Realistic Animal Drawing: Draw 5 Animals Step by Step with Professional Techniques

1. Introduction: Hello, and welcome to this course. I'm truly happy to have you here. You have already completed my fundamentals of animal drawing class, this course is the perfect next step. We will put these techniques into practice by creating a series of complete animal drawings, always starting with simple shapes before adding structor details and texture. Together, we will draw a horse and eagle, a bear using simple shapes and a tiger and a Labrador using the grid method to accurately transfer your reference before developing the drawing. These projects are designed to reinforce everything you've learned while helping you gain confidence with a wide variety of animals. Let's get started right now. 2. Drawing the Horse – Sketching the Basic Shapes and Shading: This is a new final artwork with the realization of this beautiful white horse. So this horse is going to be a fantastic subject to put into practice again, everything that we've seen during this course. Work on the basic shaves, the work on the proportions, the shading and the creation of the white fur is going to be a little bit challenging because creating a white animal isn't just letting the page blank, letting it white. We will have to work on some very subtle shadows to be able to create some volume with it, and also to work on the texture of the hair that is very short and very subtle, as well. So this is a really nice subject to make some progress again and to help you becoming a better drawer. So take your time, observe it carefully, and most of it. Enjoy the process because when you enjoy things, it will help you to make some even more progress. So grab your pencil and let's draw this horse together. Let's get started on this final project, working on this magnificent white horse. This drawing will be done on an A four sheet, approximately 20 by 30 centimeters. So let's begin by identifying the shapes before sketching them onto the paper. Just like we did in the exercise on shapes, I will give you 10 seconds to try and identify the main shapes of this horse. So here we go. So here are the shapes that I observe, a large oval to represent the entire body. Rectangle, I think, could work as well, but the oval is more representative of the horse form. I could draw another oval for the head and also another oval for the neck. With a small rounded triangle to link the head to the neck. The legs, you can mostly be representative by rectangles, except for the hind leg where I also see a small trapezoid at the top. For the front leg, it is very straight, so it can be drawn with a long rectangle. And the over leg, this one can also be drawn with rectangles with a small triangle at the joint. So this is how I've broken down the structure. Of course, that could be other possible interpretations. For the proportions, the width of the body is roughly equal to the height of the neck. And the length of the horse appears to be about 2.5 times the length of the neck. And finally, another element of proportion that I noticed is that the leg's length is approximately equal to the width of the horse body. And so with all these elements in mind, we can now try to draw the horse as accurately as possible. Let's begin with the basic shapes. I'll start by drawing the oval that represents the horse body. I'll go over the shape multiple times until I am satisfied with the proportions of this oval. And among all the lines that I have drawn, I identify the one oven that looks best for me. A useful tip before actually drawing the oval is to pretend to trace it in the air. This helps strain the motion before committing to the sketch. And finally, any unnecessary lines that don't contribute to the final shape can be erased to clean up the drawing. At the end of my oval, I see another oval that defines the neck, and we remember that its height is approximately the same as that of the horse body. Then in the corner, I can draw the oval that shapes the head, and I notice that it reaches about half the height of the neck. By using these elements as reference points, I can progress step by step. Finally, I will be able to close this structure with the rounded triangle we identified earlier in the corner. At the end of the oval for the body, I can start working on the hind leg. We remember that there was a trapezoid, and then I continue by drawing the rectangles to complete the leg to complete the leg. Then I continue with the other leg, drawing the rectangle that defines it. I had started sketching it, but I felt it wasn't long enough because I compared it with the one on the left, and I saw on my reference photograph that this rectangle stops on the same line that the ones on the left. So I did it, and then I can pursue with another rectangle to come to complete the shape. Now let's move on to the remaining legs. The bent leg, as you remember, is formed by several rectangles with a triangle for the joint while this leg is partially overlapped by the fully extended leg that I can draw right now. And at this point, I would say that the base structure is complete, and now we have a solid foundation to start refining the contours and shaping the horse more precisely. I continue now by outlining the contours using the blocking technique to define the angles of each elements precisely. This approach makes it easier to achieve an accurate outline. I started with the horse body and initially planned to move to the edge, but then I decided to focus on the legs first. Why this sudden change well, because the head is more complex and requires, sorry, careful attention to proportions. Even after years of practice, I still prefer to begin with the simpler part. It helps build confidence, and once the easier direct sections are in place, the remaining elements become easier to position correctly. So now I continue with the line defining the front, this lay that is on the left, on the left. And the other one, this one, the one that is a little bit more on the right, will overlaps a little with this first one that draw. Okay, so I proceed with this one and one thing important to keep in mind and that I wanted to share with you, even though it may seem like I'm drawing quickly and smoothly, I still pause at times to analyze my work. I'm taking my time to think about the different angles, the length of each line, thinking also about the proportion and how everything connects together. It's crucial to avoid rushing to ensure accuracy. Of course, in the video, I won't show every pose I take. It wouldn't have much value to this course, but I want to share this with you to emphasize that it's completely normal to take your time when decided on angles and lines. Precision matters more than speed. And so I continue and little by little, we move toward the head area with the base becoming more and more established. This block in technique is really useful because it allows us to focus on the overall directions rather than trying to draw each curve directly. Here we are really trying to analyze the general movement of the horse and translate it into straight line. Also prioritize the main angles. Instead of getting caught up in small details, we focus on the breakpoints in the shapes, for example, where the neck meets the body, where the leg connects with the lower belly, and so on. This approach prevents over precision too early in the process. Right now, we are establishing a solid base which will help us refine the contours later rather than aiming for a perfect outline on the first try. It's completely normal to adjust lines along the way. Even after a year of practice, you'll see that achieving a perfect outline in one is very difficult if not almost impossible. Even for me, I constantly find myself making corrections, realizing that one element is misplaced, another appears too large or too small or needs to be adjusted up down, left or right. So this blocking phase and shape study really help us create a solid foundation for our drawing. Here, I have just noticed that I forgot to had the horse tail, so I can go ahead and draw it now. There's also one leg that I forgot to sketch, so I need to include that as well. And there it is. My blocking is almost complete. I have finished this technique to establish the outline. Now I will take the midpoint razor to remove all the guidelines that I have drawn, and then I will move on to refining the final contour of the horse. Now I can finalize the contour of my horse working lightly once again. However, as usual, I apply a bit more pressure than normal so that it's visible on camera for you. I refine the outline smoothly, adding all the curve lines that help define the shape of the horse. I can also start incorporating details in their contours. For example, you may have noticed that I have added the horse man. I can also add his ears, and progressively, I will include all the necessary elements before moving on to shading. I always emphasize the importance of the contour. It serves as a guideline to help us achieve our final result. If we need to mark multiple elements inside the outline, we should do so. Some artists may prefer to sketch all the facial details while others while others may feel comfortable with just the basic contours before starting the shading. For beginners, it's reassuring to mark as many elements as possible. Personally, I like to outline a few key features, especially those that are easily recognizable and highly visible. In the end, it's the shading that truly brings the drawing to life. So now I continue by defining the muzzle, and I also had the levers straps on the horse face using over elements as a reference point. For example, I make sure that the strap begins where the main ends, and I observe that the round buckle stops at the same height as the angle separating the neck from the face. It's like we could draw an imaginary line going from the buckle to this angle. So I have placed the strap at this place, but after taking a step back, I realized that it's not at the right position. So I adjust it and place it at the correct eye. Next, I want to position the eye. To do this, I use reference point by comparing elements to one another. First, I see that the eye is approximately at mid height between the ear and the lower strap. Then I noticed that the right corner of the eye aligned with an imaginary line extending to the ring of the strap. And finally, the eye closes at about the point where an imaginary line would extend from the ear downward. And thanks to these reference points, I can accurately sketch the eye. These imaginary guidelines help me position it correctly by analyzing spatial relationships between elements. You may also have noticed that I have refined the lower part of the horse hail as the angle wasn't quite right. I made a slight adjustment to improve it. And as I mentioned, the contour isn't final. We can always make modifications as we refine the precision of our drawing. I have now added the last facial details, and with that done, I can move on to refining the rest of the line, which should be a bit easier and require less precision than the eye. Even though the eye doesn't look like much yet, once I will shade it, it will take on a completely different appearance. So now I continue with the leg carefully tracing the angles that define its shape. These angles help create the subtle curves that give the leg a sense of elegance and majesty, reinforcing the graceful nature of the horse. And the drawing is really starting to take shape now, so we are on the right track. A small clarification regarding the eye area. When I mentioned that it aligns with the ring of the strap, I actually meant that it almost reaches the ring, but it's positioned slightly to the side. However, it can still serve as a useful reference point for placing the eye accurately. I had forgotten to mention this detail earlier. Taking a step back, I realized that something was off with my horse. In fact, its body is too long. In terms of height, Eva said that everything looks fine. However, the length of the horse is too extended, and that throws off the overall balance. So I will adjust and correct this mistake. I estimate that it's about one extra centimeter, which isn't a huge error, but it was noticeable enough for me to feel that something was wrong. By stepping back and analyzing the drawing, I was able to identify the issue that the body was too long. Rest, including the leg height, looks good. So to fix it, I will redraw everything exactly the same way, just shifting all the elements slightly to reduce the extra length by about 1 centimeter. Now to help myself before starting the shading, I'm going to mark the main shadow areas in the drawing, at least the most noticeable ones. One of the most obvious shadows is located on the lower part of the horse belly. Then there are several shadow areas on the neck as well. And I can see that this region will be slightly darker, and marking these areas now will make the shading process much easier later on. I also notice some shadows on the back of the horse, and I will continue marking this until I feel I have outlined all the necessary areas before moving to the actual shading. I'm going to start with the eye, as it's an old habit of mine to always begin with the eyes and the head. First, I lightly shade the brighter area of the eye using a four B pencil. Then with a 12 B pencil, a 14 B would also work. I go over the darkest area to enhance the contrast. One of the deepest shadow is in the lower part of the eye, so I apply a strong pressure with the 12 B pencil to darken it properly. It's important to note that I sharpen my pencil beforehand as this step requires a lot of precision. I also use the 12 B to refine the contour of the eye entering that the upper section is properly defined. However, since the horse is relatively far away, there isn't much shading required to achieve a realistic eye. And so that will be basically it, the eye is over, and all the elements around it will help to create something better now. Now I am going to shade the horse head. I started by applying a light HB base to establish even tone. At this point, I also erase the outline of the head because this line I originally drew is darker than the fur in this area. Since I don't want it to be visible, I prefer to remove it before proceeding. With the HB base applied, I can now refine the shading. I noticed a slightly darker area extending from the corner of the eye downward. And it's only a little darker, just like the shadows found under the horse eye. Because of the subtle shading, a four B pencil seems to be a good choice for this area. I also had slightly darker details along the edges of the strap using the side of my pencil tip for a softer and more delicate results. This technique helps create a smooth transition and keeps the shading light and natural. We can also notice some slightly darker areas along the edge of the horsehad in the section that meets the main strands. This might actually be the shadow cast by the main creating depth and volume, which gives this part a slightly darker up appearance. However, when I draw from a reference photograph, I don't necessarily ask myself this type of questions. Instead, I simply observe darker areas reproduce them focusing on capturing the correct values and contrast in the different areas. In the lower section of the head, I also see that it is generally darker compared to the upper part that we just worked on with very few highlights. Because of this, I apply a four B pencil as a base for this area before adding deeper shadows later to refine the shading. Here you can see that in this area of the horse face, I have lightly shaded with a four B pencil. As for the rest, we can now move on to the nostrils. On this nostril, which is on the right, you can see that it is extremely dark along the edge. I apply a 14 B pencil all around the contour or almost all of it, pressing down firmly to achieve a deep and dark tone. Inside the nostril, the shading is lighter. So I use a much gentler touch. And in this adjacent area, there is a prominent fold that will likely be well defined. However, this fold is not as dark as the nostril that we have previously shaded. So while I am still using this 14 B pencil, I press much less firmly. And as I move away from the edge of the head, I gradually reduce the pressure, making my strokes lighter and lighter. You can see that along the entire line, I started quite dark and then it gradually faded. So I softened my pencil stroke just as I did in the area above the nostril. Finally, between these different elements I have drawn, I will apply a six B pencil to achieve a slightly darker shade than what I had done with the four B. I will also start working on the shadow just below this strap, where we have a slightly darker area. So I can begin refining that right away once I have finished with this six B pencil. And gradually, by adding elements one after another, this horse hail will start to take shape nicely. Next, I observe my reference photograph and compare what I see in the photo with what I have in my drawing. I take note of small details that I can still have. For example, between the nostrils and the contour of the head, there are some additional elements, so I add them. Above the nostril, there is also another dark detail which I will include as well. And little by little, I incorporate all these elements until I am completely satisfied with my work in this area. And finally, I will also use my eraso pen to highlight the lighter details found in different areas of the horse head. These highlights will help enhance the contrast and make the darker elements I previously worked on stand out even more. I continue adding the final details to this area, but it is almost done. We'll soon be able to move on to the upper part. Looking at the lower part of the head, I noticed a few missing dark elements, but overall, there's not much left to add. Now I can start focusing on the straps, especially by lightly defining the ring here. But before that, I want to finalize the eye because I've been feeling that something is off with it. Upon closer observation, I realized that the lower eyelid was missing. Along with a few small details above the eye, that will be essential to making it look realistic. So I had some slightly darker touches above and below the eye, which will help enhance its realism. And once that is done, we can move on to the straps. For this part, it is crucial to use a well sharpened pencil, since the straps require a high level of precision. For the horse's straps, this area is extremely dark, so I will work on it using a 14 B pencil. As I mentioned earlier, it's important to have a well sharpened pencil to maintain precision and avoiding going outside the lines. Since I am applying a lot of pressure, erasing mistakes will be quite difficult. So that's why you need to be very accurate and to focus. Next, I have added some shading around the ring using a slightly dark tone to define its edges. Then I'll continue working on the other straps in the same manner. There's nothing particularly complex about this step, except that it requires a lot of precision to achieve a clean and accurate result. With the work on the straps completed, we can move on to other areas, starting with the ears. I begin by shading the ears with a very dark tone at first, as this area is quite deep in shadow. However, on the right side of this dark section, you can notice that I apply less pressure with my pencil to create a slightly lighter effect, as this part has a subtle highlight. For the rest of the ear, I carefully shade with an HB pencil since this area contained particularly light elements. So I create a soft base layer and also erase the initial guidelines as some parts will be lighter than those lines. Now, using a 122 B pencil, sorry, I start adding darker details in certain areas of the ear. There is also a nice tuft of hair connected to the man, which I begin to define. I then outline the second he, which is slightly darker. Well, the outline is a bit darker. And then a few carefully placed lines should be enough to create a realistic texture for this group of hairs around the horse head. 3. Drawing the Horse – Final Shading and Texture: Now that the work on the head is complete, we can start shading the horse's body, beginning with the neck and working our way down to the upper part of the thigh. Even though this is a white horse, we are not going to leave it purely white in our drawing. If we observe closely, the shading and gray tone in its coat show that it's not actually as bright as the blank paper. To create more realistic effect, we need to work with subtle gray. So I start creating the base layer, and I created by applying a light HB layer, which gives me a slightly darker tone than the pure white of the paper for the lightest area of this section. However, there won't be many spots that remain this light, but I still need to establish a base layer. Once the base is applied, I blend it smoothly to create a soft, even surface to work on. I used the brush for this step because using a blending stump would have been too slow and wouldn't have produced such a soft and seamless effect over a large area. Now I'm going to start to add depth and contrast. Now that the base is blended, I can begin darkening certain areas to create depth. Observing my reference photograph, I notice several regions that need to be slightly darker. So I apply a light shading with a two B pencil. This creates a subtle shadows that contrast against the HB layer, making the creases and contours of the neck start to appear. Even at this stage, we can already see a more realistic effect compared to just a few minutes ago with just this little shading that we have started to apply. And I continue to shade with the side of my pencil tip to apply a broader shading and also a shading that will be pretty soft. We have a four B pencil now, I will begin to mark darker details, especially along the sides where deeper shadow appear. And it's like I'm building up the gradient from light to dark. So to achieve a smooth transition, I work gradually from light to dark. I scan the reference photograph to locate the darker spots, and then I had them carefully, building up the shading to enhance the relief and contours of the horse neck. And by layering the shading, step by step, the structure and realism of this area start to take shape. And still using my four B pencil, I continue adding darker elements, laying them over the areas I previously shaded with the two B. The two B shading created the base of slightly darker tones, and by carefully working over it with the four B, I enhance the depth and volume in the area. One thing to notice in shading is that dark areas rarely consist of a single flat value. Instead, there are subtle variations in tone, a lighter dark layer underneath with more intense darks headed on top of it in certain places. This layering technique helps create more realistic and dimensional effect. Since I'm already working in this area, I continue shaping the main. I start by applying moderately dark tones along the edges. Then I will gradually lighten my strokes to define the rest of the main while keeping a soft transition. However, at the very edge of the main, I notice that some strains appear slightly darker. To emphasize this, I switch to an eight B pencil using the tip to add even darker accents. And as I mentioned earlier, some parts of the main have very lighter strength at the outer edges. So I make sure to leave those area less shaded. Thise contrast helps separate the strands, making the main look more natural and well defined. So we continue with this area just below, and we will try to shade it in the same way as before. Often, when I work with the side of my pencil, depending on the area, of course, I try to use some circular motion, slight circular motions to avoid visible marks and achieve smooer rendering. In general, working this way allows for a more natural transition between light and dark areas without harsh separations. Here I am applying light layers to gradually build up the density and avoid making the shading too intense right from the start. This approach lets me adjust the shadow's intensity little by little. Rather than having to correct overly strong contrast later on. If I press too hard in certain areas, it will not only create an unwanted contrast, but also make it harder to erase and adjust later. In this part of the horse, there aren't many details. The shading here is more general, not necessarily blurry, but it's a relatively simple area. However, its role is important in maintaining the overall harmony of the shading. Even though it seems less complex, it still helps to add volume and reinforce the coherent consistence of the lighting in the drawing. In general, less textured areas like this one are very subtle. That is to say, if I make them too light or too dark, they don't match the values found throughout the rest of the drawing, and the overall balance of the artwork could be affected. That's why it is essential to find the right middle ground, gradually adjusting the shading intensity to ensure a smooth and natural transition between the different areas. So this section is done, and we can move on to the bent leg, which will be very interesting since it contains many folds and creases. For this bent leg, I start by applying a base layer, adding slightly darker elements on the lower part. From here, it's all about carefully observing the shading. Every time I notice an area that is darker than what I already have, I make sure to mark it. For example, in this spot, there is a subtle circular shading pattern that helps define the direction of the fold. I have emphasized it, and over this base, I have added darker details. Along the fault line. You can also see that on the lower part, there is a light line running along the crease. I continue shading around my initial base shadow, making sure to respect the strong contrast in this well defined area. And as I work, on the shading, I prefer using slightly darker strokes, which helps bring out all the elements. And I knew my strokes are some kind of lights and not some circular motions like I did before. And this shading is really crucial in illustrating how the horse muscles are all actively contracting and in motion, giving the form of a sense of tension and realism. Typically, so this type of shading is characterized by dark lines at specific points which emphasize the contours of the muscles and the folds. And so that's exactly what I'm focusing on to shape the crease effectively. And I will gradually continue this work until I reach the hoof area where I will have an especially dark lima. I would start shading it with a 12 B pencil. Whether it's a 12 B or 14 B doesn't really matter in this case. I apply my 12 B shading, but I make sure not to create a completely uniform tone across the entire hoof. It's important to maintain some subtle variations in value. For example, if you look closely, the leftmost part of the hoof is slightly lighter, so I adjust my shading accordingly to preserve that difference. At this stage, I also use my 12 B pencil to reinforce certain details, particularly some fold and creases that need to be slightly darker than they were before. This is what I consider my control and adjustment phase where I fine tune the contrast and refine the details to make sure everything looks balanced and natural. We can now continue working on the second leg. I start by applying a four beep shading to establish a slightly darker base as this leg is mostly in shadow. You also see that I have already shaded the hoof since it wasn't particularly difficult and I felt that it didn't require much explanation. Next, in the upper section, there are darker elements, so I reinforce my base using the naightB pencil. This leg will be less complex than the bent one, as the bent leg has more muscles under tentro requiring greater precision. Here we can see that the upper part of the leg has some darker elements. Darker areas, as well as near this hoof, the hoof of the bent leg. Additionally, there are a few dark details on the lower section right next to the hoof of this leg. So there are some final details to have, but this section shouldn't take long. It's not one of the most complex areas to shed, but it still needs to be done with the same level of care and precision as the rest of the drawing. Once this leg is completed, we will move on to shading the belly and central part of the horse body. The video is playing at double speed since this step is fairly simple and similar to what we have done before. However, don't rush. Take your time to apply the shading properly. I start with an HB pencil, working with the side of the weed. The central area of the belly is quite light, which is why HB is a good choice to begin with. Next, I will take my eraser pen and erase the per outline. Just like before, the shading in the upper section of the horse is even lighter than this guideline, so it's best if the line disappears completely. After that, I lightly shade the area using a very soft HB layer. In the lower part, we have a shuttle area that gives the horse body more volume. Since this section is darker, I apply a four B base to create the necessary depth. Once all these elements are in place, I blend them with a brush, as this is a fairly large area. This ensures a smooth and even shading transition before refining the details with more precision. Now, let's work in detail on the belly of a horse and bear the shading. So we can start with this shadow in the corner. It will help define the belly while also as we extend the line, establishing the volume of the bent leg that we have shaded before. With this line that I am beginning to sketch, this leg, the bent leg is starting to stand out more clearly and seems even more muscular and even more bigger than what we had before. So the horse belly that we are shading is a very large surface, and it requires a smooth shading to properly convey its volume. When we look closely at this area in the lower belly area, we can see that the shadow is not uniform. There are some subtle variations that will help us achieve a more realistic effect with our drawing. It is important to pay attention to the pencil strokes that we apply. I go back over these areas with my four B pencil, especially on the section that I had previously blended with my brush, and I darken the area near the leg as it should be slightly darker. Similarly, in the upper part, the shading is more pronounced, so I adjust my pencil strokes accordingly and constantly observing my reference photograph to refine the shading. Just like with the bend leg, the shading in this area helps define where the leg begins. There isn't necessarily a strong defined edge for the leg, except in the lower part in the upper section, where the leg curves upward, it's actually the shadow that determines where the muscle of the leg begin. I would say that I have done most of what needed to be done with the four B pencil, so I will repeat the same process, but this time using an eight B pencil. I will refine the different areas within the shadow section at the bottom, carefully observing and adding these darker details. There aren't many dark accents in this area, but it's still important to mark them properly. There are just a few slightly darker elements that need to be emphasized. And another thing that I want to focus on is moving the transition by adding lighter touches in the upper section, entering a seamless blend with the shadow above. And so that's pretty it with this area. I can look up and look at the upper part of the horse belly and notice that some areas are actually darker than what I initially shaded with the HB pencil. And so to adjust this, I go back in with my four B pencil, applying very light strokes and using the side of the lid for a soft and control shading effect. One interesting observation about this horse is that its hair is so short that it almost looks like skin. There's no need to focus on texturing individual hairs in this area as they are not visible in the reference image. Unlike the man and the tail, where the hair is clearly defined, the rest of the body appears very smooth. So I continue working delicately with the side of my pencil, adding slightly darker elements where necessary and always keeping the shading slow and natural. With my pencil, I'm going to slightly enhance certain areas that need to be a bit darker. Right now, I am fine tuning some details. I had already created elements that look quite good, but I feel they could be improved a little more. For example, in the corner, of the leg, I want to bring out the fold a bit more. So I observe the area carefully and notice that within this relatively light section in the middle, also, there are still some elements that need to stand out a little bit more. And so to emphasize them, I darken them slightly with my eight B pencil. Another thing to note is that where the belly and the leg meet, the shadows are slightly darker. So I'm going to reinforce this contrast in a few seconds to make sure the connection between these two elements is more defined, just right there. Whenever you work on shading, don't just assume the area is finished and move on. Take a moment to step back and analyze your work, compare it with your reference photograph and ask yourself, are there any missing details? Could some areas be improved or refined? These posts for observation analysis is very important before continuing. What you can also do is put and look at your image in the mirror, and clearly the mistakes, the things that could be corrected will be a you will see them in the mirror. It's really a great tool. Additionally, in this area, I added a few lighter details to enhance the contrast, and of course, I use my eraser pen for this. And I will also use my needed eraser to dab and soften certain areas afterward. And overall, my work here is almost complete. Just a few final adjustments remain, and after that, it should be fully refined. Let's move on to the last legs of this horse. The shading has been created using an eight B pencil, and now I'm going to darken it further and refine the details. Here, the shadow is very pronounced and it plays an important role in showing that this leg is positioned behind the one that is on the right. That's why it is crucial to shade it properly and to create a clear sense of depth, darkening it very hard with the pencil. These legs, I think, are very interesting to work on because just like the bent leg, the muscles and tendons stand out very well, and to make them stand out properly, the shading must be done with precision. Now I have extended this line a bit further because it also helps define the length of the leg which I now start to shade. Along the edge, the shading is quite dark, which also suggests that these horse has strong and well defined muscles. This area contains several small shadow, each with slight variation, so it's very important to carefully refine each one to achieve a realistic and structured look. So my approach to shading this leg will be very quite forward, like I like to get straight to the point I always do. I started by applying a dark base, and over this base, I will had even darker elements using my eight B pencil or even darker tones, if needed. For example, in this section, I noticed that I can draw a pick and bold line right there with my eight B and right above it, I can add another one, and I will continue this process until I'm fully satisfied with shading in this area. To finalize the shading, I will use my eraser pen to create highlights and add lighter details to balance the contrast. To effectively shade this kind of complex area, I think it is useful to visualize it as layer of gratons. Start with the lightest base layer at first. Secondly, apply a slightly darker layer on top. Three, add an even darker layer, and then refine the darkest details to enhance depth and erase some of it if you want to create even more contrast and make certain elements stand out to bring out the highlights. And so for complex areas like these legs, where there are multiple muscle and tendon structures, I think this layering method helps a lot in achieving a realistic and accurate result. It allows us to progress step by step while maintaining control over the shading. On this leg, we can see that the hoof is very well defined. So I'm going to shade it with precision and clarity to make it stand out properly. However, this won't be the case for the other hoof, but don't worry, we will find a way to suggest its presence while keeping it partially hidden. So we'll figure out the best approach at the end to ensure that the hoof is certainly visible without being fully outlined. Finally, on the overlay, I will be able to apply shading and follow a similar process to what we just did. The key here is to make sure that on the left side of this leg, we preserve the highlights, those very bright areas to stand out. These highlights are essential because they allow the shading to create a sense of free dimensionality, effectively showcasing the muscles and tendons of the horse. And that's about it for this step. There's nothing particularly complex about this leg compared to the previous one. It has the same level of difficulty, so everything should go pretty smoothly. So I'll see you again once this part is finished. Let's continue our shading work with the horse tail, and for now, I'll be using a four B pencil. In this area, I can start by defining the slightly darker section, then move toward the left. The key to creating volume in the horse tail is to carefully identify and emphasize the dark elements that shape its form. For example, I can see a V shaped shadow, which I will mark. These darker section are crucial because they really enhance the depth and free dimensionality of the tail. So to start, I apply a base layer with the four B pencil. Later, I will be able to add the texture of the hair by working with individual lines. However, before jumping into detailed hair strokes, it is important to establish a solid shady foundation, just like we did when working on the cat's fur texture. Now that the base is in place, I can start adding some darker hair strands, making them stand out against the lighter background. This step helps to gradually build up the realistic look of the tail. Now that we have established a solid base for the hair texture in this area, we can refine and enhance it by adding lighter strands using the eraser pan. I will apply this technique throughout the tail, especially in the upper part where we can see lighter hair section that I will carefully mark. One challenge here is that the background of the reference photograph is extremely dark, but I don't intend to shade the background. I want to leave the horse on a white background. Because of this, the white hairs visible in the reference photograph won't appear naturally against the white paper. So how to make the hair stand out against the white background. Instead of leaving the strands completely white, I will shade them very lightly with an HB pencil to create a soft and light tone that differentiates them from the background. The small and fine hairs will remain lighter, and I will make sure they stand out by carefully erasing thin highlights with the eraser pen. I also erase the outline of the tail that I initially drew as the outline appears darker than the hair itself. Instead of a hard contour, I will create the illusion of individual strengths to keep the edges looking more natural and soft. If you prefer to create a slightly darker background to enhance contracts, you can absolutely do that. In that case, you can use the eraser pan in the end to lift out fine hair strengths, giving the tail a realistic flooring effect. At this point, the left side of the tail is really taking shape and the same techniques and level of detail now need to be applied to the right side to ensure balance and consistency in the drawing. Now that the work on the horse tail is complete, I'm going to add the final details, particularly some grass around the horse leg. Thise will serve two purposes. First, it will help make it look like the hoof is partially hidden by the grass, blending it naturally into the scene. And secondly, it will emphasize that the horse is in motion appearing to be trotting or lightly bouncing, as we can clearly see that three legs are in contact with the ground while one is lifted. So I will add these brass details, and once that's done, the drawing will be complete. And with that, this marks the end of this tutorial. I truly hope it has been helpful for you. Feel free to let me know your thoughts, and if you have any questions, don't hesitate to share them. And now here is the final result. 4. Drawing the Eagle – Establishing the Outline: Now it is time for another final artwork with the drawing of an eagle, a symbol of strength of majesty. So this is going to be a really fascinating subject that will help you to make some beautiful progress because thanks to this eagle, we are going to work on many different aspects and trying to put into practice many things that we've seen during this course. There is, of course, the work on the contoro using the basic shapes, the work on the shading, the work on the texture with this beautiful favor and within this entire animal, we won't have to have we won't need the same approach for all the favors because some fevers are really different from one another. So it will be interesting to see how to approach the fevers differently depending on where they are located. There will also be a very nice work on the texture of the beak, which is very specific and also a beautiful work on the eye of this animal. So it is a technical and demanding subject, but a really rewarding one. You will have to observe a lot to take your time to make sure that you capture the beauty and the strength of this animal. So take your time and practice. You have all you need to do it. You have all the skills that are necessary to do it. I will guide you through the entire process. So practice along with me. And yes, practice. Again, that's all I have to say. It is the most important part. So now, grab your pencil and let's draw this eagle together. Welcome to this new tutorial. We will learn how to work on the favors using this photo of a magnificent eagle. For this tutorial, I will be working on an A four size sheet, approximately 20 by 30 centimeters. So let's begin with analyzing the subject and the different shapes that compose it. And as usual, I'll give you 10 seconds to analyze and try to visualize the shapes that make up the animal. At the head level, I can clearly see a circle that will encompass the entire head. Then we could imagine a trapezoid at the neck, which we would enclose within this circle. For the beak, why not draw a pentagon, this five sided shape. It looks somewhat like a trapezoid here. And finally, a triangle could be good to close off the beak. For the eye, we could start with a circle that we would then shape as needed. And here, why not had a rectangle to encompass the entire dark fevered area around the eye? And finally, I can very easily close of the eye. Now, regarding the proportions, if we take a look, I would say that this area is the same size as this one, and the one below is slightly larger than that one. So this can serve as a reference point. Likewise, it seems like the eye really seems to be positioned at the center of the head. In the circle. So before starting, I had to adjust the brightness of the video because otherwise, the lines I had drawn were too light and not visible enough, so I apologize for that. The lighting, sorry, is now slightly adjusted for this part of the video. Now I begin by drawing this circle for my head's ear, for my eagle's head. As you may have noticed, before drawing it properly, I first mimic the movement a little on my paper. This way, I can anticipate the trajectory in advance. And honestly, doing this is quite helpful, especially since I'm working on my eagle at a larger scale than it appears in my reference photograph. You could see that the printed photo was smaller than how I am representing it on this sheet of paper. So that really helped me a lot. From there, I was able to draw the trapezot like shape at the bottom with the left side being lower than the right side, which rises a bit toward the head. Then I can draw the pentagon shape we discussed for the beak, which is positioned roughly at mid high. Here, I notice that the width didn't look right. It was too extended, so I reduced it slightly and erased the initial line I had drawn for the big. After that, I continued my work by placing the other elements. As we observed earlier, this section is about the same length as this one, while the lower section is slightly longer. Then I can draw the rectangle visible on the image, which takes up a large portion of the width. From there, once this rectangle is in place, I can position the eye. As I mentioned at the end, I feel like the eye circle is roughly at the center of this larger circle. So I can place it right in the middle inside this rectangle. Now I have most of the elements well positioned. From here, based on what we've done, we can use the blocking technique. If I wanted to ensure the proportions are correct, I could also apply the proportions techniques that are covered in the basic course, such as using the ruler or the pencil to measure the length, measuring angles with a pencil or with the other tool that we created in the course and all the other techniques that I shared in that course for proportions. So now I can move on to my blocking technique. This means I will focus on drawing the rest of my sketch more precisely using straight lines to calculate and estimate the different angles present. At the head level, we can see that there are some well defined angles. It almost looked like this eagle has a pointed hat at the center of his head. So I draw these two straight lines that intersect properly. Using the same technique, I can now outline the beak more precisely. It has a very pronounced curve acture, so I break that curve down into smaller angular segments. Next, when I look at my drawing and compare the different elements relative to each other, I notice that I can extend the beak to approximately the area right below the eye. There are also some distinct shapes beneath it that define the big structure, and I can now sketch those in. Very important point. Before drawing each of my lines, I spend a lot of time observing the angles carefully. I measure them before transferring them onto my drawing. I use my pencil for this measurement. Then I replicate the angles on my sketch. But you want me see me thinking on you won't see me thinking or those moments of inactivity on video. I edit those out to avoid unnecessary delays as they wouldn't be very interesting. So let's continue and take your time with this blocking step. It's very important. So now I move on to working on the eye. There is a web defined line near the eye that helps determine the shading, and I can now sketch the eye itself. This eye has a very intense, stern expression, and we'll try to capture that. Up to this point, it has a fairly rounded shape, by comparing the different elements I can see that the eye is correctly spaced in relationship to the beak below. As I mentioned, the eye remains rounded at the lower part, then it angles off to the left, forming a small indentation. Now I outline the orange area surrounding the eye, which is quite visible. Finally, I will close off the eye shape by adding the detail that gives it that strikingly fierce look that is so characteristic of this eagle. Now I can start refining the eye in more detail. First, I work on the black edge found at the outer part of the eye, adding it slightly. Next, I place the pupil. Positioning the pupil correctly is crucial because it plays a major role in making the eye look realistic. To ensure I place it as accurately as possible, I compare the different elements with one another. One key observation is that the spacing between the pupil and the lower part of the eye is greater than the spacing between the pupil and the upper part. In other words, there is slightly more space below than above. The same applies when comparing the left and right side. There is a bit more space to the right than the left. With this understanding, it becomes easier for me to position everything correctly. Knowing this distance helps me make sure the pupil is placed in the right spot. Next, using the rectangle I previously drew as a guide, I can define the contour of this dark area more precisely. This allows me to clearly mark the boundary between the lighter favored region and the darker favored area found near the eye. With this blocking technique, I would say that I have established the most important elements. Now I will start working on the favors inside the drawing. I felt that the blocking technique was less necessary for this part, for the lower part. As while the favors are important, they are slightly less critical than elements like the beak and the eye, which really defines the eagle's identity and make it recognizable. If some favors are in place exactly in the same spot is not much of an issue. Now I have erased all the construction lines I drew during the blocking stage, and I will focus on refining my lines more precisely. I will emphasize the curves and small irregularities along the edges, something I hadn't done earlier since I was mainly looking for the primary angles. At this stage, I defined these lines more carefully, and when working on the contour I keep my strokes fluid to ensure they look natural. This also allows me to So I continue by outlining the head properly, and I can start also placing the internal elements right now, and I'm going to mark the different areas where the favors are located. For example, I noticed one particularly prominent favor that stands out and I want to position it precisely. What I did was wrong. And I observe that it aligns with an imaginary line between the eye and this favor, which helps me place it correctly. This sharp favor is quite noticeable in the central area, so I sketch it carefully. I'll keep making the other feaors as realistically as possible and finish the drawing before moving on to shading. While it's true that without shading, it's harder to visualize the final result. Even with just the contour work we have done so far, the eagle already has a fierce, aggressive expression. That's a good side. We are on the right track, and we are already conveying some of its emotion with just the outlines. So I will continue refining the lines in interior contours. I also notice that under the beak, there's a distinct fever area, dark fever area. Since this is a well defined feature, I mark it accordingly, and I am also outlining a few other key details that stand out clearly and will be important reference point when begin shading. And finally, I outlined the dark feathers in the lower area, which are clearly visible and require a well defined boundary. You may also notice that I haven't done much in the upper area or almost nothing because this section is so light that I will simply add a few dark details here and there later. I don't feel the need to mark them at this stage. However, if you prefer to unline them for better guidance, feel free to do it if it helps you. Et's begin the shading process with normal lighting this time. As usual, I start with the eye. You probably know this about me by now. I love starting with the eyes because they express so much. And when I was younger, they used to put a lot of pressure on me. I always felt that if I didn't get the eye right, the rest of the drawing wouldn't work either. But on the flip side, if I did get it right, everything else would follow. So that's a habit now. I'll always start with the eye, and this eagle is no exception. So the first thing I do with the eye is mark the very dark areas. One thing we can observe is that the inner corner is extremely dark. So I start by working on that, pressing firmly with my pencil to get as close to pure black as possible. Now, I know I might be putting a little pressure on you, but if you're pressing hard, precision is key. Otherwise, it will be very difficult to erase any mistake. That's your warning. Now take a deep breath and do it carefully. Another dark area is the pupil. When shading the pupil, we need to be aware of that. While it's mostly dark, it also contains highlights. So I make sure to shade around these highlights, leaving them untouched so I can work on the lighter areas later. Looking closely at the highlights, we can see that one of them right in the middle is extremely bright while the other two at the top are slightly more grayish. This means I will have to adjust my pencil pressure when I will blend them when I will shade them, sorry, accordingly to render them correctly. 5. Drawing the Eagle – Developing the Head: Now, let's work on the inside of the eye. To start shading this inner area, I use my six B pencil. The pressure I apply varies depending on the different sections. For example, on the left side, we can see that it's lighter compared to the upper part. So I press a bit harder on the upper section. Meanwhile, the lower part is extremely light, so I apply very minimal pressure. This is what makes graphite pencil so great. You can easily control the pressure to achieve different values. However, for certain small details that need to be darker, I switch to my 12 B pencil. With this, I define the tiny details and texture found on the lower part of the eye and around its contour. Right near the black line we had previously marked, there are some darker elements. So using the 12 B pencil seems like a good choice here. And little by little, the eyes takes shape, and as we introduce different shades of gray, it starts looking even more intense and fierce. Just next to the ilight we worked on earlier, there are slightly lighter marks, and I apply them carefully, ensuring that my highlight remains brightest, the brightest part, making it stand out. To fine tune this, I will also use my eraser to make small adjustments when it's needed. For instance, right here, I felt like this was too black, and it's important to be honest with yourself when drawing. Sometimes you have to acknowledge that the part doesn't look right. And when that happens, I erase and rework those areas until I am completely satisfied. So now I move on to shading the area around the eye, which is quite dark. Here, I apply medium pressure, not too strong, but not too light either, because I want this section to stand out properly. Even with just these few additional details, the eye is already looking good, much more refined. I will now add the final touches. I carefully observe my reference photograph, compare different elements, and make small adjustments to ensure that my drawing looks as close to reality as possible. And from now on that I am almost finished, we are going to work on the beak of the animal. Now, let's work on the beak. As you can see, I slightly modify its shape, making it just a bit taller. I adjusted the line and also added this very dark element visible here. To position it correctly, I notice that it begins at the start of the beak and it is roughly aligned with the eye, which served as a useful reference point. Next, I will apply base shading to the beak. I'm using a two B pencil because this area isn't extremely dark, but also is not as light as the upper third section. The two B seems like a good choice. I also erase my guideline, any guidelines that are in the middle of the shaded area as they might become visible later, which wouldn't look good. So I shade the entire beak evenly to create a base layer, which will allow me to add all the fine details that give the it's unique texture. And to ensure a smooth texture for adding details, I will use my blending stump to soften the shading. I will make small circular motions with the stump to prevent any visible stroke marks, which is important for achieving a clean and polished look. Once this is done, I will also refine the control line, erasing it so it no longer stands out as that wouldn't look natural. So I erase it with my eraser pen. And from now on, I can start adding darker details across the beak. One thing I notice is a dark band running through the center, which I shade with my pencil. This instantly adds more volume and makes the beak look more realistic. Within this dark band, I also observe an even darker edge along the border, so I emphasize it by pressing a bit harder with my pencil to make it stand out. That's what you are about to see just right now. Also, what I see right here is a lighter area. So I lighten it with my needed eraser and I just tap a little bit with it to remove a little bit of graphite and make this area just slightly lighter. So right here, it's good, and I then continue refining the beak by enhancing the central dark zone I worked on earlier, and I notice a diagonal dark line that I have added, and it run upward. So I have added it as well. And additionally, I see that the edge of the beak is slightly darker than what I had drawn before. So I go back and reinforce that shade. Two sides of the black element I had previously marked also show some dark shading. So I enhanced those as well. And little by little, the big takes shape and depth and volume start emerging in the area. Right now, I continue adding the base shading for the beak and gradually we'll move on to detailing and refining its texture. The beak has a hard texture, but it's not completely uniform. Unlike what one might think, the surface isn't entirely smooth. It has a slightly grainy texture with small cracks and variations in tone. To capture this, I will alternate between soft strokes and more defined details. I will start using my eraser pen to create realistic details. I will erase the brightest areas precisely. I'm not using my needed eraser here because I need something very precise. So I will have micro reflections on the beak with my eraser pen. These small details make all the difference. They had subtle nuances that bring the drawing to life and make the eagle look more realistic. In some areas, you can see irregular lines going in different different directions, while in others, there are small scattered dots that I will had as well, and bit by bit, the beak takes shape and becomes more realistic. So now the details I am adding won't be blended anymore. Blending was a great tool for creating a smooth base, but it must be used wisely. If I continue smoothing everything, I risk losing the textures richness. So at this stage, I will keep my details sharp and won't blend them further. With my six B pencil now, I go over the areas next to the highlights I created just before, this contrast makes the eyelight stand out even more adding depth and realism to the beak. And these are the final details for this area. And in a few seconds, we will move on to shading and detailing the lower part of the beak. This lower part of the beak will be much simpler and less texture to work on. As you can see, I first drew a dark line, and now it's just a matter of applying basic shading without necessarily needing to blend in this area. One key observation is that the left corner right here is significantly darker, while as I move towards the right, the tones become much lighter. Additionally, along the bottom edge, there is a dark line with a few small darker details on top. But overall, that's pretty much it for this section. It's a fairly simple area, so we go over it relatively quickly. Et's move on now to the favored area on the upper part. This section is extremely light with some areas that are literally pure white. So here, I will do something I rarely do. I won't shade the entire area. Instead, I let the white of the paper remain visible in certain places without adding any shading. I will only use my HB pencil very delicately in specific areas, but not everywhere. The goal is to preserve the bright section and ensure They stay as light as possible. Another thing I'm going to do in a few seconds is erase the contour line because it appears darker than my shading, even in the shaded areas, and even more so in the white areas where there is no shading at all. However, I won't erase it completely. I still want to see a faint outline to help me know where to stop. And since I'm keeping the background white, I won't have a very dark outline around the instead, I want the edge of the head to blend naturally into the background, like a soft transition, a flight of fors. That's why I erase the contour, but not entirely, just enough to keep a subtle boundary visible. And now, it really feels like the contour is melting into my white background as if the edges of the favor are softly fading. I can refine this effect later. Around the eye, we will also have a darker area, but I will refine that later. As we move toward the right, the favors become progressively darker. So I will need to adjust both my pencil strokes and possibly switch to a darker pencil for better contrast. One thing to notice about the shading in this area is that the favors are not sharply defined. Instead, the shadows appear soft and somewhat undefined, moving toward the right in a pattern resembling small rectangular shapes. So instead of trying to draw each individual favor, I'm focusing on shading the area as I see it. The shapes in the reference look geometrical and irregular. So I replicate that by shading with unusual geometric strokes. Might feel unnatural to shade in this way, especially when it doesn't seem to represent any clear object at first. But in the end, by following this method, the overall drawing will come together. And this favored area will look completely natural. The key is to trust the process, even if the shading seems abstract in isolation. When combined with the rest of the eagle, it will make sense in the end and blend seamlessly into the rest of the drawing. So trust yourself, and you'll see that in the end, the outcome will be fine. I can continue my work, and now I notice that in the right section, the light areas are not as bright as those on the left. So here, I will lightly shade this area with my HB pencil, applying it very delicately. And this will be my light base. My light base will be a little bit darker than the one on the left because I shade it with HB, whereas on the left, I didn't shade at all. Shading details I added earlier in this section on the right were slightly darker, so they already stand out more. But if I want to enhance the contrast further, I can reinforce some areas with a two be pencil making the darker elements even more visible. This increased contrast will add even more realism and depth to the area, making it look more three dimensional. At this stage, though, I already feel that the shape is well defined. And imagining the next step, I think it's coming together nicely. So I am working now on this area upper the eye because I noticed that on the left section, there are some slightly darker elements. And so I shade a little bit above the eye, and this help to intensify the eagle spears expression while also making the drawing more realistic by adding more depth to the upper eye area. Then I refine more subtle details like the light markings that we have next to the beak and the ones on the right right here. I'm really fine tuning all I have done here and then we'll be able to move to the next area from now on. Now let's move on to the favored area around the eye, which stands out strongly and it's quite dark. The first thing I do is apply a base layer in this area using my two B pencil. While some part of these sections are quite dark, I also notice that there are lighter areas scattered throughout. So instead of starting with a dark base, I prefer to begin with a slightly lighter foundation because it's easier to darken areas later rather than trying to lighten them afterwards. If there were only one or two light details, I would have gone for a darker base, but since there are quite a few lighter sections, it makes sense to start with a softer tone and gradually build up the darker details. So working on the eye corner, now I focus on shading the inner corner of the eye where I see some slightly darker element. And therefore, I use my four B pencil, which is darker than the base, but not too intense, as this area still retains some mid tones. Looking at my reference photograph, I notice that these dark elements consist of irregular lines running in different sections. So I carefully replicate this irregularity to capture the same texture around the eye. To enhance the contrast and depth, I switch to an even darker pencil, especially around the edges of this section near the beak. These areas require stronger and well defined dark stroke, so I confidently press harder with my pencil to make sure they stand out. In areas where I had previously shaded with the four B, I will also add even darker details, alternating between different shades of gray. This variation of tones that I am applying is what makes the shading look more realistic and accurate to the reference photograph. By carefully layering different values, I enhance the depth around the eye, making this hollowed out area look more natural and pronounced. And as usual, I will refine the area by adding small eyelights with my eraso pen. These subtle touches will improve the depth of the shadows and enhance the visibility of lighter elements, making the contrast even stronger. This final step ensures that the favored region around the eye feels detailed, natural, and true to the eagle's intense expression. Now we are focusing on the eye area, and before working on the surrounding elements that we observe, I am making a very slight modification to what I had previously done. My eye contour was not right. The black area was not round enough in this section and was also slightly toothck. So I don't hesitate to make adjustment when something doesn't look right. Here I am using an electric eraser to remove these very dark black marks because they are quite difficult to erase due to their intensity. Now we can work more confidently around this eye, and I begin by marking some medium dark elements all around it. We can see that this area surrounding the eye is characterized by small, fairly light marks, fin lines that more or less follow the circular shape of the eye. These lines I am adding will be slightly curved. It doesn't take much to define this eye contour area effectively. And now I am going to add a few more darker elements to further enhance the realism by introducing variation in values. Now let's move on to the favored area on the right. This section can feel a bit intimidating because it contains multiple elements with varying levels of darkness and a lot of details. So what I do is start by marking the areas that seem the most obvious and the easiest to define, those that stand out when you first look at the area. In this case, I can see that in this darker region around the eye, there are a few marks like these that are slightly dark, so I go ahead and define them. I carefully observe their direction and shape then I refine with the right shade of gray that best fits this area. It's similar to the upper section we worked on earlier. These shapes don't really resemble anything specific at first. They don't immediately look like favors. But as I keep adding elements, the overall shape will take form and look exactly as I intend. Once the entire area is built up, the eagle will be easily recognizable. Sometimes when drawing, we create elements that don't seem to make sense on their own, but they are essential to building blocks for achieving a realistic final result. Now that I have done this, I can slightly darken the initial elements we worked on. By the way, I forgot to mention earlier that on the right side, I felt that my bay shading wasn't dark enough, so I went over it with a slightly darker tone. Now using my 12 B pencil, I am marking the darker elements visible in the shape. Earlier, we drew some loosely defined shapes and shading. Now I am refining them by adding a few well defined dark elements. This helps enhance the realism of the area. The combination of different shades of gray also helps create volume, making this part of the favors appear more three dimensional. So with my pencil, I am adding small details here and there. Then over this, I will introduce some slightly lighter elements, which will mainly take the form of lines. And so to add these different lines that I am about to add, I carefully observe my reference image to identify where these lines appear. Some of them are slightly curved and extend in multiple direction. And as I work on these details, the area gradually takes shape, and I won't need to add much more. So a few more lines now, and I will also reinforce the lighter areas using my eraser pen. This tool allows for precise adjustments, helping me define bright highlights. And overall, I would say that we are in a good place now and I'm going to proceed with I'm going to proceed with this step. 6. Drawing the Eagle – Adding Texture and Final Details: I am also slightly reinforcing the area on the right. Even though this section is lighter overall, there are still some darker elements, and so I am adding them with my pencil. However, in this area, we can also see some lighter marks, some slightly brighter bands across this right section. And so for these, I won't be using the precision as, the eraser pen, but rather the needed eraser, since the areas that need to be lightened are larger, the needed eraser seems more suitable for this task. I Now we are moving to the lower part. We will he shading elements to give volume to the head and create a clear distinction between the animal's neck and head. To start, I am shading with a medium pencil over the darker areas visible between the feathers. These elements are crucial for creating depth. I am using the side of my pencil tip to achieve my pencil lead to achieve a soft rendering, which will later allow me to a darker details on top. Right now, I am laying down a base with a four B pencil, but I'll go over it with a darker tone later. Using a lighter pencil, the HB, I would also work on this very light area that we have just above right here. So while it is quite bright, it's not as light as the upper part of the head, which is why I am shading it with HB rather than leaving it completely untouched. And now returning to normal speed, I'm going to refine the area near the beak, which Ian worked on much earlier when I was focused on the beak itself. I wanted to wait until the surrounding areas were more developed, like I am doing right now. This section is quite similar to the right side of the beak, where there was less texture. However, in this area, there are many small flavors and fine details. So I am adding them now, mostly in the forms of line and slightly thicker elements. Working on this will enhance the realism of the area, but it shouldn't be complicated or take too long to complete. Right now, I am going to work on the darker elements in this area. The first thing I do is identify the spots that need to be darkened. My approach is quite simple. I carefully observe the different elements present, and whenever I see the details that appear darker than what I currently have, then I had it. I continue this process progressively until the entire area is complete, and I achieve a satisfying result. Similarly, for the areas I previously shaded with a four B pencil, I'm going to back over them to intensify, sorry the darkness and create more depth within this area. And for that, I press a little bit harder on my pencil. So I emphasize these favors, these darker elements, and gradually, this section gains more volume and realism. Another thing to note about these darker areas is that to convey the texture of favors, there will be multiple line extending upwards, sometimes leaning to the left, sometimes to the right. This technique helps reinforce the favored texture. In this section, the favored texture is becoming more pronounced and visible compared to the upper part we worked on earlier. To further enhance the contrast and volume, I am using my eraser pen to add small highlights. These lighter strokes that I'm going to have will stand out against the dark areas creating even more depth in the area. Continue working. And in the area below the beak, we can see that the elements become increasingly dark. This region is overall much darker than the others we have just worked on. Using a darker pencil, I am emphasizing the deep shadows in this section. And so I begin by laying down a base similar to what we did earlier with other elements. However, since this area is significantly darker, I had plan to refine it later in the process, which I am doing now. So now the base here is noticeably deeper and darker than what we had done before. And I keep progressing heading the elements little by little, and as I go, the neck becomes more defined and better separated from the rest of the head. And in this new dark area, I can apply the same technique I used earlier in the slightly lighter section, adding small lines primarily extending to the left. This line will help reinforce the favorite texture in this area and enhance their sense of realism and depth. This area is really taking shape. And to complete my work, I am switching to a slightly lighter pencil, the six B. I'm using it to draw lines in the same way as before, but this time, these lines will be slightly lighter. With the dark area we have just headed, the head now appears much more three dimensional, giving the strong impression that it is firmly set on the neck. That's a great result. So I'm going to finalize this section with a few additional lines, and some light strokes made with the eraso pen will also add the finishing touches. Once this area is complete, we'll be able to move on to the section below where the plumage will be even more pronounced and significantly larger. Et's move on now to shading the lower area, which consists of increasingly large fevers. To begin, I am applying a light shading with my pencil using a medium tone, two B to establish a base that isn't too dark. Now that the initial shading is done, I will define the fevers in this area more precisely. I am using a darker pencil to outline the edges of each favor ensuring they stand out. One thing to note is that along the edges of these favors, a slightly darker line naturally appears. It's important to emphasize this line while adjusting the pressure on the pencil to create variations in darkness. This helps give the favors more volume by creating depth and relief. So I am focusing on defining each favor as accurately as possible, referring to both my drawing and the reference image. At the same time, I am maintaining the shading to enhance the texture and volume of the area. The goal is to position them well, this favor, but there is some flexibility. If a favor is in place with absolute precision, it will still work as long as the shading remains consistent throughout this entire plumage. Now, using a darker pencil, I will refine the faber edges further. For instance, in certain areas, the border blends almost seamlessly into the black section. So I reinforce these darker elements to ensure clarity. A key feature of these fabris is the fine lines along their edges and shadowed area. So I'm carefully adding these fin lines to enhance the texture, and step by step, the favored area starts to take shape. Since this is a large section, maintaining consistency throughout the drawing is essential. I know that long and detailed processes like this can sometimes feel tedious. So it's important to stay patient. If needed, taking short breaks helps maintain focus and precision. I'm also adding small defining lines to the edges of the fevers, reinforcing the darker details along the borders. Some of these lines are slightly lighter than the previous ones I added contributing to the overall depth of the drawing, so I decide to adjust my pencil to use a lighter one. And little by little, this is how we bring the plumage to life. To create even more volume, I am erasing certain parts with my pencil eraser, and if I feel that some areas will be too light, because, yes, I think right now I have erased too much of the graphite, well, I won't hesitate to shade again these areas with the right value of the gray. Before moving on to the area on the right, I'm making a few adjustment to this section near the eye. Upon re examining it, and now that the surrounding elements are in place, I feel that it lacks some darker details. So I'm going to back over it very lightly to refine it. Always remember to take a critical look at your work before moving on to the next section. I am speeding up a bit the video for this right side plumage section because we'll be following the same process as we did on the left. It's a large area, but don't worry. I will work out fine, and the approach remains the same. That being said, there are a few important lessons to take from this process when working on white plumage. First, if you observe closely, you will notice that in realistic drawings, white plumage is never completely white. It always contains soft shadows and tunnel variations. These shadows are what help create volume, separate the favors and avoid a flat effect. Thanks to this shading, the neck appears three dimensional rather than just a blank white space that is completely flat. Also, when shading, I work lightly, even with the plumage right there, and especially since it's very light. And so to do that, I always use the side of the pencil tip first to create a base before adding fever details. And for the details, I typically use the pencils point to add those details, which consists mostly of small lines scattered throughout the area. Another key point, I avoid overloading the fevors with too much details. Neck fevors are generally soft and flow naturally. Instead of individually detailing each faber, I suggest their texture through shading variations and subtle separations between them. Then I had a few well placed lines to suggest finer details, but overall, the goal is to keep it natural and not overcomplicated. I said I do that for the neck, but basically, with all kinds of fevers, it works that way. The main thing to focus on is the variation in gray tones, balancing shadows and highlights to create depth in the plumage. Don't hesitate to adjust the pressure on your pencil rather than constantly switching to a different one. This adjustment on the pressure helps achieve a smooth gradient from light to dark, allowing for a natural transition of values. So we'll continue working on this white plumage, which isn't actually white before moving on to the much darker plumage below. This lower section will create a strong contrast between the two areas, enhancing the overall realism of the drawing. Now, let's work on these dark feathers, which are going to look stunning and create a striking contrast with the lighter fevers above. For shading these favors, I will be using a 14 B pencil because it allows me to achieve extremely dark tones very close to the black. However, it's important not to shade the entire faber with the same value. If we observe carefully, we can see variations in tone, most notably in the lower part of the fabers. The upper part is very dark most of the time, which helps create volume, making it stand out from the fors above, which is very light. The lower part a slightly lighter area, so I adjust my pencil pressure to make this transition more natural. And finally, the lightest part usually near the for tips can be refined with an eraser to enhance contrast and increase the sense of volume. So once the first fevor is done, I can move on to the next one next to it on the left. And I will follow the same process. Just like in the upper section, we have a very long process ahead as this is a large feored area. So again, it is crucial to take breaks when needed to manage fatigue and stay focused. Staying fresh and focused is important to avoid getting distracted or fatigued. Over time, repetition can lead to a sense of boredom or frustration, even with a subject that initially fascinated us. That's why it is essential to step back from time to time, clear your mind, and come back with fresh eyes. Creative fatigue is an artist's worst enemy, so managing your energy is key to maintaining quality and motivation. Now that this fever is complete, this one on the left, I am moving on to a larger and more intricate feather. As I work on these dark feathers, I will also refine the transition into the lighter fevers nearby. At the boundary between the light and dark feathers, you will also notice some delicate details, tiny overlapping lines that subtly extend from one zone to another. Adding these details create more natural transition, blending the two areas smoothly rather than making them look separate. So this is essential for achieving a cohesive, consistent and realistic look, ensuring that all the elements come together to form a single and unified subject or eagle. With the erasopen, I can fervor refine my faber and add more details. For instance, on this particular faber, we can see small and tolline that stand out, and I realize that the erasopen is a great tool for achieving this effect. However, in this case, the erasopen remove too much graphite, making the area appear too bright. To correct this, I use a blending stump to redistribute the graphite from the surrounding area and darkening the overly bright spot and restoring a more natural balance. As I mentioned earlier, interconnecting the different favors is key to achieving a cohesive look. By adding darker elements over the lighter areas, I create subtle overlaps that make the plumage feel more natural and unified. This technique ensures that the favors don't appear as separate elements but instead blend harmoniously into a realistic and consistent texture. This central fever is quite interesting. Before working on it, I outlined its contour with a fairly dark value, as you can see. What makes this fever particularly interesting is that it has a different lighting effect compared to the others. It's large and highly visible, which means I need to adjust my approach accordingly. So since this fever has a unique lighting setup, I start with a lighter pencil than before to define the bright central area. And as I gradually work toward the edges and the lower part, the fever becomes darker. So there are two ways to approach this. You can either switch to a darker pencil as I'm doing right now or apply more pressure with the same pencil to build up the shading. That's basically what we always do when we are shading the different area. And so I adjust my technique to achieve a progressing darkening effect. However, I notice that on the lower edge of the fiber, there are areas that aren't the darkest but match the distan from the section I have just shaded with the pencil. The deepest shadows are found between this area, so I'm going to switch. I switch to an even darker pencil to emphasize those strong contrast. One important takeaway here is that you shouldn't apply the same shading method systematically across all fabers. Each favor has different lighting depending on its position and orientation. So it's essential to analyze the lighting before starting. If the lighting matches the previous fabers, you can follow the same technique, but if it differs, like in this case, you should adjust your shading accordingly to make sure that you have the right value at the right place. Using my eraser pad now, I had some brighter details to make certain parts stand out. One useful technique is to create the illusion of tiny favor tips overlapping the dark areas, making the transition looks more natural. I mean, tiny fever tips from these light fevers above. And so with the eraser, I am able to achieve this effect, which works quite well. Now this fevor is complete, and we can move on to the next one. Finally, let's take a look at some of the fevers in the right section, which are quite interesting. For this favor, as you can see, I have chosen a slightly different approach. This time I first mark the light area along the edge before working on the darker section. This method works just as well. I wanted to share it with you as an alternative technique. So now I am going to add some small overlapping lines that extend into the upper area, the lighter one, ensuring a smoother transition and making elements appear more natural because, yes, I also felt that these favors above felt a little bit too light. To make this favor stand out, I am emphasizing the very dark tones around it using my 14 B pencil. And this contrast will help enhance the volume and separate it from the surrounding fabers. Just below the fabers, we encounter ones that are a little bit lighter than the previous one we worked on. These ones are dark but not as dark as the ones we have just worked on before. So I am working with the six B pencil to have something a little bit lighter, but I will follow the same general process as before, adding darker elements, enhancing some lighter details, and refining the shading to create depth. This approach ensures that each favor has volume and dimension, just like the rest of the plumage. The only challenge with these lower feathers is that they are positioned next to a very dark elements that I have just shaded. These extremely dark feathers above slightly alter the way we perceive the surrounding tones. As a result, the favor I initially shaded with six B now appears to light when placed next to this black area. To correct this, I will go back and adjust the shading to ensure it blends naturally with the surrounding tones. This is an important trap to watch out for in this section. You need to be mindful of how contrast affects perception. Beyond that, everything now comes down to patients. The rest of the favors need to be shaded just as we have done before. It's not more difficult, just a bit time consuming. But I believe in you, and I'm sure you'll do an excellent job on the remaining favors. And so this is the final result. I hope this tutorial was helpful for you. Feel free to share with me the result and show me what you did. 7. Drawing the Bear – Creating the Initial Sketch: Here is the bear we are going to draw, and before we start drawing it, let's try to break it down into simple shapes. Of course, there are several possible interpretations, but here is the one that seems the most natural to me. We can first imagine a tall vertical rectangle that includes the chest and the front legs. Then we overlap a large circle at the back to represent the hind quarters. And for the back legs, we can break them down into a few smaller rectangles like this. For the head, there are different ways to approach it. We could imagine a simple circle or a more angular structure. For example, a rectangle for the base, then a kind of parallelogram for the muzzle, and at the top of this, a small square and a small triangle on top to form the upper part of the head and the hears. That's just one way of saying it, but it helps to understand the general structure of the animal. And now to keep the proportions accurate, we can also use the site measuring technique. And by observing carefully, I can see that the total length of the bear from the hind quarters to the head is about 14 centimeters and its height is around 11 centimeters. And these measurements I am using will serve as guides to help draw it with the balanced proportions. Now I am going to draw the simple shapes that help build this bear. And I will start by sketching the circle. I can first mime it on the paper, and when I feel ready, I draw it. I'm going to make this bear a little larger than in my reference image. And by the way, I am using a four B pencil so that the lines are clearly visible on camera, but you should feel free to use a lighter pencil, since these are just construction lines that will be erased later, so they need to stay very light. And I'm simply using four B to make it easier for you to see it on video. So here we go. I've got my first circle drawn, and now I am finishing this rectangle. And next, I can draw the small kind of square rectangle that we have at the top. And to determine where the next rectangle for the head should go, I noticed that it starts roughly in the middle of the circle I just drew, and that tells me that the bear's head will be positioned around here at the middle of the circle. And by comparing the elements with one another like this, it becomes much easier to place everything correctly. And now I've got my base that is almost finished, nothing impressive yet. We are still far from the final result, but little by little, with the simple shapes, we will get there. We are creating a solid structure. Next, I will check with my ruler to make sure the proportions are correct. Using the ruler is like applying the site measuring technique. Yes, I'm kind of doing this as if the bear were right in front of me and we were trying to capture it accurately on paper. So I measure the width, and I see it's 19 centimeters and the top, the height is around 14, and it's kind of the proportion seem very coherent with what we measure because I wanted to get something a little bit bigger, and the ratio is really close to the one that we measured before. Now that I have my basic shapes, I'm going to use the blocking technique to move toward a more precise and realistic outline. To do this, I will break the bear's contour into angles, identifying all the different changes of directions along its curves. And by simplifying the curves into a series of straight lines, I will gradually get closer to the final outline, and I will repeat this process over the entire figure of the bear. Let's move on to this new step. We are now going to break the outline into different angles and try to get closer and closer to the real contour of the bear. Here I notice something quite interesting. At this particular angle, we are roughly at the same height as the head. That is an important reference point to mark on my paper because it helps me align these elements and keep the proportions accurate. And by constantly looking for points of comparison like this between different angles, it becomes much easier to build a realistic and precise outline. This method is extremely useful because we actually use it a lot in the rose tutorial for the basic course, for example. If you have followed that one, you might remember that the contour of the rose is quite complex to draw. That's why it is such a great exercise. It forces us to analyze all the small angles and compare them to one another in order to place each petal correctly. And it is the same idea here with the bear. I had noticed that alignment earlier and it really helped and finding the small reference points like that helps a lot in achieving a realistic outline. I also realized right here that the small gap between the two front legs, well, between the front leg and this back leg was too narrow in my drawing, which showed me that I needed to move the back leg a bit further back, and that is exactly what I did. And when you are working on the outline, using this blocking technique, take your time to carefully observe where each angle and each element of your drawing should be placed. Having a solid contour is extremely important. It is what ensures that your drawing has a strong structure, and it is the very first step towards something realistic. So don't rush this stage. Really take your time because it is thanks to this process that you will end up with a beautiful drawing. A well built structure is the foundation of a realistic drawing. Here, for example, I have drawn the outline of the bear's leg, but as I look more closely, I realize that it is far too thick, so it doesn't look natural at all. So I adjust the contour to make it more accurate. Something that really matches the shape we are aiming for with this bear. I am continuing to work on the head, but here I'm going to stop for a moment because remember earlier, I mentioned how much I like to compare the angles between different parts of the drawing. And right now, by comparing the angles on my paper, I noticed that the one at the tip of the bear's head lines up almost perfectly with the line a draw earlier for where the legs cross. That tells me that the head should actually be shifted slightly more to the left than it is now. So there are a few parts I need to extend, especially around the muzle area, it wasn't quite long enough before. And looking more closely, that was the mistake I made because of that, the line I drew didn't align properly with the lace. And now that I have corrected the muzzle, I can finalize the blocking and the outline of my bear. Next, I'm going to erase all these construction marks to soften them, so we are left with something very light and clean, and from there, I can start tracing the more refined final contour. That's what I'm going to do, go back over all my lines with a lighter touch. And even though I still want to see the final outline clearly, I will keep the stroke more fluid. I don't want the bear to look stiff or robotic, so I'm drawing the final contour with softness and flexibility. Now I am going to start placing some of the facial features, in particular, the mouth. I noticed that the mouth extends slightly beyond this imaginary line. I can trace at this angle. The one that defines the position of the back eye and the tip and the tip of the animal's nose. And you can see that the mouth or rather the bear's smile goes just beyond that line, a little more beyond. And that gives me a good reference point once again for placing it accurately. So I can go ahead and draw it, paying close attention to its shape and thickness, doing my best to make it precise. This is an important element of the animal. Everything related to the head is usually what people notice first on your artwork. So it is worth taking the time to get it right. And so I outlined the mouth carefully. It is a small detail, since my bear isn't very large. I'm working on an A for paper, and as I mentioned earlier, the total width is about 19 centimeters. So the head itself is quite small. All the details we will have are fairly tiny. And what will really make the difference here will also be the careful shading on these features later on. Next, I can sketch the end of the muzzle, and we don't see much of it, also, but just these few shapes I am adding are enough to suggest a believable snout. As for the back eye, it will just be a small, slightly dark mark to define it. I won't focus on the main eye yet. I prefer to leave it for the end. I want to mark a few other features like the ears that will serve as landmarks and make it easier also to position the eye accurately later. And so I can draw the air, and I can see that its height roughly matches the height of the hump on the bear's back, and I position it along this upward diagonal, close to the end of the line, but not entirely at the tip. And that helps me place it quite precisely. And for the second hair, I can use the angle formed by the intersection of the control lines as a guide for placement. And I estimate that it reaches about the same height as the eye, that little dark spot we marked earlier near the tip of the nose. And this ear, as I mentioned earlier, really lines up with the eye right around here. Now we can move on to drawing the other eye. This eye, in the end, isn't very visible. It's mostly about suggesting it rather than fully defining it, because both the eye itself and the surrounding fur are quite dark with very little contrast in value. It's not very detailed either since it is such a small feature in the overall photo. So I start by placing it carefully, making sure the position is right, and I can see that it sits slightly lower than the first one. And then I draw its outline giving it that slightly rounded shape. Next, I will add the shadow areas around it, the darker and lighter zones to help create a sense of depth around the eye. And I start marking a few of these areas. And as I look more closely, I realize that what I have drawn so far mostly corresponds to the iris, which is the most visible part. But just beside it, we can also see a bit of the white of the eye, even though it is still rab dark. So I will add that as well. It should make the eye look a bit more realistic. Later, once we start shading, we will see whether it needs further adjustment or not. But for now, just adding the small element seems fine to me. I will now move on to marking the main shadow areas across the face, then do the same on the body. And once it is done, we'll be ready to start working on the shading and texture of the bear. 8. Drawing the Bear – Building the Fur: Let's start working on the shading, and I will begin with the head and more specifically with the eye, since that is what lets us quickly recognize the animal and see whether any adjustments need to be made. And what I notice about the eye is that the lower part and the right side are very dark. So I start marking those area. And then I apply a dark base tone on the iris and a lighter one on the white of the eye. And on the iris itself, there are a few slightly darker marks that I also add in. And overall, that's all about it needs. There is no reason to overwork this part. What will really help determine whether the eye looks realistic is the shading we'll do around it as well as the work on the fur and texture. These elements will show us if further adjustments are necessary or not. Now using my four B pencil, I'm using my four B pencil to apply a medium base layer, something I can build upon later, adding darker or lighter details as needed. The four B works quite well here. I would say it gives just the right mid tone to start with. You Now that my base layer is applied, I can start working a bit more with a bit more detail. The first thing to do is identify the areas that are darker than the medium base I just laid down and I start adding them in. These darker marks represent strands of fur, so it is a good opportunity to begin suggesting texture. The fur on the head is quite short, so I make small and precise pencil strokes to reflect that. And these few marks are enough to start creating both texture and volume, since it is really the combination of dark and light elements that gives a sense of form. I keep going adding all the darker areas I can spot in this part of the drawing. Later on, I will use my eraser pencil to bring a few lighter touches, these subtle highlights that will enhance the sense of volume even more. And because this area is quite small, there is no need to overload it with detail. You can see that I have just added a few pencil strokes, a few darker elements shaped like short hairs, and that is already enough to make the area look realistic. So at this stage, I am quite satisfied with how it looks. So I will move on to the next section, the area above, around the nose and forehead. So the first thing I do is I begin by laying down a light base, a first layer of shading. This part is a bit more exposed to the light, so I keep my pencil pressure lighter to get a slightly brighter mid tone. And once these tones are in place, I can blend them gently to get a smooth base ready to build on with additional texture. What I also notice, and this is very important, is that the outline I had drawn is darker than the shading on the bear itself. This doesn't work at all because it looks natural. So it's really important to erase this outline and soften them. Otherwise, the drawing would lose its realism, part of it. So that is exactly what I did. I erased the outline in this area, and now I can keep going. Next, I move on to working on the fur in this area of the head. And when drawing fur, one of the most important things is to pay close attention to the direction of the hair because it changes depending on where you are on the head or on the body. So observing that carefully is essential for giving the fur a natural sense of movement, and that is what makes drawing feel realistic. In general, when I work on fur texture, I think that there are three things to focus on the length of the hairs, their direction, and their value, meaning how light or dark they are. And it is the combination of these three aspects that creates realistic fur. And as you may have noticed, I added a small mark to suggest the second eye. Nothing more is really needed there. The nose area is now finished and so I can move on to the next section, the muzzle. And when I start a new zone like this, I like to begin by marking the darkest area, the blackest tones because they serve as reference points for positioning everything else more accurately. Once these dark elements are in place, it becomes easier to locate and compare all the surrounding areas and to judge the values of what I add in relation to that deep black. And on this muzzle area, I can keep adding a few darker touches in different spots. It is quite a dark zone overall. So what really helped bring out the relief and the different volumes here are the lighter accents. And I will add them afterwards with my eraser pencil. These few highlights will make all the difference, adding depth and realism to the muzzle. So it is really important to add them once you have finished with these dark elements I am adding now. Now this area is finished and I can move on to the next one, the last this part on the left of the head, and I start by shading it, and when you shade, make sure that you are working with the side of your pencil lead. This way you are way this is way better because it blends more naturally later on. It's easier to blend everything to create a better base on your drawing. And so when I'm applying my shading, like in here, I try to be very precise also with the different values that I am applying. I really look for the best mid tone that we can have in this area. So that all is left to do afterwards is to improve the texture to have something realistic. And when it is dark, just switch to a darker pencil so that you don't apply too much pressure on your paper when you are applying this baston in the different areas. So now I've blended everything, and when you blend, make sure to use circular motions. It gives a smoother and more even result. Now I'm going to finish this area by adding the different texture details. And what I like to do at this stage is start with what stands out the most. I look at the area, I compare it with my reference, and I ask myself, what is missing? What stands out the most visually? And in this case, it is the darker detail areas. They are not quite strong enough yet. So I start adding those darker texture marks, the short and dark strands of their. And here I don't hesitate to press a bit harder with my pencil, working with the tip for precision because I want these marks to be deep and well defined. Since this is the detailing phase, we can afford to apply more pressure. And at the same time, I am looking for all the darker hairs in the area that I can have to strengthen the contrast. And once that is done, I will come back with the eraser pencil to add a few lighter strokes. This will help create more volume and make the texture pop. Also, when you work on this area, especially the lower part of the head, make sure the edge isn't too regular. Let a few strands of fur go past the outline just like I did here at the bottom. It gives a much more natural result. And in this case, I didn't need it to I didn't need to erase my original contour because the shading and fur texture I applied, sorry, is much darker than the initial outline. So it is completely hidden. For the ear area, it's not a particularly difficult section, but it still requires care and precision. So I approach it in the same way as before. I start by creating a light base of shading, which I blend smoothly then. And after that, I work on the texture by adding a few pencil strokes here and there to suggest the fur. We are now moving on to an area that also requires a bit of precision, the animal's mouth. And the first thing I notice is that the entire lower part has a rather dark base, so I start by laying that down. Then on top of it, I add the darkest elements, the deep black areas that are easy to identify that already helps me make some progress. And as usual, I begin with the most obvious features, in this case, the strong dark tones. Because once those are in place, I can add a few lighter highlights where I see them. And on the upper part of the I notice more dark areas that I also mark in. Working this way, starting with what stands out the most makes it much easier to position everything else afterward. When you are dealing with a complex area like this one, which can seem a bit intimidating, there is always at least one element that looks clearer or more obvious to you. Start with this one. It will help you position it correctly. And from there, you can use it as a reference to place the next element and then another until the whole area comes together naturally. And for the mouth itself, I have added a few small highlights and light marks to suggest the teeth. I also noticed some very light fur around the area, so I will make sure to bring that out a bit more to give the whole section a realistic finish. Now, let's move on to the second ear, and I start by laying down a fairly dark base, since as we can see, this ear is overall quite shadow. Once that base is in place, I will work around it with slightly lighter areas. What will really help make this ear look real is they and give a texture on the eraser pencil strokes. Once again, I use my eraser pencil more like a drawing than an eraser. I don't think of it as something to correct mistakes, but rather as a pencil that lets me bring out the lighter areas. And that is exactly what I am going to do here. Since this base is quite dark, I will gently lift a bit of graphite here and there to reveal the subtle highlights that we have. But before that, though, I refine a few other parts within this dark base because even inside the shadowed area you have created, there are places that are even darker. So I emphasize these deeper tones first before adding the lighter accents that will complete the texture of the ear. So here I am adding these small hairs coming out from the darker area, and then by working on the fur, I'm going to define this little highlight area that we can see right next to the ear, which will help make the ear appear more free dimensional. In this area, we had applied a rather light base. Now on top of it, I am adding some darker elements, a few details that will enhance the texture and also make the whole thing look more free dimensional. I also realize that on the first here, there are a few parts that I could improve, especially the darker areas that don't stand out enough. So I'm going back to adjust those. It's really important to always keep a slightly critical eye on the areas we have already worked on to make sure they remain realistic and that we maintain the same level and precision on the new parts as on the previous ones. We don't want an area. We don't want one area to stand out negatively, as in, oh, that part looks less worse than the others. That is exactly the kind of thing we want to avoid. Now, I am going to apply some shading over the entire neck area and try to identify the main dominant values. So here I'm creating a base that is rather medium and moderately light, let's say. I will blend all of that, and once it is done, I will refine the lower area a bit more precisely, since it is actually somewhat darker. So now with my pencil, I'm adding some darker elements to rebuild a deeper base than what I had before. You can see that these lower part is clearly darker overall than what I initially had. So I am reworking that a little bit. We can now start working a bit more on the details of the fur. In the upper area, the fur is overall, much darker than what we have here. So I am reworking that part. Then what is interesting and one of the specific features of this bear is that there are areas where the fur is very thick, almost as if it were wet and the dump hairs that clumped together into something quite dense and heavy. So that is something we need to focus on, and it is quite different from other furry animals we have drawn in other tutorials like the cat or the tiger, where the fur was much finer. Here we are dealing with dense, compact patches, especially in this lower section. To create that effect, you can see that I have added some quite dark elements, so some strong contrasts that represent clusters of hairs grouped tightly together, giving that thick and compact texture. This will also appear in some of the lighter parts of the bear's fur in other area. But in here in this lower area of the neck, it is especially noticeable and distinctive with these darker elements. On the upper part, however, we don't get that same sense of thickness or volume. So I have added some smaller touches to create some finer hairs. And with my eraser pencil, what I will do also is draw out little strands and sort of highlights to suggest a lighter and softer texture in those areas. 9. Drawing the Bear – Refining the Texture and Contrast: Before continuing the work on this front leg, I'm taking a moment to redraw and add a few details to the clause which I overlooked earlier. So I am refining them now. Then we move on to shading this front leg. I'm spinning up the video a little here, since for this part, I'm simply marking the shadow areas first just like we did earlier. There's nothing particularly new or complex in here. It is worth noting that on the upper part of the leg, it is quite dark. So I am making sure to emphasize that, and don't hesitate to work on the darker areas and really push the contrast. When it is necessary. Some drawings really lack depth because beginners often hesitate to add stronger dark accents where they are needed. In this case, the upper area of this section is very dark, so make sure to emphasize that properly as well. From the fur, I am now adding a few darker strokes here and there. For example, to ensure smooth transition between the neck and the front leg, it is important to add small hairs like the one I am drawing now because they help connect the two areas naturally. So it is essential to mark them as well. Next, I am going to introduce slightly different values from what I had before. On the lower part of the leg, I had created a moderately dark base, but there are some much darker sections on top of that. So I am not hesitating to add them in order to build volume and realism in this leg. Here, the fur is less compact than the thick clumps we saw earlier on the neck. It's closer to the type of fur we worked on in previous tutorials. You just need to make sure to draw the fur going downward and to maintain a certain irregularity along the edge. The outline shouldn't be sharp, shouldn't be regular. For now, you can see that my contour is still quite defined, but I will soften and rework it later. There are also a few areas with sort of highlights, lighter spots that help create volume when combined with the darker tones we are creating now. And this section isn't the most complex one, but it helps reinforce and enhance all the work we have done so far. What's really crucial earlier was the head what was really crucial earlier was the head. That is where most of the detailed word happened. Now, everything we are doing on the body serves to support the head, both literally and visually and to create harmony with what we built earlier. So everything we work on now should be done with the same care and attention to detail as we apply to the bear's head. That's it for this section of the leg. Now we will move on to the next one and focus a bit on the goal behind this stage. The approach we are going to use here on this beautiful area of the body can also be applied to the rest of the body and so the entire back area. So what I am starting with is a basic layer of shading to determine the different gray values we will have. In other words, I am trying to place the right tons of gray in the right spots. The goal of this first step is to begin creating a sense of relief and volume in the area simply through proper value placement. Later on, the texture and fur work will be the finishing touch that really brings Aber to life and this entire section. But for now, the focus is just on getting the right graze in the right place. To do that, you can play with the pressure you apply to your pencil and make sure to use the right pencil for the right areas. And there is actually a great tool for that. Make sure to use it if you struggle to pick the right pencil grade, and that is the value scale, which we cover in the basic course in the section on light and shadow. So take a moment to look at the area you are working on and ask yourself, if I had to represent this section with just one value, which gray would it be? Which one is the dominant gray? And thanks to your value scale, you can select the appropriate tone for each zone. Sometimes it is not easy to determine the dominant gray when you are looking at the reference photo, especially like here with the bear. There are so many tiny lighter and darker touches that it can be hard to find the overall dominant tone. A technique that really helped me at the beginning is to squint your eyes because when you squint, the details fade away and only the main shapes and values remain visible. This way, you can more easily identify the dominant gray of each area. It is a simple but very effective trick, whether you are working on an animal or portrait or even with an object. Humans, humans, humans. I have now blended all the areas I previously shaded, and now we are really going to focus on the texture of the fur. This f is quite similar to the area we worked on earlier. We are dealing with thick and dense fur, where the hair appears coarse and compact, and that is exactly the effect we are aiming for. When I add these strokes, I slightly tilt my pencil so that I'm not working with the very tip of the lead but rather with the side. This helps me get broader, softer marks, thicker than if I were trying to draw individual hairs with precision. Goal with this technique is to make the fur look compact to give the impression that each pencil stroke represents several hairs stuck together. I'm doing this across the entire area starting by defining the darker sections. You will notice that this dense compact fur appears mostly in the darker regions. That is what I am emphasizing here. Also, make sure to carefully observe the direction of the fur in each part of the drawing, that is crucial for making the coat look realistic and natural. And now we keep going like this throughout the leg, gradually moving upward, still with the goal of building this slightly thick, compact texture. And once I have marked the denser areas, I will also refine certain spot with final strokes. The key point to remember is that what applies to one part of the body doesn't necessarily apply everywhere. Always stay observant and use good judgment when working on each section. Just because one area looks a certain way doesn't mean the whole body should be treated the same. Sometimes it is, sometimes it's not. And that's why that is where careful observation really matters. So now this area is really starting to take shape, which is great. And I'm going to keep going. But this time by adding some finer hairs that are a little less dense, a little less compact than the ones I did earlier, there are parts where the fur isn't as fick as in the sections we worked on before. Next, I will focus on the paws. On the reference photo, the clouds are actually not very visible because they are hidden by the grass. But in our drawing, we are not going to include that grass. I don't think it really adds anything valuable to the composition. And that is one of the great things about drawing. You have the freedom to adjust, simplify or modify the scene to make it work better artistically. So instead of drawing the grass, I'm going to fully draw the pile. You will notice that there is one cloud that is clearly visible, and what we do for that one, we will be able to repeat for the others as well because they have the same lighting. It is the same across all the clouds. So once we've done it correctly for the first one, we can apply the same method for the rest. And so for the cloud, we can see that there is a strong shadow next to it, and it is an important one because it helps to create some volume with the clouds. Now, using the eraser pencil, I'm going to finalize this area by adding small marks here and there to create sort of highlight. These little touches will help bring out even more free dimensionality and volume in the fur. For the rest of this tutorial, the video will be slightly sped up simply because the work we'll be doing on the rest of the body is exactly the same as what you have already seen. The same principle apply, carefully observe the direction of the fur, play with values, and alternate between the denser areas and the finer hairs. So I really encourage you to take your time with each section to work calmly and patiently at your own pace. It is a slightly long process, but it's also what gives your bear its overall harmony and realism. So don't worry if the video goes faster, it's only because the explanations will be identical to the ones I've already given. The most important thing is to keep applying the same methods with patience and consistency, and you are absolutely capable of doing that just as you have done up to this point. Um you oh k. And And so here is my finished bear to complete the drawing and makes it look even better, I'm going to add a few quick pencil strokes to suggest some grass at the bear's feet. And that will conclude this tutorial. I hope that you enjoyed it and that you have created your own beautiful bear, as well. Don't hesitate to share a photo of your drawing. It's always a real pleasure to see your work. And thank you so much for following along, and I will see you very soon for another tutorial. 10. Drawing the Labrador – Sketching the Outline: This final artwork, we will be drawing a Labrador and this time using the grid method. This is a method I really developed in the course on the basics, and the grid tool is really an excellent tool because it will help you to get the right proportions very easily. And so we will skip the part and the work on the basic shapes because thanks to the grid, we don't need that. We can work on the final contour at first. And this is an excellent tool, and I felt that I wanted to share it with you with this course on animals drawing because you can definitely use it with the drawing of animals as well. So thanks to this, we won't have to focus on the contour and on the proportions because it will help us to get it right. And instead, we will focus even more deeply on the shading on the work on the texture, and on the beautiful expression of the eyes of this beautiful dog. So with this drawing, you already have all the tools and all the skills to succeed. You can definitely do it. So I want to practice with me. I want you to practice with me. Of course, watching the video is really great, but practicing is what will help you to make some progress. So watch and practice as well. Or if you want to watch it at first, first time before practicing the video, then you can definitely do that. Watch it the first time. Then watching a second time while drawing with me. And the most important is for you to practice. So grab your pencil and let's draw this beautiful dog together. Let's get started and welcome to this new tutorial. In this video, I'm going to show you how to draw this amazing Labrador using a grid. This technique is very useful for achieving precision when working from a photograph. We're going to also use a grid to draw from real life, whether it's animals, humans, or objects. I explained this method in detail in my complete course for beginners. I won't go over that again here, but we'll see how with the grid, we can easily draw this dog from a photograph. You can see the reference photograph displayed on the side, and I've also added colored letters and numbers to make it more visible in my video. I am using an A four size sheet of paper. To begin, I look for a key intersection, a point where elements meet at the crossing of lines and columns. In this case, it's at the line between E and F and 3-4. From there, I can start my drawing. So I carefully analyze what happens in each square. I notice that starting from this point and moving left, the line slope down slightly. By the time I reach the column, C, it drops even further, and I continue towards the squares four and five, making sure to observe each section closely. By following this process, I progress step by step, carefully determining the direction of each pencil stroke to maintain accuracy and navigate from square to square. With the grid, the challenge of breaking down complex shapes disappear as we are simply using spatial recognition to correctly place elements. This provides a solid and realistic foundation for drawing, ensuring that the proportions that we are drawing remain as accurate as possible thanks to this grid. I continue, and I was 9-10. I noticed that on my paper, the line slope down until around the line 11-12, corresponding to the body. Then the body curves back up, following a line approximately 10-11. And I keep moving up 9-10, and I make sure to shift all the way over to column I. When you become more comfortable and familiar with this technique, it's possible to progress by moving several squares at a time. Here, I observe I notice that the line moves up by about 3.5 to four squares and shifts approximately two squares to the left, and I draw my line accordingly. My first step when using the grid method is to start with the outline as it is the easiest to define. Then I had all the internal details which makes the process even simpler. Once the outline is drawn, I find it much easier to focus on each facial features, the eyes, the muzzle, the mouth, et cetera. Next to position the different facial features. I can use the letters and numbers as guides, but I can also rely on the elements I have already drawn. For example, I noticed that the I is lined with the ear at position five. So I can use this as a reference to place it correctly. I know that the I should be on the same horizontal line as the top part of the ear. Using the grid, I observe that the I reaches about halfway through the square, and the same applies when I move to the right. It extends roughly to the middle of the square. This helps me accurately sketch its placement. At this stage, when drawing the eye, I focus only on its black outline without worrying about the brown areas yet. Now that I have drawn the outline, I can start adding the internal details. Here, I can see that there is a clear separation within the eye, meaning that different shading values will be applied. So I mark this distinction. Looking at my reference photograph, I also notice a dark band at the top of the eye while on the left side, there is a strong highlight, very pronounced light area. These are key elements that I will also mark and a. To ensure accuracy, I continue using the grid as a guide, specifically the column between C and D and the row 5-6 to determine the approximate location of these details before sketching them. If I wanted to be even more precise, instead of using two centimetro squares, I could have made them one centimetro squares, essentially doubling the number of rows and columns. This will provide even greater accuracy. However, it's really up to you to decide how you want to structure your grid, whether to use larger squares or smaller squares. So how to choose it? Well, larger squares, like the 2 centimeters ones that I use, make it easier to navigate the drawing and reduce the risk of getting lost in too many details. Smaller squares, increase precision, but come with a higher risk of getting lost in the complexity of the grid because the more the more your squares are smaller, and the more squares you have, and so the more you risk to get lost. Another technique will be to only subdivide the grid in specific areas that require more precision like the eye. So instead of using two centimeter squares everywhere, I could create 1 centimeter squares just in the detailed areas like the eye while keeping the rest of the grid larger. On my drawing paper, I will apply the same logic, adding extra line, well, on my reference photograph, sorry. In my reference photograph, I will apply the same logic, adding extra line within the key zones to achieve even greater accuracy while maintaining simplicity elsewhere. This can be a useful alternative for artists who want more detail without overwhelming the entire drawing with a very dense grid. I continue progressing with my drawing, carefully tracing the elements while using my green lines and columns from the reference photo as a guide. I also occasionally use other elements for reference. For example, I notice that on my reference photograph, the muzzle aligns roughly at the same height as the ear. Well, the area on the side. And so this helps me position it correctly. And I also see that the muzzle is about 1.5 squares away from the ear. And so I can use that measurement to place it accurately. And while constantly checking and locating features relative to others, I ensure precision in my drawing. I personally think the grid method is absolutely fantastic, and I'm a strong advocate for it. I've used it for many years, and I still rely on it, especially when creating large scale paintings where extreme precision is required. Despite what some people say, like, using a grid is chilling or real artists don't use grid. In reality, is just another proportion technique like any other. If we didn't use grid, then measuring with a pencil or breaking objects into geometric shapes would also be considered cheating. But all of these are valid artistic tools. In the end, the best method is the ones that helps you to get the best drawing. And the grid method is just one of many techniques that help artists achieve accuracy. For me, the grid technique was really A game changer. When I felt stuck in my drawing journey, it really helped me. I used to struggle with precision when I was a teenager. There was always something slightly off. And by using the grid, I could focus on other aspects of my drawing and making progress with shading, texture and fine details without constantly worrying whether the proportions were correct. Because this felt quite discouraging to feel that, oh, there was always something off because of the proportions. And so the grid method is really a powerful tool for beginners, especially for those who struggle with proportions. When starting out, getting the right proportions can be one of the biggest challenge, and it's even harder when you are young. When I was a teenager, proportions was one of my biggest difficulties in drawing. And so using this grid helped me overcome that frustration, allow me to progress faster without getting discouraged. That's why I firmly believe that for any beginners who wants a quicker, more satisfying result, the grid method is really an excellent solution. And on top of that, when drawing animals, they are almost always in constant motion, making it very difficult to capture a pose that is both accurate and precise unless you have a very strong memory or that you have drawn these animals dozens if not hundreds of times from photograph or from real life. In that case, it becomes easier, but reaching that level takes a lot of time. With the grid method, you can train and practice repeatedly drawing animals more and more often. Over time, you will improve your understanding of their proportions. That was exactly my experience. I used the grid for years, and when I finally decided to draw without it, my proportions were already much more precise. By constantly drawing, using the grid, I developed a better sense of proportions. And since I was repeatedly working with accurate measurements, I trained my eye to recognize when something looked right or when an element was off and to know what element was off. And finally, another big advantage of the grid is that it allows us to capture unique animal poses. For example, in this Labrador drawing, the pose is quite a typical. It's really rare for a dog to stay in this exact position for a long time, giving us enough time to sketch it. With a grid, we can study and recreate these unusual poses with precision. And the same applies to animals that we don't commonly see in everyday life. If you only draw from real life, your subjects are often limited to cats, dogs, birds, or small pets like hamsters. But if you want to draw wild or exotic animals like tigers, elephants or even marine creatures, you'll inevitably need to rely on photograph. And this is where the grid method become especially useful, allowing us to analyze and create our new drawing from this photograph. All right. After this long explanation, I hope I've helped you understand and appreciate the value of the grid method and now back to the drawing. At this point, I realize I need to adjust the eye because the proportions were all right. It was too disproportionate compared to the left eye. These just go to show that even with the grid, mistakes can happen. That's why it's always important to step back and double check your work to ensure that everything is well balanced and correctly sized. Just a few final details left, the pause, and then the drawing should be complete. After that, I will be able to move on to shading my paper and bringing the Labrador to life. Before adding shading, the first step is, of course, to erase all the grid lines so that only the drawing remains. I'll do this using both a kneed eraser and a traditional eraser, trying to remove as much as possible. If some lines remain visible. It's not a big deal. I'll do a final cleanup later with an electric eraser, which allows for even more precise and intense erasing. I won't necessarily erase everything all at once because erasing can be time consuming and sometimes tedious. Instead, I might erase gradually doing it little by little to avoid spending too much time on it in one go. My lines are now erased and I can begin the next step of the drawing. I start by working on the pupil, which is quite large and noticeable. However, the pupil won't necessarily be the darkest element of the eye because there are several slightly lighter areas, so I will use softer shades rather than pure black. To begin, I'm using an eight B pencil, carefully building up the tones. While working with this A B pencil, I ensure that the upper part of the pupil appears slightly lighter than the lower part as there is a subtle difference in value. Now with a 12 B pencil, I'm going to add to darker elements of the eye. The darkest details include the A. The darkest details in this area include the outline of the I, which is nearly pitch black. Although I'm using 12 B, I could have used 14 B as well, but I had 12 B readily available. At this stage, I focus on precision in my stroke since working with a 12 B pencil makes erasing more difficult if I make a mistake. Additionally, because I need precision, I'm using the sharp tip of the pencil, which means I have to apply firm pressure, marking the paper strongly. This makes it even harder to erase later, so I need to be as accurate as possible. And as I continue, I make sure to leave enough space for the lighter areas of the iris. At each step, I take the time to carefully think about my placements, ensuring that every element is positioned correctly. Finally, still using my 12 B pencil, I go back to refine the pupil as my initial shading was too light overall. This approach allowed me to first establish the first area, ensuring it remained slightly lighter than the rest of the pupil. Continuing with the 12 B, I now work on shading the entire pupil with a softer gray tone. To achieve this, well, I apply less pressure on the pencil carefully marking the area of the iris without making it too dark. Lastly, one of the darkest elements I need to apply is the outline surrounding the eye. I make sure to carefully define this contour while also remembering to leave a clear space for the eyelight the bright reflection that stands out prominently in this area. It's really crucial to preserve this highlight. As without it, the eye wouldn't have the realistic depth and contrast needed to make it stand out properly. I have noticed that this very light area that we are here is a little bit too dark. Therefore, I'm going to readjust it a little bit and add some a little bit more of the black of this 12 D pencil. On the side. So I refine it using the tip of my pencil to make sure I am accurate and reduce slightly its thickness. Sometimes even after elements are drawn, they need small adjustment to perfect them. Now that this correction is done, I finalize the shading on the side, and then I will also refine the highlight area, ensuring they stand out more. At this point, I will also use the eraser to adjust certain parts as some appear slightly too gray. However, that's just a minor detail. The most important highlights are already in place. Now I can start working on the second eye. But when I compare the left eye to the right one, I realize that the right one is a little bit too small. So to fix this, I carefully analyze my reference photograph and notice that the right eye doesn't go high enough. Correct this, I slightly modify the pal line while applying shading. Instead of making a drastic change, I simply raise the line by a few millimeters, not an entire centimeter. It would be too much, just enough to make the eye look more realistic. At this point, the proportion seems much better. So I decided to leave it as it is for now. Later, once all the other elements will be added, I will re evaluate the drawing and make any necessary final adjustments to ensure everything looks balanced with my drawing. For the eye, I now focus on the pupil, which is extremely dark, especially on the left side. That's why for this section, I use my 12 B pencil, making sure to apply firm pressure to achieve the deepest black. However, I need to be careful not to make a common mistake. Many people assume that because the pupil is a single part of the eye, it should be uniformly dark. But in reality, we can clearly see that in this dog's eye, the pupil gets lighter as it moves toward the right side. Another important detail is to make the pupil large enough as this contributes to the joyful expressive look in the dog's eye, a bigger, well defined pupil, enhance that effect, making the expression more leafy and warm. For the lighter section of the pupil, I simply adjust my pencil choice. Instead of continuing with the 12 B pencil, I switch to a six B to create a softer and more gradual transition, entering a more natural and realistic shading effect. And all around the pupil, I want a much lighter transition. So for this part, I use an A B pencil while ensuring that I don't apply too much pressure. The difference in value is already visible, which is great. For the rightmost section, I switch to an even lighter pencil four B, allowing for a smooth and natural gradient. This gradual transition helps create depth and realism, making the eye appear more lifelike. The eye is now well defined, which is great, but I still want to make a few final adjustments before completing my work. First, on the right side, I noticed that some areas need to be slightly darker, so I go over them with my pencil to enhance the contrast. There are several darker elements in the upper section, so I will also reinforce those. Next, I refine my highlights, making them stand out more with my eras of pan. Additionally, the left side of the iris appears too dark and blends in too much with the pupil. I want to adjust that so the transition is clearer and more natural. Finally, I had a darker accent in the inner corner of the eye, giving it more polished and realistic look. These are the last details I'm having making small adjustments until I am fully satisfied with how the different elements interact and stand out. Well, unfortunately, I erased a bit too much, and now I need to readjust the dark areas using my pencil. When I go back and darken these areas, you will see that I might press too hard in some spot, making certain areas too dark. This means I'll have to adjust again using the eraser to bring back balance. And this is just part of the process. Sometimes while trying to improve one area, we unintentionally affect another requiring further correction. That's how it goes. It's a continuous cycle of refining and adjusting until the result looks just right. To raise effectively in this very dark area, I use an electric eraser which has more precision and power compared to traditional eraser. This allows me to lighten the spots that have become too dark without affecting the surrounding details too much. 11. Drawing the Labrador – Rendering the Fur: Now we can focus on the dog's fur. The first step will be to adjust the outline. Before working on the fur itself, I need to erase the upper control line because it's too dark compared to the fur. If I leave it as it is, it will distort the final result and make the drawing look unnatural. So I remove this outline. Then I can create a base for the fur. On the left side, we can see that this is the lightest area. And so as it is very light, the fur needs to be very light. And to achieve this, I use an HB pencil, which allows me to create a soft and subtle shading. The gray is barely visible, making it perfect for maintaining a bright and natural look. All around the eye, I'll have a darker contrast. I want to create a clear contrast around the eye, as this area is significantly darker. That means my base should also be darker, so I use a four B pencil. This choice helps define the shadow effectively. The middle section between the two eyes is also quite dark, so I shade it with the four B. At this stage, I work with the side of my pencil, applying light pressure to establish a base before adding detail first rocks. For now, the goal is not to draw individual hairs, but to lay down an initial layer of shading. Once this base is ready, I will define I will find for details on top of that to create realistic texture. This upper part is also a little bit dark, but a little less than the ones we created. So I still use my four B. I still use my four B at first, but then I use an intermediate pencil, the two B for this area between the top and the eye. Now that the base shading is applied, we can start working on a detailed fur texture. In the middle area between the two eyes, I noticed that some hairs are darker than the base shading I have applied so far. And so since there is a ceiling in significant value difference, I carefully shade this section using an A B pencil. I apply my strokes very delicately. Making sure not to press too hard, as that could make the shading look too harsh or unnatural. At this stage, I also observe that the fur has a slightly wave to it, some kind of a curve. It's not completely straight, but instead it follows a gentle curve. Before drawing each hair, I take a moment to analyze its direction, ensuring that my strokes follow the natural flow of the fur. This step is crucial for creating a realistic texture. In the central section, I observe other slightly darker hairs scattered throughout. Still using my eight B pencil, I carefully darken these areas while slightly increasing the pressure compared to the previous strokes. These allow certain strands to stand out more, adding depth and variation to the texture. Also, I'm moving to the area above the eye because I see some slightly darker masks, though they are not overwhelmingly dark, and I use the HB pencil to add subtle shading to emphasize this variation, ensuring that they integrate smoothly. And finally, I refine the upper section where we initially applied an HB base, and it needed to remain relatively light. However, when you look closely, I notice that some elements appear slightly darker than the base layer. To enhance this area without overpowering ring, sorry, the lighter base, I use a two B pencil. This allows to create a gentle contrast, ensuring that these details stand out enough to add dimension without darkening the entire area. If the erase open, I can erase certain areas to make specific zones stand out and create more volume. This tool is truly magical for refining and enhancing specific details. Of course, when I say finalizing, I don't mean that these areas are completely finished yet. We still have more work to do. So now I move on to working the contour of the eyes, adding darker elements that will help define them better. This deep contrast will make the eyes stand out even more and contribute to making them look much more realistic. Using my eight B pencil, I work around the eye contour, applying an even darker base than what I had previously done. I make sure to press slightly harder to deepen the contrast, but still keeping control over the shading. Next, I switch to an even darker pencil, the 12 B, which I used to a very fine dark hairs around the eye. These additional details help to enhance the eye contour, making it appear more refined and realistic. All these tiny dark hairs are placed on top of the eight B base, adding texture and dimension. Finally, there's just one last detail left to complete this eye. After finishing these final strokes, I will use the erasal pen also to slightly lighten part of the eye contour, making it stand out even more. Additionally, you can see that I have added a few extra pencil strokes in the central area, refining the details to achieve an even more polished result. The work I did on the left eye, I will apply to the right eye as well. Once again, sorry, I start by defining the contour of the eye, ensuring that it is well darkened for strong contrast. Then I had even darker strokes within the area to make the eye appear as realistic as possible. Since the fur around the eye consists of very short hairs, I will use tiny pencil strokes to create the right texture. Except for a few slightly longer strands, most of the area are very short and closely attached to the eye. Since they are also quite dark, I press firmly with my pencil to enhance its realism even further. However, I will do this later when I work on the fourth texture in that section. For now, I continue refining my work, adding a few extra darker strokes in an area where the contrast wasn't strong enough. For instance, in this upper area. Now we are moving on to the ear area on the side, specifically this right ear. The first thing I am doing is working on the edge properly because we can see that between the eye area and my ear, there is a slight relief. And to create this relief, I need to this volume. I mean, I will need to work on the shading in this area. For that, I am using the 12 B pencil and we can see that this shadow becomes increasingly darker as we move toward the lower part. So I adjust my pencil strokes and the pressure I apply accordingly. Next, I will start working within the area, the ear area itself. Initially, when I worked with the grid, I only outlined the ear without focusing too much on it. Sometimes it's true that when I use the grid method, I just apply the contour and move on. Then once I begin shading, I go back to mark the internal elements. That's what I did here. I marked the different shadow areas inside the ear. Because I admit I sometimes get a bit lazy when using the grid method. I quickly want to move on to the shading so that my drawing starts to take shape, and it's the same with painting. Sometimes I just sketch my drawing on the grid and immediately want to start painting. So I skip a step. So here, I went back to redraw, and now I can begin shading. What we notice about this here is that there are very dark areas along the lower edge, as well as a fairly dark shadow on the upper part. I mark them well, and between these areas, I shade with a much lighter tone. Only once I have done this, I do I start working on the first texture by adding small lines here and there with my eight B pencil. These lines will be slightly darker than the base. I apply, so I make them stand out more by ensuring they have a deeper value. I apply this technique throughout the areas where I think certain elements need to be darker. Once this will be done, I will use the eraser pen to highlight even brighter details. For example, underneath the very dark areas in the middle, we can see a slightly lighter line. This contrast will help enhance the volume within the ear area. Now that I have worked on the ear, I am returning to the central part of this dog and we'll start by marking the different shadow areas that we will find. Here, I am using an intermediate pencil, the four B to establish a medium base, since this area is not particularly bright and there are shadows of varying darkness. I mark them carefully, working with the side of my lid. Keep in mind that I am not shading as fast as it seems. This video is slightly sped up, as we have already seen the shading process multiple times. So I define these areas precisely. And among the sections I mark with four B, we have the areas below the eye, above the muzzle and some small elements in the central part that I am currently shading. Next, I will adjust my shading and work a little bit more lightly with the four B for the small shadows that we have right here. It's very subtle, so I apply less pressure. However, in the middle section between the four B areas, there is a noticeable difference in value. So I used a two B pencil, always applying light pressure to achieve a soft and blendable result that I can easily modify or erase if needed. On the left side, where the area is even lighter, I'm going to apply an extremely soft shading with my HB pencil. This ensures that I have a good base before truly working on the texture of this section, and I will do the same on the right side where we also find relatively light elements. Now I will truly start working on the texture of the central area. Just like in the other section we have worked on, the fur here is short, and this will generally be the case for the entire dog. So I continue working with the four B pencil, but since I am using the tip, I can press a bit harder to make the details stand out more than the sheding I did earlier. In the eye area, there are many small hairs, but I will work on them later. Right now, I am focusing on the short hairs that help create volume in this section. Be careful because the fur does not all go in the same direction. In the center, we see a slightly curved line formed by the fur, and in the area I am currently working on, the hairs tend to go diagonally upwards and to the right. So it's very important to pay attention to the direction of the strokes, especially in the zone where there is a significant volume, which will help define the nose and muzzle area. And as I move towards the left, I adjust my pencil strokes, making them lighter and softer. The shading gradually becomes lighter because the fur on the side is meant to appear brighter due to the light. To emphasize this effect, I switch to a different pencil with a lighter value. Again, I work lightly and with flexibility, keeping a soft wrist movement to achieve smooth and delicate pencil strokes. The same principle applies to the area just above the muscle, where there are many sold contrasts. Dark elements are next to the lighter ones, and so make sure to pay close attention to these details. And once again, there is no need to overload the drawing with excessive fur details. The elements we are adding will be enough to create a solid and realistic vase. I continue adding details to this area, but this time, I use a slightly darker value with a six B pencil. This helps create even more depth by emphasizing the slightly darker elements. And little by little, we can see that this area which initially seemed quite complex due to the many small rounded sections become much easier to handle when we take our time, observe carefully and break it down into smaller zones to work on one by one. This method makes it much more manageable to bring a realistic touch to the drawing of this dog. In the area around the eye, I feel like it's missing some darker elements. So I will go over that again and a more contrast. And then as usual, you probably can guess what the next step will be. Using the eraser pen to create lighter details that will stand out in the area, and particularly on the left side, we can see that there are quite a few lighter areas and I want to create the illusion of white air standing out in this section due to the lighting. I will use many small eraser strokes to lift some of the graphite and refine the texture, making the area even more realistic. And finally, to perfect this area, I will work under both eyes, and this is where the will truly become highly realistic, making it feel as if the dog is right in front of us. At this stage, I start by adding a darker base around the eye, and we can already see how much it changes the area. This dark contrast enhance the depth of the eye and make it stand out even more. Then using my dark pencil and working with the tip, I will begin adding the small hair surrounding the eye. These darker hairs will really stand out, especially in this area where the overall shading is relatively light. These fine details help to finalize the work on this area, and it's quite satisfying to see how it all comes together beautifully. So these are the final touches to add around the eye, and once they are in place, I would say that this eye area is complete. And once again, it's essential to carefully observe the direction of the fur before drawing it, ensuring that each stroke is placed correctly in relation to the overall texture and volume. Now, let's start with the muzzle area. So the muzzle, when you look at it, you can feel that it's quite complex because there are many details and quite unusual texture and some great variation in values of the gray. So it may be a little bit confusing at first, but as always, I start with the most obvious element, which are these very dark nostrils. And to apply them, I use my 14 B pencil making sure I press quite hard on the pencil to have something very dark and very close to the black. So I shade these nostrils with it, and I will also shade with the 14 B pencil, this line in the middle that we can see. And with the 14 B, and I think that will be it because the other elements don't seem to be as hard as this 14 B. So I adjust my pencil and use now a ten B pencil. And now that I have shaded the nostrils, I feel like, why not pursue with this area just underneath, just below it. So the ten B seems like a good choice for this area, and the same will apply on the overside of the muscle. And then I will also be able to use the ten B to work on this upper left part where it's also pretty dark. And one thing I didn't mention about this subject and this dog that we are drawing is that it's also a very good subject to practice to see how to draw the different elements of the face with great precision and in details. Because when we have drawn this other dog, the one that is sit with the long hair. Well, it was a really good subject to work on, but the elements of the face, eyes, and muscle, tongue, et cetera, were quite small, and so we couldn't work on it with great precision and see how to work in details this element like we are doing right now. So that's why I also think it is a great subject to work on. Now I have switched to a lighter pencil, the eight B, and I'm going to shade all these areas where I feel like the eight B. Will be the right choice. And that's something I really like to do to progress and use pencil 14 B and shade all the elements I see with this value. Then I do the same with the ten B, then with the eight B, et cetera, and step by step, my entire area will be shaded with the right gray values. Now I have switched to the six B pencil to define the different areas. On the left side, it is even lighter than what I initially applied, so I simply softened my pencil strokes to match the correct values. Now, for all the areas in this section, I can start shading with the six B. It seems to be the right gray value for this part, and overall, this will already provide a solid shading base. With this foundation in place, I can now begin working on the texture of the muzzle. The muzzle has a rather particular texture, so let's see how to achieve it. It's essentially a matter of adding small dark or light touches in different areas. For example, I now take my 12 B pencil and start adding small marks wherever I observe them. For instance, I notice some small marks on the lower parts, so I add them. I also see some next to the nostril, so I add them there as well. And I approach this as if I wear a predator searching for its prey, except in this case, my prey is the small details and marks that I can enhance with the 12 B pencil. I will continue this method throughout the entire area. Whenever I see an element dark enough to be emphasized with the 12 B, I add it. And so I progress across the zone. After that, I will do the same process with a lighter pencil and finally, refine certain areas with the eraser pen, creating highlights and enhancing contrast in specific spots. At first glance, this might seem like a complicated texture, but in reality, the muzzle is not. As with any drawing, breaking it down, starting with the dominant value and then adding details on tops makes the process much simpler. You just need to observe carefully, assess the values, and add them progressively. In the end, the texture of the muzzle can be achieved with small dots, tiny strokes, and scribbles placed strategically here and there. These small marks build up a realistic effect. Now, I believe that I have marked all the dark details that needed to be emphasized with the 12 B. So I will now at some with the six B. This will be slightly darker than my base, which is exactly what I want because I've been working with the tip of my pencil, allowing these details to stand out more on my six B base. As you can see, I tap tiny scribbles and continue refining the area until I am fully satisfied. Finally, I apply the last touches with my eraser pen here and there to highlight certain parts, and just a few more adjustments and the texture of the muzzle will be complete. 12. Drawing the Labrador – Finishing the Portrait: Now I will work on the area of the muzzle. First, under the muzzle, sorry. First, I apply a very light shading using a two B and an HB pencil since some areas here are extremely bright. For now, the shading will be quick and very soft. Well, quick because the video is slightly spatter, but in reality, take your time when doing this step. The shading needs to be light enough so that the pencil marks are not too visible, allowing for better texture work later on. Now, with a slightly darker pencil, I will define the entire edge. This is the area under the muzzle where the base is much darker. I observe the details and realize that I will need to make some areas even darker later on to make them stand out properly. This step is essential for creating a solid base onto which I will later add smaller details. And so to reinforce this bay is even more. I'm going to use a 12 B pencil because some parts are even darker than what I previously applied. And this area just right next to the muzzle is actually pretty dark. I refine this by pressing lightly more in these areas closest to the muzle. And once this is done on both side, I can start adding small hairs and working on the texture of this area. And in this area, we can observe a gradient effect. It starts very dark near the muzzle, then gradually gets lighter and finally become extremely light towards the outermost part. And now I can start working on the fur details more precisely by adding small lines here and there with my four B pencil creating texture in the slidoson. And finally, I will refine everything further by adding even darker details in some areas, ensuring they extend out properly, and give the drawing a truly realistic finish. So with the four B pencil, you can see that I continue working on the third texture. I apply slightly more pressure than what I initially added. Here, we can notice that there is a certain irregularity in this area. It's important to create and not to create, sorry, entire uniform lines. For example, drawing a full line with four B then another full line with B. If we do that, the result will look unnatural, and we will need to make corrections later, wondering what went wrong. Now that I have worked with the four B, I can move on to another pencil that will be darker, the ten B. It is very dark, though, though not as intense as the 12 B I used earlier. And with this, I had dark fur details, particularly along the edges. Some of the air will extend a bit further while others will remain shorter, creating a natural irregularity in the fur. For example, I had a dark touch here, then more fur details on the lower part and so on. I will repeat this process across the entire area, ensuring that the fur patterns remain varied. Finally, I will use my eraser pen to highlight a few lighter details, making certain parts stand out more. Once that is done, this section will be complete and we will be able to move on to another really interesting area to work on the tongue. Now, let's work on the tongue. The first step is to define this slide area. At the top section, we can see a very bright space where some from the previous area remains visible. To make sure the path stands out properly. I have outlined it using my 14 B pencil, and I started by applying some very dark elements with the 14 B. So there are fewer dark areas here compared to the previous sections, but that will be fine. Next, I begin dividing the tongue into different shadows area. On the right side of the central line, I notice a strong shadow, so I add it in. And I originally started with a six B, but it wasn't dark enough, so I switched to an eight B for better contrast. There is a strong shadow on the left side, so I add that as well, along with another shadow at the bottom using the eight B. I continue searching for areas where the eight B is appropriate, adjusting pressure depending on the variation of the shading. Shading, sorry. Then I had some slightly lighter elements, and for that, I switched to a four B pencil marking additional details. Breaking the area into different shading sections is essential for building a proper base across the various elements. On the edges of the tongue, the four B seems like a good choice, so I use it here as well. Then I will highlight the bright areas that we can see in some area. I will do that in the end. First, I want to finish these areas with the four B. So here I use the four B, but I'm going to switch to the six B for this area just right here because well, it's a little bit lighter than what I did with eight B, but a little bit darker than what I did with the four B. So six B felt like the right choice. And finally, these last elements that remain the HB is the right choice, I think, because they are very, very light. So I apply my HB very lightly as well. And the zone will be complete and ready to be detail. Then now that I have applied this base and the different elements of the area, I will refine them with more precision. For example, right next to this dark element, there is another dark element, but slightly less intense. So I mark it using a ten B pencil. However, in some areas where I previously worked with the eight B, I can go over them with the ten B adding slightly darker details. And this is something I always mention. In the beginning, we apply the dominant graton but that will not be the only element in the area. There will also be darker touches layered on top. So when creating the Tongue, the goal is clearly to define the different volumes, reliefs that we can observe here and there. We can work with some detail, but not excessively because the tongue is composed of thousands of tiny papelia. Not sure how you spell it, but little dots, you know, on the tongue. And we are not trying to reproduce each one individually. Instead, we aim to highlight the small and the roof ness and small imperfections of the tongue by adding slightly darker touches here and there. I create subtle irregularities by scribbling lightly. Then as I'm doing now, I slightly highlight certain areas making them brighter using small touches with the erasopen. This process is sufficient to achieve a realistic texture for our tongue. There's no need to spend hours and hours to create it. And you can see right there, it is already starting to look in three dimension. What will really improve my tone will be the elements that I will be drawing in a few seconds, the elements all around. Now I can start working on the jaws of this dog. To do this, I will first take my 14 B pencil and mark the extremely dark contours. Under the tongue, we will have a completely black area, and I use the 14 B and don't hesitate to press firmly on the pencil so that it stands out well. However, at first, you can see that I apply it lightly along the edge of my line. This way, if I make a mistake, I can correct it more easily. Most importantly, I do this very delicately to ensure great precision. Just just above, this j will also be very dark but not entirely black. So I use the 14 B pencil applying a very strong pressure at the top part. Then I adjust my pencil stroke to make it slightly lighter in the lower part, creating a subtle variation in value. Inside this dark area, I go back with my pencil to mark a few even darker details here and there. And then with my eraser hand, I will remove a few highlights to create volume and texture, and that will be it. There will be no need to overcomplicate the process. Drawing this element is actually simpler than it may seem. M I continue working on the lower section, but here you might already see the problem unfolding. My element is misplaced compared to the reference photograph, so it doesn't align correctly at all. And on top of that, I press quite hard with my pencil since this area contains very dark element. But no worries, this is where the electric eraser becomes my best friend. It is highly effective at erasing even the darkest graphite marks. So I correct the mistake, readjust the contour, and refine the shape, no need to panic, even if we make rose mistakes in 99% of cases, we can always modify our drawing as long as we have the right tools. Now with the 14 B pencil, I'm going to start refining the lower jaw area. I carefully defined the zone, keeping in mind that this area will feature multiple values. So I start lightly with the 14 B, as you can see, and to establish the base layer. And over this, I gradually added darker elements to build death. When there are only a few small lighter details, I sometimes prefer to erase them afterward. However, since this area contained many lighter spots, I first kept my strokes lighter and then added layer darker elements over them. So I have continued using my 14 B to emphasize this darkest area, but it's crucial to observe the sole differences in value. Over time, your eye will naturally develop to recognize even the smallest differences in shading. So as you progress in shading, your perception of the gray scale variation will sharpen. You will see that in the future, you will start to notice contrast more clearly even in daily life. Everything around you, whether in black and white or color, has shadows, highlights, and mid tones that define the volume. And even now, as I am filming this tutorial, I glance at my desk and immediately notice all the different value shifts even black and words on my black and white keyboard. And so with time, you, too, you will naturally begin to see the world differently appreciating light shadows and depth in everything. So back to the tutorial, I finished refining the droll area, adding the remaining dark details on the upper section. And on the lower part, we had a well lit area, so I used my eraser pen to lift some graphite and create highlights. Right there, the electric eraser will be, again, super helpful because I have to adjust an imperfect shading right here. That wasn't completely right. So I'm drawing to refine this area just like I did before, keeping an eye on the solo gray scale variations to ensure proper volume and realism. And at this point, the section is nearly complete, and all that's left is minor refinements to perfect the overall look. Now let's move on to the body. As you can see, I've applied a very light shading and I did that with my HB pencil before refining it more precisely. So here I use the HB to mark lighter elements, and now I'm going to work on the slightly darker areas that can be found on this body. The advantage of working on the body here is that this area appears a bit blurrier compared to the head, meaning the details will be less visible. As a result, we will spend much less time working on the body than on the rest of the head because we won't need to refine every little detail in this area as much. So what I'm doing now is marking the slightly darker elements over what I previously did with the HB before refining them a little bit more precisely. Now that I have done that, I'm going to take my brush, a flat brush and sweep over the entire area to blend out all my pencil marks so that they are no longer visible. Since this area is slightly blurry, all these marks will appear much less noticeable. That's why the brush is very useful here to make them disappear. As you can see, it didn't take too long to achieve a smooth and well blended area. Using a blending stump for such a large section of the body wouldn't have been the best tool as it would have taken too much time. The result wouldn't have been as uniform over such a broad area. So the brush team like the best choice here. I sweep over I have swept over the area and I also made some small circular motions. Next, I refine the fur a bit more because although the area appears slightly blurred, there are still some tufts of fur that remain quite visible. I mark this using a two B pencil to hat the slightly darker elements. One thing to notice is that the fur in this area is longer than the fur on the head. So make sure to pay attention to the length of the fur to maintain a realistic appearance in this section. I will continue working on this area in this way, observing my reference photograph and assessing whether additional details are needed, checking if any elements stand out clearly or not. Finally, to complete the work on this area, I will darken certain parts by going over the elements I worked on with a two B pencil, but this time using a four B. These are really the final details to give the torso more volume and to make the different folds in the dog's fur more visible. Another important step is erasing the control lines of this area as they are darker than the actual fur. I don't want the control line to be too prominent, so I will erase it accordingly. As I usually do to create a more realistic effect and add volume. In the end, I will use my eraser pen to highlight small details, adding lighter elements in different areas. And that's about it. With this torso, with this, the torso will be complete and we'll be able to move on to working on the legs to finalize our drawing, the legs and also the tail. Before moving on to the legs, there's one element I forgot the shading at the edges of the dog's lips. I'm going to work on this with a four B pencil, and it will really brighten up its face. It's almost like giving the dog a nice smile, making it look even friendlier. I apply the shading on both sides, and once that is done, we can move on to the legs. Before shading the pale, I first need to refine its contour more precisely. Initially, I had sketched it quickly while working with the grid, and to be honest, I was a bit lazy about drawing it properly at that stage. I told myself I would do it later during the drawing process. And now the time has come to adjust it. I'm using my HB pencil to redefine it more clearly. Now I delicately shade the pow, applying a light base since there are many bright elements in this area. Then I analyze where I should darken it further. For example, on the aprio part, I notice some darker areas that seem to be around the four B in tone. That makes me decide that four B is the right shade of gray to use there. The same goes for the clouds. I I feel that four B will work well for them. From the clouds and the tip of the pile, there's a line extending inward and around this line, there's a slightly darker shading. I work on this with the four B pencil, but more delicately, since this area are a little bit lighter. The paws aren't anything too complex or extraordinary, but they are essential to get right because they contribute to the overall credibility of the drawing. As I mentioned earlier, for another part of the drawing or another drawing. I don't remember. If one element is properly executed, even if it's not the most important, it will stand out and make the whole piece look off. It will be a shame to compromise the result just because of a dog's paw. Another important detail is the small shadow surrounding the paw. The areas around the paws are slightly darker, and adding this cast shadow is crucial because it enhanced the three dimensionality of the drawing. So don't forget to include it. Finally, some edges will remain visible with this shadow, so I won't need to erase them. However, others will require some erasing. I also erase slightly next to the dark lines extending from the claws, adding highlights that further enhance the relief and volume of the pow. Overall, that should do it for this leg, and I will follow the same process for the others, once I will have finished to erase some highlights. Now, I am going to do the same work on the other middle paw. It won't be any more complicated. The main difference here is that the clause will be slightly darker. As for the shading of the p itself, it has the same tunnel values as the previous one, so there won't be any major challenges in that aspect. What will be more pronounced, however, is the cast shadow of the pw, so I will make sure to emphasize it a bit more. Other than that, the process remains pretty much the same. Once this leg will be done, there will be just a small part of the dog's tail tail peking out that needs shading, which will be very quick. Then I will need to shade the left ear and the left paw, which I haven't been worked on yet. But since these follow the same process we have done so far, I haven't recorded that part in detail. You've got this. I have no doubt. You will make it without any problem. And after that, we will reach the final result and the drawing will be complete. And finally, the work on the tail, as I mentioned earlier, I am using a four B pencil, and for this tail, there will be simply slightly darker edge on the left side, and that's all there is to it. As I said, is a pretty simple part to complete. And so this is the final result. I really hope this tutorial was helpful for you and that you have drawn this labrador with me. So feel free to share with me your drawing. I really like to see what you've done. 13. Drawing the Tiger – Creating the Initial Sketch: Alright, let's get started with the drawing and the outline of this tiger. So I've begun by making the same grid with the same number of squares on my paper. What we are going to do first is draw its outline, its silhouette. That's what I like to start with. And I can see that it begins in B 20, so I place myself accordingly and do the same. I notice it goes up two squares until it reaches a point where a line and a intersect. I'd like to progress this way by identifying these knots, meaning the spots where a line crosses a column. That's why I am absolutely sure about the placement. And I am showing you these points with the blue marker. And at those intersections, I know I am 100% accurate because the contour passes exactly through them. I don't have to guess whether it's halfway through the square or around one third. I know it goes through the knot through that crossing point, and that makes it much easier to draw precisely. When I draw the outline of a furry animal like this, at first, I don't worry at all about the shape of the fur or the fact that its contour is very irregular. I start by drawing straight line, and it's only later when we work on the shading on the texture that I will focus on creating a more accurate outline that reflects the texture of the fur. So for now, it doesn't matter to me that the edges are uneven. I just sketch fairly straight shapes, and you should really take your time when working with the grid. Sometimes you need a few seconds to properly locate yourself to make sure you know exactly where you are. It's better to take that time now than to realize later that you drew a line one square too high or one square too far on the right. I'm now going to move on to drawing the eyes. To be even more precise with them, you can see that on the corresponding squares of my reference image, I have drawn small crosses, and I have done the same thing here on the same squares on my drawing. This way, I can be even more accurate, and that level of precision is really important when it comes to the eyes. The eyes are the first thing we notice. Whether it is an animal or human, so getting their placement right is essential. And since we might as well make things easier, these little crosses are a great extra guide to help with accuracy. So I start by outlining the shape of the eyes, and then inside, I can place the iris and the pupil. And so I use both the lines that define my squares and the intersection of the cross, the center of that cross, which is a great reference point for positioning, for instance, the pupil. I know that the pupil is located very close to that cross, and that will allow me to place it with much greater precision. And so I can place the pupil right at the center of my cross. I know that the placement is correct, and I can see that it's very close to my cross. It's not exactly in the middle of the cross, but just a little lower and slightly to the right. And for this eye, that's fine. I don't think it's necessary to add more details to the outline. You could, if you wish, add the shadow areas to position them more precisely, but personally, I feel I can manage without them. However, if you find it helpful to mark those shadow areas around the eye in the eye, sorry, using the grid, don't hesitate to do so. Whatever helps you go for it. By the way, as I am working on the grid and the outline, I'm pressing a bit harder on the pencil than I normally would. Usually, I would go even lighter so that everything can be erased easily later on, especially in the fur areas that are quite light, but I press a little harder so you can see my outline. And it is important that the outline isn't too dark because if your outline ends up darker than the shading you will add afterward, it would look off and unnatural. So make sure to keep your lines very light. For the eye, it's fine to go a bit darker, since the shading is naturally very dark. It will be darker than the outline later on. But when you move on to defining the shadow areas or the firm markings afterwards, try to keep your pencil pressure as light as possible. All right, that's it for the eyes. Now I can move on and start marking the tigers markings and stripes and try to define them all clearly. For this work on the stripes, we need less precision than we did for the eye. I will, of course, try to be accurate, but I can allow myself a bit more looseness and less precision than for the eye. And just like with the animals overall outline, for these markings and stripes, I am not trying to define all the little irregularities created by the fur. I give the edges rab straight, and it's really later through the shading that I will work to capture their irregularities. So as soon as I see a stripe in the area I am working on, I add it and I will keep progressing like this until I have marked all the stripes. Marking one stripe then another and so on, gives me reference points, and placing the other stripes and other elements and overshadow areas become easier and easier as I add more elements. So take your time, and little by little, we will end up with a very precise outline for our tiger. Alright, so now what I have just done here with these first stripes, I'm going to keep doing that across the entire area above the eye. And once that is finished, we will meet again to work on the lower part of our drawing. Now I am going to continue with the muzzle to position it. Rather than counting every square along the sides, what I do is use the I as a reference point. For example, I start from the corner of the I and count how many squares down and how many squares across the muzzle is in relation to the I. And then I do the same on my drumming. I find this method faster than checking the exact row number and column letter each time. This way, you save a bit of time once you've already placed a few key reference points. These are little tricks that come with experience. As you get more comfortable with the grid method, you naturally want the outline work to go a bit faster. And with small tips like this, you can speed things up without losing accuracy. At this point, I notice that this element of the muzzle is located roughly halfway through the square. So I'm trying to do the same placing it about halfway. Sometimes there are elements like this that aren't exactly in the middle nor exactly on the intersection of line and column. So placing them can be a bit trickier. In that case, I just estimate their position, and if it's not perfectly placed to the millimeter, it's not a big deal. The s are really where you need the highest level of precision. For the rest of the features, it is less critical if you are not perfectly accurate down to the smallest detail. As long as you are within the right square of your grid, your placement will still be correct and precise enough. But if you were to shift into the wrong square, then the proportions will start to be off, and that would be more problematic. The muzzle is now finished and I am moving down to the area of the chin and the whiskers. What we can see here and it is a bit tricky to notice is that on the side, right here, I am marking it with this purple marker. That is where the tiger's mouth is defined. It is quite subtle, and later we will need to handle this part with delicate and light shading to make it clear that the tiger's mouth hands at this point. For now, I am drawing a line to use it as a reference, but in reality, there isn't an actual visible line on the tiger. It is mostly through shading that we will make this separation understood. And then I can continue with the chin area, the goatee. And as before, for the other fury zones, I keep my lines rather straight and don't focus too much on small irregularities yet. At this stage, I am barely marking any shadows or light areas on my tiger. I will add a few of the most obvious and strategic ones later, but I don't think it is necessary to go too far with that right now. However, this particular area we are going to work on is quite important, and that's the one I'm going to mark. Run the Tiger's nose, the central zone, the shadow areas I am marking in green are really essential because they help create volume and show the viewer, as you will see in our drawing that this area is slightly raised. That's why I am taking the time to carefully mark these two shadow zones, since they will play a key role in giving three dimensional depth to this part of the drawing. These ones are very important. Above that area, we also have some shadow zones, but I think that they are less important than the two I just marked. Of course, we will work on them later. But for now, I don't think it is necessary to draw the outline as precisely as I did for the two main shadow areas. Those will be handled later on. Here, we also have some small spots that are really important because they help to build the sense of volume. So make sure to add them. There are the little markings I have just drawn that go slightly downward. And so I will now keep going adding one stripe of the tiger at a time until the entire drawing is complete. And that is exactly what I'm going to do for the rest of this outline work. That is why the video will be slightly sped up for the section, but it's the same process as what we have just done. So take your time, carefully observe each area. It's always better to go slowly than to make a mistake and end up misaligned with the grid. Even though the main features are already in place, everything else still needs to be clearly defined so that the overall drawing remains consistent. So I will keep adding all these elements one by one, and once that is done, we'll move on to shading the tiger and really bring the drawing to life on the paper. And the work done on one side will be carried out in exactly the same way on the other side of the tiger. Let's begin our shading, and now we'll start with the pupil area, which is very dark. So I am using a 14 B pencil and pressing firmly to get a deep black. It is important to remember to leave out the small highlight in the eye, that bright reflection area, try to outline it clearly and avoid shading over it with the 14 B because it will be very difficult to erase afterward. Next to the pupil, there are some dark area as well, so I make sure to mark them properly. The closer we get to the center, the darker it becomes. So later, I would switch to an even darker pencil. But before that, I need to erase the small guidelines I used earlier to place my cross because, yes, I don't want it on my shading. And then I can continue shading the iris in this area, the iris of the tiger. You can see that the lower part is much lighter, so I work on that carefully. And when shading, I use the side of my pencil to create a smoother gradient that blends more easily. And now I start blending with my blending stump using small circle motions to create a softer surface that will be easier to build up later. And for the upper part, which is quite dark, I'm using a ten B pencil to get strong and well defined tones in that area that is very close to the value of the pupil itself. I am now going to work on the edge of the iris. You can notice that there are some areas that are a little darker but not as dark as the truly black parts we have next to them. That's why I added them to keep a good balance in the values. As for the highlight in the eye, it's not completely white. There is a slightly grayish tin, so I don't leave it pure white. That's why you saw me add a few small marks in this area. And finally, to complete the iris, we can add a few darker touches within the lighter area to create a bit more contrast. That's also what I did. And next, we can work on the area right next to it and to add these dark touches. Right here, I am adding some elements with some kind of pure black, but be careful because within this entire area around the eye, it won't be black everywhere. On the right edge, the tone is very deep, while on the left side, there are still some lighter variation. So you will need to pay attention to those differences to keep all the richness and depth in the eye. So on this left side, as I mentioned earlier, I am working with a lighter touch and I am using something like a ten B pencil to get a softer result than one I previously achieved with the 14 B. I'm also applying less pressure with the pencil to keep the shading lighter. And now the grays that I have just applied, I'm blending them to create a smooth base. And on top of that, I will then add a few slightly darker details in some areas and lighter ones in other so that the contour of the eye looks truly realistic. For example, on the left edge of the eye, you can see the small darker mark. So I am adding it. And here, too, in the corner of the eye on the left side, there are these tiny dark areas that I am including as well. It's really these small touches added one after another that make all the difference in the final look of the eye. It doesn't seem like much, but it creates something richer and more realistic. You can also notice this fin black line that is very dark that doesn't actually touch the iris. So that's why I have left a small lighter space between that line and the iris itself. And at this point, I would say this e looks good, and I'm going to move on to the second one. Later on, when I add all the surrounding elements, they will give me more context and help me see whether the eye feels right as it is, or if I should add a few more details to refine it further. For the second eye, the process will be exactly the same. So that's why I am spinning up the video a little, but make sure to take your time and approach it with the same care and attention as you did for the first eye. Just because I am spinning it up doesn't mean you should rush your pencil strokes. So take your time and keep observing how I do it. It might still help you. And as before, I am starting with the pupil because that deep black gives me a reference point for comparing the values of all the surrounding areas. I can look at the nearby grays and ask myself compared to the is this too light or too dark, and that's how I find the right balance in my grays. Once that base layer of gray is applied to the eye, I add a few small details. Not too many, though, since this particular eye isn't very detailed. Then just like earlier, I move on to all the elements around the iris. So take your time with this eye and make sure your result looks clean and polished. Then give it the same level of care you did with the first eye. Now we can move on to the fur area, and now we'll start with the zone just above the eye, the one we might be tempted to call white. But when we really observe it with an artist's eye, we notice that it is not pure white at all. It is actually slightly grayish. So using my HB pencil, I am shading this whole area very likely to create a soft gray base that I will later build the fur texture on top of. There are two important things to remember here. First, this area isn't pure white, so we apply a light gray base. And second, we don't start by drawing all the individual hairs right way. The work on texture comes at the end. We are not going to draw every single hair. Then in the same area, you can notice that some parts are a little darker than the HB base I have just applied. I am going over those with a tube pencil to a some slightly deeper tones. And as you can see, I am working with the side of the pencil tip so that the shading blends easily, and the pencil marks don't remain visible. I don't want them to show at this stage. Right now, I am just creating my base layer, and those marks will fade away later. What we want to see in the end are the pencil strokes that define the fur, the texture, and the direction of the air. And so now that the entire base is in place, I am softening my strokes using a makeup brush. And why you make brush instead of a blending stump, well, quite simply because this area is large. And for broad surfaces like this, a makeup brush gives a smoother and more even finish than the blending stump. So now I have created my base for the lighter areas. Next, I am going to establish the base for the tiger stripes, which will of course be darker. But here again, there is a common trap that many beginner artists fall into. They tend to draw all the stripes using the same shade of gray, making everything uniformly black. In reality, that's not the case at all. Some stripes are noticeably lighter than others. Another thing to keep in mind is that the airs making up these stripes all have a specific direction. Even though I am just creating the base layer for now and not yet working on the texture itself, I am already trying to follow that natural flow to capture the direction of the fur. This helps make the area look more realistic right from the start. And for all these stripes, I am starting with a mid gray tone, not too dark and not too light. This way, when I move on to the detailed work later, I will be able to easily darken certain areas by layering over. While keeping others lighter, and if I ever need even lighter spots, I can simply lift a bit of graphite with an eraser. And finally, I am blending these darker areas as well because I don't want the pencil marks to remain too visible at this stage. Now that the base is done, I can start working on the texture and adding details. Just above the eye, we can see a few slightly darker errors, so I am adding them in. And what you really need to pay close attention to, and this is very important when working on fur is both the direction and the length of the airs you are drawing. Here, you can see that they are fairly short, and you can also notice the way they curve and flow just above the eye. What matters also a lot is the values of the different airs. Some are darker, closer to a deep gray, while others are lighter. And these small variations are what make the result look natural. So take your time and observe carefully. And so as I continue, you will notice that this area becomes a bit darker overall right here with a higher density of dark hair, so I am adding more of them. And you can also see that they go in slightly different directions, and that is exactly what I am reproducing to make the fur look as realistic as possible. At this point, I have added quite a few light hairs. Now, in the areas that appear whitish, you can also notice a few individual hairs that are slightly darker. So I am adding those as well because this variety in tonal values, the small subtle differences is what helps make the fur look more realistic. So I am adding them carefully, always paying attention to both the value of each hair and its direction. For example, on the right side, you can see that the air direction changes slightly. So I am following that as well. Next, I am going to work on the stripes because right now they don't stand out enough. I will have individual hairs to form the stripes, since the stripes themselves are made of hair. They are hair. So what we want to avoid is having patches that look flat with the same tone everywhere and a perfectly straight and clean edge. Because if you look closely at the reference photo, if you zoom in on the stripes, you will see that the edges are not sharp at all. They vary in value. And within each stripe, you can spot a few lighter hairs that break up the dark areas. The edges are uneven because they are made up of many individual hairs. And so by working this way the way we do right now, you achieve two things. You create irregular edges that look natural and you allow a few lighter highlights to appear within the dark stripes, just like in the photo and in the tiger's real fur. So I am now adding those darker individual hairs which help define the stripes more clearly and give the whole area a much more realistic texture. Okay. And finally, to complete these stripes, I'm going to add some darker details, since some areas of the stripes are truly black. So I am adding a few dark touches here and there, always drawing them in the form of fine air like lines, just as we have been doing so far. And then using the eraser pen, I will bring out a few lighter areas by gently erasing to draw individual hairs. This will make these zones look even more realistic as it recreates the natural highlights within the fur. And once that is done, we can consider these areas finished and move on to working on the upper part. 14. Drawing the Tiger – Rendering the Fur: This time for the tiger, I'm going to start with the darker areas. Previously, we did the opposite. We began with the lighter zones. But it is important to see that in reality, when it comes to the tiger and its fur, the odor doesn't matter that much. What truly matters is the consistency of the values and the patience that you bring to each step. And patience might be just the greatest virtue in drawing. We often want the result to take shape quickly, especially when a subject as long as detailed as a tiger. But every little stroke that you add, every shade, every air plays an important role. It is by moving slowly and observing carefully and refining each area that you achieve a truly realistic result. Drawing is a bit like building a house. You can't put the roof on before laying the foundation. So take your time, enjoy the process and remember that it is often through slowness that precision and realism are born. In the central area, the fur is a bit lighter than the stripes. But compared to the whitish zones we worked on earlier, it is still noticeably darker. So here I am darkening my base because even though we will later add fine individual hairs on top, they need to sit on a slightly darker foundation. So that's what I am doing now with my pencil. I am using a darker tone than before. Earlier, I used an HB for the very light areas. But here, I think we are closer to a four B to create a deeper base that better matches this part of the fur. And for the lighter zones on the left, I will go very light to have something well, very bright, just as we can see on our reference. I am going to continue building up my base up to the area of the ear, and then I will stop there. We will work on the ear later. Now that all my main elements are in place, I will take a brush and start blending everything to create a smooth and even surface. This will give me a soft base on which I can later add the texture and all the fine details of the fur. And in this central area, I can start working on the details. If you look closely at the reference photo, you will notice that the airs follow a certain curvature. It is as if they curve inward before flowing back outward. That is exactly the effect I want to create here. So I am giving that same direction to all the small strokes I am adding in this part of the drawing. Okay. And in this area, I am going to keep working by adding some airs that are even darker than what I have done so far. So basically, we started with a first layer that was our base. Then we added medium dark airs on top, and now I am adding another layer that is slightly darker by pressing a bit more with the pencil. After that, we will also add lighter hairs using the eraser hand. It is really this variety in tonal values that helps create realism and makes the fur look natural and coherent. And so that's why it is so important to take your time and carefully balance all these different shades you can see on the animal. Now with a very dark pencil, I'm going to start deepening the stripes that we can see in this area. Just like before, I am doing this with small pencil strokes. These are individual hairs that I am adding here and there to make the stripes look more realistic. What is interesting about these stripes is that the gray or black tones aren't uniform. Because we started with a lighter base, that base still shows through when I add the darker details on top. I am not covering the entire base with dark shading. I am adding fine irregular hair strokes here and there. And these small marks, let the lighter layer underneath pick through. And this mix of lighter tones beneath and darker strokes above helps make the stripes look much more natural and consistent. I am continuing to work on the stripes here, and I might repeat myself a bit. But one of the most common mistakes people make when drawing tigers is making all the stripes uniformly dark and black, when in reality, they are not. So be careful with that. Focus on creating irregular edges by adding small strokes, little individual hairs along the stripes. I know it takes more time and patience, but the end result is absolutely worth it. So take your time, stay precise and work each hair individually like this. That is what will give your tiger beautiful and realistic looking stripes. And I am continuing here adding a few more hairs in this area just slightly darker than before, to improve the overall look. It is important to stay mindful not to fill every single millimeter with strokes. You want to let some of the lighter areas underneath show through because that is what makes the fur look believable and realistic. The goal is kind of to simplify. When I add these airs, I am not trying to place each one with absolute precision. I am not looking at the reference through a magnifying glass to find the exact same spot for every air. Instead, I observe the general pattern, the length of the airs, their direction, and their value. And then I add strokes here and there, following that natural flow to make the area look coherent and lifelike. With this stripe, the dark areas are generally deeper in tone that on some of the other stripes. These particular stripes also appear. This one, it appears a little more uneven at the top than that is the case for some other stripes. So when I will finish it, the top part, I will work on this to create something very, very irregular at the top, going on the left, going on the right, to create something very irregular and just like it is on my reference. So that's what I'm going to work on in a few seconds. The work we are doing here on the Tiger can actually be applied to any other animal with stripes like a zebra or even to spotted unspotted animals like leopard or Jaguar. The process for working on the spots would be exactly the same. And again, for leopard or Jaguar, you shouldn't just draw perfectly round or clean spots, but instead take the time to observe these tiny individual hairs that extend from the edges Of the spots and create a bit of irregularity. These little details are really important. So I'm going to keep working on this area, finishing up the fur by adding a few more small strokes here and there. After that, I will also add some highlights, those very light hairs that I will create using the eraser pen, adding small touches here and there to make the area look even more realistic. Let's move on to drawing the ear. The ear can look a bit confusing in places, especially in the central part where a lot of light and dark airs mix together. For now, what we are doing is simply laying down a base. I am shading according to the dominant values in each part of the ear. For example, on the left side, it is rather dark to medium, so I use a two B pencil there. In the central areas, I am marking the lighter zones with an HB. And for the very dark central part, my base will be darker as well. So I will later go over it with an Atb to create a deeper shading. One common mistake when drawing the ear is to make its outline too sharp, creating a strong separation between the ear and the rest of the head. In reality, the ear blends naturally into the surrounding fur. There isn't a hard edge, so we shouldn't draw a clear line dividing the ear from the head. Instead, we'll need to build that connection later through careful work on the fur. So now that I have applied my base, I'm blending everything smoothly before moving on to the detail third texture. Now I can move on to the details of the ear and start working more precisely on the fur. I am beginning by marking the darkest areas, those black sections around the edges. I'd like to start with these because they are the most obvious and easiest to identify. Whenever I see a simple and well defined area like this, I add it right away. It helps create visual landmarks, making it easier to place the other elements around them. And you can notice that the outer edge of the ear is very dark, almost black. And as we move toward the center area, the tones gradually lighten. So with my pencil strokes here, I am applying some slightly less pressure when I go towards the center, keeping the marks softer and lighter than at the very edge. Now in the lighter areas I worked on earlier, the ones where I lay down the base, I'm also adding a few slightly darker strokes to create variety and a sense of fur texture, just like we did in the other parts of the tiger. And as I go along, I'm gradually adding more details. For example, on the left side, I notice some darker marks that stand out clearly in the reference photo, so I am adding them here. This section is quite dark overall, and you can see that the irs go in many different directions. So I am reflecting that as well in my strokes. What will really help these darker areas stand out and look more realistic are the small eras of strokes I will add afterward, those lighter irs that weave between the dark ones I am drawing now. And overall, the approach here for the ear is pretty similar to what we did above the eye area, except that the airs here are a bit more scattered, going in various directions to the right to the left, and that is exactly the effect I am trying to reproduce. Um, humans, humans The ear has really taken shape now, and to make the darker area stand out even more, the ones that still don't pop quite enough for my taste, I'm going over them with a darker pencil, something like a 14 B, 12 B, or even ten B. Here I am working with the pencil tip and applying strong pressure so that the dark tones really come through. And at this point, I would say the ear is detailed enough and looks good. So we can move on to the next section, and we will start working on the area just below the eye and gradually progress toward the right. For this next area, I'm going to work in exactly the same way as we did on the upper part. So that's why I'm speeding up the video a little here. The process is identical to the work we did above the eyes, except this time we are working underneath. So once again, take your time and pay close attention to the different tunnel values, the direction of the airs and the stripes. Avoid creating hedges for the stripes that are too sharp or too regular. Instead, focus on irregularity and subtle variations in value. Not everything should be pitch black, as we have seen some areas are slightly lighter or more grayish. It is important to notice and respect those differences. Other than that, this section isn't more difficult than what we have already done. The method is the same. So I start by applying a solid base, then blend it smoothly with make a brush. And after that, I move on to building texture, adding small strokes and touches here and there to suggest the errors. Especially under the eyes, you can notice a few short errors. So I'm going to add them carefully to make the result look much more realistic. Humans humans, human Now, let's move on to the area around the whiskers. As you can see, I have already created my base and blended it. This time using a blending stump instead of a brush because I needed more precision for these small spots, which are quite tiny. For these little stripes around the muzzle, we once again start with a light gray base, then layer slightly darker gray or even black tones on top to make the texture look realistic. Here, too, we are not drawing perfectly round shapes for these elements. The forms are created by small individual hairs, just as we have been doing from the start. In This area, there is a section that is a bit darker above these marks, these black marks, so I am pressing a little harder with the pencil to get a deeper gray before moving down toward the lower part, which is whitish but not pure white. In this section, you can also see a few fine and distant hairs in the whitish area that we will need to add carefully afterwards. But overall, when working on the tiger, once you understand the logic behind creating the fur texture and the stripes, the same principles apply to nearly the entire head. There will be slight variations. For instance, on the side areas where the fur is longer or on the central part above the muzzle where the hairs are very, very short. But the general approach remains the same. It's really a matter of patience and consistency from start to finish if you want to result that feels realistic and coherent. But Once again, when working in this area, it is really important to pay close attention to the direction of the airs. You can see that there is a slight curve going toward the muzzle. Now I can add the final touch that will make this area even more realistic. A few strokes with the eraser pan to lighten certain spots and make the texture stand out more. Along the edge of the muzzle, you can also notice some slightly darker airs that extend from the muszle into the whitish area. They are fairly short and subtle, but adding them is essential to avoid creating a hard straight edge along the muscle. Keep that in mind as you work. And now we can move on to the entire right section. It is a larger area, and here the hairs are noticeably longer. So I will start by shading the area to establish the base, and then we'll see how to build up those longer hairs. The goal is to create the most accurate base possible, one that we can then refine. This base will also include the dark stripes I will be marking in. And in this part, you can see that the stripes are overall much darker. So I'm going to mark to make this base correspondingly deep and dark as well for my stripes. So now that I have applied a solid base, I'm going to refine it a bit more, meaning I will try to make it more precise. For example, next to these dark stripes, I noticed some slightly darker touches overall than what I had before. So I am enhancing those areas. I also see that in the lighter and whitish zones, there are small clusters of hairs that appear darker as well. So once again, I am adding a few darker elements to improve and enrich my base. And all these new details I have added, I'm going to blend them with my blending stump because it will give me more control and precision than using a brush. And this way, I get a smoother and more refined base to build upon. Now that my area is nicely blended, I can start working on the stripes with more precision. So I am adding small and very dark elements, truly black strokes, and you can see that these irs are irregular again. So go to the left or slightly upward. They don't all follow exactly the same direction, and that is what I am recreating here to make the stripes look convincing and solid. I am doing this first on the large stripe, and then I will repeat the same process on all the other dark stripes. And on these stripes are properly refined, you really really start to see the area come together. Because it is true that for now, the lighter and whitish part of this section still look very messy and unfinished. And that's totally normal at this stage. It often happens when you are still laying the groundwork of your drawing. The beginning rarely looks promising, but it is through all these little additions, these careful strokes here and there that everything starts to take shape and come to life. At times like this, it is easy to think that your drawing doesn't look like much, but you have to trust the process. That is part of it. And as you keep layering these small touches, one after another, that is how your drawing truly comes alive. Now we are going to work on the lighter errors and start creating texture in this whitish area. This part isn't really any more complicated than what we've done on the overlight sections. The only difference is that here, the strokes need to be a lot longer because the fur in this area is longer than the sections we worked on ayer hub. Otherwise, the method is exactly the same. Carefully observe the values of the hairs in these areas and adjust depending on whether you want them slightly lighter or darker. Pay close attention to the direction of the fur before adding your texture. Then a few small strokes with the eraser hand will really help bring out the volume and add realism. So take your time here, keep your pencil precious light to achieve a sense of softness and fluidity in the strokes so the hairs look natural and flexible. Now I am really going to spend some time working with the eraser pan. I will be using it for at least a good minute to add all these lighter airs that overlap and extend over the dark stripes. In some areas on these stripes, this will slightly brighten the stripes, making them look even more realistic. And when I am adding these lighter strokes in the whitish zones, I'm paying close attention to the direction and flow of the other airs. I want them to follow the same natural curve we created earlier with the pencil strokes. The technique here is exactly the same as with a pencil. I'm working softly and fluidly to draw fine and delicate air. 15. Drawing the Tiger – Final Details and Contrast: Now we are going to move on to the tigers whiskers. There are several ways to approach them. One method I won't be showing here is using a white gel pen to draw the whiskers on top, simply because I have run out of it, and honestly, I find the result not quite natural enough, so I don't really use that technique. The second option is to use the eraser pen. With this one, we can erase directly on the paper to bring out the whiskers. Method works fairly well, but as you can see, its limitation is that on dark areas, it doesn't show up much. It is hard to get something uniform and consistent along the whole length of the whiskers. So it's decent. The result is okay, but it's still not my favorite approach. Is another technique I'm going to show you now that gives a much better result, but it requires some planning ahead. That means that before shading the area, you need to do what we are about to do. We will use this stylus. You can see that it has a rounded metal tip, and they come in different sizes. You will want to choose the one that best matches the thickness of the whiskers. And with this stylus, we are going to press firmly into the paper to mark the whiskers in advance. It takes a bit of confidence because you can't see the result right away, but you can practice the motion beforehand by maiming the stroke. And you can see I have several tips here, and I will pick the one that feels right. And once you have practice, press firmly on the paper in the places where you want the whiskers to be. Then when you shade over it later, the graphite won't adhere to these lines that we have created. And the whiskers will appear almost magically. So carefully observe the direction and spacing of each whisker, then mark them with the stylus, and then you can start shading. In my opinion, this gives the most natural and consistent result across the whole length of each whiskers, producing those bright and clean lines that stand out beautifully on the tiger's face just as we want. All right, let's keep going. We are now moving on to the lower area, a fairly large section, but not a very complex one. So I'll speed things up a little, and at this point, we are no longer working on the phase, so there is less need to focus on all the tiny details. The goal here is mainly to maintain good overall consistency and build up the larger shape. So stay focused and keep going. It is often during these longer and less exciting stages that the drawing really gains its strength. It is thanks to these areas to the foundations you are building now that the tiger will truly come to life. So keep working patiently and with determination. The final result will absolutely be worth it, thanks to all these efforts that you are putting in. For these stripes right here, it is important to make sure they slightly overlap onto the upper area. These parts actually blend into one another a bit, and by allowing the stripes from the upper section to merge slightly with the area above, you create a smoother and more natural transition between the two. That's why this step was important. Now we can move on to the got area. But before that, I'm going to make a few small adjustments here because I felt that some hairs needed to stand out a bit more. The edge look too straight and unrealistic. And through this got section, you can see that there are many very light hairs extending over the area below. So I am anticipating that by using the stylus to press into the paper, marking these spots where the lighter hairs will appear. This will allow for those whitish strands to stand out nicely later on once we work more precisely on the got area. In the GT area, the upper part is quite dark. So I am using a black pencil around 14 B to make it stand out very well, and I am not hesitating to press firmly on the paper to get deep and rich tone. You can also see that I had previously made a few small marks with the stylus, which now allow these lighter individual hairs to show through nicely against the darker areas. For the rest of the GT, I'm doing a fairly light shading using a two B pencil in some areas. You can notice that with the two B, the tone is just slightly darker than the whitish part, and that's all we need. Then I will blend everything using my makeup brush. The graphite that is already on the brush will spread slightly over the lighter areas, which is enough to turn them down so they are not completely white. And this is actually a useful little trick for certain parts where you want to keep things very light. Just using the leftover graphite from your blending tool or brush will give you a subtle and soft gray tint. And now I am going to draw the individual dark hairs that you can see in this area. This will help create a realistic fur texture in the goatee and make the whole section feel more natural and alive. Now I am adding some very dark elements that can be seen in different parts of the got. On the sides as well, there are darker hairs that help define the edge and give it that natural and furry border. I will also add a few darker strokes along the lower part a bit later that will really help the lighter hairs I previously marked with the stylus to stand out nicely. And to finish off this section, I'm also going to use the razor pen to add a few light strokes here and there. These highlights will bring out the brightest hairs and give the fur more depth and realism. And as always, I'm being careful to follow the natural direction and flow of the hairs to keep the movement of the fur believable and consistent. And now I can add the darker elements located just beneath the GT. It is as if some of the errors extend inward into the GT itself, and creating that overlap is what helps make the result look more believable and realistic. So that is exactly what I'm going to do for this area. You Now that I am adding these darker marks, it also helps bring out the lighter elements I previously created with the stylus. They stand out much better against dark tones, and with that, this part is pretty much done. The next step will be to start working on the muzzle. For the muzzle, I'm starting by marking the darkest areas the black parts because they will serve as reference points, and having those in place makes it much easier later on to compare and judge the values of the surrounding areas. So I'm going to add those dark spots on both sides first. Next, we can see that there are slightly lighter areas just below, so I am marking those as well, even though they are still fairly dark. It's not as black as the sections, we already shade, but these parts still need to have a strong value. So I am darkening them accordingly. And after that, I will blend them to soften the tones and prepare for adding small details here and there to make everything stand out nicely. What I also want here is for this area to connect gently with the section of the whiskers we worked on earlier on the right. So as I blend, I am letting the tones overlap just little, allowing for a smooth transition between the two zones. For now, of course, I haven't worked on the left side yet, but on the right, I make sure that everything merges solely by slightly extending the blending strokes with the stump. In this grayish area, we will have quite a lot of small details that really make the difference. And I am adding a few dark touches here, and then I will also use the eraso pen to bring out some lighter highlights. And it's all these cellar additions that will make the muszle look realistic and bring the whole drawing together. It is important not to think of any section as less important as the others. Every part contributes to the final harmony. So take the time to work each area with the same care and attention from start to finish, even though some areas have less details. For instance, the lower part had less details, but still it needs to be worked on fairly well. Now I am going to work on the upper part of the muzzle. You can see that it is fairly light overall. So the base I am applying here will also be quite light. I am adding a soft layer of shading, and then I will blend it. And afterward, it's really the small details we will have here and there that will make the difference in this area. You can notice that there are lots of small spots and subtle variations. And in some places, a few slightly lighter touches that we will also need to include. As you progress in drawing, it is important to learn to notice all these subtle value shifts that appear even within a simple base layer. Here, for example, I started with a very light gray base, but I will also had small darker marks in some spots and lighter ones in others. Those little differences are truly what bring the drawing to life because they help create a sense of depth and volume within each part of the subject. A small but important detail is the set of little marks just above this area. So I am adding them carefully, but with my pencil, they are quite dark, so I am making sure they stand out clearly, as well. Even subtle touches like these help reinforce the realism of the whole drawing. And finally, I can add the very dark marks that appear in the muzzle area. Be careful with this, though. Even though they are quite dark overall, the value isn't perfectly uniform across each mark. You will notice small variations with some parts slightly lighter or darker. For example, on the first one I did, it is quite noticeable. The upper and right sections are very dark, while the left side is a bit lighter. And I use that contrast intentionally to make it look more realistic. And so now the muzzle is finished and we can move on to the upper area just above the muzzle. For this area, I am starting by marking the darker zones we talked about later when working on the outline. These areas are quite dark and they really help create a sense of free dimensionality here, giving the impression that this central section is raised compared to the areas around the eyes. Then in the central section, you can see that the values aren't uniform everywhere. There are lighter patches and some slightly darker ones. Just above the muzzle, for instance, the tones are fairly light, so it is important to pay close attention to all these subtle variations in value. They are what truly contribute to the realism and the depth of the drawing. And from the start, we are building a solid base here, one that is well structured and faithful to what we see in the reference photo. This careful groundwork is what will allow the rest of the details to sit naturally and enhance the sense of volume in this part of the tiger's face. O You now we have got a solid base of the central area, and I can start working a bit more on the section just above the muzzle. This part is slightly darker and more detailed than the base we had before. So I am using a two B pencil to a small strokes, fine little hairs. What you can notice in this central section, and what will really be the focus of our work here as we refine the texture is that the airs are very fine, very short, and they go in multiple directions. It is really important as you work on each area to ask yourself which way the airs are flowing and where to add those tiny strokes to keep everything coherent and natural look. So I am adding those with a two B and for the area just above, which is slightly darker, I'm switching to a four B pencil. Again, I'm always paying attention to the direction, whether the errors go more to the left to the right or another angle to get the best and most realistic result possible. And little by little, it is starting to take shape. It is true that this part is a bit long and quite repetitive, but you have to stay focused and keep adding those small strokes here and there. Remember that every single mark you add contributes to the realism of your piece. So I am continuing patiently. And once I have worked this area thoroughly, I will come back over it to add a few darker details, as well as some lighter touches using the eras of hand. Those highlights will really enhance the whole section and make the area look even more refined and realistic. In the end, everything is relative because it may seem like a lot of pencil strokes, a lot of tiny hairs to add, but it really doesn't take an excessive amount of time. I've been working on this area for maybe five to 10 minutes, and already, it's really starting to take shape. So take your time and enjoy the process, as they say. Little by little, our tiger is truly coming to life. In this bal section, you can also notice right here, the airs follow a gentle curve moving from the outside toward the center, which gives a beautiful and natural flow to the area. So I will keep going in that same way, and this part will be almost finished in just a few moments. This area has really taken shape now, and to refine it a bit more and make it even better, I'm going to add a few slightly darker marks. These will enhance the overall look and make it feel a bit more believable, a bit more realistic. So just a few extra pencil strokes, a few more minutes of work on this section, and it will be complete. I'm going to refine this area carefully right here. It sits between the first section we worked on above the eyes and the one we have just completed. So I'm adding a little bit more darker elements here to create a nice transition between these two areas. Right here, I want to create a better transition. Now, using the eraso pen, I am adding a few lighter marks to make everything stand out nicely. And after that, the rest of the tiger will be done off camera, since the left side is simply the mirror image of what we have just completed on the right. It is exactly the same process and you already know how to do it. The key now is patience. So take your time and work carefully so that the left side looks just as good as the right. You are absolutely capable of it. And once that is done, we will meet again to start working on the background of our piece. So here is my finished tiger. For the background, we will start it together, and then part of it will be done off camera again, since the process will be exactly the same across the entire surface. So I am working very, very gently with my pencil using the side of the lead rather than the tip. What really matters when working on the background is maintaining evenness, keeping your pressure consistent throughout so you don't end up with some areas darker than others. Of course, it's not easy to apply the exact same pressure from start to finish, but try your best to keep it steady so nothing stands out too strong. So I will continue like this over the whole area, and once it is done, we will blend, sorry, everything using a tissue. I will show you how. Before adding the final touches, that will make our tiger look even more convincing. Now that the background has been applied evenly everywhere, I have wrapped a tissue around my finger, and I am using it to make small circular motions across the entire background area. It doesn't matter if it slightly overlaps onto the tiger. The goal here is to go Oh, to go over, sorry, everything gently, making circle movements all over the surface until I get a smooth and even result across the whole paper. So I am making sure to keep those circle motions consistent. And when I feel that the texture looks soft and well blended, I can move on to the next section. And if I think it still can be improved, I simply go over it in the same way again, and I will continue doing this across the entire background to achieve a clean and uniform finish. I am going to add the final touches. These are small, whitish airs that slightly extend beyond the edges. I don't want the border to look too straight or too sharp, so I'm letting some of these lighter airs overlap onto the background, both at the top and along the side. And with that, our tiger will be complete. So congratulations if you have made it this far. This drawing required a great deal of patience, precision and consistency. Every tiny air, every shade and every value you have worked on contributes to the realism and strength of this tiger's portrait. So I really hope this tutorial has helped you progress and better understand the logic behind first stripes, tunnel values, and texture work. So keep practicing, keep observing and most importantly, enjoy every pencil stroke. This is how you develop both your eye and your hand. So thank you very much for following along and see you very soon for another drawing.