. But again, either way will work. Now, the tools and techniques that you've learned in this lesson are the most technical that we've addressed so far. So you may want to go back and watch this lesson again. Repeated viewings will help you get these ideas into your head and help you understand the process. Now, as always, I'm giving you the minimum amount of practice, but if you want to get good at measuring sooner, then measure many objects. Remember, you should always be looking for reasons to practice more not less. Well, good luck with today's project. Thank you so much for spending this time with me, and I'll see you in the next lesson. 9. Angles, Enveloping & the Block-In: Welcome back. In this lesson, you're going to learn two new strategies enveloping and the block in. Both of these strategies involve drawing the basic forms of your subject using straight lines. Now, in order to do this, you need to be able to evaluate the degree to which a line is tilted. Now, most people are good at recognizing vertical lines and horizontal lines. But evaluating lines that are tilted is a different skill. Now, if you're drawing a subject like a box or a book, then being able to determine the degree to which a line is tilted is obviously important. But this strategy also works well when you're simplifying curves. Now we'll talk about simplifying curves using straight lines a little later on in this lesson. But for now, let's talk about enveloping. Enveloping involves simplifying your subject into a single straight edged shape by connecting the outermost edges. Enveloping is another way you can simplify a subject and get the basic forms down on the page. Now, blocking in a subject involves simplifying the contours of the subject using straight lines. Now, using a technique like the block in seems obvious if you're drawing a subject like a box or a book. But we can also use this technique to simplify more organic subjects that have a lot of curves. Now, curved lines can be a bit of a challenge to evaluate. We don't have the same kind of language to talk about curves as we do about straight lines. But simplifying the curved lines of your subject into straight lines will reveal the structure of those curves. You'll be able to get a much better handle on how much something is curving and where the curves are occurring. Now, these two techniques, enveloping and the block in work great together, and you can also combine them with a basic shape strategy that you've already learned. Now, in order to envelope or block in a subject, you need to be able to evaluate the degree to which any line is tilted. So that's where we're going to begin. So right now, I'm going to teach you an exercise that will train your eyes and your mind to evaluate the degree to which any line is tilted. So let's head to the drawing board. So for this project, I have taped to my drawing board two pieces of paper side by side. So for this project, you don't want to use expensive paper. This is just cheap white printer paper. But it is important that the paper is lined up side by side. You'll notice that the edges are parallel and the tops are aligned. So to begin this project, I'm going to take a ruler, I'm going to place it on one sheet of paper, and I'm going to a line. Doesn't really matter what direction the line is going. And of course, this line is tilted. We don't want to work with a perfectly vertical or a perfectly horizontal line. Now, my goal is to draw a line on the blank sheet of paper that captures the degree to which this line is tilted. Now, ideally, the line that I'm about to draw on this sheet of paper will occupy the same location as the line on this sheet of paper. But we're less interested in the exact location of the line and more interested in making sure that the line I'm about to draw reflects the tilt of this line. To begin, I'm just going to visualize the line I want to draw on this page. I want to visualize its placement and the degree to which it is tilted. Now, if it helps, you can even put your pencil down on the page and tilted to the same degree that the reference line is tilted. I'm going to place my pencil and I'm just going to pantomime first. Now, just like every other part of the drawing process, we can start by making our best guess And then comparing these two lines, are these two lines traveling in the same direction? Are they tilted to the same degree? So now that you've made your first attempt, you want to look back and forth between these lines and ask yourself is the line that you just drew tilting to the same degree as the reference line? Now, I think this is pretty close, but I think I could tilt it just a little more down. Maybe something like this. And once again, you can see me drawing right over my first attempt. So now that I've made my second attempt, once again, I want to compare these lines to see if they truly are tilting to the same degree. Okay. Now, I know this project may seem a bit simple, but this is an excellent way to hone your skills, to calibrate your ability to evaluate the degree to which a line is tilted and to replicate that line. So once you feel like the line you drew is capturing the degree to which the reference line is tilted, it is time to compare them. So I'm going to untape these pieces of paper, and I want to see how close I got. Now, in order to compare the line you just drew to the reference line, what you're going to do is layer these lines and hold them up to the light. And I'm going to grab my light table. So I can show you how close I got. Here is the reference line. Here is my line that I drew. I'm going to layer these over one another. And here, you can see that they are going in pretty much exactly the same direction. Now, these lines are not in the exact same location, but at this stage, that's not the important part. What we want is to make sure the lines are traveling in the same direction, that they are tilting to the same degree. No, this is such an excellent project for really honing this skill. You should do this project again and again until the line that you draw replicates the degree to which the reference line is tilted. So you're going to be doing that exercise as part of your practice today. Now, when you draw, you always have the option to measure using your eyes alone or using a measuring tool. So now, I'm going to teach you a technique called angle sighting where you will use your pencil or another measuring tool to evaluate the degree to which a line is tilted on an actual subject. So let's say you're drawing a book and you're working on the bottom edges, and you want to know the degree to which that bottom edge is tilting. So you make your first attempt using your eyes alone, but now you want to check for accuracy. You're going to use a technique called angle sighting. To sight an angle, you're going to extend your drawing arm in front of you with your elbow locked. You're going to be holding your measuring tool in your hand. Now, in this position, you can rotate your hand from the wrist. At no point should you tip your pencil towards your subject or back towards yourself. You should only rotate at your wrist moving your pencil side to side like windshield wipers. You're going to rotate your hand until your pencil is lined up with the line that you're trying to evaluate on your subject. Once you have the tilt of that line locked on your pencil, you can carefully move it to your drawing to see how it compares. Now, as you move your pencil from the subject to your drawing, you want to make sure that the tilt of the pencil does not change. And once you get your pencil to your paper, note any differences between the tilt of your pencil and the tilt of the line you just drew. Make any adjustments necessary and repeat this process until you have accurately replicated the desired tilt of the line. So now you have two ways of evaluating the degree to which a line is tilted. You can use your eyes and mind alone, or you can use your pencil or another measuring tool to cite the angle. Now let's learn how to apply these skills to an actual subject. So the subject we're going to block in is a shell. So first, I want you to visualize the envelope that would surround this shell. Now, there is no single correct way to envelope any object. So to block in a subject like this, we first want to establish the top. So right here is going to be the very tip of the shell. Then I'm going to extend a line down to the left. The upper section of the shell seems to form a triangle. So I'm extending these lines down to the protrusions on either side of the shell. Now, I'm also taking note that these two corners are not directly across from one another. They are not in horizontal alignment. The protrusion on the right is higher than the protrusion on the left. Notice that this creates a triangle. Now, if we can visualize this triangle overlaid on the subject, we can get a sense of the shape of this part of the shell. From there, our envelope would come inward. I'm not sure how far down this line needs to go, so I'm going to extend it out further than I think I need. On the other side, the envelope seems like it would come in at even more of a steep angle. Now, looking, I think I've angled this one in a little too much, so I'm going to pull it out just a little bit. Now, from here, our envelope is going to drop all the way down to the bottom of the shell. I'm very lightly going to draw that line. And I'm going to pull this line down as well. So using proportional measuring, I can see that the length of the shell is a little more than twice of the distance from the tip of the shell to this division. So I'm going to get that measurement on my pencil. Pull it down. There's one. Mark it with my finger. Two. So it's going to be right about here. So I'm going to make the bottom of my envelope right here. So this is a simplified version of the shell. We've got a very basic envelope. Again, this envelope is touching the furthest edges of the shell. You can see how this starts to embody the overall shape. Now, I want to note here that I have drawn this envelope much darker than I would have if I were drawing on my own. But I just wanted to give you a sense of what an envelope can look like and how quickly and easily we can use it to get something down on the page. So once I've got my envelope, I can break this larger shape down using the blocking, so I can start to notice the smaller forms of the shell. Again, I'm still going to do this, very lightly. Here is this first step of the shell coming up. Here is the second, and you'll note here that I am not drawing any details. I am simply blocking in the most basic version of these forms. I'm doing this incredibly lightly because as we've discussed, these are just guidelines. These are not intended to be seen by a viewer. These are just for me to figure out the basic forms of the subject. Of course, I can make any adjustments I need to along the way. This is what I love about this part of the drawing. I can make any corrections I want to almost immediately. So if I need to extend out a part of the drawing, I can just do that immediately. I don't need to feel frustrated or get upset with myself. This part of the drawing is incredibly malleable. I can even use the blocking to simplify these protrusions. Again, I'm creating very simple straight edged shapes. Just using them to place these protrusions around the shell. Last one goes here. Now, let's go down to the bottom of the shell. So what I want to talk about here is simplifying curves. We can clearly see that the edge of the shell comes in and then curves outward on both sides. Here we have a nice curve outward, then a curve inward. Now, it's so easy to draw curves too loosely and often to make them curve too much. So blocking in curves, simplifying these curved lines into straight lines and angles is a great way to get a sense of how they're structured. And when you start to think about it like this, you can really start to see the structure of the curves. So right here, this line is just barely curved. It's very easy to simplify this into a straight line because it is pretty straight. Then it dives in just a little bit. Then we have another line starts to come down this direction before coming back out and meeting the very base of the shell. So we have a form that is created almost entirely out of straight lines. We started with the large shape of the envelope, and then we started to carve away the more complex forms. So this curves in just a little bit. So I'm going to draw this cutout here. Just a little bit. So two straight lines, one here, one here, and up to the top. Now, as I draw the curves, I want you to notice how close the curves stay to the straight lines of the block in. So I don't want to get too dark yet, but I'm going to start to draw the more complex shapes of these curves. You can see how the roundness here is much more subtle than you may have thought. Now notice that I can draw these curves right over the block in. And we can barely notice that the block in was ever there. But you can see that these curves don't feel loose. They don't feel unruly. They feel structured and tight. Let's do the same thing over here. This line come up, dive in. Okay. So again, we can just see that it's barely curving in some of these areas. You'll notice that I draw the curves individually. Here I'll make a concave line before making a convex line. So I'm not just following the contour around in one big curve. I'm constructing each part of the curve on its own. And what I love about this technique is that it feels like I've got a scaffolding underneath these curves. With this scaffolding of these basic forms in place, I'm much more easily able to freely draw the curves. I can do this everywhere. Once I have this larger shape figured out, it's much easier for me to go in. And start to draw all of these smaller details that really start to make the drawing, can draw all of these little peaks of the shell. Again, I have this simplified guideline underneath, so I always know what my pencil is doing and where it needs to make the strokes. I also want you to note here that I've drawn my block in lightly enough that we can barely see it once I draw the more detailed parts of the shell over it. I can work my way up to the top of the shell where some of these smaller forms are. Hopefully, at this stage, you can really start to see the forms of the shell developing. I started with a simple envelope, moved to a basic block in, and very quickly, I'm able to establish the largest forms of the shell, so I can get to drawing some of the more beautiful and detailed parts of it. It does not take long using these techniques. Okay. Now, from here, I'm sure you can see that we can make this drawing as detailed as we want to. With these foundational forms set, I could finish this drawing to whatever degree of realism I wanted. Of course, assuming that you've drawn your envelope and block in lines lightly, you can always go back and erase them to the point where they will barely be visible. And only a very observant viewer will be able to find that they were ever there. Now, this is a pretty complex subject. But one of the things I love most about enveloping is that it allows us to simplify even the most complex subjects into a basic shape. So to begin, I just want you to visualize the envelope. Ask yourself, what would it look like if we used straight lines to connect the furthest points of our subject. Now, when I look at this subject, I think the envelope can be constructed from only five lines. So this means that our final envelope will be a five sided shape. Now, once we get a sense of this shape, we can start to visualize it on our piece of paper. This allows us to figure out where we want the subject to go and what size we want it to be. So I would like the bird to fill the page. So I want it pretty big, but I do want to leave some room at the top and bottom of the paper. Now, as always, we're going to begin with the largest forms and work our way down to the smaller forms. So first, I just need to place the subject on the page. I'm going to begin with the top line of the envelope. So, first, you're just going to see me pantomime. When I'm ready, I'm going to tip my pencil down and make my first attempt. Now, I think this line is angle just a little too high, so I'm going to lower it slightly about there. So with this line, I've established the top of the drawing. But at this stage, I can still make the drawing as big as I want or as small as I want. So now I want to place the sides. I want to get a sense of where the rest of the drawing is going to go. So with this line, I've established the top of the wings. The tips of the wings are the highest points in this drawing. Now I'm going to work my way around the drawing to place the rest of the envelope. So now I'm going to try and draw the line that moves from the left tip of the wing all the way down to the tip of the tail. So you'll see me pantomime this line. Once I'm ready, I'm going to tip the pencil down and make some very light passes. So I think this line is angled out just a little too much, so I'm going to bring it back in slightly. One of the reasons that I encourage students never to erase when they're learning is because even though this first line I felt was tilted too far outward. In order to make the correct line, it's very helpful to see where that first line was. Now, if I had erased that line, I'd be starting over completely. But because I've left this line here, I can now compare the new line to the old line. This is valuable information that we would lose if we had just erased the first line. So with this second line, I have now established the outer edges of the left side. Now, at this stage, I can still make the envelope very, very small, or I can make it very, very large. So now I want to place the right side. So once again, I'm going to pantomime. When I'm ready, I'm going to make my first attempt. Once you've made your attempt, you want to look back and forth from the line you just drew to your subject to make sure that you are capturing that line. Now, while enveloping, you may not actually see a physical line in your drawing, but you want to be able to visualize the line. So, in this case, I'm visualizing the line from the tip of the wing to the tip of the beak and really trying to get that direction down on my paper. So at this point, we've established the top of the drawing with the tips of the wings. Then we establish the left side of the drawing, going from the left tip of the wing down to the tip of the tail. Then we established the right side of the drawing? We move from the tip of the right wing down to the tip of the bird's beak. Now, at this point, we haven't drawn any of these features, of course. We're just getting a sense of the overall shape, the overall envelope. So now we only have two more lines we need to draw. We need to draw the line from the tip of the beak down to the talon and we need to draw the line from the talon over to the tip of the tail. So how do we know where exactly the tip of the beak is going to be along this line. Now to figure this out, I'm going to visualize a line going from the tip of the bird's wing on our left to the tip of the beak. And remember, you can hold your pencil up to your subject to really get a sense of the direction of that line. You can get a sense of how much it's tilting. So in addition to drawing the envelope around your subject, you can also connect points. So to figure out where the tip of the beak is, we're going to visualize a triangle that goes from the tip of the wing on our left to the tip of the wing on our right to the tip of the bird's beak, wherever that may be, and back again to the tip of the wing on our left. You can visualize that triangle on your subject, and when you're ready, you can make an attempt to draw it. So I'm going to pantomime this line. When I'm ready, I'm going to make my first attempt. Lightly at first, and when I'm ready, I can darken this just a little bit. Now, I want to look back and forth from my drawing to the reference image. I want to ask myself, is this triangle matching the triangle in the reference image? Now, this is why we practice triangles. Being able to look at a triangle and replicate its angles properly on the page is an excellent skill to have. And it will allow you to figure out the placement of any point in a drawing. So I'm feeling pretty confident that this triangle is replicating the triangle that I'm visualizing in the subject. So now I'm going to draw the tip of the bird's beak down to the talon. Once again, I will begin by pantomiming. Once I'm ready, I will make that first attempt. Can make any adjustments I feel are necessary before drawing the final line of our envelope. Now, to place the bottom line, I can just make a first attempt and feel it out, or I can triangulate the location just as we did with the tip of the beak. I can visualize the angle moving from this corner all the way down to the tip of the talon. So I'm just going to try and feel it out. Now, while I'm pantomiming, I can visualize what the finished shape is going to look like and compare it to the envelope on the reference image. So once I'm ready, I can make this attempt. Okay. So I think this line needs to be moved up on the left, so I'm going to make that correction. Okay. So at this point, we have our completed envelope. Now, I want you to note that somebody looking at this drawing would have no idea that the eventual drawing would be of a bird. But what we have done here is we have successfully simplified this very complex subject into a single basic shape. Now, just to note here, if you want to check the accuracy of your envelope against the reference image, you can visualize and create a triangle from any three points on the subject and check to see if the triangles in your drawing match the triangles from the actual subject. So if we want to check to see if this point and this point are in the proper relationship with one another, we can visualize the tilt of this line from the reference image and get it into our drawing. Now, this creates another triangle. And we can look at this triangle to see how it compares to the triangle in the reference image. Again, this is a really fantastic way to check the accuracy of your work. Now, I'm not going to go through and check every point, but you could connect any three points in the drawing to make triangles and compare them against the reference image. So hopefully, at this stage, you can get a sense of how important it is to be able to evaluate the degree to which any line is tilted and to get that line into your drawing at the proper degree of tilt. If any one of these lines are off, it can distort the image in some very strange ways. But being able to look at two points on a subject and visualize the line that connects them and to what degree that line is tilted is an excellent skill. This is one of the most frequently used skills by master artists. So now that we've established the envelope, we can move on to the block in. So remember, the block in involves simplifying the subject into straight lines. Now, at first glance, this drawing appears to be almost entirely constructed from curved lines. But a drawing like this is actually much more structured than you may think. Now remember, the goal here is to simplify the subject. The blocking is not intended to capture specifics or details. The blocking is just another way to draw a light foundation on the page to get the basic forms of the subject down, and eventually we will cover up this drawing with all of the dark, beautiful lines and shading and texture that will create the finished work. The block in is just a way to start to simplify the subject to get the most basic forms down on the page. So let's start with the wing on our right. Now, we already have the tip of the wing, and we've got a bit of the top and a bit of the side of the wing. So now I want to draw the left edge of this wing, and I think I can simplify this entire side of the wing to one straight line. I'm also going to simplify this side of the wing to a straight line. Now, as I'm doing this, I want you to look back and forth from my drawing to the reference image. I want you to see that even though the actual subject is very complex, this blocking of the wing does a pretty good job at simplifying this form. Now, at this stage, I'm actually going to knock back some of these lines that I used to measure. And I'm doing this because I think they might get in the way of the block in. Now, this is always a choice you have, whether or not to erase your construction lines. Now, generally speaking, if I'm using the shapes method, I will leave a lot of the construction lines around the drawing. But with the block in lines and in particular, the envelope lines, they can look a little awkward if they're left at the end of the drawing. Next, I want to block in the rest of the other ink. Once again, I'm going to evaluate what this angle is going to look like, the tilt of this line. I'm going to make a first light attempt. Again, I want to look back and forth from the reference image to my drawing to see if there are any changes that need to be made, and I can make any corrections I need to. Now, once again, this is just a simplification. But as the blocking develops, I want you to take note what an excellent job it does at simplifying the subject in a way that actually gives us an idea of what the subject is. In just a few minutes, we're going to be able to tell that it's a bird. Now, our initial envelope has given us the top of this wing as well as the left side. So this line is going to simplify all of those ragged feather edges. Again, the goal here is simplicity. We want to think about the subject as simply as possible before adding any complexity. With each new line in the block in, I'm looking at the reference photo and imagining what it would look like if it were just constructed out of simple straight lines. And remember, the goal with a block in is to use as few lines as possible. Now, I want you to take note of what this looks like. It's still very abstract, but this still gives us a strong sense of the overall form of the subject. Now, I'd like to talk for a moment about negative space. We began constructing a large five sided shape for our envelope. And then we've started breaking up this large shape into smaller shapes to block in the forms of the subject. Now, when we used the five shape strategy, I talked about the idea that it feels like sculpting. We put a simple shape down on the page, and then we sculpted that as if it were a lump of clay. Now, to me, enveloping feels much more like sculpting out of marble. It feels as if the large straight edge shape is like a block of marble that we are removing hunks from. Now, while blocking in the subject, I'm looking at the directions of these lines. But I want you to note that they are creating triangles. So in addition to trying to figure out what the tilt of this line is, I'm also visualizing the triangle created with the envelope. Now, these spaces in between our subject, we refer to as negative space. There's the positive object that we're trying to draw, the wing itself, but we can also look at the shapes created by the spaces in between. So hopefully, you can visualize the triangle created by the top of the envelope and the edges of the wings. We're seeing the same thing here. I'm visualizing a line that runs from the left edge of the wing all the way down to where the bird's tail connects with the bird's body. I'm also visualizing a line that runs from that point to the edge of the bird's tail. And once again, this creates a triangle. We can visualize this triangle on our subject and try and replicate it in our drawing. Now, of course, not all negative space is triangular, but hopefully, this gives you a sense of how you can not only draw the positive form of the subject itself, but look at the shapes created by the negative space. So let's continue. I'm going to simplify the tail into a line right here. Go to make any adjustments necessary. Now I'm going to simplify the entire leg into one straight line. And to help me do this, I'm visualizing the triangle created by the edge of the envelope, the edge of the tail, and the line for the leg. So I'm going to pantomime and make my first attempt. So once you have the large forms of your subject blocked in, you can start to block in some of the smaller forms. Here I'll draw the top of the bird's head. And again, I want to note it is curved, but I'm simplifying it into a straight line. Now, I think that's tilted down too low, so I'm going to make an adjustment. Now I'm going to move from the top of the bird's head down to the beak. And again, I'm editing out a lot of curves here, but you'll note that this does a pretty good job at simplifying the form. Remember, we're going to go back in later on and curve the subject. But one of the things I want you to notice is that the curves in this drawing are actually far more structure than you may have realized. For example, this line for the bird's belly is, of course, subtly curved, but it's not that curved. It's almost straight. Now, what the block in forces us to do is compare that curve to a straight line. And by doing that, we can get a sense of just how curved it is. And the answer for this line is not much. Now, what many people will do when they see a line like this is they will curve it far more than they need to. This is why many drawings end up having a bulbous or almost balloon like look. But by breaking our curves down into straight lines, we can get a much better sense of just how curved these lines are. So at this stage, I'm just moving around the drawing and blocking in the forms. And of course, the forms can get smaller and smaller. And at every step of the way, I'm making the adjustments that I think are necessary. Just like with basic shapes, we're starting with the largest forms first and working our way down to the smaller forms. And we can keep blocking in more and more of our subject until we get down to smaller details. Now remember, the goal of the blocking is just to get the basic forms down on the page. You don't need to get too detailed. But by first simplifying this complex subject into a five sided shape and then breaking that shape up into straight lines that reflect the subject, we're able to get something down on the page that's really starting to resemble the subject. Hopefully, you can see how useful it would be to get a drawing to this point. We've established the biggest shapes in the drawing. And from this stage, it is much easier to start to break up these larger shapes into smaller shapes, confident that the bigger forms are properly drawn on the page. Now, even though this blocking may look simple, when we compare it to the subject, you can see what an excellent job it does at simplifying the forms. What you'll find is that all of these lines that you thought looked very, very curved were not as curved as one's thought. These straight lines do an excellent job at structuring the drawing. It'll keep the curves in check, so you can get a sense of just how much something is curved. Now, we've covered a lot in this lesson. So for today, you have two projects. First, do the exercises that I showed you where you put two sheets of paper side by side. You draw a line on one of them, and you replicate the tilt of that line on the other. Once you've made your best attempt, put one piece of paper on top of the other and hold them both up to the light to see how accurate you were. You want to practice this until you get good at replicating the tilt of a line. For the second part of your project, I want you to practice enveloping and blocking in a minimum of three subjects. Make sure you start with a simple subject and work your way toward more complex subjects. You can even use the reference images of birds from lesson five. The lesson where you learn to simplify birds into basic shapes using the five questions. Now, I know many of you are working exclusively from photographs. Now, it's important to remember that a photograph, flattens reality into a two dimensional surface. So I highly encourage you to try an envelope and block in at least one subject from life. Set up an object six to eight feet away from you and try to use these techniques while looking at a real life subject. Working from reference photographs is great, but if you only work from two dimensional images, your drawings will tend to be pretty flat. Working from a three dimensional object in real life is the best way to give your drawings a sense of three dimensionality. This is going to become more and more important the further you advance in your drawing skills. Now, just a quick note about angle sighting from reference photographs. If you want to use the technique where you are extending your arm and getting the tilt of a line on your pencil, you need to have your reference image exactly perpendicular to your line of sight. And you need to have a reference image at a location where when you are measuring a line, you can have your arm at a right angle to your body. Now, enveloping and the block in are two more ways you can simplify your subject. Remember, this skill of getting the basic forms of your subject properly down on your page is one of the most overlooked parts of the drawing process, and failing to do it is the cause of most of the mistakes that beginners make in drawings. Now, the more you practice these skills, the more you will find your mind immediately starts to make these evaluations on its own. At the beginning, it may be slow going, but remember your skill building. With practice, these kinds of evaluations will become automatic. Now, I know I've given you a lot to think about today. So go do your practice. I will see you here for lesson eight where you're finally going to learn how to add all of the detail texture and shading that you've been waiting for. Okay. 10. Contours, Detail & Value: Welcome to Lesson eight. By now, you should have all of the tools necessary to lay a light foundation of basic shapes down on your paper. Now, when you're just starting off learning to draw, this is the most important skill for you to learn. Most of the mistakes that beginners make have to do with getting these basic shapes at the right size and in the place. It's so common for beginners to rush into detail texture and shading only to find out too late that a part of their subject was too big, too small, or not in the right place. The reason we've invested so much time and effort to get you here is so that you will not make these kind of mistakes. So far, you've learned how to draw a light foundation of basic shapes. But this underdrawing is just a guide for you. In this lesson, you're going to learn to cover up that under drawing, to hide all of the foundational shapes with beautiful and dynamic lines and marks. This moment marks a critical shift in the drawing process. From here on out, the lines you draw are intended to be seen by a viewer, even if you're that only viewer. Now, I have worked with thousands of beginning drawing students, and one of the most common things I see is beginners nervously tracing the outline of a subject. They tend to do this with a very uniform line. This is the type of drawing we want to avoid. We do not want to merely outline our subject with a monotone line. I like to think of lines and marks as being very similar to how we use our voice. An engaging speaker doesn't simply drone on in a boring monotone voice. The voice of an engaging speaker will sometimes go up and go down. Sometimes it will be louder and sometimes softer. They animate their voice, they make it exciting to listen to, and we want to do the same thing with our lines and marks. We want to draw with lines that communicate with our viewer, with lines that excite them, with lines that are rich with meaning and purpose. So with this in mind, let's head to the drawing board where I can demonstrate the different kinds of lines and marks you can make with your pencil. First, I'd like to explore light and dark. Now, how light or dark a line is comes down to pressure. The harder you push, the darker the line will be. Now, there is a limit to how dark your lines can get using the overhand grip. The reason is that when we draw with the overhand grip, we engage the broad side of the pencil, and the more pressure we put on that tip the more likely it is to snap. That being said, you can still get pretty dark lines with the overhand grip. But to make truly dark lines, I often switch to the tripod grip because I can bear down on the tip of the pencil. So when I want to make truly dark lines, the tripod grip is what I tend to use. Now, whether or not you're using the tripod grip or the overhand grip, we make light lines by applying less pressure. So you simply need to apply very little pressure to make a light line. Using the overhand grip, same thing. We make a line just barely applying any pressure. Now, dark lines tend to communicate shadow. They tend to communicate weight and heft. They also call your attention. Notice that these dark lines really pull your focus while the lighter lines tend to get lost next to them. So if you want to bring your viewers attention to a particular area, use darker lines. Now, in addition to being light or dark, lines can also be straight or curved. Now, of course, we've already talked about drawing straight lines by hand. That's a skill you already have. If you want to truly straight line, you can always use a ruler. And it's important to note that straight lines made by a ruler do tend to have a bit of a mechanical look to them. Now, if this is something you want, if this is something that works for your drawing, great. But you'll notice that a ruler drawn line has a very different quality to a hand drawn straight line. Now, curved lines have a completely different quality to them. Curve lines tend to be more organic and sensuous. Now, it's important to note that every single line you draw is either going to be straight or curved. There are no other options. When curved lines come together, they can appear rather sensuous. When straight lines come together, they meet at angles and it can appear a bit harsh. Straight lines tend to imply hard edges. But again, every single drawing you do is likely to have a combination of straight and curved lines. They both have their uses. Next, lines can either be hard or soft. So a hard line is just like it sounds. It is a hard edged line. Now, you can make a hard edged line using the tripod grip as I just did, or using the overhand grip. Now, when I draw a hard line with the overhand grip, I tend to draw the line the same direction my pencil is. So you can see the shaft of my pencil is lining up with the direction the line is traveling. Now, it's important to note that you cannot draw a soft edged line with the tripod grip, you must use the overhand grip. The reason is that we need to engage the broad side of the lead of the pencil to make a soft line. So I'm going to draw using most of that broad side of the pencil. You can see it produces a very soft line. Once again, these two lines have completely different qualities. They look and feel completely different. Now, the more you tip the pencil up, the less soft the line will become. So I can still make a soft line. By tipping the pencil up just slightly. So this line is soft but not quite as soft as this line. And of course, you can make multiple passes with a line to really soften it quite a bit. Lines like this almost have a smoky sort of quality to them. Lines can also be thick or thin. Thin lines tend to feel very delicate. Once again, you see me making this thin line by drawing the direction that the shaft of my pencil is traveling. That's what you need to do if you want a thin line with the overhand grip. And of course, you can also make a thin line using the tripod grip. It's important to note that the sharper the pencil, the thinner the line is going to be. Now I'd like you to take note here that the thin lines I drew with the overhand grip have a different quality to them than the thin line I drew with the tripod grip. They're similar, but they feel different. You want to pay attention to these differences when you're exploring line quality. Now, in contrast to the delicacy of the thin lines, thick lines tend to feel much more substantial. With multiple passes, we can thicken the line even more. Once again, we can see these are very different kinds of lines. Now, it's much easier to make thick lines using the overhand grip and engaging the side of the pencil. Thick lines with a tripod grip can be very difficult because you have to go over and over and over them. With a tripod grip, you can change the line from light to dark, but not from thick to thin. You can see this line gets a little thicker, but not much. With the overhand grip, you can thicken lines with ease. Lines can also be short or long. Long lines tend to have a very lyrical, almost musical quality to them. Of course, you can make lines as long as you want them to be. Short lines tend to be a little more brusque. When you place short lines together, they tend to feel rhythmic, almost like percussion. No, just like with music, combining the percussive elements of short lines works beautifully against the more lyrical quality of longer lines. And finally, lines can be broken or unbroken. So here's what I mean by that. If we define a line as any path the eye can follow, then the eye can follow a path that is made up of individual marks. So, even though I am drawing a series of small dots, notice that your eye can still follow the path as if it were a line. So this is called a broken line. But it still produces a path for the eye to follow. And of course, an unbroken line is a continuous line. Now, I'm sure there are other dimensions to line that I am not exploring here, but these are the most common qualities of line that you're going to use in your drawings. Where line quality gets most exciting is when you start to combine these qualities in a single line. I often refer to this as a calligraphic line. In a single line, you can go from thin and dark to thick and curvaceous to being broken. To being dark and thin to more delicate, to becoming almost smoke like and disappearing altogether. When you start to combine these qualities of line, the possibilities are nearly endless. Part of what you're going to explore for your project today is making all kinds of different lines and marks just to see what you can make with your pencil. You should now have a wider vocabulary of lines and marks that you can make with your pencil. But so far we've explored lines and marks abstractly. So the question becomes, how do you use these lines and marks in your drawings? When I'm engaged in this part of the drawing process, the most common question I ask myself is, what kinds of lines and marks will best communicate the part of the subject I am drawing. For example, let's take a look at this drawing of a R What kind of lines do you see? The lines that make up this rock are straight, hard and dark. They come together at sharp angles. Everything about this drawing communicates hardness and heaviness. Now, contrast this drawing of a rock with this drawing of a pillow. Now, what kind of lines do you see? You'll notice that there is not a single straight or hard edged line in this drawing. There are very few dark lines. This pillow is created from soft curved lines, most of which are pretty light. These are not drawings we merely see. These are drawings we feel. In these two drawings, I've used my lines to communicate the tactile sensations, what it might feel like to touch these objects. I could have used any kind of lines I wanted to draw these subjects. But I took my experiences with these objects and I translated them into line. If you were to look at a pillow in real life, the edges of it are not hazy like you see in this drawing. But I can use these soft, thick curved lines to communicate softness and comfort. I am using lines and marks to communicate something I know to be true about these subjects. So as we go through today's demonstrations, I want you to keep this question firmly in mind. What kinds of lines and marks will best communicate the part of the subject I'm drawing. Now, in just a few minutes, I'm going to show you how you can put these kinds of lines and marks into action in your drawings. But before we do that, I'd like to introduce a few principles. I'd like you to keep these principles in mind as you make this shift from your underdrawing to drawing lines and marks that are intended to be seen by a viewer. Principle one, vary your line quality. We want to avoid drawing with a boring, monotonous line. Instead, we want to take every opportunity we can to change up the kinds of lines and marks we're using in a drawing. This is how we keep viewers interested. We want to create a rich experience of visual information that the viewer can get lost in. We want to look for every opportunity to use different kinds of lines and marks. Just like a compelling speaker uses his or her voice to engage the audience, we want to engage our viewers with line. Principle number two, craft your contours, then get inside. The outer contour of your subject is its outer edge, and it's important to craft that contour. But even as you're crafting that contour, you want to look for opportunities to use different kinds of lines and marks. The outer contour of your subject should only account for about five to 10% of the strokes in your drawing. All of the rest of the lines and marks in your drawing will occur within the boundaries of that outer contour. So once you've crafted the contour, get inside and fill your subject with beautiful lines and marks. And principle number three, define the shapes of light and dark. Now, this is a beginning drawing course, and shading is not a beginner's skill. I teach shading in depth in my other drawing courses. But for now, I'd like to introduce you to this strategy. The light and dark areas of a subject tend not to be scattered across the surface. The darks tend to group together, and the lights tend to group together. Every area of darkness has a shape. Every area of light has a shape. Once you've defined the shapes of the darker areas, keep your darkest lines within those shapes. Reserve your lighter lines for the lighter areas. This is such a great way to start to add value and dimension to your drawings, even if you don't have a strong understanding of how light and shadow work. So, with all of these ideas in mind, let's head to the drawing board for a demonstration. So you should already be very familiar with this stage of the drawing process. I've simplified all of the forms of the subject into basic shapes. The bird's body is an oval. The head is an oval. The beak is triangular. The tail is a four sided shape, a trapezoid. For the wing here, I have an ovoid shape that comes to a point. I've blocked in the bird's feet. I've used straight lines to draw the bird's legs and I've blocked in the shape of the feet. Now, as I simplified this form into basic shapes, I was always paying attention to proportions. I made proportional comparisons all over the drawing. For example, I compared the width of the bird's head to the bird's body. I discovered that it would take little more than two of these measurements to equal the length of the bird's body. Now, we spent a lot of time in this course focusing on the skills that will get us to this stage. The reason this is so important is because this is the stage where most drawings fail. Usually, it's not the details that go wrong in a drawing. It's these basic forms. People draw a head too big or they draw an eye in the wrong place. Now, often, they only realize this after they've spent hours adding detail and shading. At that point, it's too late. So we want to figure out all of the forms and proportions at this stage. We don't need any more information at this stage to figure out if the bird's head is too big or if it's in the wrong place. We have enough information to figure that out now. So once you have simplified the forms of your subject, once you are sure that the proportions are correct, whether you've used your eyes to check the proportions or you've used some of the tools that you've learned. Now, when I simplify a subject into basic shapes like this, I usually draw much, much lighter. The reason that I've drawn these darker is to make sure that you can see the decisions that I've made. But again, normally, this stage of the drawing would be done much lighter. Once you're confident that the forms and proportions are working, you can move on to the next stage of the drawing process. Now, at this stage of the drawing, I am starting to draw the lines that are intended to be seen by a viewer. I'm defining the forms of the subject much more specifically. Now, one thing I immediately want you to notice is that I am not merely outlining the subject. The edge of the subject, the contour is crafted from numerous individual lines. And already at this stage, I'm making decisions about what kinds of lines are going to communicate something about the subject. For example, these lines here on the bird's stomach are made with very soft lines. This is because the stomach would feel soft to the touch. Now, contrast these soft lines with the hard lines, these dark lines that I've drawn for the bird's legs. These lines communicate hardness. They signal to the viewer that they are a different material. They would feel different to the touch. Now, as I've said, there's no right or wrong way to use these kinds of lines, but it didn't make sense to me to use the same kind of lines for the bird's stomach as I did the bird's legs. You can see me making similar decisions all over this drawing. The lines for the bird's tail seem a little tighter, a little more sleek and straight than the lines for the bird's body. I want to draw these lines a little thinner and a little straighter. They almost seem more erodynamic. Once we get to the bird's face, I want to start to add darker, smaller lines. The detail will help call attention to the bird's face. I've used dark sharp lines for the bird's beak. I really wanted to communicate the sharpness that I see. Again, the beak is hard and sharp, and I want that to come through in the line quality. So your goal at this stage of the drawing is to break these forms down into more complex shapes. But I'm still using a very simple vocabulary. Each of these lines, you can see are simply curved lines. Even at this stage, I am translating these more detailed forms into basic shapes. The details in the wings seem triangular. Even these smaller details I can think of as triangles. At every moment, I'm trying to figure out what shape I'm drawing and what kind of line I want to use to communicate something for the viewer. Hopefully, you can really see the drawing starting to take shape here. And notice that you can still see these basic shapes through the more detailed parts of the drawing. We still see evidence of these basic shapes underneath, and that's totally fine. So once you're satisfied with this stage of the drawing, once you've solidified your subjects by crafting its contours, we can move on to the next phase. We can start to define the dark areas. Now, in most drawings, the lights and darks aren't scattered everywhere. They tend to form into groups. We can map the dark areas. So what I'm going to do here is I'm going to start to find these shapes of darkness. Now, a full explanation of shading is well beyond this beginner's course. But we can use some of the ideas of shading to add some value to our drawings. So we want to start to define the shapes of the dark areas. For example, Underneath a tail here, this whole area is one big dark shape. So with my pencil, I'm going to darken this whole area. All of the lines and marks that are eventually going to be drawn here, all of the details are going to be in this dark area. Same thing with the wing. This whole section of the wing is going to go dark. So I am going to darken this whole area. Now, I want you to notice what starts to happen with this drawing when I darken these areas. It really starts to come to life. Now, I'm not even thinking at this point in terms of light or shadow. I'm just looking at the subject and I'm mapping where the dark areas are. I'm simplifying them into a shape, and I'm darkening that area. Here we have another dark area at the bird's head. So I'm going to darken this entire shape. The beak is dark. The legs are dark. Now, I'm not pushing my pencil all the way to its darkest limits. I'm just adding some value. You'll notice that I'm using the side of my pencil to do this. These aren't hard lines. But I want you to see that simple step adds so much life to the drawing. From here, you can apply the same techniques we've been talking about trying to figure out what kind of lines and marks are best going to communicate what you want to show the viewer. You can use short lines or much longer lines. You can use straight more angular lines or lines that curve more. You can use dark lines. Or you can draw using incredibly soft light lines. There is not a single line that I put in this drawing that you don't already know how to draw. The trick is to bring them together in a meaningful way that communicates something to your viewer. Now, as I've stated many times, this is not the right way to draw this bird. There are many other ways that I could have approached this subject. But this is a way that makes sense to me. It's communicating something to the viewer. Now, to finish this drawing, all I need to do is continue to make the kinds of decisions that we've been talking about. The details are just going to get smaller and smaller and smaller. But every detail has a shape. These small feathers under the bird's neck are simply triangles. The feathers here under the bird's wings are rectangular or triangular. So at every stage, I am still translating this information into lines and shapes, and as soon as I do that, then I have a sense of how to draw them. This part of the process can continue on until you have added all of the detail that you want in your drawing. So now that you've seen these ideas put into practice, let's take a look at a few more subjects. Now, as we look through these drawings, I want you to note that none of the individual lines you're going to see me make are particularly hard to draw. But this is the magic of lines and marks. When they come together, they form something much greater than the sum of their parts. First, let's take a look at this drawing of a shell. For this drawing, I used thin hard lines. My goal was to show that this was a hard but delicate object. I'd also like you to note the areas of light and dark. Most of the lighter areas of the shell are on the upper left. Most of the darker areas are on the lower right. So you can see that on the left side of the shell, I've used almost exclusively light lines. Almost all of the dark lines are isolated to the lower right. Notice how this really creates a sense of roundness and dimension. Now let's take a look at this drawing of a rhinoceros. I've used hard edged lines to show the hardness of the horn. I've used thick heavy lines to show the thick folds in the skin of the rhinoceros. You can also see that I've used dozens of these soft light, semicircular strokes to create a texture for the skin. Everywhere you look in this drawing, there are different kinds of lines and marks being used. Here in this drawing of a figure, you can see completely different kind of lines and marks. To create a sense of flesh, I've used softer strokes. I've layered these soft strokes together to create a cross hatching effect. Now take a look at the elbow. This is an area where bone comes to the surface of the skin. Here, I've used darker, more angular lines to communicate the hardness of bone directly under the surface of the skin. Each of these drawings uses completely different kinds of lines and marks to communicate with the viewer. Now, I want to note, this is just how I do it. These are not the correct ways to draw these subjects. But I'm making an attempt here to use lines and marks in interesting ways. Now, you should note that my way of doing it is not the right way to do it. This is just my reaction to these subjects. In each one of these drawings, I've looked for opportunities to use different kinds of lines and marks, and I think it makes these drawings much more interesting. And when you look at all of these lines and marks, you should realize that individually, none of these lines and marks are that difficult to draw. Each one of them is rather simple. You have a soft curved line or an angular hard line. But we arrive at the complexity of these drawings through these simple marks. By now, you should have a good idea of how you can use all kinds of lines and marks to finish your drawings. Now, this is just a beginning drawing course. There is a lot more to drawing than what you've learned in this course alone. But my goal with this course was to give you enough tools and techniques that you could go out into the world and draw the subjects you love. Now, if all you ever learn about drawing is just what you've learned in this course, then you will already have more skills and experience than most people who are drawing. With that in mind, let's get you to your projects. Today, we're going to have two different projects. First, explore lines and marks. Spend at least 30 minutes just making different kinds of lines and marks with your pencil. See what it can do. Make dark lines and light lines, hard lines and soft lines, curved lines and straight lines. Explore and experiment, see what your pencil can do. Make as many different kinds of lines and marks as you can. As you're doing this, don't try and draw anything in particular. Just explore lines and marks on their own. And as you do this, ask yourself, how might these lines be used in an actual drawing? What do they communicate to you? Next, you want to take what you've learned and put these lines and marks into action. Select the subjects you love to draw and take them through the entire process that you've learned in this course. Begin each drawing with light lines and basic shapes. Make sure the forms and proportions are working, and when you're ready, start drawing lines that you intend to be seen by a viewer. Use a wide range of lines and marks. And remember the three principles we talked about. One, vary your line quality. You should look for every opportunity to use different kinds of lines and marks. Two, craft the contour, then get inside. Most of your lines and marks will occur within the boundaries of the outer contour. So make sure you take every opportunity to use different kinds of lines and marks within the boundaries of that outer contour. And finally, define the shapes of light and dark. By using this technique alone, you can bring a wide range of values into your drawing from beautiful, brilliant lights to rich bold darks. As you are drawing, keep asking yourself, what are the lines and marks that will best communicate whatever part of the subject I'm drawing? Let that question guide your lines and marks. Well, as always, thank you so much for joining me. It's been a pleasure to work with you. I will see you in the next video where you're going to learn where you can take your drawings from here. 11. Conclusion: On. In this video, I'd like to wrap up everything we've learned so far. I'm going to go through an overall summary of the drawing process as well as give you some closing thoughts. We've covered a lot of ideas in this course. First, you learned how to hold the pencil and how to draw lightly. Next, you learned how to draw basic shapes. Then you learned how to combine those basic shapes to lay a light foundation that captured the form and proportions of your subject. You learned a couple of measuring strategies that will allow you to refine those proportions. And finally, you learned how to add dark lines and details to your drawings. It's very important to me that you understand that drawing is not a step by step process. Ultimately, drawing is a creative act, and there's no single correct way to do it. But I do want to share some key concepts with you that will help guide your drawing process. So here are the principles that I use when I'm drawing. Y drawings go from big to small from light to dark and from simple to complex. Let me unpack each one of these. First, your drawing should go from big to small. Your first goal is to get those big shapes and forms properly drawn and in proportion to one another. Only then should you start to move on to the smaller forms of your subject. Next, light to dark. You want to start off your drawings with incredibly light lines. This is because we know that we're not going to get it right the first time, and we want to draw with lines that are easy to move, change, or erase. The more we figure out in our drawing, the more confident we get that the forms are properly drawn, the darker we can draw. We don't want to draw any dark lines until we are confident that we want them to be seen by a viewer. Finally, simple to complex. You want to simplify your drawing into the biggest forms and shapes. You want to focus on the most basic proportional relationships. Once you have those big forms drawn, you can slowly add complexity. But you don't want to get too complex too quickly. Remember, the most common errors that people usually make while drawing are adding details or shading too quickly. These key principles will help keep your drawing on track and make sure that you work out the basic forms and proportions before adding any details, complexity, or dark lines. The one of the reasons I like these key concepts so much is that they give you a framework to operate within. They give you a way to think about the drawing process. And the reality is that what you think about when you're drawing is going to determine what ends up on the paper. This is why the questions that you learned about in Lesson five are so important. They keep your thoughts focused on what to do next in your drawing and how to improve it. Now, at this stage, I want to address something important. I've just made this claim that what you think about while drawing determines what's going to end up on the page. It's come to my attention that so many students will be rate, insult, and degrade themselves in the privacy of their own mind as they draw. Now, if you have no idea what I'm talking about, that's great. But let me ask you. Do any of the following phrases sound familiar? Have you ever found yourself saying things like, I cannot believe I made that mistake, or everybody in this class is better than I am. I'm the worst in the class. I'll never be able to do this. This was such a stupid mistake. I should just quit. I cannot learn. If any of these phrases sound familiar to you, you are not alone. It is so common for people to talk to themselves in their head in a way that is completely disempowering. So I'm asking you right now, make a commitment that you will not say anything to yourself in the privacy of your mind that you wouldn't say to a friend or family member who is learning to draw. Drawing is hard. It takes a lot of practice. I have been drawing nearly my entire life, and I still make countless errors in every single drawing I do. Mistakes reveal what needs to happen next to improve our drawings. So in this sense, a mistake does not need to be an unpleasant experience. It should be expected. Be honest with yourself about your mistakes and what you need to do to fix them. But while you're doing it, be kind to yourself. Remember, the goal is not merely to make good drawings. It is to enjoy the process. So, you have some basic skills. Now, where do you go from here? In addition to the eight lessons that you've just completed, this course includes a number of full length drawing demonstrations, where I'm going to show you how to take all of these ideas and put them into practice. So I highly encourage you to go through these full length demonstrations. You're welcome to just watch, or you can draw along with me. This course that you've just completed is the first course in my new drawing laboratory series. I'm currently in the process of creating the rest of the series. Once completed, the drawing laboratory will include four in depth drawing courses. In this second course, you'll learn to go beyond the flat surface of the page to create drawings that appear three dimensional to appear to have volume and to exist in deep space. You'll learn how to build on the basic shapes that you learned about in the beginner's guide. You'll learn how to turn these basic shapes into three dimensional forms. How to use those forms to construct any subject, no matter how complex. In the third course, you'll learn how to bring your drawings to life with beautiful and descriptive lines and marks. You'll learn to create drawings that not only show a viewer what the subject looks like, but what it feels like to the touch. You'll learn how to bring your drawings to life with dynamic contours. Instead of drawing with uniform monotonous outlines, you'll learn how to draw with expressive lines and marks. You'll learn to create drawings with vibrancy that really capture the attention of your viewers. Finally, in the fourth course, you'll learn shading. First, you'll learn how light and shadow works as it falls across simple objects like spheres, cylinders, and cubes. You'll learn to create drawings with shimmering lights and rich deep darks. Once you understand the essential components of light and shadow will increase the complexity. You'll learn how to shade more and more complex and interesting subjects. By the end of this course, you will have everything you need to shade any subject. The entire drawing laboratory series should be completed by fall of 2024. Each new course in the series will be released as it's completed. To know when each new course is released, please visit my website brent eviston.com. There, you'll find updates, and you can sign up for our mailing list. Signing up for my mailing list is the best way to ensure that you don't miss any updates. If you'd like to continue learning more fundamental skills with me, but the rest of the drawing laboratory series has not yet been released, I recommend going through the original art and science of drawing series. The entire original art and science of drawing series is available right now here on Skillshare. It has been an absolute honor and privilege to share my love of drawing with you. Once you're ready to learn more, I would love to see you in more of my courses, but until then, get out there and go draw. Okay. 12. Cardinal Demo Part 1: In this demonstration, we're going to pull together everything you've learned so far and show you how to apply it to an actual subject. In this demo, you're going to see nearly every single line and stroke I draw from the very beginning light lines and basic shapes to the finishing details. For this demo, you're going to see me draw a cardinal. Now, I love working with birds for these kind of demonstrations because they simplify beautifully into basic shapes. But they also give us a lot of opportunity for all kinds of textural lines and marks. This drawing will begin, very simply, but by the end of the drawing, you will have seen me make literally thousands of lines and marks that detail the bird and create all kinds of textures and values. This demonstration will be divided into three phases. In the first phase of the drawing, you're going to see me simplify the subject into its most basic shapes using light, soft lines. This part of the drawing is often referred to as an underdrawing because none of these lines are intended to be seen by a viewer. All of them are going to be covered up with the dark lines and values that will come later on to the drawing process. The reason we start off with these light lines and basic shapes is so we can get the basic forms of the subject down before we add any dark lines or details. This first phase of the drawing process is very similar to laying the foundation of a house. The house begins with concrete and wood framing. But once the house is finished, you don't see that original foundation. It gets covered up by all the walls and finishes and fixtures of the finished house. But if that foundation were not there, the house would not stand. Drawing works the same way. During this first phase, we are going to lay the foundational forms and shapes of our drawing. Now, later on, this foundational drawing will be covered up by all of the details, textures and values. But that underdrawing, that foundation will still be there underneath it all holding the drawing together. During the second phase, we're going to begin drawing lines that are intended to be seen by a viewer. We'll begin with the contours. First, we'll work around the edge of the subject defining its outline. In phase three, we're going to add all of the detail texture in value. We're going to bring the drawing to its conclusion. In this third phase, I'm going to go inside all of these shapes and use a wide range of lines and marks to communicate value, texture in detail. I'd like to remind you that this demonstration is part of a beginning drawing course. There is so much more to learn about drawing. But I want you to get a sense of how to apply everything you've learned so far toward an actual subject. Even though you still have a lot to learn about three dimensional drawing, about communicating with lines and marks, and especially about light and shadow, you can get started drawing right away. And I've tried to give you enough information in this course and in these demos to allow you to do drawings that you are proud of and that you enjoy creating. Now, during this demo, you're welcome to draw along with me, or you're welcome to just watch for inspiration and for education. And finally, I want to remind you that you'll see me drawing a bird in this demonstration, but this process can be used to draw any subject. So even if you have no interest in drawing birds, I highly recommend watching this demonstration because you can use this same process to draw the subjects that most interest you. Okay, let's head to the drawing board. So as always, I'm going to begin this drawing by simplifying the forms into their basic shapes. I'm going to begin with the birds by nice, big oval. Okay. And you're going to see me correct the shapes a lot as I go. So for example, I wanted this bottom area to be rounded just a little more. And instead of going through the five questions in a rigorous way as you've seen me do before, I am going to draw a little more freely here. So even though you're not going to see me follow the five questions specifically, you're still going to see me use the prominent ideas that we've talked about. Starting with the biggest forms first, working my way down to the smaller forms, starting my drawing off, very lightly and slowly working my way toward the darker lines that I want seen by a viewer and starting off with simple forms and working my way toward the details. So you can still see me using basic shapes quite a bit. But again, I'm not going through the five questions specifically. So hopefully, you can already see this drawing forming on the page. And I want you to note how quickly this is developing. When you're simplifying the forms into basic shapes, when you're simplifying forms into basic shapes and just looking for the general information, you can get a lot down on the page very quickly. And even though this drawing may look simple at this stage, it's important to note that this is still one of the most important parts of the drawing. Getting these basic forms down on the page properly at the right proportion in the right places, these bigger forms are going to define all of the details later on in the drawing process. So now that I have these very basic forms on the page, you're going to see me make a lot of corrections. And again, this part of the process, I liken to shaping a lump of clay. We have our first attempts here, but I need to refine and shape this to better reflect the subject I'm trying to draw. So some things I'm immediately seeing. This wing is not tilted properly. So I want to pull this down just a little bit. And once again, you can see that I am slightly darkening my second attempt here so I can tell which was my first attempt and which was my second attempt. I'm going to pull the tail in a little bit where it connects with the bird's body. Nice circular form right here in the tail before it extends down. Slant the tail down a little more. I'm going to pull the body up just a little bit round it downward and then come back up toward the front of the bird's body gives it a bit more of a rounded shape. Now, there's a change in the color of the bird's feathers, right here. Now, eventually, this is going to be a very textured line, but I'm just going to draw it in lightly using this soft line. Again, this is just going to be a guide. Move this line here for the back of the bird's neck. I'm going to move that over a bit. Okay. Now, I initially drew the front of the bird's face here. I'm going to move it back just a little bit. Send the beak out this way. So again, you can note that at this stage, I'm drawing just a little bit darker. But I'm not drawing dark yet because I know I'm still going to be moving these forms around as well. Just because I've made a second attempt doesn't make that second attempt right. Now, the bird's face is eventually going to have this dark area near the eye. Again, I'm just got in these lines at this stage just to get a starting point. I need to move this circle for the eye up a little bit. No, I'm going to extend the breast of the bird out just a more. So again, I'm constantly making the small adjustments as I observe and evaluate what I've drawn. So once the basic shapes are starting to work, I can get a little more detailed. So I'm going to go back into the bird's wing and start to some of the sections of the feathers. So here you can see this feather starts at the bottom with an ovular shape, but it's triangular on the left side. So again, I'm always looking for ways to simplify forms into basic shapes. This is something we're going to see a lot with feathers that they're curved like ovals in their body, but they tend to end in triangles. I think I've drawn the bird's head a little too big. So I'm going to pull this line back again. That's looking a little more proportional to me. Maybe even back just a little more. So this is very common at this stage, making a lot of adjustments and readjustments. So initially, I had drawn the line for the back of the bird's neck here. Then I moved it out. But now upon further evaluation, I'm moving it back in. Again, at this stage, we can make all of these kinds of changes because we are drawing so lightly. I'm going to pull the front of the bird's neck in just a bit. I think the beak can be just a little bit shorter. Okay. Once again, I'm going to move the bird's tail in just a little bit. Send it out. All right. I think this drawing is really starting to work. So now that I have the larger forms, I can add in some of the smaller forms. I'm just going to really directional lines for the feet. Okay. And I have the leg coming out here. I'm going to simplify this first just into a little oval. Okay. And extend a directional line out for the leg to the foot. So one thing I'm paying close attention to as I'm drawing is the relationship between various points of the subject. Now, I'm not drawing anything, but as I am drawing the tip of the bird's wing, I'm looking at it in relationship to the feathers on the very tip of the bird's head. I'm looking at the relationship between the edge of the breast and the tip of the beak. I'm always looking for these directional relationships. And I find them all over the place. Another one I'm trying to be aware of is the specific distance and direction from the tip of the bird's wing to the tip of the beak. So I'm not just evaluating shapes. I'm evaluating these relationships. Now you can notice too that I'm using the blocking in a lot of areas. So right here, you'll notice that I'm simplifying the neck into two straight lines. I've simplified this part of the wing into a mostly straight line. I've simplified parts of the bird's tail into straight lines. So I'm always looking to structure these curves with straighter lines. They're not just very loose curved lines. Finally, I'm going to curve the end of the bird's tail. I think that might be a little long. I'm going to pull that up. So all in all, I think these basic forms are starting to work. I'm going to add just a little more information just to flesh out the drawing a little bit. But I want to note that at every moment, I am looking to see if there are any corrections that need to be made, if there's any information that I need to change. Again, this is the time to do it. Not later on when I've started adding detail and shading. The time to make changes to these larger forms is right now, and I don't want to move forward. I don't want to add any detail until I have locked these basic forms. So, a few notes at this stage of the drawing. First of all, I want you to notice that all of the lines are light and soft. There is not a single hard edged line in here. I also want you to notice that even though this drawing looks a little more sophisticated than just a collection of circles and ovals, I'm still always thinking in terms of these basic shapes. For example, even though we have some detail here in the beak, the basic shape is still a triangle. Even though we have a more complex shape for the wing, I still thought about it first in terms of an oval shape here. Connected to a triangle here. We see the ovular quality of the base of the bird's tail where it connects to the body. We see the rectangular quality of the rest of the tail extending out. I started off by drawing the head as a basic oval shape all over the place. We have evidence of basic shapes. So I want you to take note of what this drawing looks like right now. I want you to take note of how rough it is and all of the excess lines. So most of these lines, I'm going to leave throughout the life of the drawing. I like to create drawings that give a sense of their history and process. And I think at the end of the drawing, these excess lines will add just a suggestion of time and life. Okay. So I may make a few more changes before I start to add detail, but this is the first phase of the drawing process capturing the basic forms of the subject with light lines, making all the adjustments you need to to prepare for dark lines that you're going to add later on. Remember, none of these lines here are intended to be seen by a viewer. These lines are merely a guide for me, so I know where to put on the details and the shading later on. But when you look at the finished drawing, remember, this is what is underneath. This is the foundation that is holding up all of the rest of the details. So I'm going to give it one more look to see if there are any adjustments I want to make before moving on to the next stage, which is solidifying the contours. So I'm going to take a little break from this drawing. Give myself a little space. I'm going to come back and I want to see if there are any additional changes that I want to make because I want to make sure that all of these basic forms are locked before I add any detail or shading. But so far, I'm pretty pleased with the foundation of this drawing. In the first phase of the drawing process, we broke our subject down into basic shapes. We then used more complex shapes to refine the subject. We went beyond the basic shapes to craft the shapes for the wing, the tail, the beak, the head, and more. Now, it's important to note that none of what we have drawn so far is intended to be seen by a viewer. These basic shapes are just an under They simply serve as a guide as we add all of the detail and texture we need to finish the drawing. But now we are entering the second phase of the drawing process. We're shifting away from the light lines and basic shapes of the underdrawing. From here on out, the lines that we draw are intended to be seen by a viewer. So in this second phase of the drawing process, our goal is to define the contours of the subject. We want to solidify our subject using lines that really communicate with the viewer. Now, there are many ways to do this, but for beginners, I highly recommend starting off with tactile sensations. What would the subject feel like to the touch? We want to use a wide variety of lines and marks to communicate the different tactile sensations we might find on this subject. For the soft feathers of the bird's body, we can use softer, thicker lines. For the hard, sharp beak, we can use harder edged thin lines. Remember, every line you draw is going to communicate with the viewer, so we want to put some thought into the kinds of lines we're using. We don't simply want to outline the subject with a boring and uniform line. We want to communicate with expressive and dynamic marks. So let's get started. I'm going to begin by drawing some softer lines for the feathers around the bird's body. I don't want to get too dark too quickly. I can always go back over these lines, but I just want to start to add some textured lines that communicate the softness of the bird. I want these lines to be beautiful and curved. Curve lines also help to communicate softness. Now, the lines for the wing, I do want to look somewhat soft, but not as soft as the bird's body. The wings need to be able to fly, which means they need some more rigidity. So I'm still going to be using soft curved lines, but they're going to be a little harder and a little darker than the lines I use for the bird's body. This is an excellent opportunity to create some beautiful S curves that really show the shape and the erodynamics of the bird's wing. I want to take every opportunity I can to use different kinds of lines and marks as I go around the drawing. Underneath the wing, we have the bird's tail. Now, this is an excellent opportunity to start adding a lot more textural marks. I want my lines and marks to create a sense of excitement in the viewer. And for me, this means never having a boring moment. I want the viewer to get lost in all of the different kinds of lines and marks. So here we can start to add some marks that really get at the texture of individual feathers. We can draw lines that really create a sense of rhythm. Okay. Now, even though I'm mostly focusing on the contours, the edges of these individual shapes, we're really setting the precedent for the kinds of lines and marks that are going to be inside the form. These lines and marks are going to be the first of hundreds if not thousands of individual lines and marks that are going to come later. But the rest of these lines and marks are going to be similar to the marks that I'm laying down right now. So I really want to create these marks with intentionality. These are the lines that are going to inform the rest of the line work later on. Now, the feathers of the bird's tail are soft, but the tail seems much more rigid. So you can see I'm using some darker, harder lines to help communicate the texture of the tail. And we can still see some beautiful individual feathers here. So I'm just going to add a textured edge here to some of these feathers. And here at the end of the tail, I really want to add the textured ends of these feathers. Next, let's focus on the bird's head. So a cardinal appears to wear something that looks like a face mask. There's this beautiful area of darkness that surrounds the bird's beak and eye. But the edges of this area can be incredibly textural. So you see in the first phase of the drawing process, I simply defined that shape. But now I can go back over it and start to add some very textural lines. I want to pay close attention to their direction. I really want to create the sensation that there are feathers here. I almost want the viewer to get the sense that it would tickle them if they touched it. We see a similar transition here from the bird's neck to the wing. We have another opportunity to create some beautiful textural marks, and you can see that I'm drawing these right over my original line for the basic shapes of the wing. So far, we've used a lot of softer lines to create the illusion of feathers, but, of course, there are other tactile sensations here. Next, I'm going to draw the contours around the bird's beak. Now, the bird's beak would be hard and sharp. So I'm going to use dark thin lines to start to communicate that sharpness. These lines can also be more angular. I really want to give this sense that if you touch the tip of the bird's beak, it would feel sharp to the touch. As I draw these lines, I want you to pay attention to how my hand is moving. Don't just look at what's coming out of the pencil. You'll notice that so far I have created every single line using the overhand grip. Now, where the bird's beak disappears under the feathers, I can go back to some more textural lines. Notice how different these lines for the beak feel from the softer, more feathered lines. The more lines we draw, the more these tactile sensations are going to be amplified in the drawing. Now, we can also find harder lines in the bird's feet. The bird's feet not only appear hard, but maybe brittle. So once again, you're going to see me draw using darker, sharper lines to communicate the hardness of the bird's feet. Eventually, for the feet and legs, I'm going to add a lot more texture, but for now, I just need to get this started. Again, these kinds of lines are going to inform the lines that I will use later on as I fill in the rest of the subject. So hopefully, in moments like this, you can really start to feel the difference between the types of lines that I'm using for the legs and feet, these hard lines, and the very, very soft lines that I'm using for the bird's body. Here at the bird's upper leg, it goes back to feathers, and I can create a different tactile sensation. So all of these lines and marks start to work together to create a very rich experience for the viewer. I want the bird's talons to feel sharp. So once again, I'm going to be using very hard thin lines. I can see a talon coming from behind the branch because the bird has its foot wrapped around it. Remember, the goal here in phase two is to solidify all of the forms of the subject. We are preparing to add more shading in detail. So I'm going to continue to look around the subject to see what areas I need to address. Once again, here we have some lovely textures where we see individual feathers coming through. And again, notice all of these small soft lines really create a textual experience. Now, I'm also seeing a lot of really beautiful individual feathers. So I'm going to start to define all of these smaller feathered areas. Again, I want to create a really rich experience for the viewer. Up here, I have some more triangular shaped feathers I can draw. Some of them are almost scalloped. These feathers at the end of the bird's head are pointed and again are an opportunity for a beautiful textural experience. For the eye, I'm going to switch to the overhand grip. There are some very subtle details that I want to draw. I also want to use some very delicate line work. I eventually want the eye to look glassy, so I'm using darker, harder lines. Now I'm going to draw the bird's pupil, and I'm going to add the shape of the reflection, the small triangular shape. So hopefully, this demonstration has given you a sense of the different kinds of lines and marks you can use as you define the shapes of the subject. This is the phase of the drawing process where the drawing really goes from a collection of shapes to an actual subject that has some detail in texture. Remember, the goal here is not only to vary your line work, but to define the kinds of lines that you're going to use to fill in the rest of the subject. But in this phase, we're mostly focusing on the edges of these shapes. We're defining the edges of the shape of the wing. We're defining the edges of the shape of the bird's body. We're defining the edges of the shape of the tail. But every step of the way, I'm asking myself, what do I want to communicate with these lines. This is not simply a boring uniform outline. I've really gone out of my way to create a textual experience for the viewer. In this phase of the drawing process, I have used so many of the different kinds of lines that we've talked about in Lesson eight. Although I may work on this a little more, I think we are nearly ready for phase three. I think I'm about ready to go inside these shapes and start to add shading and detail. 13. Cardinal Demo Part 2: So at this stage, I'm ready to start filling in all of the rest of the drawing. This third phase of the drawing is all about texture and value. So first, let's just talk about value for a moment. Now, one thing that's important to know is that drawing is a transparent medium, very similar to watercolor. What I mean by that is we can see through all of the layers of a drawing. For example, I'm going to add some dark value down here at the very bottom of the bird's body. I'm going to use the side of my pencil to create soft strokes of value, and I'm going to let these strokes get lighter as we go up. The reason I'm doing this is because the bottom of the bird is in more shadow, so it can be darker, and as the bird rounds upward toward the light source, it's going to get lighter. I'm going to do something similar with a bird's wing. Underneath, I'm going to draw some darker strokes of value, and I'm going to let the wing get lighter as it goes up and approaches the light source, which is above the bird. Now that I've drawn these little areas of value, I'm going to go over and start to add texture, and you'll notice that we can see that value right through these more textural lines. They work together. So now this area of the bird isn't just going to have value, but it's going to have texture as well. I'm going to use these shorter curved strokes to really give the sense that there are some textured feathers here. I want you to know that we can still see the darker value right through these more textured lines. I can enhance this effect by drawing with darker lines while I'm adding texture down below where it's going to be where it's going to be a more shadow and using lighter lines as we come up toward the light source. Okay. I'm just going to layer these curved lines over and over again to give a real nice sense of texture. This also gives us a sense of direction. Each of these lines has a direction and you'll notice that they flow almost like water across the bird's body. They give a real sense of direction. Now I'm going to move up into the birds. So the very bottom edge of the bird's wing. I'm going to draw much darker, using a thicker darker line. But of course, these are feathers, so I'm going to use these really small strokes just to give these lines a bit of texture. I don't want these to just be lines. It's going to add a bit of texture using these dark strokes. You're going to rough up these lines just a little bit and make them feel more like feathers. I want you to notice that I'm making these lines rather quickly. I'm not laboring over there. I'm not fussing over them. So the bird's tail is getting shadow cast on it by the wings. So I'm going to use the side of my pencil and darken this area right underneath the wing. I'm going to let it get lighter. So this really starts to add some dimension to the bird. Now we're getting into light and dark, but I'm still looking at the values as having shapes. So to enhance this, I'm going to use dark strokes in this shadow area of the tail. Right here, this area of feathers is casting a shadow over this other section of the tail. I'm going to use some darker strokes to capture some of these beautiful curved feathers that we see right before the tail feathers really start to straighten out and shoot down. So hopefully, you can really start to see how all of these different kinds of strokes to work together. So now I'm going to add some value to the entire tail of the bird. Again, it's not just white. When I do this, again, I'm using the side of my pencil to lay a light wash of value in. Next, let's work on the face mask of the bird, this dark area that is around the eyes in the beak. Now, this is really going to start to define the look of the cardinal. So I'm going to use these short hard dark strokes to start to fill in this area. This is going to be one of the darkest areas of the entire bird. Now, I'm not just going to color it in with the tip of my pencil. I'm going to build it up using individual strokes. Again, this is going to give the whole area a really beautiful sense of texture to it. I really want to pay attention to the direction that these feathers are going. Again, they're really going to define the look and feel of this face mask. Now I want to bring these dark feathers right up to the edge of the eye. I'm going to keep layering these strokes over and over again until we can barely see any of the white of the page these dark strokes. Again, even though this entire area is going to be covered up with dark strokes, I'm still going out of my way to use texture and direction. Really build up a lot of visual interest. Now again, this is the type of area where it's easy to be tempted to just draw value in, but that's not what we're going to do. You want to take advantage of all of these opportunities to build up texture using different kinds of lines and marks. It's really starting to come together now. To find that edge just a little more create some of these nice triangular shapes. We have some of these dark strokes that are going to use right at the edge of the bird's eye as well. Now I'm going to start to darken the pupil. Now, for the pupil, I am going to use the tripod grip and bear down on the tip of my pencil. Create a really nice, hard edged shape for that pupil. While I'm doing this, I'm going to use this same grip to define the edge of the bird's eye. And I want to draw all of these tiny little lines that are coming out from the edge of the eye. I'm going to go all the way around. So I'm going to put a little wash of value just to smooth out this area of darkness for the mask. Okay. And dark in the edge of the bird's eye. And I'm going to add some dark value because other than the high light, the entire eye is. I want to leave that highlight that triangular highlight, the white of the page. I don't want to get stuck here too long. Let's move on to some other areas of the drawing. Maybe right above the mask. I'm going to use some softer lighter lines to get the direction of some of the feathers here. Okay. Again, the feathers seem to flow in directions, almost like water. These feathers on the head are moving up and then heading backward. You always want to figure out the direction of the feathers. Here I'm going to be using much lighter lines. To note how all of these lines and marks start to layer together. That's a huge part of creating texture is letting all of the different lines and marks come together. So you're not just using different lines and marks in different parts of the bird, you're layering different kinds of lines and marks right over one another to create rich textural experiences. Okay. We're always paying close attention to the direction of the lines and the types of lines we're using. Okay. I'm going to spend some time with the bird's beak. Even though the edges of the beak are made with sharp lines, I'm going to use the edge of my pencil to add some of the value. Just like with the body, the area underneath the beak is going to get and then we're going to get lighter as we move. Okay. Same thing here. It's going to be a near the bottom and get lighter as we move up. Now I want you to know that no individual stroke that I'm using is that difficult to make. But when they come together, they create such a beautiful illusion of depth and texture and tactile sensations. That's so critical to drawing is understanding this layering process. I think this drawing is really starting to come together now in some really beautiful ways. We still have a long way to go. It's important to note how many thousands of strokes go into each and every drawing you're going to do. With each of these strokes, you want to be thoughtful, you want to be mindful. You don't want to get into the habit of zoning out and letting habit take over. We want to think about each and every stroke we're making. Just like if it were a letter of a word. Here we have some nice directional lines to craft these feathers on the top of the bird's wing, and as we get closer to the light source, which is coming from above, I am going to use lighter and lighter lines. Again, that's going to give the bird a real sense of value. I'm going to come over here near the bottom of the bird. I'm going to continue to darken these lines. Again, this area of the bird is going to be in shadow. Just going to draw right over the lines that I already have. And this, of course, we continue to add to that textural experience. A little dark value under here, right underneath the tail. I want that area to be nice and dark. Again, the tail is going to cast a little bit of shadow onto the bird's body. Add some darker value under here. Now I'm going to use a few sharper lines to add some definition. I'm focusing on creating these triangular shapes, you can see all of these small triangles that I'm creating. That's going to give the sense that these are individual feathers coming together in points. That's what I'm observing in the actual bird. Now I'm going to add some more definition to the tail. Now, again, the tail is not going to be an area of focus. So I'm going to use softer edged lines. Hard lines tend to draw the eye. This almost gives the sense that the tail is a little bit out of focus, which is an illusion that I tend to like when I'm drawing. If I don't want something to be emphasized, can keep it out of focus just a little bit. It's not that I'm actually observing this on the subject, but this is a decision that I can make in the drawing. I can direct the viewer to what I want them to look at and what I want them to I wouldn't say ignore, but not to focus on area. This area is still a little unaddressed. I'm going to come up here. Again, this has a lot of light strokes we're going to use. They're almost in these small scallop shapes. Okay. Now, a lot of times when I'm drawing these kinds of textures, I am figuring them out as I go. Again, there's not a single right way to do this. I'm looking at the subject, and I'm experimenting to see what kind of lines and marks I can use to create texture and visual interest. Add some value underneath the bird's wing here. Again, the wing is casting just a bit of a shadow over the body below it. So at this stage, this drawing is really starting to work out. We have a lot of nice lines and marks here, but the drawing does not yet appear finished. So that's when I want to start to ask myself, what is going to help this drawing appear more finished. Now I'm going to shift back to the feet. Just like the rest of the bird's body, the feet are going to have a value. We're not just going to have the feet be the white of the page. So I'm going to lay some value down using the side of my pencil before I go back and add some of the details. I'm going to continue to use these hard edged lines for the legs and the feet. Again, I want them to look like they are hard. To me, birds legs almost look like they have a wooden quality to them. They also have a lot of texture. They have these small segments. I'm going to use dark hard lines for these as well. I want to make sure that the areas right before the talons look big and round. We'll probably go back at some point and add a little more detail here but that's starting to work. Just like the bird's body, I'm going to use darker lines underneath to imply that there is some shadow there Same thing with this section of the leg, I'm going to add just a little bit more value underneath. Now I've spent a lot of time developing texture, but I also want to make sure that the drawing reads as a whole. One great way to make sure that all of these different textures come together is to use value to knock them back just a bit and soften them. I'm going to add just a little more value in some of these areas with the side of my pencil. Just to pull all of the textural parts together. Just knocks him back slightly makes them read as a single object, not just all these separate lines. I do the same thing with the wing to add just a little more value. Some of these individual lines fade together and the wing looks a little bit more like one object. Okay. I'm going to define the edges of these smaller feathers just a little more. One thing you'll notice is that I'm going back to sections of the drawing that I've already worked on, and I'm adding more detail texture or value. Again, I'm not just starting in one area then finishing that then moving on. All of these areas get built up over time. Okay. Here I want the textures to be very subtle. I don't want to overdo it. So I'm using very light lines here. I go back and add a little more detail in the eye. Again, I want this drawing to be a real experience for viewers. Everywhere they look, I want them to be able to find some kind of experience to draw them in. I'm going to darken the wing over here as well. Again, I'm just wanting to bring some value to it underneath, have it get lighter as it goes closer to the light source. Near the light source, near the top of the bird, I'm going to use incredibly soft and light lines. Okay. Despite all of this detail, I'm still making an attempt to pay attention to value. So again, we can see all over the bird, the darker lines are near the bottoms of the shapes where the lighter lines are near the top. So we're thinking about many things at once when we're drawing. We're not just thinking about texture and making, we're also thinking about value. Okay. So to give more of a sense that there's light coming from above, I'm going to take my needed era and I'm going to press it into the top edge of the bird. I'm going to lighten these lines just a little bit. Okay. I've just removed a small amount of pigment that's going to let these lines lighten a little bit. Again, this gives the illusion that there's light coming down and hitting these lines. This lets the darker lines that are near the bottom edge of the bird be that much more effective. I I'm going to go around and add just a few more details? This drawing is very close to being finished, but I want to add just a few more details. Here we see this little section of the leg coming back into the light. I'm going to draw just a hint of this foot in the background. I don't want to add too much detail to it because I want it to look like it's fading out into the background, but I want to address it just a little more and add some value there. Okay. So at this stage of the drawing, what I tend to do is get some space from it. I want to get a break from the drawing. I want to be able to see it with fresh eyes. So now I'm going to take a break. I'm going to let it sit for a day or two in the drawing board, and then I'm going to come back to it to see what finishing touches it needs. But all in all, I'm very happy with the way this drawing is going. So hopefully, this has given you a sense of how to start a drawing with basic shapes, how to refine those shapes and proportions, how to use contour to define both the outer edges of the bird as well as the edges of the inside shapes like the wing. And finally, how to use all kinds of lines and marks to add detail texture and value. So I'm going to get a break and come back to this drawing to see what small details are really going to make this drawing sing. So in this demonstration, I've tried to give you a real sense of the entire drawing process from the first light marks to the final detailed finishing touches. So here is the finished drawing. Now, I have added a few extra details since the end of the demo you just watched. But you witnessed the vast majority of the lines and marks that went into this drawing. Now, even at this stage, I may decide to add more details or finishing touches. Sometimes a month or more will go by and I'll be able to see the drawing with fresh eyes. And getting distance from the drawing will often reveal exactly what needs to happen to truly bring the drawing to a sense of completion. But this is where the drawing stands now, and I think it's worked out pretty well. Now I'd like you to take a minute and look through all of the details and textures back to those simple basic shapes we started with. Those basic shapes provided me with a foundation that allowed me to add all of the detail texture and value that you see here. Remember, the most common errors I see beginners make is adding detail texture and value before they've worked out the basic forms of the subject. It is all too common for me to see students lovingly shade part of their subject for an hour or more only to realize that that part of the subject is too big or needs to be moved. By starting off with these basic shapes first, we will avoid that fate. This is why the entire drawing process that I've just laid out is so important. It will keep you from adding detail texture or shading before your drawing is ready. By the time you start drawing the dark lines that you want to be seen by a viewer, you will be certain that the basic forms and proportions of your subject are already worked out. Now, other subjects will require different details and textures, but the overall process remains the same. Light lines in basic shapes, defining the form with contours and then detail texture in shaping. Nearly every drawing you do will go through that process. Now, I've tried to make this demonstration accessible to beginners, but the reality is that I'm using a lot more techniques and ideas than I've taught you so far. In the remainder of the series, you're going to learn more about three dimensional drawing, how to really communicate using lines and marks and how to shade. You'll learn the basics of light and shadow as well as advanced shading techniques. I would love to see you in more of my courses. Well, as always, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I really hope you've gotten something out of this demonstration, and I hope to see you in future courses. Now, get out there and apply this process to the subjects that you want to draw. Okay. 14. Botanical Demo Part 1: Welcome to the second demonstration in this Beginner's Guide to drawing. In this demo, you'll see me draw a flower. Drawing botanicals of any kind is such a fantastic way to hone your skills. They're interesting, they're beautiful, and they come in so many different shapes and textures. Flowers, seed pods, leaves, roots, and even sticks can be fascinating subjects to draw. One of the things I love about working with botanicals, and what you'll see me do today is that you can set them right on your drawing board. One of the things I highly recommend doing is getting out into the world to find natural objects to draw. If you don't live near a natural area you can explore, take a trip to the grocery store. There you can usually find fresh cut flowers, herbs, fruits, and vegetables, mushrooms, and all kinds of beautiful, natural objects to draw. Here at my studio, I actually keep a small collection of natural objects that I find beautiful and interesting. This kind of drawing is such an incredible way to get to know a natural object intimately. You get to really invest yourself, your awareness, and your consciousness in this object. Now, just like my previous demonstration of the cardinal, in this demo, you'll see me draw in three phases. First, you'll see me draw the basic shapes. Next, you'll see me deal with contours. And finally, you'll see me add all of the shading, detail and textures. Now, one difference in this demonstration is that you'll see me rely heavily on the block in technique. I wanted to make sure I gave you a different kind of drawing experience than the previous demonstration of the cardinal. That being said, you'll still see me employ many of the tools and techniques that you've learned about in this course. So let's head to the drawing board. So for this demonstration, I actually have the flowers that I'm drawing right next to me. Now, because of the hot studio lights, these are artificial flowers. But when you're doing this project on your own, I recommend trying to find real botanical subjects. Now, before we begin, I want to note that what the camera is seeing is slightly different from what I am going to be seeing and drawing. I just want to note that so you understand that what you're going to see me draw is going to look slightly different from what the camera sees. So let's go ahead and begin. To start, I just want to get a sense of what I'm going to draw. I'm going to be focusing on this large flower here. But as the drawing progresses, I may want to draw some additional flowers. So to begin, I'm going to go through my five questions. What is the biggest shape? Well, I'm going to be focusing on this flower first, and it's going to simplify into an ovular shape. How big does it need to be? Well, I want to draw it at a pretty similar size to the actual flower. What is its axis? Well, I'm saying that the oval for the flower is going to be tilted about like this. Where in the page does it need to go? I want it to be directly across from this flower, right here, which is going to leave some room if I want to draw some additional flowers. Now I'm going to make my first attempt. I'm going to pantomime the motion of this oval and when I'm ready, going to put my pencil down and not just go around once, but go around a few different times, creating a very light ovular shape. Now I ask my fifth question. What changes do I need to make? Well, I think this oval could be tilted up just slightly. So without eracing, I'm just going to make a second attempt and tilt it upward, just a little bit. So now it's axis is a little more upward. All right, what's the next biggest shape? Well, a lot of the petals seem pretty big, but I'm going to focus on the center of the flower. I'm focusing on the center of the flower, not because it's the next biggest shape, but because all of the petals are organized around it. It's not the biggest shape, but I think it is the most important shape to capture next before I draw all of the petals. So I'm seeing that shape as triangular. Go through my five questions in no particular order, I know that it needs to be near the center of the flower, but it's going to be slightly closer to the bottom than it is the top. Because this is a triangular shape, it doesn't really have an axis to it. And to get a sense of the size, I'm just going to start and feel it out. So I'm going to begin by making the bottom edge. And then drawing the rest of the triangle. And rather than drawing a triangle with straight edges, I'm seeing these edges as a little bit curve. So this is like a triangle with curved sides instead of straight sides. Now, one thing I want to note when drawing subjects like flowers is that we have a large margin of error. So what do I mean by that? Well, when you're drawing something that's organic like this, if we make a pedal too big or too small or put it in the wrong place, it's not going to affect the overall drawing that much. So this is what I call having a large margin of error. Now, let's contrast that with drawing a portrait. While drawing a portrait, if you get an eye too big or too small or out of place, everybody notices, and it creates a lot of problems for the final drawing. So when you're drawing portraiture, you have a very tiny margin of error. You need to get nearly everything perfect. But with an organic subject like this, we can relax a little bit and draw with a little more freedom. Now, this is not an excuse for sloppy drawing. I'm still making my best attempt to draw what I see with some level of accuracy. It's just that I know that I have a little bit more freedom to move. So I've simplified all of the complex shapes of the petals to a basic oval, and I've simplified that center area of the flower into a triangle with curved edges. Now, I think it's very possible that I may need to go back and make some adjustments, but overall, I'm pretty happy with this. Next, I'm going to start to draw the petals. Now, there are a number of ways that you can approach this. I'm going to start with some of the larger petals first. But I like to simplify the edges into somewhat straight lines to block in the shapes of the petals. So before drawing all of the curves, I'm going to simplify the petal into straighter lines and edges just to get a sense of the overall shape and size. Focusing on this right edge of the petal that is directly to the right of the center, you'll notice that on the actual subject, we see a lot of curvature, but I've enveloped the shape of this petal, focusing on creating the box that would go around it. I can go back later and add in some of these curves. Next, I'm going to draw the petal that is to the left of the central triangle. Once again, I'm going to simplify it into straight lines first just to get a sense of the overall shape. I am, of course, still using incredibly light lines. So this petal that is directly below the triangle is very slender. We're just seeing the top of it. So I'm going to simplify that into almost like a box shape that's slightly curved. I'm going to do something very similar with this petal right next to it, simplifying it almost into a block like shape. Again, I can go back and add all of the complex curves a little later. Let's draw this big petal down here. You'll notice this big petal went farther down than my original oval, and that's fine. Remember, the goal isn't to stick within our original shapes. We're thinking about this instead like a lump of clay that we can shape. Again, this petal is also going a bit outside of our original oval. But that original oval is still in forming most of the contours of the petals. So hopefully, you can start to see the overall shapes of these petals starting to form. Now, because we have a larger margin of error, I'm not getting too caught up in the specific proportions. But this is really starting to work. At this stage, we have a very simple drawing of the flower. I've broken it down into its most basic shapes. So now that I've made my first attempt at all of the petals, I want to go back and refine these shapes just a little bit. I'm not yet going to draw all of the curves that I'm seeing, but I do want to take a moment, just add in a few extra contours. Just to understand the shapes and forms a little better. So you'll notice that at this stage, my lines are getting just slightly darker as I add a little more detail. Now, you'll note that I'm still simplifying these complex curves of the petals into straight lines. Again, I find this incredibly useful while trying to figure out organic complex curves. In the next phase of the drawing where we detail the contours, I'm going to draw right over these straight lines and we won't even be able to see them anymore. But at this stage, I just want to refine these shapes of the petals. Okay. Here I am breaking down this larger shape of the petal into a more complex shape, and I have this area where the petals in. But again, I am using primarily straight lines in order to understand it. So remember, this is still phase one. I am still doing the underdrawing. I am constructing the basic shapes that I am eventually going to cover with darker lines that I want seen by a viewer. But at this stage, I am still very aware that none of these lines are intended to be seen by a viewer. These lines are just for me. Here I'm raising the height of this petal. Here is my original attempt. I'm moving this up a little bit. You'll also see that I'm going to move this edge outward a little bit. So this petal is going to be bigger overall and I've changed the shape a little bit. Now, just as I have noted in previous demos, I am drawing much darker than I normally would if I were drawing on my own. The reason I'm doing this is so you can see it. I'd also like you to note that I have not erased anything yet. And I want you to see that the drawing is still working very well. Now I'm going to refine this central triangle here. I'm going to refine this shape a little more. I'm going to draw some of the more complex shapes of the center of the flower. Overall, this is really starting to work nicely. So in addition to the petals of the flower, I can also draw the leaves that are surrounding it. Just going to block these in simply for now. Now, these leaves aren't going to be a focus. So I'm just going to block them in simply. Okay. But I do want to add them. And just to remind myself that these are dark leaves and not petals, at this early stage, I'm just going to lay a light wash of value in the leaves, just to remind myself. These are not petals that are going to be light in color. These are going to be dark leaves. So I'm not sure if I want to draw the rest of these flowers yet, but I do want to just add some simple stems of the flowers just in case I decide to draw them later on. So I'm just going to use incredibly light, simple soft lines to get very basic indications of where they might go, should I decide to add them in the future. I probably won't, but I just want to get some light indications. And of course, I want to draw the stem down below as well. So here, we have the basic shapes and forms of the flower. I started off with a very simple circle and a triangle for the center. Then I added petals first by simplifying them into very basic straight edge shapes, and then I broke up those straight edge shapes into more complex forms. I blocked in the contours of the petals, and here is where we now stand. Remember, by the end of phase one, we want to have constructed the basic forms of our subject so that in the next phase, we can draw the contours that we do want to be seen by a viewer. So the question I'm asking myself now is what else needs to happen before I am ready to move on to phase two. I think this is working pretty well. I think we're ready to move on. So in this next phase of the drawing process, we're going to draw lines that are intended to be seen by a viewer. At this stage, we're going to take the block in, this light foundational drawing and start to add the curves. Now, before we do that, I want to remind you that nothing in this drawing so far is intended to be seen by a viewer. These lines and shapes are just for me to lay out the basic forms. But now that I'm confident that this underdrawing is working, I can start drawing lines that I want to be seen by a viewer. So the question here is what kinds of lines do we want to use? What do we want to communicate with our viewer? Well, the subject like this is light, it is soft, it is airy, so we don't want to use a lot of dark, heavy thick lines. We want to draw most of this using lighter, softer lines. So I'm going to begin right down here and start to add some beautiful curves to our subject. Now, one thing that flowers do is they tend to have a lot of lovely little folds. So I want to make sure that I'm capturing how the edges of the petals fold and create these little lips and edges and rims. You'll notice that I'm not erasing anything. I'm drawing right over the lines that we've already drawn. So I'm going to use very soft lines for some of the inner contours. I want to craft the look of this rim of the petal. It's very soft. And this line firms up a little as it comes to this little corner right here. As this petal disappears deeper inside the flower, I'm going to make these lines a little darker and thicker. Now let's move on to this next petal. I'll be doing the same thing all the way around. Remember, I'm trying to capture the basic contours of the f. Now, I haven't erased any lines yet, but I want you to see how well these curved lines simply cover up the straighter lines from the block in. So here you can say I'm adding much more detailed curves to this petal. Initially, initially, I just blocked this in as a straight line, but now I can go back and add some of these beautiful curved edges. Okay. To come down to the smaller petal here. I want to make sure that the lines that I'm drawing with aren't the same all the way around the edges. So I can have some areas that are a and, but some areas that are lighter and. Again, what I'm trying to avoid is using the same kind of line quality throughout the drawing. So this petal here has some really beautiful curves to it, and we can see the rim that the petal is creating. I'm really going to curve this line down and then around and then back up. Now, following the cons of these kinds of rims or edges can be a little tricky. But if we do it properly, it will really create a sense of this flower petal having a beautiful rim or lip to it. I really want to soften this line here. Now, I think this is a really beautiful moment. So I'm drawing it using darker lines that are really going to draw the eye right to this location. But I want to use these darker, harder lines very sparingly. I feel like these lines are getting a little too straight. I want to go back and curve them just a little more. Again, you'll notice that I'm not erasing anything. I'm just going back over them using more fluid curvaceous line work. So at this stage, I'm establishing the outer contour of the flower. But you'll notice that I'm not simply tracing around the edge of it. I'm crafting each individual petal. Now, exactly how you approach the drawing process is really up to you. But I do want to give you a sense of how I would handle some of these forms. Now, the contours of these petals are pretty complex. So I'm going to do a first pass just to establish the basic shapes. But then I'm going to go back over them to figure out what I want to emphasize. So one thing that's striking me about this flower is some of the petals are closer to us and some of them are further away. So the petals that are closer, I may want to draw with darker lines to really pull them forward visually, and some of the petals that are a little further away, I may let them fade out just a little bit. So now that I've established the edges of the petals, I want to go to the center of the flower. Now, at the center of the flower, we have a lot of really small little details. This is why I haven't addressed it yet. Remember, we always want to work big to small from simple to complex. Now, it can be easy to get a little intimidated when you see an area like this with so much detail. But remember, it's very similar to the petals that we've just drawn. They're just a little smaller. So there's no need to be intimidated. I'm going to begin by creating these small petal shapes. And I do want this area to be a focus. I am going to darken it. So it really draws the eye inward. First, I'm going to work on the bigger shapes, but then I'm going to go in and start to add a lot of the little details of the center of the flower. Okay. So right here at the center, we have all of these parts of the flower that are coming up and coming together right in the very center. It's almost architectural. Outside of that, of course, we have all of these smaller petal like shapes and forms. And of course, because I already established the larger triangular shape, I can draw with a little more freedom now that I'm working inside that shape. I know where the edges of all of these little tiny details are going to be. Now that I've drawn the basic shapes, I'm going to go back in and add just a few details and refinements. Okay. And of course, later on, we'll come in and add a lot more value. But the lines, the edges of these shapes are starting to work very nicely. I want to establish the edge of these leaves just a that make them curvaceous than I initially drew them. I'm actually going to make them a curvaceous than I actually see them on the subject. Now, I really like to add subtle exaggerations, particularly to subjects that have a large margin of error. Okay. As I mentioned, these lines are not quite as curved as I'm drawing them, but I like to exaggerate for dramatic effect. Well, we're working on the contours, I'm going to establish the stem. Some of these basic shapes just a solid, give them a little more shape and form. Now, the stem is going to be edged. And I'm going to draw it with a little more angularity to contrast with the soft petals of the flowers. So at this stage, I feel like phase two is working. I've established all of the edges of the forms, all of the contours, both the outer contour around the outer edges of the flower, as well as the inner contours. I've added shape to each individual petal, and I've even gone through and I've figured out the shapes for all of these tiny little fragments in the center of the flower. So at this stage, I'm feeling ready to move on to Phase three. 15. Botanical Demo Part 2: Okay. So in phase three of this drawing, we want to start to add all of the subtle detail value and texture. Now, there's a lot going on in this drawing, but there aren't too many dark values in the flower itself. So we want to use a very light touch. So I'm going to go around to each petal and using very soft lines. I'm going to start some of these very soft subtle curves that help give a sense of the shape of the flower. This is going to add some three dimensionality. Can also start to draw more overlaps in the edges of the petals. Now, each petal has some darker areas and some lighter areas. For example, this petal here, we can see that this left edge is light, whereas the right side is a little darker. So I'm going to add just a little bit of value. And I can see it's getting a little darker right here. Again, using the side of my pencil, I'm going to lay down a wash of value. I'm going to do something similar for each petal. I want to look for any indications of shape created by some of these areas of value. I want to add just subtle hints of value. For this petal, you can see got this darker area right here. Again, I'm using very soft lines and strokes to create these effects. I'm using a very soft touch. Now, this petal here actually has some shadow being cast on it by this petal. So this area right here is going to be a little darker than other areas. It's going to get lighter here. So we've just added a little bit of value to these petals, but we can already see a lot of dimensionality starting to emerge. Here we have this petal casting a bit of shadow onto this petal right here. Again, we're going to darken this area. So you'll notice that before I add this value, I'm trying to figure out the shape. Every shadow has a shape just like every other aspect of our subject. And I want to figure out what that shape is before I start to add any value. Okay. Again, you'll notice that I'm mostly using very soft lines. So I want this drawing to be all about softness, suppleness. I'm going to move on to this petal. Here we see it's in here closer to the center of the flower and it gets a little lighter as we move outward. Same thing here with this petal here, it's behind these two petals. We have some shadow casting onto it, so it's going to be darker near the center and get lighter as it moves out from behind these petals. Now, I usually like to save the values for. That means I'm not going to darken in the leaves yet. That's going to be one of the last things I do. Now, in addition to the values that I've been drawing, I can also see these beautiful veins in the petals. These are very subtle, so I want to draw them with a very light touch, but they're going to help give some shape and dimension. Using light, slightly soft lines. So these subtle veins help to give the petals more dimension. The curve over the surface. So in this petal back here because it's in a more shadow, a lot of these veins are a. You'll notice how these veins of the petals and the value we lay down start to work together to really describe the topography of each petal. In some areas, the veins are incredibly light. And in other areas are a little more visible. So I'm not drawing the veins using a single line weight. I'm really trying to think about exactly how dark each of these soft lines should be. Now, I can also start to add a lot of subtle detail in the edges of the petals. So for example, here, we can see these tiny little areas where the petal folds just a little bit. So during this phase, even though I'm adding value, I still want to go back and define the edges of the petals, where I feel that's necessary. Okay. Okay. Okay. So, for example, here, I'm going to darken this edge just a little bit to pull it and I'm going to darken this pedal behind it a more. Okay. Mm. There's so much subtle detail in this flower. The more I look, the more I can see, to all of these beautiful veins describing the surface of the petals, to all of these subtle shifts in value, that really start to give a sense of how the petals are curving. So I'm going to take a break from the petals for a moment and go to this central area of the flower. There are a lot of dark values where all of these little pieces are casting shadows over one another and coming in and out of the light. So I want to add a lot of contrast here. I want these darker areas to be some of the darkest areas in the drawing. Remember, high contrast will pull the viewer's attention. It'll pull the gaze of the viewer to this area and create a central focus. Detail dark lines and high contrast create areas of focus. Okay. So all of the time that we spend creating these little shapes is really starting to pay off now. The more value and contrast I add, the more this delicate and complex area becomes something to really focus on and spend time with. So you'll notice that we're going to have areas of this drawing that have a lot of detail in some areas that are left unfinished intentionally. We want to be able to create that contrast. Remember, what we're doing here ultimately is giving the viewer something interesting and beautiful to look at. And the way we're going to do that is by providing them with a lot of different kinds of things to look at. Okay. Now, ultimately, this whole area of the flower, this central area is going to be darker than the petals. Now that I've laid down a lot of detail, I am going to add a wash of value over the entire central area just to make it a than the rest of the flower. Because that is what I'm seeing. I'm going to go back into this area now and add a little more definition that we lost when I darkened the central area. Not a lot, but I just want to bring back some of that definition. Okay. So I think this drawing is really starting to come alive? We have so many areas that have so many subtle details. And remember, in a demo like this, you are seeing nearly every single line and stroke I am making. And I'm trying to give you specific information about exactly what I'm thinking each step of the way. Okay. So now I want to bring some areas of focus. Again, I want this central area of the drawing to really be something that viewers bring their eyes to, and I want it to fade a bit as we go outward. So that means that near the center of the flower, I'm going to start drawing with some hard lines. But as we move out from the center of this flower, these lines are going to get a little lighter and softer. So hopefully, you can see that these darker, harder lines really start to pull our gaze toward the center. I don't want to make these lines too dark or too hard because, again, these are flowers. We want them to have a beautiful curvaceousness and a suppleness. But hopefully you can start to see by darkening and hardening some of these lines near the center, we really do start to get a sense of focus. Our eyes are pulled right here to the center. Okay. Mm. I'm at this stage, I'm going to darken some of the values just to add some more dimensionality to the flower. I don't want to go too dark. I don't want any really dark values in these petals, but I do want to create just a greater sense of dimensionality. This is very common when adding value to do a first pass just to establish the overall shapes and then to come back later on and darken the values. Okay. Soften this edge and add some more value here. Now, of course, the page is looking a little empty up here. So I do want to add just a hint of some of the rest of the flour. But again, I really don't want this to be an area of focus. So I'm going to be very subtle with the information that I put in. I don't want to focus on this. I just want enough information, so it looks like there's something here. I'm going to draw the stems. I just a few minutes, I'm going to come back and darken some of these stems just a little bit. But again, I didn't want the page to look empty. So using a very similar process to how I drew the first flower, just going to go through and add some dimension to this flower appear. But again, I'm going to draw it using very soft light lines because I really don't want it to be a focus. I want it to look almost like in a photograph when you see a subject that's out of focus. So at this stage, I can start to darken some of the other areas of the flower. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to add some of my dark values. So, for example, this leaf, I'm going to start to really darken. Now, there is some detail in this leaf that I do want to emphasize. But again, I don't want it to be that much of an area of focus. Really, I want the leaves to be able to set off the beautiful, subtle and delicacy of the rest of the flower. So at this point, I am going to switch to the tripod grip because I want to bear down on the tip of the pencil to create this very dark value of the leaf. Just like before, I want the darkest area of the leaf to be near the center, and I wanted to get a little lighter as we move outward. Again, I'm going to add just a few details just to make sure it's not an empty area. M. I'm going to do the same thing over here. Going to use the tripod grip and create this area of darker value. And again, the further out we get, the more I can let the value fade. Again, I want the focus to be on the center of the flower. So this drawing is really coming along, but I think I want some space from it to figure out how to finish this drawing. But hopefully, you can see how far we can get using these basic techniques that you've learned in this course. So, here is the final drawing. This drawing is so much about supple curvature and delicate line work, but not all of the lines and marks in this drawing are delicate. There are a few areas, particularly in the center of the flower and the leaves, where I have used darker, harder lines. I think this creates a beautiful contrast. It makes it an interesting drawing to look at. A drawing like this is a meditation. It goes far beyond simply looking at a subject. Now, drawing can be very technical. On the one hand, this is like a scientific investigation of a subject. But on the other hand, it's very close to a spiritual experience. You really get to invest yourself in your consciousness in this object. Yes, we're observing and we're analyzing, but we're also feeling our way through the drawing. And through this process, you can connect with your subject in a very deep way. Well, I hope you've gotten something out of this demonstration. I've tried to give you a very different kind of drawing experience than you saw in the first demo. I've relied more heavily on the block in. I've drawn more freely in some ways, and I've used very, very delicate lines and strokes in most of the drawing. But despite their differences, both of the demonstrations rely primarily on the tools and techniques that you've learned in this course. Hopefully, these two demonstrations have shown you how to pull everything together and how to apply the drawing process you've learned to different kinds of subjects. Now, this is just a beginning drawing course. You've learned the basics of the drawing process, but there is so much more to be learned. So if you have connected with these courses and you want to learn more, I would love to see one more of my courses. As always, thank you so much for spending this time with me. It's been an absolute honor and privilege to be part of your drawing experience. Okay. 16. Materials & Setup: In this video, you're going to learn about materials and setup. And when the introduction video to this course, I told you that you can use whatever materials you have on hand, and I truly mean that. One of my favorite things about drawing is that the materials can be very simple. You don't need to spend a lot of money on fancy art materials. That being said, I did want to create this video where we do talk more about materials to give you a sense of the types of materials that are out there and how to use them. In this video, I'm also going to give you a recommended list of materials as well as talk about the materials that I use. First, let's talk about pencils. The most common kinds of pencils are graphite pencils. Now, graphite pencils come in a range. At the base of the pencil, you'll often find letters and numbers. These tell you how hard or soft a pencil is. Now, graphite pencils are divided into H pencils and B pencils. Now, B pencils tend to be soft. The higher the number is next to the letter B, the softer and therefore darker the pencil is. For example, an eight B pencil is very soft and very dark compared to a two B pencil. Now, the softer and darker a pencil gets, the harder it is to control. Soft pencils lay down a lot of pigment and that pigment can smear. But it's a great way to get rich dark blacks. The other letter you'll commonly see is H. The higher the number next to an H means the harder and therefore lighter the pencil will be. For example, a four H is harder and lighter than a two H. Now, if you're using graphite and you want to draw very light lines, an H pencil can help with that. Now, most people have heard of a number two pencil. A number two pencil is right in the middle. It's not too hard, it's not too soft. It's not going to get too dark, but it should get dark enough for most drawing purposes. If you want to go darker, you can get a four b, a six B, or even a nine B pencil. Now, graphite is a very common drawing material that most people start with, and many people decide to draw with a range of pencils from hard light pencils to darker soft pencils. Now, if you want to draw with many pencils, that is completely fine. But I like to draw with a single pencil. I tend to use colored pencils. In this course, you'll see me drawing with dark oil based colored pencils. Now, I love these pencils because they create beautiful, dark rich colors. I can really push these pencils to the darkest ends of the value scale. But by applying a lighter touch, I can also create very light soft lines. This means that I can use a single pencil to create the entire range of values. I don't have to switch pencils if I want to change from a dark line to a light line. Now, if you're going to use colored pencils, I recommend using dark pencils that don't have bright colors. Deep reds, browns, or of course, black colored pencils work great. So next, let's talk about pencil sharpeners. Now, there are some people who like to use a utility blade to shape the lead of their pencil. You are more than welcome to experiment with this, but I simply use an electric pencil sharpener. I've never seen any need to use anything else. You can also use a hand sharpener. So if you want to explore alternative ways of shaping your pencil lead with a blade, go for it. But at the beginning, keep it simple. See if you like the shape of the lead that a more basic sharpener can get you. Next, let's talk about paper. Now, when you're learning to draw, you're going to be doing a lot of practice, and I don't recommend doing that practice on expensive paper. I recommend doing most of your practice on newsprint. Newsprint is very inexpensive, so you don't have to be concerned about using a lot of it. But one thing about newsprint is that it decays over time and often quite quickly. If left out for a few months, you'll notice that it starts to become yellow and brittle. So you don't want to do any drawings on newsprint that you want to keep. When you're working on a special drawing that you want to finish, keep, and maybe even frame, I recommend using fine art paper. Fine art paper is usually sold in individual sheets, and it can be much more expensive. But fine art papers come in a wide range of colors, thicknesses and textures. If you want to figure out what paper you prefer, I recommend exploring and experimenting. Go to a local art store and just pick out papers to see what feels right to you. Now, I love doing drawings on colored paper, so I highly recommend exploring and experimenting with different colored pencils on different colored paper. When you're drawing on paper that is any other color than white, you can use white pencil to draw the lights. This can create a very beautiful and dramatic sense of light and shadow. The lit areas of your subject can be drawn with white pencil and the shadow areas can be drawn in with dark pencil. Both of them let the color of the paper shine through. It's a beautiful look. Okay. Now, I recommend drawing on 18 by 24 inch paper. The reason for this is it gives you some room to breathe. Drawing really small can often feel constricting. The bigger the paper, the more room you'll have to spread out and relax. Bigger drawings are actually easier to do than smaller drawings. Now, if 18 by 24 " seems too big to you, you can go down in size. But I don't recommend drawing on anything smaller than 8.5 by 11 inch paper. Now, before I talk about erasers, I do want to note that I don't recommend that you use an eraser very often. If you purchase erasers, I recommend keeping them away from your drawing setup. Most beginning students erase far too often, and the process that I'm teaching you means that you won't need to erase very much. In fact, immediately erasing your mistakes will make it more difficult to figure out what to do next in your drawing. That being said, erasers are an important tool. So, I recommend two different kinds of erasers. First, a vinyl or plastic eraser. These types of erasers are great for cleaning your drawing surface. You can scrub with these erasers to remove a huge amount of pigment. The other kind of eraser that I commonly use is a needed eraser. Needed erasers are very gummy, and they work like silly putty. To start, you should stretch them so they warm up and soften. Then you can press them down on your paper to lift pigment. Needed erasers won't lift everything off the page, but they are great for lightning lines. And because you're lifting pigment, they're not going to smear it around like vinyl erasers can. So now I want to talk about a couple of alternative materials. Now, when you're just starting out, I don't recommend using pen and ink or charcal. These materials can be very, very messy and difficult to control. That being said, I do really enjoy working with ballpoint pen because you can get very, very light lines with it. Now if you are interested in learning Charcoal, I recommend starting off with pencil first. Once you've learned the fundamentals of good drawing, you can move on to Charcoal. Finally, I get a lot of people asking whether or not they can take my courses using digital media like procreate. The answer is absolutely yes. I've had hundreds if not thousands of students go through my courses using procreate or other kinds of digital media. The fundamentals of good drawing do not change. Doesn't matter whether you're drawing digitally or with traditional materials. The pencil tool in procreate takes minutes to learn. Once you've got the basics of procreate, you can go through my courses just as if you were using traditional drawing materials. Using digital media can be remarkably similar to using traditional media, and everything you're going to learn in my courses is just as relevant for digital drawing. Now let's talk about drawing boards. In order to draw, you're going to need a flat rigid surface to put your paper on. Now, masonite drawing boards are very common. These thin pieces of masonite are sturdy and last a long time. Most masonite drawing boards come with clips attached. You just want to make sure that your drawing board is slightly larger than your paper. Now, I tend to use hollow core wood drawing boards. They're a little more expensive, but they're very sturdy and I really like the surface they have. But most hollow core boards do not come with clips, so you'll need tape or clips to attach your paper. So let's talk about a few additional materials. First, let's talk about artist tape. Artist tape is a special kind of tape designed with a low tack, so you can use it to attach paper to a drawing board. But when you remove it, it's probably not going to tear your paper. When you're using artist tape, you don't want to press too hard. You want to apply just enough pressure to affix the paper to your drawing board. But the harder you press, the more likely it is that the tape will rip your paper when you remove it. Next, let's talk about drafting brushes. There are times when you're going to need to remove debris from your paper. Sometimes your pencil will break and it'll get bits of pigment on the paper. Or after you erase, you'll find some eraser shavings. You never want to remove debris from your drawing with your hand. Instead, you want to use a drafting brush. A drafting brush will remove debris without smearing your drawing. I always keep a drafting brush right next to me while drawing. Next, let's talk about clips. Now, because the drawing boards I use don't usually come with clips, I use kitchen clips. Kitchen clips are a great way to attach your paper to a drawing board. They're easy to move, and they don't leave any marks or adhesive. So those are the materials that I tend to use while drawing. For more information on the specific brands that I recommend, as well as where to buy them, please visit my website, brnviston.com. There you'll find complete lists of my recommended materials as well as the professional grade materials that I use. You'll also find links to where I recommend buying these materials. So now that you have a sense of the materials you can use, let's talk about setup. You're going to be drawing from your computer screen, and later on, you're going to learn to draw from actual objects. So I want to take you through some of the setups that you can use. Now, for any setup to work, you're going to need to draw with paper affixed to a flat rigid board. Now, I know that many people like to draw setups like this where they have their paper flat in front of them. The problem with this kind of setup is that the bottom of your paper is going to be closer to your eyes than the top of your paper. This will create distortions. Instead, you need to make sure that your drawing surface is perpendicular to your line of sight. Another way to say this is that you want to make sure that the top of your drawing paper and the bottom are the same distance from your eyes. So let's talk about some different ways you can achieve that. Now, when you're drawing in front of a computer screen, as you often will during this course, I recommend simply leaning your drawing board against the desk or table that your computer is on. This is a simple setup that doesn't require any additional equipment. You just want to make sure that you can see your computer screen over the top of it. I do most of my drawing standing at an easel. I'm right handed, so I keep my drawing paper to my right and the subject on my left. When I'm drawing from a reference photo, I usually keep my iPad on the left of my drawing When I'm drawing from life like in a figure drawing class, I will position my drawing board, so my subject is immediately to the left of my drawing surface. If you're left handed, you can reverse this, keeping your drawing paper on your left and the subject on your right. Now, I like to stand at an easel, but you can also sit down. Another common piece of drawing equipment is a drawing horse. Now, I love drawing horses. They're called horses because you straddle them like a horse. Your drawing board rests right in front of you. This setup is very similar to leaning your drawing board up against a desk or table. You can keep your drawing subject right in front of you. Finally, you can use a drafting table. A drafting table has a tabletop that you can tilt up or down to make sure that your paper is perpendicular to your line of sight. You can either sit or stand at a drafting table. So any of these are options. If you like drawing at an easel or a drawing horse, you can set one up right in front of your computer. But remember, you can keep it simple as well. You don't need any special equipment. Now, here at my studio, I actually use all of these kinds of setups. It really just depends what I'm working on. When I'm drawing from a reference image, I like to stand at an easel. This makes it very easy for me to get back and view my drawing from a distance and then walk right back up to it. If I'm working from a still life, I'll often draw from a horse. I like having my paper right in front of me and seeing the still life right above my paper. If I'm doing anatomical drawings and working from books, I'll often set up at a drafting table. This allows me to have a nice, big surface to spread out my books and my drawing while still keeping my drawing perpendicular to my line of sight. And if I'm drawing from my desktop computer, I'll either use a horse or again, simply lean my drawing board right up against my desk. Now, I highly recommend experimenting to see what works best for you. But remember, there is no requirement that you invest in expensive equipment or materials. So I hope this gives you a sense of the materials you can use to learn to draw and how to set up. Well, thank you so much for spending this time with me. I hope you've gotten a good sense of the kinds of materials you can use to draw, and I hope to see you in more lessons.