Transcripts
1. Introduction: What's that? My name is Braiding Messer. I am a charcoal artist. YouTuber and, uh, online content creator. In this class, I'm taking you guys through my three layered charcoal method as we draw German Shepherd. This is number two of an ongoing Siri's that I'm going to be uploading specifically to skill share. I have done lots of other drawing tutorials, lots of different animals on my YouTube channel. But this Siri's is specifically for pet portraits. So what I've done is I've taken the class, and I divided up into digestible lessons, starting from using a reference image, drawing out that basic outline framing our underlying for how we specifically used soft, medium and hard Sharples toe layer and build our low values using a racer work to retrieve our high values, using medium and hard circles for line work and detail work. And, uh, yeah, I tried to make it as comprehensive as I could, so that you could just easily follow along into at your own pace. I'd love to see your guys projects at the end of this class, and you know, if this class works for you, definitely drop a review and I'll see you in class. He's
2. Outline & Form Framing : Okay, So first we're gonna be using a graphite pencil. And who eraser until click eraser and a mono zero research. We're also going to be using a number three a number one and a 3/16 smarter. We're also going to be using soft, medium and hard grade trickle pencils, a sandpaper strip as well as a piece of tone check paper for checking our tones before we leave them down on to the paper. And last but not least, brush. Okay, so the first step to any drawing is identifying the basic shape of our image. And so what we're doing is we're looking at the reference image, and we are simply going to outline the image. So being that when you look at the reference image on this German shepherd has a lot of implied lines, meaning that the lines themselves have a very light lie in wait. And because of that, they also have a very light lying quality. And so we don't want to push very hard with our graphite pencil during this step. What I'm doing here is I am simply putting lines and defining where those value relationships are. Value relationships, Of course, being that those air the relationships between our higher values, meaning are lighter values and our lower values, meaning our darker values. So understanding that that is how we're going to be outlining this entire drawing. As you can see here, there's three eyes and then the forehead of the dog, and that pushes back to the years. And the biggest thing to remember in this initial step of any drawing is that your outline does not have to be perfect. Ah, far from it, because this is not going to be a holy graphite drawing. This, of course, is going to be a a charcoal drawing. And so what we're doing is we're simply framing where that charcoal is going toe. Lie onto the paper, and then here's you can see there's a lot of fluff coming off of the dogs here, and so we just want a very lightly highlight that with our graphite pencil and just hit hit the outline of the years Well, it's important to understand here that a lot of these implied lines a lot of the fluff that is in the reference image will be conveyed onto the paper with brushwork and smarter work. So as long as we have a basic idea of where we're going to be laying down that charcoal, that is really all we need to worry about. In this step. Solidifying the shape and the overall aesthetic of the drawing will come in later steps. And if you make mistakes, don't worry about that. That's one of the reasons why way have erasers. It's because if we do make a mistake, we can go ahead and we can clean up those lines. Syria, for example. I brought this mouth in a little bit. It's gonna hit my Montessori, sir. That's that. We have the power to do that. And now here. What I'm gonna do, because I'm going to just do a nice light outline of the Shepard's knows again. This does not have to be perfect. If you look at the reference image, one of the things you'll notice is that the nose is extremely dark, and thus it might make it a little hard toe. Draw out exactly where those nostrils are on steak, your best guess or if you want to, you can always grab another reference image of the same breed of dog and you can use that in this step of your drawing as a reference so that you can make sure that you get Jordan outlined where you want it. Not here when it comes to the eyes in the wake of proportion. One of the things that I'm doing is I'm looking at the reference image, and I'm lining up where the dogs left eye is in relation to the center of its here, and as long as you can nail that proportion, you'll be close enough for your drawing again. Don't worry about making this step picture perfect. Drawing is not about perfection. It's about learning techniques because techniques lead to the overall aesthetic of your final product. So just keep that in mind. But here, just very lately, as you can see the overall shape of this size slightly different to the left eye, and that's just because the dog's head is slightly slightly cocked, and so each eye is not going to be exactly the same because of that slate. Uh, deviation and angle. Now, if the dog was looking straight on, odds are, those eyes would be very, very similar. But they're not, so it's not something that we have to worry about. But then again, like I was talking about initially highlighting those value relationships, if you look at the dogs forehead down in the center of the four hood, there's a nice lower value, and then that value gradually gets higher and higher towards the top of forehead. And then here, underneath the eyes, there is a break in a lighter value amongst lower value, so well, I like that as well. And then here you can see those value relationships again, the lower values amongst the higher values. So what I'm doing is I'm simply drawing out that barrier or that relationship between the higher and the lower values exists. And I've simply just getting a feel for where those values will be when it does come time for the charcoal and for my eraser work. So now here is the next step. I am framing that underlying for in this image. Basically, what this is doing is because drawings will only ever be in two dimensional space framing the form the term that I actually uses form framing. This will help you to not forget as you are going through the process and laying down your charcoal onto the paper, which directions you should be pulling that charcoal across the paper to convey that underlying for underlying form is one of the hardest things to convey when it comes to drawing realistic style drawings. And I have found that going through and framing your underlying form with graphite does help. So definitely give this a try if this isn't something that you've thought about doing in the past. But you can add as much framework as you want or as little framework as you want. But that's pretty much it. But now we're gonna go on to listen to, and we're gonna start laying down some charcoal on the left ear.
3. Right Ear & Base Layering with Smudger: Okay, First things first, we're gonna lay down our tone check paper, and what I've done is I've taken the sandpaper strip and I have grinded on some soft charcoal and some medium charcoal smudge her gonna roll it in some soft charcoal. I'm gonna do a light tone check to make sure that it's the proper tone that I want Have been referring to the reference image. I'm simply going through an end. I am identifying the lower values in the reference image first, and I'm just very lately touching the paper. I'm not pushing the charcoal into the paper very much at all. And one of the reasons why is because if you push the charcoal into the paper too much on your initial their ing, what you'll find is it makes it extremely hard to retrieve higher values when it comes to, um, eraser work. And for those of you that are familiar with the three layered method and the approach that I utilize, you'll understand that that is a crucial step in this approach. So it's beware of that. It's not we're gonna do is I'm gonna take our number six brush. It's gonna load it up on both sides. Do a slight tone check. I've been very lightly. I'm going to apply the charcoal onto the paper and to get that blotchy, furry look that we see on top of the writer that is folded over. I'm just gonna very lightly dab the paper. And I'm using a very light pressure. When it comes to my pressure control. I want the soft charcoal toe lay on top of the paper. And because there is little to no binder in the soft charcoal from the manufacturing process, it does lay on top of the paper quite nicely. And when it comes to our eraser work in our detail work, it'll lift off of the paper nicely as well. So now I'm gonna do them take a soft charcoal pencil. One of the reasons why I'm using the pencil for this step is because I have a pinpoint of control. And as you can see from the reference image, there are different spots in the year that do require, um that that lower value when it comes to the value scale, but just go through very lightly and apply your soft charcoal toe wherever you think it needs it in the wake of conveying a lower value. And if it looks gritty, which it will. Don't worry about that, because this is but, um, the second step in the layering process. We're going to be going back through all of this tropical that were laying down with the's soft charcoal pencil, and we're going to be hitting it with smudge or work toe, blend everything together, and they were going to be hitting it with brushwork to make sure that we have a nice gradation across our lo to mid and high values. But the biggest thing here is to refer to your reference image often and just put that low value wherever it is the lowest in the reference image, meaning the darkest all right again if it looks gritty and it's not quite the aesthetic that you want to worry about, So now here we're gonna be taking a number one Smucker, and we're just blending number smudging, if you will, the trouble together. And as you can see, this kind of brings all that greediness together and it and it Smoothes it out, and it makes the drawing look much more cohesive. It does give us a certain layer of, um, great Asian, but we'll hit me, hitting it with a brush later on and really bringing out that those smooth transitions across our value scale but not here is you can see there's different ways to utilize this merger. You could push and smudge lower values, and then you can go above higher values and use the tip of this merger and press and poll that that tip across and that will give you a really nice soft lines, as you can see across the top of the German shepherds. Here you have clumps of hair that kind of come together, and then they fade out into nothing. And this much your work is giving us that look. But not here. I was gonna play this altogether Real light roll light. Remember, when it comes to your brushwork, always use very light pressure control. The brush is extremely powerful, and because of its power, you can smudge out a lot of detail work and bring lower values across places where maybe there needs to be higher values very easily. So just be aware of that. But as you can see, the number one smarter gives us a little bit more control. It doesn't give us nearly as much pinpoint control as the soft charcoal pencil did. But in the wake of conveying softer looking texture like we see on the top of this year that's folded over on itself, it does give us that certain aesthetic. But the big thing with this technique here is just make sure that your if you're you know, when you're pushing and pulling this merger, just make sure that it's in the same direction as your reference image. And if it's a little bit too harsh, don't worry about that because we're going to getting that with the brush, really softening it up. And then here is a technique that you can use when it comes to trying to convey that that soft look here. What you want to do is you want to outline where that soft for that's coming, that fluff that's coming off the top of the year. You want to highlight where it ends, right, because what we're gonna do is we're going to going through with the brush. We're pulling the brush from bottom to top. It's gonna it's going to spread that charcoal the way to those end points, and that's really going to give it that fluffy look that's separate from the for. That's actually on the air. And then we can go on a weaken. We can solidify word that fluff actually ends with our models or over race room, and I'll show you how to do that. But by this point, I hope you're starting to see that when it comes to the three later about that, it is very much that it is a layering process. This is all soft, charcoal soft. Terkel gives you the lowest values and so much of the time, the low values of the ones that we want to focus on first. Okay, so now what we're doing is we're taking a medium charcoal. One of the reasons why I'm using Medium Tropical for this step is because it has more binder in it than the soft circle does, and because of that, it throws a slightly lighter value, very slate. But because it has more binder in it, it gives the charcoal the ability to hold together more firmly. It's not so fragile, and because of that more pinpoint control, so it is better for detail work and really going in and and putting those lower values precisely where we want them. And that's what we're doing here on this side of this year. You could do this with a soft article, but I think you'll find that the charcoal would run away on you. It would fragment would break apart, and it wouldn't give you the aesthetic that you're looking for. So now here is You can see we really need to start bringing this charcoal out into fine points because that's what the for is doing. So we're using our medium charcoal to convey this. And if it looks greedy again, we're gonna be using our brushwork and our smuggler work to soften that up. So we're gonna take a models or research, and what we're doing is we're doing what they call retrieving are higher values. When it comes to lighter values, there are too mainstream approaches that you can utilize. There's what they call saving high values, which is basically where you don't put any charcoal in that specific space where you need it. And then there's what they call retrieving, which is where you go back over charcoal with your eraser and you pull those higher values . Will you retrieve those higher values? And that's exactly what we do with the models are razor, but I hear what we're doing is we're taking our smallest, much size 3/16. The smaller this merger, the more pinpoint control. And so if you're working on a smaller drawing or maybe you're working on and I let's say somewhere where there's very little margin for error, go with the smaller, smarter. Now what we're doing is we're just going through and just detail work just over and over and over and over again, and you can be selective. But here, if you need to lighten anything, ups going with your models over a racer again, this is what they call retrieving those higher values. And then here I'm just gonna go through with my soft charcoal and I more or less just being more more pinpoint with where those low values need to be because, as you see, when you look into the year, there are many different areas where it fluctuates from a high value to love it. And I hear it's time for the who eraser love this thing I'm gonna be going through. And I'm just heating where there's all that hair. You see that? Those lighter, those extreme high value hairs? That's what I'm doing. I'm just heating this. And as you can see, this works very quickly. I'm just hating it. And this will take some practice, especially if you're not used to the who raised her. But it's a wonderful tool, and it allows you to go in and remove a lot of charcoal very quickly and really bring out those higher values that here is gonna use my brush. And I'm simply eating this real light. And this is simply for that gradation effect is trying to blend everything. But at the same time, I don't want toe over work this charcoal that I just laid down because I don't want to lose all of the detail work that I've just brought out with my charcoal. Okay, not quite done with it, but we're gonna be moving on to the next lesson.
4. Left Ear & Base Layering with Brush: Okay, so now that we've done the dogs Writer, we're gonna be moving on to the dogs left here. We're gonna load up our brush. And remember how we started off laying down those base layers with the writer with ours. Murder? Well, this is another way that you could do it. I wanted to show you both approaches so that you could see that there are multiple ways to lay down that that base layer, depending on the drawing. Sometimes a smuggler will work better. But for for this drawing, it's it's big enough and soft enough to where we can go ahead and we can lay down that base layer of soft charcoal with our with our brush. And one of the main things you'll probably see with this is that you can move very quickly . So here, as you can see on this side of the year, there is that lower value on the outside of the year. So we lay that down and then we push way, push the charcoal inside. And what that does is that gives us that really nice value relationship between a lower value on the outside of the year and then a higher value on the inside of the year, but just a nice light base layer, just like we did Teoh dogs right here. We're doing that same thing on the dogs left here. So now I'm gonna switch it up goingto a number one smudge for more control, and I want to convey a lower value from So what I'm doing is I'm taking this merger. I'm laying it on its side and I'm just laying down all that charcoal. But I'm only focusing on those lower values. Remember lower values first, and then the higher values will take care of themselves. You hear what I'm doing is because I want that that squishiness all that for that's kind of going out away from the inside of the year. I want to go back and forth with this. Would you like that? But on the inside, I just wanna take my smarter and you see how there's those higher values, all that white hair that's it's coming on the inside of the year. Don't worry about those, because we're gonna be hitting those with you who eraser, just like we did with with right here. And we're gonna be bringing out those those higher values. But the big thing is is just layering or just layering. And the cool thing about this specific drawing is that the years themselves are extremely soft. So a lot of the work that we're gonna be conveying gonna be able to do that with our switchers. So I hear what we're doing. We're switching it up. We're going to a medium charcoal again. Same reasons how we used it on the dogs. Right here. We want to have more biker, and this gives us the ability to really convey those those dark lines that dark for in the dogs here. Here we go. Anything to remember when it comes to this step is even though it looks gritty, don't be afraid to put that charcoal in areas where you know that there are going to be those lower values like here. For example, on this outside edge of the dogs here, there's a lot of low value right there on the outside. So this is the way that I can convey that it doesn't always have to be smart. Your work you can convey lar those lower values with your charcoal pencils, right here we go, This part of the year as a as a very low value. Then here is you can see this is how we're gonna get that texture. You know that all those lines, all that different for that's coming from the inside or that values extremely low to the outside we're gonna take our pencil, is gonna go back and forth just like this. Yeah, but on the inside here is gonna kind of pack this in a little bit. I'm not pushing very hard. Remember, everything that we're doing with the charcoal were doing extremely lately and I've switched it up and I'm using a soft charcoal. One of the reasons why I want to use the soft charcoal is because it has the least amount of finder and it and thus the charcoal comes together the easiest and conveys the richest and the lowest value. You know the darkest tone if you want. I'm not pressing very hard at all. I don't I don't want to press hard on to the paper because that's the quickest way to scratch your paper. So just keep that in mind. You hear what I'm doing is because there's different value relationships within the year. What I'm doing is I'm I'm or less outlining the white hair that's going to be going on the inside of this year. Then you're gonna do is I'm just eating this real lately with the brush not pressing hard at all. This is simply for that, uh, effective gradation across our values. Everything about this dog is extremely soft. And so I want to make sure that through my brushwork, I'm conveying that to my viewer. When my viewer looks at this drawing, I want them to think, Wow, that looks realistic. Look soft, Just like the dog. And the brush allows us to do that. Nothing here. We're just gonna use on smarter. We're just going in and I'm just going in nice tight circles and I'm bringing all of this greediness together. Just watch it. Watch all that greediness disappear, and that's what we want. The smudges, much like the brushes, also play to the overall gradation of your drawing. Then here I just got some chocolates running away from me. Some skin ate it with my pinto click a razor. It's gonna get that out of the way. And now here we go, we're going to using the Model zero racer, and this is doing a couple things. This is, of course, retrieving those higher values and at the same time giving us different effects on the paper so that one of the things about the models are a racer to be aware of is that for every half dozen to a dozen swipes, you want to make sure that you clean the eraser tip. Whether you do that with a rag or, you know, extra piece of paper, like what we have here with the tone check paper, just make sure that it's that it's clean that also be aware. You see how, on the inside of the years there's those dots at the at the top of that that the fuzzy for that's coming off the top of the years. That's because what I'm doing is I'm taking my models or a razor, and I'm starting from the top and pulling down. So that's something that you actually don't want to dio. But I wanted to do it in this tutorial so that you could see it and no, not not to do so. Here is near east. These Yes, when it comes to that, always start from the inside and then pulled lift out. That way you don't have those dots. Otherwise it's not gonna look. It's like a look, right? People in a vehicle. That's where those dots are there. Those are in the reference image, So just be aware of. I mean, just look, look at the power that you have with tomatoes. There are a certain gives you form. It streamlines everything I love. Tomatoes are a start is just as much as they used my pencils. So I hear again, we're using the who racer, and we're just going through just very lightly eating the paper because this is a power tool. It is extremely powerful. It's gonna take a little bit of getting used to, especially if you're new to it. But the razor is a wonderful research in the sense that it does all of the work for you. You literally set it down on the paper because it turns clockwise. It just lifts the charcoal up, and it brings out those higher values for you without little, with little to no effort, something like that. There we go. But you can go in and you can do. You can do hair like what we're doing here, or you can go in and you could do texture and retrieve those higher values much like we do with the models or razor. I tend to use the who in situations such as this or I'm trying to retrieve, ah, high value from a very, very low value where the models eraser is mawr. Everything else you know, those mid values to a high values. Okay, it's not clear what we're doing is we're taking the medium charcoal, and I'm just basically highlighting all of all of that white here, those high values that we just brought out with the with Yahoo. And this does a couple things 11 It solidifies the hair and it brings it and pushes it forward so it doesn't look like it's like it sucked kind of back in. It really kind of kind of brings out that dimension of hair line on top of her versus Harrell being it, uh, looking like its own one level. I'm here because medium it lays very nicely on top of soft charcoal, so this is more a layer of texture and you can see the different the different, uh, value relationships in this year. And remember, just because it looks gritty, that doesn't mean that it's going to always look greedy or going to be hitting this with smudge, your work and brushwork and really fluffing it and softening it up before we call the left ear of this dog done. But I hope by now you're starting to see how layer upon layer upon layer with different tools really kind of brings out that that realistic, type of type of look. And I'm not a big fan of making my drawings look absolutely like the picture. I do like to have a little bit of creative freedom in my own process, and that's that's my personal preference. I find that I'm able to draw a little bit better when I'm not strung out and stressed out about How exactly am I going to get this this drawing picture perfect. I think it was Salvador Dali who said, You know, don't worry about perfection because you'll never reach it. And that's a philosophical approach that that I appreciate that I incorporated into my own drives, Um, but the cool thing about art is that it is a subjective world, and you can have whatever approach you like. So here is You can see there's that fluff on the outside of the dogs here, and I'm just going through with a smuggler. I'm laying it on its side, and I'm just very lightly kind of highlighting the outside of of where I would want that that fluff to be and again, just like the other ear. We want to highlight the outsides of it, because when we hit it with our brushwork will be a poll, all of that, that soft charcoal to those edges. And then we'll be able to go through their models there a razor, and really solidify where the edges of that for that fluff on the outside of the dogs here is just like this. Okay, so now here it was gonna take our Russians very lately. It's kind of blend this and soft in the sala. Remember the biggest danger with the brushes that you can overwork all of the detail that you just put in. But because a lot of the detail work that we do with this approach is done with a medium charcoal because it has more by underneath in the soft charcoal, which is in all the base layer. And the brushwork really doesn't take too much away from from that detail work. But if you were just doing this all the soft target when you went, you hit it with a brush. All of your detailed work would it would just disappear before your eyes, so just be aware of that. But the gradation is keeping. That is what we're trying to convey with our brushwork. Another thing to notice. Well, when you're doing detail, work here with your medium charcoal. If you need to take a break like let's say, if you do a portion of the year and eat the sharpness of your charcoal pencil. If it's becoming Dole, feel free to take a break and just re sharpen that that that point on that charcoal pencil so that you can really go in and get those finite hairs conveyed onto the paper. But that's what the big thing that the medium pencil provides to you as an artist is. It provides that that pinpoint accuracy and the ability to convey those those finer, darker lines. Those lines with a lower value. And here is you can see we do have some slight variations in value relationships I was gonna going with my mom as a racer is going to retrieve some of those higher values that are amongst the lower values. This is why value relationships are so key. And it's what also, either important to understand is because they exist in every drawing. The trick is identifying. Okay, we're getting close to the end of this lesson. The next lesson we're gonna be going through, and I'm going to be showing you how to do base layers on the forehead and we're going to be drying out the eyes of this dog.
5. Eyes & Hair Texture: Okay, so of course we need to lay down that base layer. So we're gonna load up our rusher on both sides to a nice tone check. And then it's very lately start laying down that trick onto paper, and in this step, you'll really start to see why those form lines that we laid down in the initial step of this drawing, um, are so crucial because they offer us the perfect guide in the wake of which direction were pulling our chocolate to really sell that illusion of three dimensional form. Nothing here. We're doing this. We're identifying those lower values in the drawing, and that is where I want to lay down the most charcoal. So think of it like this. Wherever there is lower values, that is where you really want to lay down the most amount of charcoal because the more charcoal you lay down, the lower that value will be onto the paper. But just like when it comes to the ears, you want to make sure that you are not pushing hard onto the paper. Because if you look the reference image, there is a lot of detail work that we need to pull out of this charcoal by retrieving those higher values with Armando Zahra Racer. And so we want that charcoal to be a soft charcoal. And we wanted to rest on top of the paper. It's okay to put soft charcoal on top of more charcoal to convey a lower value like we're doing here in the center of the forehead. Just ensure that you are not pushing the charcoal into the paper. Not yet. We wanted to lay on top. We want it to be easily lifted off of the paper here. I actually don't like this, I So when we do something took like a razor, and I'm gonna have Reese graphite outlined completely. I just wanna make sure it's completely clean area. I'm gonna go back in with my graphite pencil, and I'm gonna refer to the reference image. I'm just gonna move it over a little bit. I'm just gonna give a slightly different shape. This, of course, is the Contour line. Contour lines are used to define the the edge or form of object. Uh, simply put, it's usedto create that the outline of whatever it is that you're drying, and in this case, it's the eye of this dog. So just keep that in mind something like that. It looks much better. Stick models are a certain kind of lift some of this, some of this charcoal up in a way. Okay, so now the first layer of retrieving those higher values and thus conveying detail. So he's taking our models or racer just like this. This is real time. Bear in mind, I am moving a little quicker. If this was, ah commission piece, say, for a client I would be moving much slower. But due to the nature of this video, I can't give it all the time that I would like, but But this is basically how you do it. What I'm doing is I'm referring to my reference image, and I'm making sure that I am pulling my for in the same direction that it flows across the forehead of the dog. And I'm also keeping in mind. I'm also looking at the overall length of for one of the reasons why dogs are so hard to draw is because a lot of the hair that comprises the animal is different links and different textures even think. Think of this drawing the hair on the forehead and above the eyes of this German shepherd is completely different to the for that is on the muzzle of the dog and completely different to the for that is on the dog's ears. And so because of that, we need to be conscious of it. And we need to make sure that we are using different techniques to convey those different looks. But here what I'm doing is I'm pulling and I start. I pressed little, little harder, a little harder fresh control. Then, as I pull a lift poli lift and one of the things that you see in this step, I'm going to go back through, and I'm gonna do that exact same thing. But I'm going to do it over, or I laid down more soft charcoal to convey those lower values, right? And so it's I'm still conveying texture. But the cool thing about this, and one of the reasons why I love this technique is because now, even though we have that texture, we are also conveying a soft look. And not only that, but we have those value relationships. We have that texture, and underneath it we have the value relationships between higher values on the top of the forehead, and then those lower values underneath between the top of the forehead and the top of the eyes. And all we're doing is we're simply retrieving those lighter values. But we're doing it so that we can bring out that furry texture. I just remember this every single time you touch the paper, whether you're doing it with your eraser or you're doing it with your charcoal pencils or your brush always bear in mind whatever direction you're pulling or pushing or brushing were racing. You need to be sure that you are conveying that underlying form of your drawing because that's only going to help you. That's only going Teoh, help you convey that that realistic look that you're going for. So just keep that in mind, but you can go back through like I'm doing here, and you can also do this exact same thing. You could bring out those higher values in the years as well. So now what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna take my number once much, and I have some soft charcoal on the end here and what I'm doing is I'm going through, and I'm referring to the reference image. And I'm simply starting to build those lower values around the eye because, as you can see, the eyes are slightly sunk into the head. And that muzzle the top of the dog's muzzle is there's an elevation where the muscle comes up on top of the forehead and the dog's eyes were slightly beneath that. And so this is a way that we can start to build the layer of skin underneath, above and on the sides of the I to make the I look as if it is slightly in the dog's head. But same principle is the forehead. This is a base layer we're gonna be going through with charcoal pencils, mergers and brushwork and even a race to work to really bring out the detail around the dog's eyes. But here, what we're doing is referring to the reference image. I'm bringing out that muzzle, and I'm attaching it to the forehead of the dog, and I'm also laid down that base layer of skin above and beneath the dog's eyes. But again, just like with the brushwork, be very light late on to the paper. Even when you're building your low values and I say build your low values, don't go in and try to build up the little about values all at once. Simply layer them. Think of it this way. Layering means more detail. The more you layer something more value relationships you have, the more your essential waiting, that value scale from complete white to complete black. And that's what you want to really make your drawing pop and jump off the paper, so just keep that in mind. But even in this step, be conscious of how that dogs forehead is flowing. Be conscious of those value relationships from low values, too high values. Okay, so now we're gonna get fancy. Now, what I'm doing is I'm taking a medium. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put it nice, defined line. I'm gonna write it for the quarter. Slowly. This is real time. Slowly, all the way to the corner of the eye. There were one line at a time, wouldn't pull at a time. Same thing to start from the quarter very slowly but consistently. I want that line to be one equal line. Wait. And of course lane. Weight is the relative strength of the line or hell, lake or dark. It appears on paper for these eyes. We want that to be consistent from beginning all the way through to the end. Then here in the quarter. It's complete, complete, uh, complete black. So it's a very lowest value on the scale that we could get its which one pack in that color . The big thing with eyes is make sure that you get in and you get out. Make sure that whatever you do when you do it, your deliberate you can overwork. And I very easily a big thing to remember is never used a soft oracle on eyes. Don't ever do that. Soft charcoal is too brittle. There is not enough binder in it, and you will risk fracturing your pencil tip because of that. So you know what I'm doing is I'm scooping a nice define line to bring out the center of the eye in here. It's a little darker. You some slighter pressure control. Bring that around, then here there's a slightly lighter value. Seems going very lightly hit it, but I'm going to keep to that circular look of the eye with my medium charcoal, then here in the center of the eye as an extremely low value. So I'm gonna pack this in with my medium charcoal. One of the reasons why I'm using the medium charcoal, as opposed to a hard charcoal, is because the medium charcoal zits Goldie locks for eyes. You're still able to convey a nice low value, but you still have to strengthen the pencil point because of the extra binder in it. So it's better than a soft charcoal because of that. But it's also low enough in value as opposed to the heart of the heart. Charcoal has so much binder in it that it actually conveys a very late value. So that's one of the reasons why we use the medium charcoal. So you're what I'm doing is I'm just building up. I'm doing what they call layering my line, So I just So I just put a line on top of a line on top of the line during out that thickness on top of the I. It's now hear. What I'm doing is I'm taking my size 3/16 much of which the smallest one gives me the most pinpoint control I'm going through and I'm just softening up the I. All the while I'm making sure that the direction that I'm pulling my smuggler across that charcoal to blend it with same direction as what? The eyes conveying in the reference image again, get in and then get out. And then here What I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna push up, soften up that that top line a little bit. I like this song, but this is doing this is just solidifying the proud of the door. It's kind of pushing in the eye, which is what we want. Just gonna pull it down and you can see here why we layer that part of it. Euronews I'm just gonna pull up. Quit. See that this is real time. It's gonna pull it. That's it. Kind of blend this real quick top around that out. Wonderful. Now, here beneath you I'm gonna lay my 3 16 so much on its side. See how that flattens out Gives us a much broader stroke. That's what we want. We just gotta pull that because we want to stick True. If you look, there's definite form. There's like an eyelid underneath the dogs. I So we want to make it soft, but we want to make sure that we're conveying. Then here, we're going to the exact same thing to the dogs. Left eye gonna start? We're gonna pull it nice and steady. Nice. Instead, you remember We want a nice medium line quality. Of course, the line quality is the relative thickness or thinness of a line. So we want that to be consistent because it's consistent in the reference image. We want to stay true to that. But we also want to make sure that the line weight, which is the strength of the line we want to make sure that that is consistent. And we get that consistency through a nice even poll from beginning to end. And again, make sure you're using a medium charcoal for this step. You don't want to use a soft charcoal because it's not strong enough. Your tips will break because there's not enough binder in it. You don't want to use a hard charcoal because it doesn't have a low enough value. There's too much binder in it, so the charcoal particles air spread really far apart because of that it won't give you a nice, rich lower value, which is what we want in this case. So the medium is the Goldilocks. It's the one that we want. Then you're just like with the dogs, right? I we're going through. It's gonna fill in that very low value. It's in the center of the then here, on the edges of the I fill that in his will. It's very easy to overwork and I. But when you think about that portrait's whether you're drawing dogs or cats or but the user would have you, the eyes are crucial. If you nail anything you're drawing, make sure that it's the eyes. Just make sure they don't overwork. So just keep that in mind thing here just very lightly. I'm sticking to that roundness. I want that roundness of the I, but I'm not. I'm not pushing very hard. It'll have a very, very light using very, very late pressure controller. Okay, so now it's time to switch up. So now, blending again 3 16 smarter and I'm just going through. It's very lately pulling this because we used a very light pressure control with the medium charcoal when we laid it down. Initially, you barely have to touch it with smudge er and those charcoal particles will fragment and they'll go right into the paper with very, very little effort. And that's what we want. We want that soft look in the eyes. So we're just running out the bottom. They were softening up top here, blending the center of the eye as well. Reiter slipped up, lift up One way they're here. That was pretty much much that. And here, just like we did with the other. I gonna go through or lay the 3 16 splitter on its side. We're just gonna start blending and building up the top of the dogs muscle here, where it goes into the forehead. And what this is doing is by making this dark here in between the eyes, it pushes the eyes back, and it brings the top of the dog's muzzle forward. And that speaks to that underlying form. You know that third dimension that we're trying to accomplish. They just pulled down here and just and just subtle, subtle pressure controls, subtle fluctuations and pressure control. That's one of the things that you'll find with this technique, especially with smugglers is if you push a little harder or if you stay in one place a little longer than others, you'll slowly but surely convey a lower and lower value where if you just barely go over something that's gonna have a very light value. But there we are. So now we're gonna go back through in the next lesson, and we're gonna do detail work on that.
6. Value Relationships & Textural Layering: Okay, so now words are 3/16 much. We're load up some soft charcoal, do a little tone, check it. Sure, it's a little darker, and then we're gonna do. He's taking our smudging related on its side, and we're pulling now. What we're doing is we're pushing, pushing that charcoal amid pressure control. Nothing too fancy. Remember, we're also going to be going back through, and we're going to be retrieving a lot of higher values. And because of that, we don't want the charcoal to be pushed into the paper so much that it's hard to retrieve. So and because we're using the 3/16 so much, this is giving us a lot of a lot more pinpoint control than, say, a number one or a number two smarter would. But here you can push up and just very lightly, because what you could do is you can also because we've already gone through with our moment Zahra Racer, and we've retrieved a lot of those higher values in that initial are in that second layer with our eraser. When it comes to the forehead, you can very much still keep that that lighter layer of higher values that we conveyed with the erasure by pushing that 3/16 merger and straight polls just like the CEO employment you and you can pull it for a while. And the more you pull it, the higher that value will become because there's gradually less and less and less charcoal on the tip of this much er. But this is also another way where you can really start to solidify the value relationships in the forehead of the dog. If you look at the reference image, you can see there's a couple lighter points above the dogs, right on it. And then there's that streak in the center. We're not working down where the value gets very, very low, and so this is a way or you can use that smudge er and you can solidify those value relationships. And if it looks, you know, if it looks greedy, I don't worry about that. We're gonna be hitting all of this with brushwork, and it's really going to go a long way to add a very nice gradation across those different values and soften the whole look of the dog up for us. But then here is you can see There's a lot of breakup underneath the dogs, right? I where there's almost like fragments of of high values amidst low values and sums taking my 3 16 smudge, and I'm just I'm just pulling it and pushing it. I don't go on a load up here, go back through where there needs to be some lower value and just just build build on those lower values. The cool thing about a three layered method and using this approach is that you don't have to push very hard it all because because it is charcoal on because it is a soft charcoal. It likes toe lay on top of itself very easily. And so here on this other side, switch it up. It will just start start smudging the charcoal here and then saying things we did on the other side. Just take that's merger, lay it on its side and pull it. We're playing it. This is doing the exact same thing that it did on the other side. This is this is conveying those those lower values, and it really gives us amazing value relationships in the wake of what a dog actually does look like, especially German Shepherd, where there's so many different changes in value from Dark black. Which, of course, is those lower values to lighter Brown's, which, of course, are higher values. When it comes to the black and white charcoal scale like budget, they just pull it. That's how you'll know you have a lot of charcoal on the on your tip and you'll be able to convey very low values. But there's no rushing this. There's no rushing this it'll One of the things that I like about the three layered method that I'm teaching you now is that it actually almost forces you to slow down because much like building a house, you can only do one thing at a time. Whether you're working on the foundation or you're working on walls or you're working on the roof, you can't do it all at once, and so this is a way to really to really discipline yourself in the wake of okay, layering down this layer first, and then I'll go through and do another layer on top of that and then a detail layer on top of that, let's say, and so it definitely teaches you patients with what you're doing in the overall aesthetic that you are hoping to accomplish at the end of it. But here I'm just continuing to build those darker values. And again, what this is doing is this is really bringing out the top of the shepherds muzzle, and it's pushing the eyes back. And that's speaking Teoh that form, You know that that three dimensional form that we're trying to convey, which which is one of the hardest things to sell in the wake of the final product. But then here what I'm doing is I'm just looking at the reference image, and I'm sticking to wherever those lower values our first, remember, always build low values, focus on building those first and the high values. You know, those lighter areas in your drawing, those will take care of themselves, do you? Okay, so now we switched up. Grab your number one switcher, which is ah has little bigger tip on it. And what we're doing is we're just going through and we're layering up those those lower values it was pulling. We're just pulling because this area of the drawing is very soft. And then here on the forehead, where there's a lot of low value guns. Turn outside. Just go up and down, up and down, but at the same time, make sure you're pulling in that direction on the on the right side of the dog. Make sure you're pulling it up into the right in the center. Make sure you're pulling straight up and down, left side up into the left. Same thing with underneath the eyes. Make sure you're pulling up and down to the left, up in, down, straight up and down to the right here because we're on the dogs right side. What we're doing is we're pulling. We're pulling up and then down to the left up and then down to the left. Because if you look, that's the way that hair, even though they're smaller, shorter hairs, that's the way they're flowing underneath the dog's eyes. It sounds funny, and it sounds. It sounds like something that you wouldn't normally think about, but literally that direction that you poll charcoal is everything, especially with this technique, so just keep that in mind. Okay, so now we're gonna switch it up. Ramon is a researcher, and again, what we're doing here is we are retrieving those higher values. And there's lots of different techniques that you can use to convey different types of looks, different types of texture. As you can see, there's lots, little dots and stuff on this side of the dog's face. So what we do is we just push just little little pushes. You don't pull very, very far at all because what we're gonna be doing is we're retrieving all of our light tones, and then we'll be going back through with a hard charcoal and in some places, the medium charcoal we're gonna be adding those low values and together those value relationships are really gonna bring out the texture, the overall texture that we want in this dog. But then see here what we're doing is we're just taking our models where Eastern we're standing upon it were making sure that our tip is clean and we're just going through and we're conveying texture while at the same time we're able to manipulate exactly where those lower values are and how they integrate into the higher values on the forehead. And this is one of the reasons why I love. This technique is because it's very forgiving. Eso especially if you're a young artist or if you're just getting into charcoal for the first time. This is a technique that will definitely help you in the wake of developing yourself. You know, if you make a little mistake at one layer, just go ahead and add another layer and then hit it with Ah Noser razor, Bring out those lighter values and voila! There you are. So just keep that mine, like right here. There's there's some higher higher values. Just hit that quick, but their minds are a razor wonderful, and all of a sudden there it is. But just like with this merger poll direction Paramount Absolutely paramount. Then here we just want to do short little polls. Remember, always be conscious of the length and the direction of the hair that you're trying to convey. If it's short hair, a little little snubs with your razor, if it's a little bit longer, little longer, do like push it in the poll. If it's a really long hair, then start pole and then lift. And that's why a German shepherd, especially German shepherd such as this is a wonder, is a wonderful dog to practice these different hair lengths on all sorts of different dog breeds have all sorts of different hair links. German shepherds are a great breed toe practice drawing because they have so many different lengths of hair, especially long haired shepherds. But here, like anywhere where there needs to be a lighter value, I'm just retrieving it. I'm a big fan of retrieving my lighter values. It just it works very well. It goes hand in hand with the three layered method, then hear what I'm doing. So I just switched back to my 3 16 smarter, and I'm just more or less building those those lower values. Remember, I said, Don't don't go and try toe build your lowest values all at once. Just layer. It's layer upon. There was soft tropical, and I promise you those lower values that those darker areas of your drawing will be conveyed with layers. It'll look really good. So I hear what we're doing is remember how I said we're going through and were retrieving all of those higher values with Carmona's room eraser? We'll hear. What we're doing is we're taking our hard charcoal and we're going through, and we're just more or less doing little dabs, little polls, little cuts, if you will, little smudges with with the charcoal and because there's more binder in the hard and the medium charcoal your tips stay together much better than the soft charcoal. And as you can see, your ableto really get in there and convey, you know, that same type of texture that you see underneath the shepherds eyes. But the big trick to this step is making sure that your tips are very sharp. So if this was a piece, say, for a client, what I would probably dio is I would go through and do exactly what I'm doing here. And I would focus on all the detail, work immediately around the vicinity of the eye. And then what I would do is I would take a break. I would sharpen my pencil again to make sure that it was extremely sharp, and then I would go through and hit other areas. But you see how it doesn't look nearly as greedy. Well, that's due to the fact that there is so much binder in the hard charcoal that it almost looks grey. It doesn't really look black, even when you pack a bunch of hard charcoal in tow. One specific area. It still has that, like I said, that lighter value, like it almost looks great, doesn't look black, whereas you see more of that, that lower value that that black look with medium and soft charcoal. So just be aware of that. In my opinion, when it comes to detail work, especially with dogs or any type of animal where you're trying to convey for savior detail work for, ah, hard charcoal or, at the very minimum, save it for a medium charcoal. But unless you're confident in it, I would not use a soft charcoal for detail work. I would. I only use soft charcoal for base layering, so just keep that in mind. But then here, if you look, you can see how there's how there's that those those shorter hairs on the top of the dog's muzzle. So the big thing here is just I'm pulling the hard charcoal in the same direction that those shorter hairs flow. I'm doing short little polls. I'm making sure that when I pull, I lift and I pull again in a slightly different angle. But in the same general direction, and that gives me a that that realistic look that that I'm going for. But the cool thing about this step is that you can use the hard charcoal for any detail work for this entire drawing the entire forehead all around the eyes. You can even use it on the years if you would like. But that's the big difference between the hard charcoal and in the medium. Charcoal is that it has so much finder in it that you have extremely. You have extremely strong, uh, pencil tips and because there's so much binder and it also lasts. I haven't sharpened the pencil of all since I started using the hard charcoal and it's 10. As you can see, it's still giving me very, very tight lines lines without with a very light lying weight, which is perfect. That's what I want, especially for for, But this is all in real time. And so you can imagine what this would look like if you don't say it was a commission piece and you and I was going to put 10 14 15 hours into it, right versus squeezing it all in tow, 20 minutes. But the point with these classes is to teach you the base principles because if you can understand the base principles of the three layered method, how you choose to take these principles and apply them to your own drawings, that's completely up to you. That is completely up to you. One of the things that I love about hard is how subjective it is and how we all look at the world a little differently, and that's wonderful. Okay, but here what we're doing is we're just basically throwing that detail on top of all of those different value relationships that we've built up so far. So I hear what I'm doing have swapped out my heart charcoal for a size 3 16 smudge er. And the cool thing about this is now that I have a lot of that detail work with the hard charcoal, I can go ahead and Aiken smudge it and blend it. If if need be in certain areas and because there's so much binder in it, it still holds its form where I've put it down on to the paper with my pencil, and that's wonderful in the wake of what I'm trying to do in a Zafar is. My texture is concerned, especially beneath the eye, because there's all those tiny little hairs and it's there's all those different fragments within those higher values. So even though I'm hitting it with smuggling up slightly, blending and giving those different those different variations in value you know those fragments and value relationships, if you will, it still looks really good. And then here's a trick that you can do between high value and low value. Just take your smudge and just go out and into it and then come back and then go over that , come out and then come back into it and you get that that furry look where there's those different layers of for kind of land amongst each other, but like together and then we go through. We hit that with the brush, and then we hit it again with the models or racer. It looks really good, like it gives a really nice texture. I'll show you how to do that here in a second. But the biggest part of this step is patience. Just go through. Take your time. Little polls here, little polls. They're focusing on one section at a time. So say maybe one night. What you want to do is devote an entire two hours to just the right eye and then the same thing the next night, two hours to just the left eye. Okay, so now on the next lesson, we're gonna be going over the Muslim and the nose and the neck in the scarf.
7. Neck | Scarf | & Chin Work: Okay, So what we're gonna do is we're gonna focus on the dogs right side. We're gonna work our way down the right side of his face. We're gonna do this scarf, and they were gonna do the bottom of his chin and up over in tough his muzzle and his nose . So what I'm doing here, I'm taking my Missouri razor. I'm just going through and I'm and I'm pulling and retrieving all of those lighter values. So the big thing that you'll notice when you refer to the reference image on this side of the dog's face is that everything is very soft. Everything is very soft. So because of that, there's not gonna be any defying lines. So we're gonna be using a lot of erasure work and brush and smudge or work toe convey those value relationships softly So But the big thing here, let's just focus on those lower values first, because the lower values on this side of the dog's face are really where you have that that contrast and you can see the difference between the furry longer hair coming down off the bottom of the dogs here versus the shorter, more coarse hair that comprises the dogs cheek as it rolls out. And so the big thing here is just to make sure that when you're taking your structure and you're pushing it, that you're pushing in the direction that that shorter, coarser hair that is flowing here is far is this hair or doing is we're just gonna run this merger Very lately. We wanted to be soft all the way down. And then here what we're doing is we're solidifying where that shorter course air here actually is again. We don't want to go in with a charcoal pencil and make it and put into fine lines, cause that wouldn't look realistic. So now here was gonna hit this ruling, really likely their brush. This is gonna give us that nice gradations going to soften this all up and it's gonna make that hair look looks off. It's gonna make it look fluffy, Which is what the reference image looks like. It's no. Here, take our brush loaded up on one side, were turned over. Load up on the during this little tone check, make sure it's where we want it to be. That's nice. It's not here to start on the scarf. I was gonna pull it right here long that define line that we laid down with our graphite pencil. I just want to build it up and then don't load up the brush but hit the other line. And now you see how there's that really nice value relationship. There's that contrast. There's that lower value, and then there's the higher value beneath it. And this makes the scarf look like it's like it's bunched up like it's on top itself. Makes it look realistic. So now what we're gonna do, you gonna go with her smarter. We're just gonna continue to find the edges of this Hera's. It gets darker and darker here on the neckline of the dog, something like that. And then I'm gonna stand it upon it. I'm gonna go through and I'm Scott. It's been a slightly pull, so I want this line to be implied at first. But I'm going to be going through with my medium charcoal, and I'm gonna be putting a nice define line with some medium line quality, nice medium language. But first I want to make sure that I have that separation in my value. Relationships to show that this thing is coiled. It's now time to take my medium charcoal to start from the top. Pull pulled and lift up. Start from the top. Pull lift up, start from the top pole lift up. See that I want that lie in Wait. I want this. I want that line to start out strong at the top. And then I wanted to fade, and I wanted to get, uh later, then later towards the bottom. Then there's some awesome cool designs in this scarf. I don't know if this is a bandanna or what looks pretty cool, and we wouldn't want to do this with our soft charcoal. Remember, because it's it's not. It's not strong enough, doesn't have enough binder, and we need to have some strength that are pencil tips. So they're gonna really get in this thing and and convey some some designs and, uh, just go and put. Put those designs you know wherever you want. Remember, the reference image is just that. It's simply a reference image. It's it's there to be a guide. It's not absolute unless you wanted to be, but you see how we're laying out these different designs. And in this, uh, in this bandanna, this scarf for this dog and we're gonna go through and we're gonna hit it with a brush were to soften it up, and then we're gonna go in and we're going to really solidify where we want those lower values in the overall design of this things. But just like with the dog layers were layering this. It's not here. We're just gonna blend this real quick. Give us a nice gradation. It's also gonna make this thing look soft, which of course it is. But I also want I wanted overall to be a little bit darker than the dog. So that stands out from the higher values that we see on that side of the dog's face. Sorry. Here, I want to go through with my models or research simply retrieving those higher values within the scarf of the dog. And this is just bringing out those those value relationships been here. I'm just taking my number one smarter. I'm just solidifying the end of that. For where? That for meats and lays on top of the scar for the dog. That's all I'm doing. I just laid on its side. And if you need to load up, convey a lower value, then this is what you do. You just like this just like this. And this is also a way where if you're a line is a little thin and you need toe beef it up . You could do that just ADM. Or and make sure your side pools where you pull left to right or a little whiter and you can get there and nice wide value all the way down the neck line just like this. So we're pulling it. That's kind of that's kind of fragmenting that value relationship just like that. And it it blends very, very nicely. But then here, this part of the dog, you can see how they're the hairs. All of a sudden, they start to get longer and longer. So because of that, we want to make sure that our pushes in our polls of our of our smudge er mimic what we see . And if it looks gritty, I don't worry about that. We're gonna hit this with a brush. Really? Really. Fluff it up. Make it make it look soft. Just like this room. True quick. Not too much. Did this call this razor over there? Wonderful. Now I wanna go through. I've gone through a sharpened my medium pencil again and this storm is going in And I'm really starting to add that those really low values those really rich darks within the scar for the dog here. So that first layer, as you can see from this step, those were all of my high to mid values. And now I'm going in and I'm putting that final layer of extremely low values into the scarf on that overall design of the scarf. And this this is what accentuating that value scale. This is what I mean when I say that you want everything from white toe black. You want everything in between and by layering with the three layered method, were able to achieve that. So just keep that in mind. And just remember, just just with anything the more time you spend on a specific area, the more realistic it will become. But here we are. This is looking good, but this is that this is a big deal in the wake of the different texture. Now the dog itself is extremely fluffy. It's extremely soft where the scarf of the dog is a completely different texture. And so this is an opportunity for any artist to really go in and show how they can convey different textures right next to each other with the same tools, but just utilizing the charcoal in a different way. So I hear what I'm gonna deal. She could see. Looks like there's a fold. There's a fold in the scarf. So I'm just gonna hit this with this much real quick was pulled down and all of a sudden we have that fold. I'm gonna run this right along, but to fall in line that I'm just gonna solidify where that fluff of the dog ends and where the scarf begins. Yeah, it's gonna blend this all together, and this year will make the scarf look. It makes it look like it has some dimension, like it's folded it. And it's kind of lane and and kind of scrunched on top of itself, almost like an accordion. And that's and that's what we want. We want that accordion look
8. Muzzle & Nose Layering | Detail Work: Okay, All right, so now the hair texture underneath the chin. So here we're standing are 3 16 smudge er up on end or is doing long poles because, as you can see, the hair that's immediately under the dog's chin is longer than even the hair that's on the cheeks of the dog. So now here on Hinduism, Louis, not my brush. And we're going to start with the big slayer of the dogs of Cheeks and, uh, and the dogs overall muscle. But one of the reasons why I'm starting on Theo edge of the dog's muzzle is because if you look the reference image, that's where it's it's the darkest and the dog's muzzle has a lot of form, has a lot of form. So this is a way that we can make sure that through our base layering, we are able to set ourselves up for success. So when we get all the base layering down, the base shadows down, we go in and we lay down our detailed work with our medium and heart char calls. We can make sure that that underlying for comes out when our viewer looks that are drawing and remember with base layers, always with base layers barely touched the paper. Let your brush do the work for you in your area. See how I'm following those those frame lines framework that I laid down in the very first step of this drawing. I'm staying true to those following them. We're starting to solidify the underlying form of this dog's Muslim. Just remember when you look at the dogs muscle when you're loading up with your brush, put your brush on part of the paper that is going to need those lower values. Because as you continue to brush the paper, the charcoal is going toe falling off right. Because of that, you're going to be conveying a lighter and lighter value with each poll. So that's one of the reasons why I always say Focus on on the areas of your drawing, where your lowest values need to be conveyed first and then that way, when you go to hit those lighter values, there's not so much charcoal onto the brush, and so it's kind of a wayto protect yourself. It's a good approach because if you just start going in and and hitting the paper all over the place with a bunch of charcoal, you're gonna have lower values in areas where they don't belong. So just keep that in mind. But now here, we're gonna do is we're in a grabber. 3 16 Smarter. Load up some soft circle. We're gonna start putting a base layer on the nose of this shepherd Just relate. You don't have toe push very hard at all this specific references. A little challenging because they know the nose itself is fairly dark with the exception of the lighter values on top of the bus. So the nose is challenging because we need to make sure that we convey form. We need to make sure that knows three dimensional that pops. So even though we're using this murderer, remember, when it comes to base layers, you can use a smudge er, or you can use a brush. One of the reasons why I'm using a smudge or in this case is because the brush is too big. It I need to have more pinpoint control. With the muzzle. I could use the brush cause the muscles big, but the nose is a fraction of the size of that surface area. The muzzle is. So that's why I'm using my 3 16 Smoger. It's not here taking a medium term going through them to put a nice to find lying here at the bottom. And what this does is this is personal preference. You don't have to put a line here if you don't want to, can be implied or it could be defined. I like to put it a fine line because I really want to showcase to the viewer that this nose is protruding from the muzzle of the dog and because we have so many low values amongst each other and there's not a lot of value. Relationship on the underneath of this knows. This is how I choose toe, bring this nose forward and kind of push that muscle back. But you don't have to if you don't want to use you, you use your best judgment in this case. But I think this just looks a little better for my eye. But I hear him when I'm using the pack in the nostrils because the value is extremely low. But as low as you get on the value scale within these nostrils Here on this one, I'm gonna only pack in the top half them. I'm gonna hit that bottom half this murder, so it'll still be really dark, but it'll look like there's some dimension to the Austro See that. It's very light. It's very subtle. It's something that no one would probably even notice. But subconsciously they'll notice it so consciously there, I'll pick it up. But what we're doing is we're going in. We're just We're just blending kind of solidifying the lower values within this nose. So the bottom of the nose and then the sides of the nose here. But if this looks a little dark, don't worry about that. I'm gonna be going with my mother's or razor, and I'm gonna be showing you how we how we bring out those those higher values and bring some dimension to this nose. But here we are. Just trust your reference image and just focus on those lower values. Like I said, the, uh, the high values will take care of themselves at that point because you can see you the value relationships there really is none at the, especially on the bottom side of this nose. So here I'm just gonna bring this down a little bit more. Bring this, uh, the front of this muzzle down there's a little bit more lip here that I had drawn out my outline stage. But that's okay. I can really bring that out now when I need to with my sweatshirt work. This is that forgiveness that I talk about with the three layered method. It's one of the reasons why I love to utilize this method because it gives you the ability to fix mistakes that you might have made earlier in your drawing process, with little to no effort, which is very nice. It's got the bottom bottom jaw solidified their then here. If I want to bring this, it's muzzle down a little bit. I could do that. There's really nothing that you can't do, which are. You can do anything you want. It's gonna bring this down a little bit more. Here we go. Just going back and forth only left that. I'm pulling right, left and right. There we go. It looks little better. That's a little more what I want. Okay? Sam's gonna load up, grab some more charcoal here, and then I'm gonna be doing this motion. See, this left and right, left and right. Very minimal pressure control. Very minimal, very minimal. But what I'm doing is I'm looking at the reference image, and this is the direction that that Harris flowing. You've even though, even though the hair on this dog's muzzle was extremely short, it's the shortest hair on the animal there. It still has a direction, and it, and it's still very much has a flow. And so this is a way that you can build your lower values, build them up, make them darker while at the same time doing another layer of texture for that shorter hair and just making sure that you're conveying that underlying form. The cool thing about this step here is that I'm barely barely touching the paper. You want your smudge er's to do all of the hard work for you, and you don't want to press hard because if you press hard, you're going to have a really dark, abrupt streak on your drawing, and we don't want that. We want everything to blend very nicely, and we and we very much want it's arrest on top of the charcoal that is already resting because we were very light with their pressure control on top of the paper because what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be going through with Mona's or a racer Medium and hard trickles, and we're gonna be laying down texture. Now, don't get me wrong, But there are areas like here around the bottom and the sides of the dog's nose that are very dark in the reference image in you need to convey that low, low value, think then go ahead and impress a little harder for areas like this year. Is there going to be extremely dark? There's not gonna be a lot of texture that we're gonna be able to convey on areas of the drawing that have this low value. So that's OK, but the biggest things when you're going up on the sides here just still pulled in the direction that there is flowing. Why not? It will only help you. It also gives you a very nice gradation. It accomplishes for you with the brush accomplishes for you. And I hear what I'm doing cause I'm taking a medium charcoal. One of the reasons one big taking a medium terrible as opposed to the hard charcoal is because this dog's muzzle it is one of the lowest values overall in the entire drawing. And because of that, remember how he said the hard charcoal has so much by Internet? That almost looks great. I want a darker about. You see this here, this is This is what I'm doing. Just a little hashes, little hashes, all one direction, little hashes right next to each other. And the thing about this is, even though it does look a little gritty, we're gonna be hitting it with a brush ever so slightly once worlds, once it's all said and done. But what this is is this is much like what we've done with the rest of this drawing. What this is doing is this is giving us another layer while at the same time, because we have a lighter value in the base layers that we've lay down with our brushwork and our smudge or work were able to essential eight the value scale, even in the area of our drawing, where we have those lower values. And this will really help bring out that that textural element that that all dogs have the only thing that's harder, then conveying long hair when it comes to a dog drawing is convenient. Short hair. Short hair is a lot harder because you really have to be conscious of your layers. And that's what that's what we've. That's what we've accomplished here with this dog's Muslim. It's nice, short little pools, and this is all real time. This is This is the first Ryan tutorial where I've gone through complete lessons, with the exception of uh, the first lesson where it's all real time, because I want to show you guys the actual hand speed that I use. When it comes to conveying this type of texture and bear in mind, I am moving quickly. The big thing when it comes to detail work and bringing out and creating drawings that are very realistic is just time. That's that's the rial deciding factor. More time you put into to a specific drawing, the more accurate it will be and the more texture techniques you'll learn and you'll teach yourself you'll be able to apply those strides in the future. One of the reasons why I don't focus on perfection is because I don't ever want to be at a level where I am considered perfect, because for me, it's not so much about attaining perfection as much as it is trying to be perfect. Because when you try to be perfect, when you don't think that you are, you open yourself up for learning. I believe it was Michelangelo at the age of 87. Who said that I'm still learning. And so I always liked that because it just goes to show that you wake up every morning and you want to draw something and you know that you don't know everything and you're open toe criticism and you're open to bettering yourself and by rights, better in others. So okay, so basically what we're doing is we're just doing the exact same thing on the dogs left side, as we were doing on the dogs right side. Now, as you can see, this Muslim is, it's greedy. It is great. But don't worry about that, because what we're going to be doing is even though we're going to be hitting this muzzle with a brush, what's gonna happen is we're going to give it a nice gradation, and it's gonna be blended, but we're still going to be conveying those those short those short hairs that lay on top of each other. All the dogs Muslim just like this. A short little hairs. Okay, then here on this side, it's going continue to build this up and notice how I'm working towards the center of the top of the dog's muzzle. If you look at the reference image, the highest value, the highest values on this dog's muzzle are the immediate right side and then the very top . So here we Newsom's, could take the brush. Very light pressure control. It's gonna hit it, and I'm going to be pulling the charcoal in the same direction as I was when I laid down that initial layer. But see how I mean, I'm still able to keep the underlying value relationships there. See how there was, like the higher values amidst the medium values to the lower values. That's what we want. That is what we want. This just gives us a really nice gradation while at the same time still allowing us to keep that that textural element that we just spent the last 10 minutes, 15 minutes building everyone's blend in this together, but that value scale is extremely important. Complete white to complete black, then here on the nose is gonna blend this together real quick. Let's make it nice and nice and soft. I'm gonna go in here. My model, Zahra Research. I'm just retrieving those higher values just referring to my reference immature. And this is really where you bring out that dimension you make. This is making it look like that dog's nose is flatter on top. And that's why it's catching that light. And even though there's not a lot of high value in between the nostrils, I'm gonna put that line in there anyway, just because I like that look, then here the dog's nose does have a lot of very porous. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm just gonna put a nice late layer of medium charcoal on this Someone continue build up those lower values and this is just toe really make the dimension in the dog's nose pop really make it really make it come out. Some people don't like this look, but it works for me. And whenever you're drawing something, you should always do what works for you. UK. So now I'm gonna take my big smarter and just very lately, just very lightly is gonna do some some some longer poles. But this is more for this is more for blending. What's what's already there. See how it's bringing over more charcoal from the lower values? That's that. That's what I'm doing here. It's kind of wanna more this blindness from this lot inside here. There were now here because there is a short little hairs and this is the section of the dogs. Was a lot top word that you notice that the dogs hairs are getting visibly slightly longer , slightly longer. Now. I've already used ah, hard charcoal for this part of the dogs Muslim. But I can go in and I can use a medium charcoal as well. There we go. That's looking good. But when it comes to the medium charcoal and the hard charcoal, it's it's really up to. You can use either, or when it comes to the conveying that that hair texture, it really depends on the overall aesthetic that you were going for personally in your drawing. I like to believe that there's balanced just about everything in life and especially drawing, so I like to incorporate both medium rated and hard rated chuckles in just about every drawing that that I do, because I find that it really helps me essentially the value scale, the way that the way that I like, because I really want my drawings to be to be rich in value, everything from the lowest of low value to the highest of high value. And I find that using both um, medium and hard grade charcoal pencils helps in wake of detail work for hair when it comes to dogs. But in here, I'm just gonna put a nice light. Define lying there. It kind of makes that kind of solidifies the the Muslim, the overhang above the cheek of the dog. It's kind of blend this real quick. Blend all these. This is coming together really nicely. I'm here. It's got blood in this. All right, then we'll do detail work and whiskers and everything else in the next lesson.
9. Whiskers & Finishing Touches : All right, let's listen. Finish this guy up with my models or a razor. And if you look the reference and you see how there's kind of those intrusions on the outside of the muzzle, well, this is how you convey those. And then here, just taking my models or a racer and I'm just bringing out are treating those. Those higher values is doing firm polls real quick polls, a lot of people over overthink hair, but less is truly more. Then here, if you look very closely at the muzzle, you can see that there's some black hair that actually is part of the lower job of the dog , and then his top cheek is actually kind of hanging there. So it's very lightly hitting that this part with my Mona's or Racer and bringing that out. So now what this accomplishing is it's making it look like that cheek is hanging over the top of the lower job and then much link with the medium charcoal where we were doing those short little hashes those short little polls. We're doing the exact same thing with our models over Racer. So the textural element that we've conveyed with our medium. Charcoal is very much the same. You know, what this is doing is this is essential waiting that value scale. But here I just want to pull these. It's kind of lightened up a little bit, especially right there, especially right where I put that line to signify the bottom of the dogs cheek. Because if you look, those are a slightly lighter values, slightly lighter. You're just kind of pull it straight from the line. Take like this. Let's pull it. See that? Here we go. That kind of lightens that up and kind of brings that brings that out. That's what we want, which run that line through here, drop it down a little bit to pull it to center every again. This is one of those parts of the drawing where it kind of like with that high value that I put in between the nostrils of the nose. You don't really see it in the drawing, but it helps a viewer when they look at it. It helps their I differentiate with lower job. So just be aware. That's a quick little trick that you can dio when it comes trying to convey form in areas where there's not a lot of value relationships, especially when there's a lot of low values altogether. But then here, if there's any areas where you want to go through and you wanna continue to convey a texture but maybe say you wanna do lighter values and you and eraser work, this is how you do it. And this is truly one of the reasons why I love the three layered method, especially for younger artists, because it is so forgiving, you know, slight light poles. And of course, this is this is all real time. I mean, this is how quickly you can change something up, you know, if you need to are or if you want to. You know, if you don't like the way something looks like I and this doesn't quite look like the reference image. Or maybe I want this to be a little darker. Or maybe I want to be lighter or more texture like like here on the muzzle, warm hitting this with the Mona Zahra racer. You could do that. You don't have. You don't have toe nail something perfect right out of the gate with the three layered method it allows for mistakes. It allows for you to build your confidence. You know it's not absolute. Not at all. It's not your arms going to take my brush. It's gonna kind of blend this just real lately. It's really, really sometimes one or two passes all you need toe to convey that gradation and get that where you on it. So this is another trick that you could do as far as building those lower values. You can go in with the smarter if you want, or if you want to move a little faster, just go in, load up your brush with some soft charcoal and just start layering it on top of areas of the drawing that need tohave those those lower values. And I'm not speeding this up. This is old. This is all real time here. And I wanted to do this for you guys because I know when it comes toe my drawing tutorial videos that I have on the YouTube channel. I tend to speed through a lot of a lot of my techniques after I explain them. So with skill share skills, there's gonna be completely different. I'm gonna have a lot of different drawing tutorials coming out. We're gonna be showing you guys how to draw on all sorts of different dogs and pets in general. And the big difference between skills share a supposed to YouTube Is that skill showing to be taking my time Still, shares where I'm really gonna be going in is showing you guys in real time how I conveyed techniques. So I'm gonna be giving a little bit more of my techniques away. So just be aware that but here on the bottom see you the trick here to make this hair look like it's fluffy, like it's rolling out is you fluff out the bottom and then you fluff out the top and you leave the center white. See how I did that on the bottom below the low the jaw. That's the trick to making something look really fluffy. Been here for the knows. There's I just want this to have a little bit more contrast because they're so much because there's so many low values in this part of the draw. And I just I really wanna I really wanna try toe bring out some contrast year, so I'm just gonna beef up the the lower values here of the nose. I didn't just give this notice some texture. Real like big swirls. Perfect. Okay, so then I hear that you have dogs. Scarf was gonna put a nice define lion that line weight is going to be really strong at the beginning and lifted as I pull it down. That's gonna go in and put in some designs here and then just like the other side, Just like the other side of the dog scarf. There's it's folded, right? Has that accordion folded. This one's a little different. There's a folding it, but I'm gonna have to convey that with some smudge or work, and I'm gonna show you how to do that. But first, let's let's get these designs down. Quick little polls. This is a medium charcoal. Great. Remember, we're using the medium charcoal for this design work on the dog scarf because it it has a little bit less binder than the heart charcoal. So we wanted to We want take advantage of that, then here with the brush. It's gonna pull this over when we pull it from the limit. I would take my smarter. It's gonna pull it too invasive. Mid values, some mid tones. Take my mother in terms. Clean this up. Some runaway Charbel here. Just going to solidify that line. They're here, actually. Take pencil clicking, Racer. I got a lot of a lot of runaway charcoal, and, you know, if you're just getting into trouble, definitely have Ah, bigger eraser. Something like a pencil click racer. I found these work thes work the best because there's really a need for runaway charcoal, no matter how careful you are. Charcoal runaway on you all the time. So be sure to have a bigger racer toe to take care of that. Okay, sir, I was gonna continue build out these designs and you see how there's kind of that dip in the middle of this scarf when we come when you're laying down your design work, make sure you speak to that. I was gonna beat this line up one more time. There we go. It was good. Jump around a little bit. I'm just gonna take my brush, soften up. This knows a little bit, but I'm gonna make sure I keep that texture on top of the nose. It's not gonna add some whiskers. This is a medium charcoal. Make sure that sharp understand my pencil up on end. I'm just pulling. It's real quick polls. When it comes to whiskers, they tend to get thinner as you get to the end of them. So at first, when you're pulling away from the dog's muzzle B a B abrupt, be very sturdy. But then, as you're pulling, make sure you lift away so Poland lift Poland lift, and that will give that variation in line, wait and in line quality. You'll start off for the thicker line quality, and then that quality will dissipate. And that will give you a really realistic dog whisker. And here was doing some some shorter ones. Shorter poles. You can see there's all sorts of different whiskers of different line qualities in different lightweights. So we want to make sure that that were convened. Those, well, just beef up. This fine line here kind of pushed those whiskers back and make him look like they're more on the side of of the dog's muzzle. Some whiskers here add in some more textural textural element, sir, and if you need to darken anything up anywhere, you, you could do that as well. When it comes to whiskers, you can use medium or how turkey's. I kind of depends on whatever it is I'm drawing for cats. Say, for example, I use a lot of hard char calls for their whiskers, but for dogs, I didn't use more medium, but then here I'm taking my 3 16 So I'm just pulling, starting for the dogs Muslim. I'm pulling away, and what this is doing is this just gives those whiskers another another element, if you will of, ah, thickness that the I can pick up in your fewer. Then here I'm just highlighting from the lines with my heart charcoal again, You can see how much more solidified the hard charcoal lines are compared to the medium charcoal lines. Medium still tends to look fairly fairly, Grady, because it was not nearly as much binder in it as the hard charcoal does. And then here I was going through, and I'm adding texture with my with my heart charcoal. And if you'll notice when you look at the reference image and the area that I'm working on for the dog right now, softer areas less is more. Don't don't go in and put in a bunch of a bunch of defined lines when it comes toe really soft areas of of an animal, whether it be a dog or a cat or or whatever. And one of the reasons why is because it will make your drawing look very cartoony, right? And if realism is what you're going for, that's that's not the best approach to take. So so just be aware of that. Remember, kind of like with eyes. And when it comes to soft, soft for soft areas, less is more. Basically, I'm doing ISMs going through, and this is another thing that I love about the three layered method is you can go back through when it comes to drawings that ideo, one of the things is all step away from a drawing on. Multiple times sometimes will take me a couple weeks if I'm doing a drawing a za commission piece, say, for a friend or a client. And one of the things that this three layered method gives you is it gives you the ability to be able to go back through and continue to build, say the detail on ANERE or an eye words overall just being able to go through safe. And I didn't notice this before. I believe it was Davinci who who talked about taking a break and going away from a piece of work. And then when you came back, you would have a fresh take on it and you would notice something on the peace that maybe you didn't notice before. And so this is definitely an approach that that allows you to practice that. But say here, for example, I'm going back through and I'm touching up all of that fuzziness. All of that for that was on the ear and back in lesson to see. And this is one of the things that I wanted to show you guys. I want to show you how how forgiving this technique is and how you can go back through and you continue toe build detail and convey different textures. And maybe you'll go back through look, a texture that you put on on a part of the dog's neck and say, Oh, wow, I actually don't like that. Now that I'm looking at it three days later here, I'm gonna go through. I'm gonna of build up some of those darker values or I'm gonna go back through. I'm gonna add more detail by retrieving some lighter tones with my models over Racer. Like like what I'm doing here on this technique allows you to do that. Drawing is all about growth. It's all about development, you know, developing yourself into into an artist. And I mean you are. You're already an artist, right? I'm a firm believer that an artist's work is never done. You're never done growing. I don't I don't claim to know everything. I hope not. I don't want to know everything I want. I want to learn. I want to make sure that I am putting myself in a position where I am able to grow, and I hope you feel the same. But then he remember how the other is that low dip, or it's going to like this one to run this merger crossways, and this is gonna make make it look like there's a nice, nice, subtle dip in that scarf of the dog. Here we are something like that. But as I see in most of my drawing tutorials is that you can add as much or as little detail as you want, because at the end of the day, it's your work. It's it's you're drawing, and you can hold yourself to whatever caliber of work that you want to. If you want it to be picture perfect, then continue toe work the charcoal until it is picture perfect. But that's pretty much it for this one. Guys, I hope you enjoyed it. If you enjoyed this one, then you'll probably enjoy our Labrador retriever step by step tutorial. And if you want to touch base on the basics, definitely check out our class on charcoal basics for beginners. That's it. Good luck in your future drawings.
Messer Creations, Artist | Author | YouTuber
