25 Days to Better Drawings: Texture Study #1

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This course features:
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Lesson Description

Learn the two key components that lead to the illusion of texture in a drawing. Apply concepts to draw the texture of wood.

Lesson Materials

Graphite drawing pencils: H, HB, 2B, white drawing paper, and a blending stump.

Lesson Resources

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Reference Image

Course Curriculum

Lesson 1: Materials and Mindset (10:07)Lesson 2: Drawing with Lines (25:29)Lesson 3: Drawing Ellipses (18:26)Lesson 4: Drawing with Shapes (15:56)Lesson 5: Line Quality (13:10)Lesson 6: Cross Contour Lines (11:32)Lesson 7: Shading with Line (38:49)Lesson 8: Value (10:52)Lesson 9: Light and Shadow (11:58)Lesson 10: Drawing Basic Forms (17:25)Lesson 11: Drawing with Forms (21:12)Lesson 12: Texture Study #1 (28:54)Lesson 13: Texture Study #2 (49:20)Lesson 14: Texture Study #3 (17:31)Lesson 15: The Illusion of Space (16:33)Lesson 16: One Point Perspective (46:39)Lesson 17: Two Point Perspective (48:35)Lesson 18: Three Point Perspective (54:30) Lesson 19: Sighting, Measuring, and Mapping (10:02)Lesson 20: Positive and Negative Space (8:13)Lesson 21: The Grid Technique (11:07)Lesson 22: Basic Facial Proportions (41:52)Lesson 23: Figure Drawing (1:03:53)Lesson 24: Drawing in Reverse (16:29)Lesson 25: Conclusion / Final Exercise (3:56)

Lesson Discussion

  2. It is quite cool! Never thought of drawing a wood texture possible. I am excited with my first try and would love to practice more.

    • Wow, Matt. Paradoxily, your drawing looks much more like a piece of wood than the reference does. Despite it being a tidious exercize, I look forward to give it a go. You are an excellent teacher.

  3. Thank you so much for these courses!! I’m a self-taught visual artist and already, as a new person here, I have way more confidence and skill. <3

  5. Wow! I am really enjoying your teaching methods and your knowledge. This is my first course and several times I think….wow! That looks hard. Don’t know if I can do this. But as you assure your students and demonstrate the techniques, low and behold….I can do it!thanks so much. Learning so much already.

  6. Reiterating what everyone else has said here..you are such a fabulous teacher! I love listening to your tips as you draw and am rapidly building basic skills here! As a former homeschool mom who is now embarking on new adventures in learning of my own, I truly appreciate the manner in which you encourage and build confidence with insightful fundamental truths about the learning process. 👏👏👏👏👏

  8. I love watching you draw. I Love doing animal drawings. I have some trouble making chubby short haired dogs. How do you make chubby rolls look real??? You had a class on making material folds look real. Cant’t seem to find the class? Thought it might help me.
    Thanks for all your help!
    Maxine

  10. I have to say, I can not believe how easy it is to follow your instructions. I look forward to carving out time each day to keep progressing through the program.

  12. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull this off, but with your excellent step by step instructions, my wood texture drawing came out rather nice.

  13. Thank you Matt, this exercise helps me to experiment with different values, I could use it in a pastel of a puppy, You gave me the courage to concentrate on contrast. Much better than the Robins. It is a joy to work with your instructions. Thank you

  14. This might be a obvious question but … Is it the layers of pencil from light to dark what makes the depth of the black? Is it like colored pencil in that it is a layered process? One shouldn’t expect the same with say with a 4b only and not starting with the H ? Thank you for the class

  15. Great Matt I just watched this lesson, going to now give it a go it looks as if it could be so therapeutic also satisfying! Can I ask how do you keep the blending stubs clean do you sharpen them ?
    Jan

  17. I enjoyed this exercise. As with the skull in the previous exercise, when I first looked at the photo reference, I didn’t think I would be able to draw it. It seemed so overwhelming. I love the way you talk through each exercise as you go, it is so helpful. I learn things from your narration as you work. Your voice is so soothing and calming too. It’s almost like you’re in a zone and the exercise becomes quite meditative.

    When I first blended, the drawing ended up a blurred mess. I obviously used too much pressure on the blending stick. I then went back with the H pencil and started again over the blended drawing. In the end, it looked pretty good.

    I’m really learning a lot from this course Matt. Thank you so much!

  20. Thanks for your excellent instruction. I adore wood and have been trying to get it to look right and after this lesson, I feel it came out pretty good. I’ll practice this one all day. Thanks again.

  21. Hi Matt
    I find myself using what you are drawing as my model rather than looking at the picture and trying to do it from that. Is that a good approach, or is it better to do it on my own and not rely on your interpretation as my model? With the skull in the previous exercise I didn’t easily see the things you were talking about until I saw you draw them.

    • Hi Richard,

      If it helps, you can draw from the drawing. At some point, you’ll want to start looking at the reference photo so that you can begin to recognize the shapes, lines, values, etc. on your own.

      • I find the best method that works for me is to watch the entire video all the way through once. The second time through, I stop, look at the reference, look at how YOU are interpreting that same reference, and then I try it myself from looking at the reference. This exercise in particular, I ended up not looking at the reference enough- and the result was obvious. While it looked kinda/sorta woodlike, i wasn’t happy with it.. I made a 2nd attempt, this time forcing myself to stop, look again at the reference MORE often throughout, and the result was much much better. It proved to me that I need to SLOW DOWN. Thanks for a great lesson!

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