Subjects which I could do tutorials upon.

I am obviously not a professional at any subject in art, therefore I will only be able to do a lesson or step by step, based upon a category/ subject or technique, of which I feel very confident in. I want the lessons to be as clear as possible, to not have any silly jargon, and to explain words which may have to be used, but are uncommon. Drawing: Equipment

Pencils: Ok so this may seem very basic to talk about but I believe that setting a good solid foundation

is a key to success. So... pencils. Pencils come is such massive varieties, the most common being a pigment contained within a wood encasement. This material inside can be either coloured, or various shades of grey, with various softness’, they can be pastels, conte’, graphite, charcoal ECT. Although for the tutorial a graphite pencil shall be used and therefore this is the one I shall put more focus on. A graphite pencil can be a tool used for writing, as it can be edited quite easily, or a tool which can be used in art. The pigment they contain usually consists of a mixture of graphite and clay, which therefore leaves an unlimited value of greys on a surface. It is also very common as I’m sure you know, it’s easy to rub out.

They are available in several different grades, which range from hard to soft, with hardest

being the higher number with the (H- Hardness)) symbol next to it and the softer using the same rule

but on the other end of the spectrum and using (B- Blackness) as its symbol. 9B – 9H usually being the

highest on the scales, though both of these grades are so uncommon, that it’s possible you may never

come across any of these being used. If you haven’t already noticed while using these pencils, what the

difference between the hard and soft, soft equals to a darker lead as the substance is softer, therefore

leaving more pigment on the paper after abrasion, the that’s the same for the harder being so hard that

they leave much less pigment down, making it a pencil which lasts much longer but with a fainter line.

Right is a small visual depiction of the

hardness/softness of a pencil. But believe me; this is

much harder than it looks to take down as the

lighter pencils can be so hard to pick up on a

scanner.

The brands of pencils are so insanely

massive, think of the pencils at Poundland or your

corner shop for example. But luckily, there are

brands out there with universal reputations for

being among the best. There is Staedtler, Derwent,

Faber-Castell, Pentel and many more, all

specializing in different areas. Pentel have a re-

noun reputation in writing implements and

Derwent and Faber-Castell art. However, none of

these are set in stone. I use a mixture of Derwent,

Staedtler and Pentel’s Mechanical Pencils.

Mechanical Pencils are amazing! However

there are many artists I talk too who despise the things. They are instruments which can be used for so

many different processes; also still most of the rules for a normal wood-cased pencil apply.

A mechanical pencil, holds very thin long pieces of ‘lead’, the same which is used within a

normal pencil, however, this type of pencil is like a constant point, with a constant thickness, as when it

wears down, you simply press the end (like a pen) for more of the same thinness ‘lead’ to appear. So

[F] Stands for Fine Point

therefore, this kind of pencil doesn’t usually need sharpening, however I have found that if I run it

evenly all the way round, holding the pencil at an extremely steep angle, I can get a point as sharp as a

hair! This can be excellent for tiny details. Often the reason artists don’t like them as they claim that the

pencils restrict creativity, as rough, sketchy work can usually snap the lead, and with it always being

narrow, you can’t turn the pencil on its side for effective shading, and it’s kind of limited to one kind of

mark, where as with an ordinary pencil, there are masses of different marks which can be made!

I usually use only four different pencil grades for the type of art which I produce. These being:

4H, 2H, B and 2B. I find that they cover the entire spectrum of values usually, however I often may add

a softer B to my inventory for a darker black... however; there are strong disadvantages with softer

grade pencils in my opinion. They shine! Which can reflect light, and makes your work look ruined, if

you have large chunks of this pigment chucked on. There are ways to lower the reflection level which I

shall talk about later. The Harder the pencil can sometimes be so light that you really have to press on

to see, however this also has its major

disadvantages, as it flattens the fibres in

the paper and dents your surface.

For the mechanical pencil, I

have found 0.5mm to be perfect, I have

never used a 0.7mm pencil but have

occasionally used a 0.3mm for finer

details, however if you use the process

of rubbing around the end of your lead

on a .5mm pencil, you can get it as fine

anyway. Either way, the choice is up to you!

Paper:

Drawing paper can be as critical in the

process of making this type of art as a pencil. I

have been drawing for a few years now and have

drawn on many different kinds of paper from

many different brands. I have two favourite types

of paper: Strathmore 300 Series Bristol Smooth,

which is acid free weighing 100lb with UN

unbelievably smooth surface which is perfect for

grabbing and pulling out the most intricate

detail in a work. The second is Fabriano Artistico

Bright White Hot-pressed Watercolour Paper.

Again it is acid free and weighing 150lbs with

one side being smoother and the other with a

rough side. The paper is really tough and can

have much punishment without denting and

ripping which can sometimes happen when you

are trying to put in really dark, darks, or the

areas where you will be working a lot. I buy this

paper as a separate sheet in the local art store, it’s usually size A1 (59.4 × 84.1cm).

Both again have their advantages and disadvantages, I have found the Bristol can sometimes

be that smooth that it almost has no tooth to hold graphite, and the Fabriano is sometimes a little

too rough to capture the details as well, but in the end, it’s all up to you and I’m sure if you

experiment, you will eventually find what’s best for you.

More Information on Paper and Pencils:

Bristol Board on Wikipedia

Fabriano History

Paper Size Wikipedia

History and Shop for Mechanical Pencils

Derwent Homepage

Staedtler Homepage (UK)

Faber-Castell Homepage (UK)

Some good info on the history of pencils

Blending Equipment:

These are most certainly not essential and only really need to be used for extra effects, but

to honestly state that they just speed up a process but for me, in the meanwhile can ruin it also.

Blending can be excellent for a technique used to draw glass. For me I try to use them as little as

possible. Many artists use them for drawing women, as we all know, women love to be flattered and

especially if she is paying for you to make her look good. They often really don’t like the effects of

recreating all her little details, but in my opinion it makes them look glassy. However, in the past

when I have used blending techniques, the viewers of my work claim that it looks really painterly. I

am yet to notice this, but that’s ok.

Blending can usually be done with the very common blending stump which is usually a tool

associated with working with charcoal, however it’s not that limited, you can also use it for graphite

or pasted ect. This tool is a pencil shaped implement which consists of tightly wound paper, highly

compressed. So it’s basically a blender made from paper. You can use the end for something Brian

Duey calls Blended Circulism, which is the pointed part, or, like laying down your pencil for mass

shading; well the same can apply for this. I suppose, being creative, you could push the graphite

about on the paper in different directions to see what kind of effect you can create. However,

blending doesn’t just limit you to this paper stick; you can use a.n.y.t.h.i.n.g which is easy to apply to

the paper to rub. Obviously common sense applies, as using a liquid to blend would not work. In the

past I have used wood chippings, toilet tissue, my finger (not usually the best as it also rubs on your

grease which can be hard to get off and can make your wok look blotchy), a leather chamois, pieces

of leather (I have tried both sides), paper, cotton buds (good for details) and so on!! They all create

their own unique outcome, and often if you use graphite powder and blend with these things you

get some amazing effects. Graphite powder can be bought or as I do, when you sharpen your pencil,

either with sandpaper or your ordinary sharpener, just sweep the powder onto your paper.

Erasers:

Erasers are or can be really important. Don’t use the horrible erasers that you can by and are

more commonly known in schools ECT, the ones where the rubbings are left all over your work! They

can ruin it, either by blowing them off after and accidentally spitting on your paper (big mistake and

almost impossible to correct), or by sweeping off with your hand, when you have spent 3 weeks on

one part of your work, the last thing you want is to rub and smear it, or put your oil all over you

beautifully refined work. Ok you can and I now artists, that do use watercolour paint brushes or

makeup brushes to get them away but why the hassle, they are really limited.

Putty rubbers are amazing!! They are lumps of usually blue tack, which can be moulded to

any shape and even to a sharp point to pull out the tiniest detail, like a bit of light hitting a spot.

They pull out the graphite from of the page and in its tooth rather than rub it off, which also

damages the tooth, which makes the work re-drawn over the top of it look slightly different from the

rest. This has some good advantages,

1. It leaves no shavings or rubbings

2. It can pull out graphite gradually, to alter values and lighten area’s

3. It can be moulded to any shape which enables it to adapt to any given situation#

We after all are living humans, and sometimes we make mistakes, so I would say that an eraser

is essential. If you leave a mistake when you’re doing this type of work it WILL be visible to your final

piece, and unless that’s what you want then I would use one.

A little secret to us artists here in the UK is to use Blu-tack. This is very similar, and does basically

the same thing, though I do find it sometimes a little less effective as the other and it also goes really

tacky like chewing gum if you hold the Blu-tack a long time in your warm hands. Same goes for

leaving it in the sun whilst you work. It is great and really cheap and if you don’t live in the UK, you

can buy it online or find other ‘copies’ which do a very similar job.

Fixative:

I personally would say this is a must, that it must be sprayed on the work to hold it

thereafter, like a varnish protects oil paintings. But, they’re artists out there who hate the stuff,

Armin Mersmann is one. He can sometimes spend a full year on a work, and sometimes when you

sprat fixative, a small spit like blob sprays out, this can ruin the work so it’s easy to understand why

he doesn’t use it. Also, once his are in frames, they are there for good most of the time anyway, so

there isn’t any need to stop it from smudging... I use fixative. It’s a fear of it smudging after all the

work, but it’s a personal choice.

If you don’t know what fixative does, it holds the medium to the paper which helps to

prevent the work smudging. It has also been said to protect the work and the paper from age. There

are brands out there that artists strongly recommend you don’t go near. Some which has a good

reputation is the Winsor & Newton Workable Fixative.

Some links to things mentioned in last few paragraphs:

Armin Mersmann

Kneaded Eraser

Winsor & Newton Workable Fixative

Blu-Tack

A Good discussion on Blu-Tack vs Kneaded Erasers

Workspace:

Your Workspace is you home, it’s where you create art, and where you experiment, and

often where brilliant ideas come to life. You don’t need one of these as a particular space; however a

space which you will most commonly be producing work is required. This can be anything from your

bedroom on your bed as I am doing in the photograph on the left, out in the wild, like Plein Air

painting or sketching, in a coffee shop, or anywhere. Most of those places however are good places

of producing visual notes and sketches for the ‘final’ work. With the type of work we will be doing in

this tutorial, it will require you spend many hours working, and so it is good to have a more

permanent place.

I would recommend that you make this place your own, free from distraction like televisions

and the like, somewhere where you can switch into the zone. Should distractions arise, try and find

some way of turning them to your advantage, a different way to look at them, which in return leaves

you with a stronger inner strength which means it will be easier to get into the zone. Make it

comfortable and relaxing, sitting on a small plastic chair and holding your drawing on your knee bent

over at a funny angle for many hours will be terribly uncomfortable. I would make it a ritual to clean

up after working, as if you make a massive mess, it may prevent you from getting started straight

away the next time, and the last thing you want is to spend half an hour cleaning even before you

get to ‘work’.

Tips: You could go out and spend hundreds of pounds on a special drawing table or a cheap drawing

board, but I strongly recommend you make one yourself. Seriously, this isn’t hard to do. You get a

large piece of wood (board), I used Strong thick plywood as its really strong and affordable and quite

light. Then you just simply cut it out, this can be done with a manual saw or machined, or maybe you

are lucky enough that the biggest size paper you feel you would use fits the measurements which

have already been cut out to sell. I find that it’s straight enough. I did a little sanding, but I suppose

to clean up the newly cut wood a little, just sand, round the edges a little and maybe varnish it, or

whatever you want. But it cost me seriously 4 pounds. A good large drawing board made from

plastic in an art shop can usually cost around £40-60 pounds and a drawing table starting from

around £200.

Full Equipment List (that you will actually use):

1- This is my leather chamois which is a cloth, usually used by window cleaners and the like,

but it can also be used for a tool in drawing. I usually use it for the background, as if I’m

doing a plain background; I find it pretty tedious at times. It blends well and leaves a nice

texture on the surface of the paper.

2- This is my only 0.3mm mechanical pencil as I don’t use it very often. It’s for small details.

3- My B Mechanical pencil, probably the most used of the lot.

4- My 2B mechanical pencil, used for the darks. Goes dark enough for me most of the time.

2 1 3

2

4

2

5 6 7 8 9

10

11

12

13 14

5- My H Pencil, good to use as a tool for layering down the graphite.

6- 2H Pencil, one of the second most used pencils

7- 4H Pencil

8- Blending stump

9- A 4B pencil, for the darkest parts, but not widely used.

10- Cotton buds. These are just your ordinary ones which you will probably have in your

bathroom and can find them in any chemist ECT. They are good for tight spaces when you’re

blending and give a much softer feel and look in comparison to the blending stump.

11- My Craft knife, used for sharpening pencils and also erasers, trimming paper, just a nice

handy tool to have around.

12- Kneaded eraser (Saying Hi!)

13- Pencil Sharpener (pretty basic though)

14- Just a new Putty rubber/ Kneaded eraser.

One of the best ways to keep your wood-cased pencil sharp is to not

use pencil sharpeners. I most often use my mechanical pencil,

however, I found on my visit to Italy last year to the Angel Academy

Of Art, which is an amazing classical atelier, that they sharpened their

pencils, by;

1. Firstly, holding your pencil with a firm grip, use a knife, (craft

knife may be best) and cut away the wood, about two thirds

of an inch down leaving that much ‘lead’ showing (figure I).

2. Then next, grab a piece of sandpaper (fine would be best)

3. Using a tray or something to catch the graphite powder, begin to

sharpen the edge of the pencil. The aim is to taper the lead from

the wood to the tip and not just the tip of the lead. I could do

with a lot of practice with this myself; however here are some

images of the process (figure ii).

Also, the powder can then be swept up for storing or using on the

work your about to do (figure iii). Graphite powder is amazing for

backgrounds or covering large parts of the paper with a nice even tone.

Circulism:

There are people who have heard of this and some who haven’t

(in the art world). It was made more popular by Maggie Toole in 1992,

for which is a technique she used for pencil crayons. It is a way of

making a certain mark which can be said to be related to pointillism. In

pointillism, you simply use dots. Thousands upon thousands of dots,

using in a way to make tone and texture. One famous artist who uses a

form of this is chuck close, who used the techniques in his

photorealistic works. Circulism relates in the way that you use tiny

circles which are then interwoven and gradually layered up to create

not only tone very accurately but varying textures. It said to be perfect

Figure i

Figure ii

Figure iii

for realistic skin textures. This is a technique which I have been using for a while now and have found

to be very reliable. The best thing I feel I pulled out of it was that it helped me learn about patience.

To not hurry your work. If you hurry and rush this technique it will backfire enormously, your work

will look scruffy and very amateur. Taking your time with your work is critical. Ok so Rembrandt had

amazing work which were said to be completed in a few minutes, maybe even seconds! But that

sounds all good and great, however he first learned slowly, spending many, many years practicing his

craft until he could do it this quickly. ‘Learn diligence before speedy execution’. (Leonardo Da

Vinci).

Works you may wish to see which may blow you away which have been done using the

Circulism technique are of Armin Mersmann’s. His work is staggering. Not a bit like academical work,

it has a flavour all of its own. Should you look carefully at his work you will

see it is not photorealistic but almost real. His work astounds me and is a

truly inspirational man. And should you wish to see what patience

amounts to, he is a walking example. Some of his works can take a year or

so, spending hundreds and hundreds of hours on one piece.

Some people use this technique rigidly, and do the absolute

entire piece with it, however, words from the master himself –

‘Drawing in circular strokes should just be one of many

patterns and mark making techniques that you as the

artist should master. Personally I love the affect it

gives but I not to let it dominate or take over a

drawing but use it when needed.

Armin’

Links (Circulism Related):

Armin Mersmann Homepage

Circulism- Wikipedia

Drawing: A Portrait

OK so here you are, about to be taught (hopefully) how to draw your own portrait. The

methods that I shall be using are ways in which I have been working over the last few years or so and

have found to be a solid way to do a Portrait. What I have done is compiled bits of knowledge, from all

over. The internet, friends, family, video’s and of course experience. This is a first for me and have never

attempted to teach anybody before but I am more than willing to try.

The techniques I will be using are by no means classical, in the way you would go to an art

academy and sit down drawing from the life model and casts, using charcoal and eventually paint etc,

the techniques I will be teaching bring the best out of you in only a few places, so limiting your study to

this one tutorial is suicide, should you want to become an artist. There are many, many amazing places

out there to study, schools, Universities, Art Academies, Apprenticeships etc and many upon many

different methods of getting similar results.

Ideas:

Gathering idea’s for me has always been a thing I enjoy. To sit down with a sketchbook and play

with this and that, shifting things, arranging compositions etc. Many beginners go about this part of the

work very ineffectively. They sit down with a blank sheet of paper or a black sketchbook and go... right

now, err... I’ll do this line here? No, no, no. I know, I like pirates, ill draw a pirate... what do they wear,

arghhhh, how do I make him look like a pirate...

Sitting down and putting yourself on the spot is never the best way about creating work, and

anyway, the idea’s and work will develop and change anyway. Do you think when Da Vinci did the

Mona Lisa; he just sat down and went; now I will draw a woman. You firstly start of by inspiring yourself.

I find, looking at the internet at images, going to galleries, taking walks or talking to people helps. The

original idea may usually come from some kind of philosophical though I may think one day and write

down and feel that I would like to do a work about that one day... but say that was what you wanted to

do, sitting down and just looking at the quote won’t always work, so to inspire yourself is a must.

This can be done in many ways. Take for example, a stone wall. It maybe a school playground

wall on your road, I don’t know, but if you look closer, there is a whole other world on that wall. There

are strange mosses, with many different colours, the textures of the stone and the cement holding them

together. There is the light which may be hitting it in a certain way. But one thing I have noticed on

stone walls is there are always tiny holes where spiders live, little circular cob-webs with a giant hole in

the centre leading to a hole in the wall... ooo, what may lurk there. The light might be hitting the wall in

a way that casts a small shadow over the hole, which could give it a creepy atmosphere. Begin to

imagine what might be in the hole, turn it into a small fantasy story, maybe there are tunnels weaving in

and out that stop off at little holes within the wall which can’t be seen from outside, a sort of spider

corridor and inside these little holes is a spider family, with a lamp and a newspaper Ha-Ha.

Ok so maybe you don’t (like me) wish for your work to be in that particular direction, but man,

it gets your blood flowing. Maybe you want to rush home and draw what you imagined. Maybe you

might meet an amazing person who had such an impact on you and such a loving personality. How

could you show this in her face? What kind of mouth has she got and how is she using it to give loving

signals. The kinds of cloths she wears, again, maybe a sunset is hitting her moist eyes and make her look

even more beautiful and amazing. The sky’s the limit!!!

However...

Unless you have had some amazing training or you have been training all your life. It’s often

hard to express these emotions without technical skill. Therefore, in aiding my early studies, I have had

to become quite reliant and photographs, as I don’t have enough money to go to life drawing sessions.

But more importantly, this kind of work requires you to spend so long on the work that drawing from

life would be very difficult anyway. However, if you are able to, I recommend that you work this way as

much as possible.

Gathering a Reference:

So, photographs. I usually use a Digital SLR however I have used a normal digital camera before

to work. Along with television magazines and ordinary photographs. I will usually jot down the kind of

image I would like, by using my sketchbook to very roughly scribble in a kind of composition and put a

few notes next to it. I have usually then got a vague idea in my head to which I know what to do next.

Then I will go to the person I wish to photograph and ask them to pose in the kinds of ways in which I

pictured. I will take around 50- 100 photographs using all different kinds of lighting from all different

angles, altering expressions or what they are wearing and how they may be posing.

Next, I take the photographs to a pc and choose the ones I feel work best. I usually take around

3 or so to work from as some photographs can be distorted or lack certain details that another may

have caught. Then I will often, but not always, put the three into Photoshop and play about with the

contrast and brightness. Sometimes sharpening them a little to bring out the details.

Lastly, I print them off. Usually on A3 Paper, some in colour and some in black and white.

Beginning the Drawing

OK, so the first thing you could be doing is

to bother shifting all of the equipment out of the

way again which could potentially leave my fingers

dirty, and lead to messing up my nice clean sheet

of paper. I would say, take your time setting up

carefully, if you’re using a large wooden board like

mine, get everything out of the way and lay it down

flat on a table.

Now either slowly

all of your

equipment, you

will hopefully

have seen the

items I use to

work with,

however it is

totally up to you,

though I would

highly

recommend using

a pencil ;).

Generalized Lines Red- very simplified, Green more worked in

Reference Photo

Next, get the A3 photographs. Now, there are many ways in which you can begin to get your

image down on paper. Some people use the grid method, some sight size and some comparative

measurements. It’s totally up to you. Use whichever way you find works best for you. If you’re going to

be doing the work much bigger than the photograph, using a grid can sometimes speed things up

however you’re missing out crucial parts of the learning process.

A good way to get your out lines is to ‘block in’, where you simplify the shapes, and go from the

general to the specific, slowly and carefully narrowing your straight bold lines down to little details.

Once you have your outlines, or the vital info you wish to

possess you are ready to begin!

Many artists tell you to work from left top to bottom

right, when using this method of drawing; however I usually

start with the eyes and work outward. The aim of these

techniques is to finish an area completely before moving on.

The way to do this is to build patience. A nice way to

look at it is to spend a few hours or maybe a full day, or even

a week, doing this one part. Imagine you’re doing lots and

lots of tiny little drawings. Rather than just one big one. If

you adjust your psychology into seeing it as a little abstract

drawing in itself, you are more apt to feel like you have

accomplished something today. Maybe you may spend all

day doing an inch x inch mini abstract drawing that will

eventually amount to a large piece. However, if you see it as,

you’re doing one large piece and you have spent all day and

only done a wrinkle on his eye, you may feel disheartened and slow. Whatever you do, don’t fall into

the trap of getting so excited when you see the face popping out at you and rush. This will lead to the

work looking rushed, and believe me, having rushed my work through excitement many a time in the

past, it leaves you with a feeling of having just cheated yourself out of an extremely good learning

opportunity.

A good way to do the skin around the

eyes is to not just look at the photo and copy

everything on it. Get a mirror, observe your

own eyes, and trust me it’s the next best thing

to real life. Play with lighting on your face.

Photo’s can be extremely limiting in terms of

creativity so try to get the best you can from

what you have got. Observe the details on

your face and how the light interacts with

them. Try to feel the underlying muscles, the

texture on his face. There is so much more to

this than just copying what you see. When

you see a large pour for example, feel its

indentation with your mind’s eye.

Tip: To avoid leaning on your work in

progress, we have to take extra care by using some simple extra pieces of inventory. In painting, quite

often, a Maul Stick is used. This is because you cannot rest your hand on your work surface for pretty

obvious reasons... you will smudge and ruin the work. With pencil, you may, use a Maul Stick, should

you wish too, and would be best if you’re working on an easel or some sort of vertical stand. However,

when doing pencil work, a piece of paper good enough to cover your hand will suffice. Many people

use tracing paper. I have tried both and not really noticed any kind of difference. As long as you take

care and lift the piece of paper when you’re done with it (without scraping your nails and fingertips into

the paper. Bending a corner which would make it easier to grab would work.

Drawing a Pits and pours etc (Details)

Ok so this takes a little bit of understandings. Right is a quick simple visual explanation of what

you do. As we know, skin isn’t like we see in magazines movies of ‘perfect’ soft skin. Even babies have

blemishes and moles, funny hairs that don’t seem to fit into its surroundings. Airbrushed skin is what I

would call an invention for flattery. Mainly to flatter women. Do you think Nicole Kidman would be

happy if she had a big juicy spot one day and the photographer ‘left it in’? She would probably want to

sue the guy (or lady).

Many artists work in the realm of drawing airbrushed looking skin. The realists who study in

Ateliers and classical training art schools for example don't draw every knuck and cranny and pit and

pore, however that’s a completely different kind of work all together in my opinion.

Step one- (image right has had to be darkened and altered to be

able to be seen on this monitor). I’m just going to show you some

shapes in a basic for so that you can get the idea. First lay down a

very light outline of what you want to do. In this case I’m doing

two circles. One will be a hole, and the other will be a circle with

a kind of gap around.

I am using a continuous circulism technique for the back ground,

just continuously drawing little interweaving connected circles

without taking off my pencil.

Build up layers rather than going straight for your chosen value.

Next add the darkest darks and leave the lights black, therefore

you are distinguishing the darkest and lightest part with a mid-

tones for the base.

Work in slightly darker areas around the highlights, this will

enhance their brightness on the page.

To add small pours, which could be used for skin, rock, rough

wood, or whatever else you could find the techniques to work

with. This is one way, next to a little dot of light you may have left

by accident on the paper; draw a dark spot next to it, on the side

of the mini light spot as where the direction of light is shining. For

example, if you want it to be a bump coming out, draw the dark

spot where a mini shadow would be cast. Or you can draw a spot

onto a mid-tone and erase a highlight using you putty eraser.

Next I thought I would add in some sort of surface crack so

you can see also how it can be done. First I drew the line how

I wanted, not very realistic however, as many rocks split

differently so it would be up to you to research. In the mean

time keep working in the mid-tone by layering up.

Work the line in and try envisioning from where the light is

coming from so that you can imagine where it might hit the

edge. Seen as in this drawing, the light is coming from the

upper left therefore the light would be on the side of the

crack facing the light which happens to be the bottom right

side of the line in this drawing.

I know the references may not be perfect, however, can you

notice that the centre of the large circle is smoother?

What I did was lay down the graphite but lightly

drawing shading in on direction then blending in one

direction, this gives a smooth effect. I used a cotton

bud to do this. I also wanted to have the middle

lighter.

Below is a small diagram of the unfinished work. It’s

to try and show you where the light source is coming

from. This is the reason I used circles as it is easier to

see where the lines from the light source, kiss the

edge of the circles drawn. The lightest part of the

highlights are the ones in the centre of the two

meeting the edge, (here shown as a black dotted

line) this is because it’s the small part which is

directly facing the light source.

As you can see with those dots i drew earlier, i have begun to tirn them into three dimentional

lumps. Obviously the

larger the detail is, the

more detail it will hold.

And lastly, just

finishing off small details,

rounding off edges a

little and refining parts.

Finished example

As I have already stated, this game is all about patience.

Also perseverance. And great work ethic. Just as muscles

only increase when you push them beyond your normal

limit, to get better at anything you have to push and

learn. You have to envelop yourself in what you’re doing

100%, and be present to the moment. You have to feel the skin and bumps. The surface and the hair. Where the

light hits and the darks begin. You simply cannot work

and get better by simply going through the motions.

Here (in the two images right) I have just carried

on doing more mini drawings within his cheek. Like for

example. The pupil... it’s easy to draw a black circle and

a grey part around the inside, but you have to try and

feel its 3-dimentionality. It’s a lenses and the pupil isn’t a

2-dimentional circle. With a black line round the edge.

You have to work the image out as well as look at your

references.

The light is coming from below as you can see, and very

close to his face. I used a strip light (the kind you see on

ceilings) which has made the highlight in his eye

rectangular, but have tried to form the highlight round

the near spherical boll of his eye. (Visual explanation

below).

The Iris should be dead in the centre of the pupil and the pupil

on the eye ball.

Here I have drawn a circle, using

Andrew Loomis’ techniques; to

hen turn it in to an apparent

sphere. You do this by the use of

contour lines. Here I have shown

that lines above the eye level

bend like so, and the same vice

versa below. This is how the light

would have bent on the eye

An estimation of the

eye level on this

painting by Ja5on from

Deviant art

To do the lightest parts of the skin, don’t just leave the part

black. There are no perfect white pars on a work other than a

highlight. Even then, some of the highlights can sometimes be not fully

while. Try not to use an eraser to lighten the parts after going dark.

First work up in layers until you get your desired value. Should it be

way too light, then refer to using the eraser, but only use in

emergencies, an if you’re going slow, this shouldn’t be too much to

worry about... the reason i say this s because i have found that erasing

never seems to leave the part you erased the same. I alters how the

graphite interacts with

page.

To draw lips there

are many different ways.

To my immediate right, is a

crop of one of David

Kassan’s drawings, and

bottom right is Armin

Mersmann’s. Both done

very differently. Kassan has

blended them in to make them appear much softer, and

once again, sometimes less is more in terms of details. Both

are women’s lips, maybe Armins being slightly less

flattering. However something you notice on both... there

are no lines. They haven’t drawn any lines to show wrinkles.

They have rendered them in and felt the surface. That is

something many people fall into the trap of... they se a

wrinkle and draw it as a line, however its not a line at all, its

where light doesn’t hit. If the light is coming from above, as

in these two, the upper lip will cast a shadow over the inner

part of the lower lip, and once again a shadow more subtle

on the lower part of the lip, which curls around an faces

away from the light. Studying light falling on a sphere will really help yur understating on this.

Below is the last stage in the drawin that i shall show you as im am currently working on this piece. I

shall put it one once completed... Below are some useful links to working with hair!!

Please can you email wjlacey@live.co.uk to let me know what you think and/or if this tutorial

helped. I am wide open for criticism and wish to learn from my mistakes etc. If you want to know more

about me check out my deviant art wjlacey.deviantart.com or add me on Facebook ill be more than

willing to answer questions by any of these methods. I am also on http://www.conceptart.org under the

username wjlacey, Behance, Creative Stem, Artpapa, Wetcanvas etc. Should you wish to contact me on

Face book, search my name Wesley Lacey, from Sheffield England... Thank you Very Very Much!!!