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In my Art Diary: Slow and Steady (Part II), I have mentioned that I struggled again with drawing since September started without any particular reason. Gladly #steemit was introduced to me mid-October and made me really excited to share things I am very passionate about. And although I wanted to share as soon as possible, it was really hard for me to start drawing and I kept on procrastinating. Until four days ago, I took out the printed figure drawing of Alessandro Franchi and started copying it. I just told myself that I cannot end my October without doing or starting anything.

And today, I finally finished my first figure drawing and I am over the moon.

But before we jump right into the process, let me share to you the materials I used in completing this figure drawing.

1. Staedtler Mars Lumograph (4H, F, 2B, and 4B)
2. Faber Castell's Kneaded Eraser
3. Regular white, hard eraser
4. Cutter & sandpaper for sharpening the pencils the right way.
5. Canson Mi-Teintes (I used the cream color.)

And that's about it! Now for the process...

First, please take into consideration that I am a self-taught artist. My opinions might not sit well with how things should be done, especially when you are a professional artist reading this post, but then I can only speak from my own experience. And secondly, I've done so many shortcuts because I got impatient thus the bad proportion and value. Do not fret! I will go through everything and will try to explain as thoroughly as I can

LET'S BEGIN

1. Start by blocking in the drawing.

The block-in method is simply seeing the bigger picture and translating it onto paper in a designed manner. Sometimes, we are quicker to draw details because we are accustomed to seeing it first rather than the bigger picture. But in order to have a solid anatomical foundation, we must first establish our bigger picture with utmost precision. In other words, we must not rush this stage.

Read: The Block-in, Part 1 and Part 2 by Georgetown Atelier

Unfortunately, I was impatient and directly went for a more detailed block-in, called a construct, which resulted to an inaccurate proportion. (You will notice in my final drawing that the man looks stout compared to the master copy. And the weight of the body looks odd and unbalanced.)

Ways to block-in:

(1) Get the envelope of the subject. The biggest shape. Meaning, you must measure the farthest right, left, top, and bottom, and connect all those 4 points together. (2) Break down the envelope. Start with 8-12 lines only. Get the bigger shapes and stop yourself from doing too much detailing. (3) If you have a complex drawing, i.e. curved/curled up, start by getting the gesture or the body flow of the drawing.

Note: Please remember to be precise in doing this because this will determine your proportion, and proportion is very crucial in a successful drawing, most especially a figure one.

Read: 5 Ways to Start a Figure Drawing by thedrawingsource

If you are wondering what a construct is — a construct of a drawing is the detailed breakdown of shapes where your lines correlate to one another. Have you heard about transferring the drawing onto the canvas for painting? If yes, then it is the construct of the drawing that they are transferring, of course after a whole lot of correction. Is it safe to say that a construct is your most precise structure and you must be confident with it before doing the next step. (My construct looks crappy though.)

2. Massing in the shadow of the drawing.

In this stage, massing in the shadow of the drawing means unifying the shadow shape(s) in one value. Doing this means we are dividing the light and shadow pattern in a simpler way, so we can break it down again later on when we render our lightest light and darkest dark.

Value Drawing - The Key to Realism by thedrawingsource

I mainly used HB pencil since it is also the "middle" value in my pencils; not too hard, not too soft. In between. And I occasionally used the grade 4H as well.

The only difference between the photos above is that I used brush in the 2nd one that is why it looks more smooth. The mistake I did in this stage is that I went all out without being as refined as possible which resulted into ruined paper's tooth or the paper's surface. The values added later on looked really waxy and it's something I do not like seeing. It is also the stage when your kneaded eraser is needed. (Yep! Drop it like it's nothing.) If you want to have an even value, you need to use the eraser to lift off some graphite from the drawing, and the you can again start shading if you've erased to much value. Keep in mind that you should be gentle in rendering and do not pressed the pencil too hard.

I also think that I didn't use a good paper and dindn't sharpen my pencil well. Check the links below for recommended papers and on how to sharpen your pencils well for fine rendering.

The Best Drawing Paper For Graphite Pencil by Carol Rosinski
Pencil Sharpening Secrets by Jennifer Marie

3. Rendering light and shadow, plus looking out for edges.

Now this is the fun and most challenging part for me next to building a construct. Shadow is basically the part of an object that don't receive too much light from the light source, while edges is the meeting up or a boundary of light and shadow in your subject (form + background). In this stage, it is very crucial to relate your value to one another. And it'll be handy to have your own value scale. Check the link below on how to make your own value scale.

How to Draw a Value Scale by thedrawingsource

In rendering the shadow, I first use my 2B pencil for the darker shadows, and then I use HB as I gradually turn the value to the lighter part, and then finally using my 4H to refine the lighter part of the subject. I then use 4B to further darker some edges but the pencil should barely touch the surface and it should be very sharp to avoid darkening the shadows unnecessarily.

Please remember to use the right grades of pencils because no amount of control can give you the result you want if you use the wrong tool. Again, I am basing it in my experiences.

Click the links below to understand more about shadow and edges:

Value, Light and Form by thedrawingsource
Sphere Drawing Tutorial by thedrawingsource
Lost and Found Edges by artgraphica

I refine the shadows and light on repeat until I am finally satisfied with the outcome.

This process usually takes me days and days of work. I suggest that before you start drawing a figure, you need to do the Bargue Drawing course because it helped me immensely with my value and proportion.

Go check out The Da Vinci Initiative over at Youtube to have free access of the course! You can thank me later.

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Fancy reading related articles I published before? Click the links below!

Copying Bargue Plates
Art Diary: Slow And Steady (Part I)
Art Diary: Slow And Steady (Part II)
Be Gritty, Keep Moving

I sincerely hope you learned something from my post! If you have questions, comment down below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Check my Facebook and Website pages as well!

Thank you and namaste!

Regards,
A. Olaivart