DRAWING PRACTICE UNIT – Lesson 2 – TUESDAY, April 13

Hi!  Welcome back!  Happy Spring.  The weather is great I hope you are getting out in it.

Have you been doing any art of your own design, for no other reason than just to make art?  If so, send photos of it to me.

We are going to continue working in pencil this week, and “sharpen” our pencil drawing skills 😉  Once we’ve done this we will move into using these skills to creative some imaginative works.  Remember that being able to render imaginative images is dependant on you having the drawing skills to make those new images look fantastic.

So let’s get practicing. Check out Paul Lee’s skills at pencil drawing animals:

https://www.uniqarts.com.sg/artgallery_pencildrawing.html

Today I’d like you to practice doing two things:

1. Show what is the difference between “outlines” and “edges” in pencil drawing. To SHOW that you know I’d like you to Shade a cylinder with your pencil so that “outlines become edges”.  (There’s a video that will show you what I mean.)
2. Be able to draw fur realistically. (another video for that)

And then…. Draw a cat.

To get started you will need:  a new page in your sketchbook, and your drawing pencil collection and an eraser.

When shading different areas of a pencil drawing you want the finished results to look somewhat realistic.  Realistic drawings do NOT HAVE OUTLINES.  Only cartoons have outlines and outlines flatten a drawing, taking away its 3D appearance.  As a pencil drawer you therefor want to practice shading away the outlines.  Take a look at this video.  The artist here will explain it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OezMavBqWXc

Please draw a cylinder and SHADE AWAY THE OUTLINES SO THAT THEY BECOME EDGES just like the artist did in the video.  If you need to watch the video more than once you can.

Once you have accomplished this task give yourself a pat on the back.  Try to apply this technique to your next few drawings of animals.

Last week you drew a dog after reading the blog link that I put on the post.  The artist showed you:

• How to use the skeleton to draw the whole animal
• How to add muscles onto the skeleton
• How to draw and refine the face with realistic dog facial features
• How to draw fur patterns that wrap around the body.

Today I’d like you to give some particular attention to drawing fur more realistically. Here’s a tutorial about how to improve your pencil techniques with drawing fur.  PLEASE DO A SAMPLE OF FUR DRAWING ALONG WITH THE VIDEO.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_T5zk0M2qjg

FINALLY, DRAW A CAT  (for all you cat owners out there):

Follow the blog artist’s (link below) steps 1 to 11.  REMEMBER to shade away the outlines when you are finishing the work so that your cat has edges, not outlines.  Use your new fur drawing technique in this cat drawing.

Here’s the blog link to guide you through the steps:

https://www.creativebloq.com/how-to/draw-a-cat

Share your drawings (cylinder and cat) with me through a photo over email.  I’m collecting your drawings for assessment.

Self assessment:

Here’s some blogs by the same artist showing you how to draw different animals using the same method.  Check it out and give an elephant a try!

https://www.creativebloq.com/how-to/draw-an-elephant

That’s it!   Stay in touch.