This is a sample chapter from "Creative Art for Generations"
You must know how to draw to draw or paint. This chapter will get you started.
Chapter 2
How to Look
How to Look
How to Look
Before you draw you will need a
few items. Get them out now as you will
need
them.
Find
a Number 2 pencil. Sharpen the lead for a sharp point. Use short strokes. This will
help
you. Do not push hard as this will cause you to bite into the wood with the
knife. You want a lead to be about ¼ of an inch long.
You
will need a support. I find that a piece of clear plastic, a piece
of foam core or a piece of mat board all work well if you cut it 16” x
20”. The reason for cutting it this
size is that at some point you will want to frame your work.
If you
draw or paint on a quarter sheet of watercolor paper this support will have a
“backing board” to test how it will look “matted” as a finished image.
I can’t
visualize things in my mind. So do not
be disappointed if you can’t “see” how it will look when matted and
framed. This 16”x20” board will help you
adjust size.
Tape
the paper to the support. By putting tape on each
corner you will stabilize your paper. It
will also prevent the paper rolling under your arm when you draw.
The most important part of
“looking” is finding the correct proportions of the object.
How does
a person capture the proportions? It sounds so easy. You box it in. Isolate it.
What is consistent with a box? Right angles! A box has 4 right angles at the corners. You use these angles and the proper lengths
to establish the proportions for your object.
Knowing
how to spot relationships is the key of “looking” at an object.
We will
be working with photographs to start.
Later you will work from nature.
Let’s do a picture step by step. We get proportions by measuring - with
a regular pencil.
When you
establish the proportions of an object you can succeed in drawing it
correctly. It will look right to
you. And you can prove it by
re-measuring.
Chapter 2 Fig. 1
This shows all you need: A piece of paper, a ruler and a pencil.
Using the straight edge of the paper, place the ruler parallel to the edge of the paper. Draw a line along the ruler. This line is parallel to the edge of the paper.
You want
the object image to touch this line in at least one place along this side. With
a
right
angle or 90° angle on the base line I will be able to draw a box for the
object. 
Chapter 2 Fig. 3
Here we
prepare to draw the bottom line for the object image to rest upon. Lay the
ruler down along the bottom edge.
Chapter 2, Fig 4
As you
can see we have laid the ruler along the edge as I now draw the line along the
bottom edge of the paper. This will form
the base for the object image to sit on.
I want to draw a picture of a pear.
Let’s pretend it is real and sitting in front of us. This is the pear I
will draw.
Chapter 2, Fig 5
While
closing one eye, I look at the object I want to draw (Using photo or nature). I
look with a locked, straight elbow of my arm holding the pencil, and with one
eye closed and the other eye looking at the pear, place
the graphite point of the pencil on the top of the pear. While keeping the pencil point vertical and
on the top, I move my hand downward using the thumb as a marker to show where
the base of the pear is located.
This
unit of the pencil will form a gauge for the height of the pear. Your arm locked at the elbow, keeping the
pencil vertical and using one eye for sighting is critical and maintains the
correct length and distance.
Chapter 2, Fig.6
To mark
my paper with the gauge I place the graphite point on the line. I slowly move my thumb down towards the
bottom of the pencil. I rest my thumb at the spot that seems to be the bottom
of the pear.
By
lifting the bottom of the pencil and keeping the point on the paper at the same
place it had been before I lifted it, the graphite will mark the height of the
pear. This is where the top of the pear
will touch the border on your paper. This marks the height of the pear.
Chapter 2, Fig 7
Again
with one eye closed, a straight elbow of the arm extended, I sight the place
the graphite point will land on the right side of the object. I slowly move my thumb to the left side to
mark it. Then I place the mark on the right
side of the line indicating the width.
This
allows me to gauge the width of the object.
I lay my pencil upon the bottom line marking where the graphite point
hits along the right side of this base.
This becomes the “measure” for the width of the object that I am about
to draw.
This is
the box I use to set the proportions to draw this pear. I will “plot” or mark where the pear hits the
sides of the box. The now measured sides
are of the correct proportions of the pear.
Once I
have these proportions I can enlarge or reduce the size of the pear but keep
the proportions. We will cover enlarging
later. It is an easy task.
To start
with working from a photo or print is easiest.
This is the pear I will draw.
I put the pear or picture of a
pear in a box.
Chapter 2, Fig. 12
This is
the outline of the pear. You will notice that the pear touches the box on each
side. The reason for this is that we
will draw the pear by drawing/isolating the object. We isolate it by indicating what is negative
space.
We draw the negative
space.
Negative
space is that space that if I reached out to touch the pear would be beyond
where I could touch the pear. Some
people call it a plane. The pear is in the closer plane. I will put the negative space in a different
color in my samples.
Chapter 2, Fig. 13
Chapter 2, Fig. 14
Chapter 2, Fig. 15
If you
are working from nature you might want to hold a small matt in front of the
pear. Position the matt so you can see
exactly where the pear would touch. This
helps isolate the negative space.
Try it
if you want. Both ways work.
Now look
carefully. I slowly move my eyes from
point to point. I do one space at a
time. I start with the upper left side,
I draw its shape. Then I go to the upper right.
Lower right and bottom left.
I draw
each space as the shape I observed.
In this outline I indicated the portions where the color intensities would essentially be the same value. Value in this case means “alike in dark or lightness.”
Values
range in scale from white or light which would be 1 to 10 which would be the darkest
of darks. But instead of using all 10
intensity values I am limiting it to 3 value groups.
Three
value groups will give the impression of real shape. This isolates what appears to be where the
pear has a high light on it. It too is
in a different plane.
Chapter 2, Fig. 16
If I
were drawing the pear with a pencil, I would not put any graphite in the high
lighted
area -
but I would put a light coat of graphite over all the rest of the area of the
pear which now looks green.
I did
these examples years ago with layers of plastic sheet protectors and colored
felt tip pen or dry erase pens. You can
do the same thing with Ziploc bags or plastic sheet protectors.
This
gives you an opportunity to see what is happening and plan what you want to do
with out damaging your drawing or photograph. For an
object to look somewhat real we usually have at least three values.
We add
the third intensity. The shadow lies in
this area of intensity. See how the
shadows and highlights define the object.
When you have all three the object appears solid and real.
Chapter 2, Fig. 18
Let’s go
through a picture with more than one object.
What do you do to handle the planes with numerous objects? Let’s do three onions as a still life.
Just
like with the single object, I put a border around the arrangement making sure
that the object touches each side. If I
do not touch the border, my proportions may be off. This is critical. I treat the arrangement as a single object.
This is
the box around the arrangement of three onions.
You will notice I outline them all as if
they are all in the same plane. Once
again the negative space defines the grouping of the onions. I will draw the onions by defining and
redefining the negative spaces to accommodate each value I render in the
drawing.
You can
see how I have defined the grouping.
Each side has a place where the arrangement touches.
This is
the basic onion arrangement. I will use
the plastic sheet protectors as layers. This
way we
can see the many aspects of separate values in one viewing. 
Chapter 2, Fig 22
With
this dry erase ink on various plastic protective sheet layers, I can show 4
values. By layering them I can be sure
I have correctly selected the value areas.
Later
when you are working directly from a photo you can lay the plastic on the photo
and then isolate the values and then transfer them to your larger drawing by
sighting the places they fit.
This one shows where the shadows are of the
deepest intensity. This shows four
levels of intensity. But even in the
shadow you can find various levels if you look closely.
This is the finished drawing of
onions.
I have
an example of my work using this method.
This is
an example of a graphite and charcoal drawing of a soda cracker. As you can see
there are five values that define the object.
Look closely you will see the darkest part of this drawing was done with
charcoal. It had the intensity of dark
that I needed.
A tip: When you are not sure of the
intensities of the values, move a lamp close to the object. This will help establish the highlights as
well as shadows. I used it in my
rendition of the crackers.
The
supplies I normally use are: a piece of
paper, Newsprint pad is best. a number 2
pencil, plastic eraser, ruler, and a support board preferably 16”x20” to which
you tape the paper for drawing.
When it
is very humid, I wrap my drawing hand with a plastic sandwich sack to keep the
graphite of the pencil from smudging.
This
should get you started.
Enjoy!
