Welcome to Draw Tip Tuesday!
Here’s your weekly dose of inspiration to build a creative habit
one drawing at a time brought to you by Sketchbook Skool
Today we’re using a white gel pen by Pentel And a black rollerball pen.
because lack and white work awesome on a toned background.
I’m using grey toned paper from Strathmore, but you could also use a piece of cardboard,
or coloured paper.
It doesn’t really matter what subject you choose.
Look around you.
Anything is interesting when you draw it.
When I look around in my studio, I see these mini cacti and i really like their different
shapes and sizes so I’ll draw these.
I’ll start with the tall one on the left and then work from left to right.
First, I’ll draw its outline.
Then I notice that it’s overlapped by the stubby cactus so I’ll draw the outline of
this one too, checking reference points and also noticing the space between the shapes,
the negative space.
I draw the outline of the other plants as well.
And as I go along, I really notice their interesting shapes and am not paying attention to any
detail yet.
Now that the overall shapes are all on the page, I start filling them in with the prickly
details.
Also, I add shading with hatching lines as I go along.
The longer you look at your subject, the more details you will see the you can add.
I am not too accurate on every detail.
As long as I capture the essence of each of the plants, their characteristics, I’m very
happy.
With the shading, you can add depth to your drawing.
Each plant has its own pattern of prickles and dots - it’s very interesting to see
how the prickles neatly spiral around the plant, or are in a perfectly straight row.
And for this last plant, I don’t even have a lot of detail to add.
Just shading will make the distinction between leaves and stem.
Time for the white gel pen!
I will use it to emphasise on the lighter bits that I see on the plants, as well as
the highlights.
Some objects are very shiny and will have loads of sharp highlights - the ones here
are a bit silky, but they’re there alright!
And by exaggerating the highlights of the subject in the foreground, you can make the
subject come forward a bit more.
You may notice more shadows as you go along too, that you missed at first.
It’s great to see how the white pops off the page and brings the drawing to life, don’t
you think?
Try doing a drawing with black and white - find yourself a cardboard box and cut one of its
sides off to draw on.
Have fun and make those highlights pop!
And if you want to learn more, you can sign up for a free kourse at sketchbookskool.com.
See you in klass!