Elephant Drawing with Charcoal

In this charcoal drawing lesson, we’ll draw an elephant with charcoal in about an hour. Here’s a look at the finished drawing…

We’ll use a photo reference to complete the drawing. Here’s a look at the photo reference…

Benefits of Drawing with Charcoal

Maybe you’ve used charcoal before or maybe you’ve seen charcoal drawings and been intimidated. If you’ve used charcoal before and thought it was just a super messy medium that’s hard to control, I get that. But I really like charcoal because it is the most forgiving drawing medium out there and it forces you to think more like a painter. If you’re looking for a medium to transition from traditional drawing to painting, especially with an opaque painting medium like oils or acrylics, charcoal is a wonderful gateway medium to do so.

For this drawing, we’ll use vine or willow charcoal applied to Strathmore 400 series white sulfate drawing paper. We’ll also use compressed charcoal in the form of a charcoal pencil to make the values as dark as they need to be. We’ll use a blending stump to manipulate the charcoal on the surface, as well as a couple of erasers. We’ll use a kneaded eraser and we’ll also use a vinyl eraser for precision erasing.

Sketching the Contours of the Elephant

We’ll begin here with a small, skinny stick of vine charcoal. I’m going to start at the top of the picture plane, locating the top edge of the elephant. I’m going to make little small marks and indications where the edges of the ears are located and where they begin in relationship to the edges of the picture plane. I’m using the edges of the picture plane, which is proportional to the photo reference, to analyze the negative space between the edges of the picture plane and the edges of the elephant to find these initial marks.

We’ll begin working our way down from our initial marks, continuing to define the edges of the ears and also the beginnings of the head of the elephant. I’m holding my stick more like a pastel instead of like a pencil. This allows me to move my arm a little bit more freely and make looser marks. In fact, this drawing is going to be fairly loose and it’s going to go through multiple stages. We don’t need to worry about getting everything perfectly right because the vine charcoal is easily smeared and smudges very easily.

We’ll go ahead and get an indication of where the broken tusk is located and also the edge of the leg of the elephant. We started at the top of the picture plane making comparisons with the edges of the picture plane to find the ears and the head and the trunk, and then as we work our way down, we can use the shapes of the ears, the trunk, and the head to find the rest of the edges of the elephant, including the back edge of the body of the elephant and one of the rear legs.

I can’t express to you how important it is to remain loose and not try to be too controlled with these initial applications. Follow your instinct and make a mark where it feels right. You can always change these marks later in the process as you’ll see that I do very frequently.

At this point, you can see some of the smudging that’s occurring from the edges of my fingers by running over the top of the vine charcoal. Again, vine charcoal is so soft and easily manipulated that it is going to smudge a bit, which is completely fine. We can clean up the drawing later.

Shading the Drawing of an Elephant

Now we’ll smudge the marks that we made initially. These lines are too hard and the edges are too rough and defined. When we do this, we’re also creating some areas of middle value, so we’re starting to push that value range already in this early part of the process.

With a larger piece of vine charcoal, I’m going to start looking at some of the broader shapes of darker value. Value is the darkness or lightness of color. It’s the most important of the elements of art. Value tells us about the form of subjects. It also can tell us about the texture, the intensity of the light source and the location of the light source. Value is incredibly important. At this stage of the drawing, instead of looking for edges, I’m looking for shapes.

We’re starting to define the areas of shadow, and at the same time we’re also defining some of the areas of highlight. It’s okay to get really dark at this stage. We’re going to go back and make some lighter marks using an eraser.

If you’re having trouble seeing the areas of dark value or the shapes of dark value, it might be helpful to squint at the subject that you are analyzing, in this case our elephant. If you squint your eyes a little bit, it’s a little bit easier to see the shapes of darker value.

Since we’re concentrating on the shapes of value that we see, we need to make sure that we don’t get overwhelmed by the details. It’s easy to look at a subject like this and see all the wrinkles, all the details and get overwhelmed, especially if you’re used to drawing with graphite or pen and ink or some other medium that requires precision. With charcoal though, it’s more of a process that’s akin to painting, where we’re looking for shapes of value in order to create the illusion of form.

Now, we need darker values, we need middle values, but we also need those stronger highlights. With a kneaded eraser, we can begin erasing out highlights.

Most of these lighter values exist on the upper portion of the elephant because the light source is coming from above, but we are still going to see some hints of lighter value at the bottom of the body as well where light is hitting some of the legs.

For a lot of people who are new to working with charcoal, going through these different stages may seem frustrating and it may seem like your drawing is not developing in the way that you want it to be, especially if you’re a detail-oriented person. But you have to trust the process and you have to go through these stages in order to create a drawing that’s loose and somewhat expressive. Allow the process to happen and don’t allow yourself to get obsessed with the details. Again, just concentrate on the relationships of values and the shapes that you see and allow the drawing to slowly emerge from the paper.

As you might imagine, cleaning up your drawing as you go through the process is important as well. You don’t want your finished drawing to look messy or disheveled, so cleaning up stray areas of charcoal on the surface is important as well.

It’s time for a little bit more precision. For precision erasing, I use a Tombow MONO eraser. This is a vinyl eraser that has a precise tip for an eraser. This will allow me to begin the process of erasing out some of the smaller shapes of value, which will translate into details.

The drawback to using this eraser is that it does leave some eraser shavings on the surface, and since our surface is so delicate at this point, when you wipe away some of the eraser shavings, it is going to move some of the charcoal around. But thankfully we can go back and make changes as we have throughout the process to fix these little areas of smeared charcoal.

Then it’s back to our larger stick of vine charcoal. Again, reestablishing some of those darker tones. At this point, we’re starting to get a broader range of value, and slowly the form of the elephant is starting to take shape.

Developing Details on the Elephant

Like with any drawing or painting that you might create, it’s important to be patient and allow the process to play out. Try not to allow yourself to be frustrated. Again, this is a sketch that I completed within an hour, so this is not a completed drawing by any means. This is a sketch, so keep that in your mind while you’re working and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to feel like you need to have a nice drawing at all of the stages of the process.

At this point in the drawing, I have enough of a base application of vine charcoal. It’s time to switch to compressed charcoal. Compressed charcoal is considerably darker than vine charcoal. It’s also more difficult to erase. I am applying this compressed charcoal using a charcoal pencil. This is going to allow us to define some of the details. But we also have to do so with the understanding that erasing these marks is going to be considerably more difficult. That’s why I like to reserve compressed charcoal applications for the end of the drawing process.

We basically have created somewhat of an underpainting with our vine charcoal applications and now we’re refining the drawing with the compressed charcoal. You’ll notice how much considerably darker the compressed charcoal is compared to the vine charcoal. This is going to allow us to create rich areas of dark value where the shadows are at their strongest.

Creating a drawing like this may feel like you’re creating lots of different drawings because you go through so many stages when you’re developing the image, which is perfectly acceptable. Each time you go over an area you’ll see new details and new bits of information that you can add to the drawing to make it more representational.

We’ll continue adding our areas of darkest value using the compressed charcoal pencil. As we apply this compressed charcoal, we can see that the contrast in the image is starting to get stronger. This makes the illusion of the light source even stronger as well, and it increases the intensity of the light within the scene.

At this point in the drawing, our drawing of an elephant is actually starting to look more like an elephant. The details are starting to emerge from the surface and we have created a more broad, full-range value, and the form is also translating pretty nicely as well.

Completing the Drawing of an Elephant

We can continue to work back and forth between the compressed charcoal applications and also the eraser to continue to clean up the drawing and also add additional details.

We’ll use the compressed charcoal at the bottom to add some of the grass blades and smooth those applications with the blending stump. We’ll also use the precise eraser to pull out some lighter marks. You can see that grass blades in the extreme foreground are overlapping the bottom portion of the elephant, so we can use this eraser to pull out some of these lighter grass blades. Again, we’re not going to get too wrapped up in the details here. We want to just give the impression of some grass at the bottom.

Then we’ll continue to refine some of the areas a bit further with the compressed charcoal pencil. We’ll add a few smaller indications of some wrinkles and also darken up some of the areas around the eyes. Then we’ll pull out a few more highlights using the precise eraser.

You can bring your drawing to as much detail as you wish, continuing to look for the areas of dark and light value, but at this point, I’ve decided that my drawing is finished since I’ve spent an hour on it already.

Charcoal Drawing of an Elephant – Conclusion

Now our drawing is complete. I hope that if you followed along, you see how forgiving charcoal can be and what a wonderful medium it is for drawing. If you’re patient, allow for some “messiness”, and concentrate on shapes of value instead of details, you’ll find success with this traditional drawing medium.

Improve Your Drawing Skills with Exercises

In this drawing lesson, I’ll share eight drawing exercises guaranteed to improve your skills. Drawing is a skill that anyone can learn and develop. It requires some knowledge and a lot of practice. Unfortunately, some of us don’t really understand how to practice drawing. But hopefully, these drawing exercises will get you on the right track.

Drawing Exercise #1 – Continuous Line Drawing

With a continuous line drawing, you start by making a mark anywhere on your surface but you don’t lift your pencil at all. You continue to make a continuous line, moving your pen or pencil from one section to the next within the drawing. This exercise helps to improve hand eye coordination and also your observational skills. You get accustomed to moving your eyes over the subject that you’re observing and also making marks that reflect what you see. You can use any medium that you wish for this exercise. It doesn’t take very long, and it’s an excellent exercise for your sketchbook.

See also: Continuous Line Drawing

Drawing Exercise #2 – Cross Contour Line Drawing

Contour lines are outlines. They typically define the edges or the edges of details within a subject. Cross contour lines however, flow over the form of the subject. Cross contour lines are sometimes visible on the subjects themselves, but mostly these lines are implied lines. You can imagine cross contour lines if you were to take your finger and move it over the form of the subject. These lines can be both horizontal or vertical.

Understanding cross contour lines and applying them to a drawing is very important. We can use cross contour lines to define form and value. You can practice drawing and understanding cross contour lines with any subject that you wish. With this drawing of a banana above, we’ve drawn the contour lines. Then we drew cross contour lines over the length of the banana, followed by cross contour lines over the width of the banana. You can see that this helps us better understand the form of the banana in three-dimensional space.

Drawing Exercise #3 – Upside Down Drawing

With this drawing exercise, you are to draw the subject upside down. Simply turn your reference upside down and draw what you see. This forces your mind to pay special attention to the shapes and relationships that you see, enhancing your observational skills. It takes the part out of your mind that makes you want to draw what you think you see instead of what you are actually seeing.

Drawing Exercise #4 – Value Study

For this drawing exercise, begin by creating a value scale and then three small swatches. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color. A value scale represents (in this case) six different values, from the darkest dark to the lightest light.

For your first drawing, you’ll draw a subject using only two values. This means that if your values exist on the lower portion of the value scale, we assign the darkest value. If your values fall anywhere on the upper part of the value scale, or a lighter value, then we assign white as the value. You end up with a two-tone drawing of black and white shapes.

For the second drawing, you’ll draw the same subject, but this time we’ll assign three values. So we’ll still have white as a value and black as a value, but this time we’ll incorporate our middle value on the value scale to represent the middle values that we observe. This forces us to decide which value needs to go darker or lighter and which value needs to be assigned a middle value. In this case, we end up with a drawing with three values – black, white, and a middle gray.

For your third drawing, you’ll use all six values on the value scale. This means that we’ll assign the values based on the values that we actually see. So for this third drawing, we can have gradations or slow changes of value from dark to light. This is a complete drawing. But if you do this in order, you’ll notice that you pay special attention and closer attention to the values that you observe and you better replicate them in your drawings. Value is the most important element of art, so this drawing exercise is especially important if you want to get better at drawing.

Drawing Exercise #5 – The Square of Patience

For this drawing exercise, take any photo that you wish and take a small square out of that photo. Then create a three inch by three inch square on your drawing paper and spend at least two hours drawing that one three inch by three inch square. What you end up with is a small portion of a larger drawing. This exercise makes you realize how important it is to be patient and work slowly in your drawings.

Drawing Exercise #6 – Timed Drawings

For this exercise, we’ll create three drawings of the same subject, each with different timed amounts. For the first, you’ll just spend one minute on the drawing. For the second drawing, spend five minutes. And then for your third drawing, spend 30 minutes.

This drawing exercise helps us out in a couple of ways. One, it improves our drawing speed. It helps us understand what elements we need to include and what elements we can leave out in order to communicate a subject to the viewer. It also helps us with our observational skills. If we do this in order, starting with the one-minute, then the five-minute drawing, and then finally the 30-minute drawing, we notice things in our 30-minute drawing that we might not have noticed initially with our first drawing. In other words, it helps us to see as an artist. We notice details and changes in values that we might not have noticed originally.

Timed Drawing Exercise – Gettin’Sketchy – Season 9

Drawing Exercise #7 – Gesture Drawing

Gesture drawing typically refers to drawing the human figure quickly. Sometimes we can create a gesture drawing with just one mark. Here again, timing your drawings is especially important. Start with a one-minute or five-minute or even 10-minute drawing, using just a few lines to describe your figurative subject. The point of gesture drawing is not to create a finished drawing. Instead, it’s to create a line or a series of lines that represent the pose or position that the figure is in. You can use a gesture drawing as a base for a more complete drawing, or as a simple exercise.

Gesture drawings can be created with any medium that you wish. Gesture drawings aren’t meant to be long drawings. Instead, they’re meant to be quick sketches. Gesture drawing will undoubtedly improve your figure drawing skills, but it will also improve your skills in drawing in general. You’ll get better at observing the shapes that you need to replicate in drawing and you’ll also get faster at drawing.

See also: Gesture Drawing

Drawing Exercise #8 – Black Drawing Paper

We’re all accustomed to making dark marks on a white surface. This is traditionally the way all of us start drawing. But drawing with a white media or colored media on black paper forces us to pay attention to the highlights and all of the values that we see, not just the dark values. At first, drawing on black paper with a white medium takes some getting used to. But once you get accustomed to it, it improves your drawing overall. You get better at observing and understanding the values that you see. Value is the most important element of art. You get the value right, you’re going to get your drawing right.

See also: Drawing on Black Paper

Erasers Are Not Just For Mistakes

Erasers can be used for much more than fixing mistakes. In fact, erasers can be used as a mark making tool. In this drawing lesson, we’re going to cover the basics of four different types of erasers that you’re most likely to use in your drawings.

The Rubber Eraser

There are four main types of erasers, and we’ll take a look at each one of these individually. We’ll start with one of the most common forms of eraser, the rubber eraser. This is referred to as a rubber eraser since it was originally created using rubbers, but these days, cheaper products are typically used.

When a rubber eraser is used, it basically smears the graphite on the surface when a light touch is applied. With a heavier touch, more of the graphite is removed. This eraser lifts off the graphite as it crumbles or falls apart, leaving eraser shavings. These can be easily wiped away using a drafting brush.

The Gum Eraser

The next eraser is called a gum eraser. Of all of the erasers, this eraser is the most gentle to your drawing paper. When it’s applied, it crumbles. It literally falls apart as it removes the graphite from the surface. The paper is hardly damaged at all and the tooth of the paper is preserved. This eraser does a fairly good job of removing the graphite. You will see eraser shavings, which need to be wiped away with a drafting brush.

Typically, I don’t use a gum eraser for altering artworks. Instead, I use it most often to clean up edges around finished artwork or to clean mats before I mat and frame a piece of artwork. These erasers are great for cleaning the surface if there are small marks before starting on the finished artwork.

Vinyl or Plastic Erasers

The next eraser is called a vinyl or plastic eraser. This eraser is the toughest of the bunch and is capable of lifting graphite completely from the surface. One drawback is that it can damage your paper if you’re not careful. This eraser doesn’t require too much effort to remove the graphite from the surface. While this eraser does leave some shavings, for the most part, they’re larger pieces that stick together, making them a little bit easier to remove. Because vinyl or plastic erasers are so tough, they can be used in an eraser holder. This allows the artists to erase with more precision.

I often use vinyl or plastic erasers to remove some of the material from the surface to create highlights.

Vinyl or plastic erasers are strong enough to erase colored pencils in some situations and are also used in electric erasers. This eraser is super strong and allows for precision.

Kneaded Eraser

The fourth type of eraser is a kneaded eraser. Kneaded erasers are perhaps the most versatile eraser of the bunch. They’re definitely the softest and require the most effort to remove the graphite from the surface. One of the advantages of using a kneaded eraser is that you can mold it into any shape that you wish, creating a variety of different marks.

A kneaded eraser lifts the graphite without leaving any residue at all. It also preserves the tooth or texture of the paper. You can use a kneaded eraser to just dab the surface, gently lifting up the graphite from surface, preserving the texture underneath.

For nearly every drawing that I create, I have a kneaded eraser on hand. It’s definitely my favorite eraser. It gently lifts up the material and it can also be used to clean up the edges of finished artworks.

This eraser is also great for erasing any pencil marks that might remain over, perhaps a pen and ink drawing. This eraser will remove the graphite marks, but preserve the ink drawing.

Most of the other erasers we’ve covered will smear some of the material, but a kneaded eraser can be used with a dabbing motion to lift up the material, creating a lighter appearance.

Best Erasers for Drawing – Conclusion

So there you have it, four of the most common erasers used by artists to create drawings. My favorites are the vinyl eraser and the kneaded eraser. Each eraser has its place in creating drawings, and every artist will have their favorite.

Drawing Reflective Metal Surfaces

In this drawing lesson, I’m going to show you how easy it can be to draw a seemingly complex subject in a realistic manner. The secret to drawing reflective surfaces, like metal, is to pay close attention to the contrast in values. Often, we see dark values right next to light values. If you get this contrast right and the shapes of different values, then your drawing will look representational.

Here’s a look at the completed drawing…

Materials and Surface

For this drawing, I’ll be working on Strathmore toned gray sketch paper. This is a wonderful work surface to work on, especially when you’re using white and dark media together. This provides a nice medium toned surface to work from, so that’ll allow us to push our values lighter and darker throughout the process. Initially, I’m going to be sketching things out with just a simple H graphite pencil, but then we’ll switch over to Staedtler Mars Lumograph black pencils. We’ll start with the HB pencil initially, before switching over to the 4B, and then finally the 6B. And I’ll also be using a white charcoal pencil for the light values, and for blending, I’ll be using an assortment of blending tortillons.

The Photo Reference

I’m going to be working from a photo reference that I took of a spoon that I actually own. Here’s a look at the photo reference…

Drawing the Contours of the Spoon

First, I mark the top of the spoon, and then I mark the bottom of the top part of the spoon. Then finally, we find where the lower handle ends. I mark the width with just a couple of loose marks of the top of the spoon, and also the bottom of the spoon.

Once I have these measurements in place, I can confidently start at the top of the spoon with the H graphite pencil, sketching out the difficult shape. This is somewhat of an egg shape, but you can see it flattens out quite a bit at the bottom. So I’m using looser strokes here, making multiple marks on the surface so I can find the correct mark. Next, I simplify the edges of the outer contour of the spoon as I work down.

I’ll go ahead and draw a few contour lines for the shadow and the cast shadow that exists behind the spoon. Our light source is originating from the left side, this is going to create an area of cast shadow on the right side. With a sharpened H pencil, and a little bit of a slower approach, I can begin to refine the sketch.

See also: How to Sharpen Any Pencil Like a Pro

Now this is a very complex subject, even though it is just a simple spoon, there is quite a lot of changes in value. Instead of trying to figure out the patterns that I see I’m focusing on areas where I see contrast in value. So in other words, where I see a dark right next to a light, I’m sketching a quick loose line there. We don’t have to draw all those little tiny intricate lines that we see. Just plan out the areas of contrast.

Developing the Values on the Spoon – Shading

I’m going to start with the HB black pencil with a very light application. One of the things that you need to keep in mind if you do decide to tackle this drawing is that you have to have some patience, so this is going to take a little bit of mental energy.

What I like to do is work very slowly for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then take a three to five minute break while looking at my drawing. This allows me to take the drawing in pieces, which makes it a little bit more easy to complete the drawing. This gives my mind a little bit of a rest. As I’m adding this very light application of material on the surface, I’m thinking about the darker values but I’m also leaving open the areas of highlight because the white charcoal will not cover over the top of a graphite pencil or this black pencil. We have to be mindful of where these highlights are located so that we can add the white charcoal in those locations.

You can see I’m starting to plan out some of the slightly darker areas with another application of the HB graphite, before switching over to the blending tortillon. I’m going to start blending some of the material into the tooth or texture of the paper, creating more of a smoother appearance. But even though I’m using a blending stump here, I am thinking about the blending stump being a mark-making tool. I’m continuing to go back and forth between my photo reference and the drawing surface, continually making comparisons between what I see and the marks that are developing on my paper.

Before we go any darker, we’ll go ahead and switch over to the white charcoal pencil. I’m going to use this pencil to put down those strong highlights that exist at the top of the spoon and I’ll also start to put in some of the subtle highlights as well.

I can switch over to the 4B black pencil and start making some of the values a bit darker. In this part of the process, I’m going to start creating some of those subtle changes in value in some of the dark locations. I’m going to bump up the contrast just a little bit so that there’s a little bit more detail visible in my reflection.

This next section underneath the top part of the spoon is quite a bit darker, so I’m starting here again with the HB graphite pencil. But I’m applying a bit more of the material here initially. In this section, we don’t have to really worry about the details, we just allow the details to come out of the drawing. I’m just concentrating on darks and lights that I see and I’m placing those darks and lights in a similar location on my drawing. I’m not getting wrapped up in all of those intricate details. If you do, you’ll either end up with a drawing that appears really stiff and maybe even a little bit cartoony looking. So allow yourself some freedom, but also just pay attention to the darks and lights, the shapes that you see, and place them in your drawing in a similar location.

Working our way to the lower part of the handle of the spoon, we’re going to start with the HB pencil. We’ll work our way all the way to the bottom. There is quite a bit of detail, but instead of focusing on the detail, we’re going to focus on the relationships between darks and the lights and the shapes that we see. So it might be beneficial to put out of your mind that you’re drawing a spoon or even that you’re drawing this detailed relief section on the spoon. Instead, just concentrate on the shapes that you see. This is absolutely fundamental to drawing and painting.

Now our spoon looks like it’s floating, so let’s add a shadow to make this a lot more realistic. For this, I’m going to go ahead and start with the 6B pencil. You’ll notice on the cast shadow underneath the top part of the spoon there is a little bit of a transition. I’m going to release a bit of pressure as I go outward from that area. The rest of the shadow is pretty solid. It is slightly lighter in the middle portion where a bit of light gets underneath the spoon.

Drawing a Metal Spoon – Conclusion

Now our drawing of a spoon is complete. And even though we didn’t focus on details, we can clearly see them defined in the final drawing. Here’s another look at the completed drawing…

Drawing with Black and White Ink

In this pen and ink lesson, we’ll take a look at drawing a bird in the snow using a combination of black ink, markers and white ink on gray sketch paper. You’ll learn how to use black and white ink to create strong contrast and a full range of value.

We’ll work from observation, using a photo reference. Here’s a look at the photo reference used for this drawing…

We’ll use technical black drawing pens by Staedtler, white gels pens, a white Posca marker, and a few gray scale alcohol-based markers. The paper is Strathmore Toned Gray Sketch paper. We’ll also use an H graphite pencil for sketching the subject.

Sketching The Bird with Graphite

The picture plane measures eight inches across by seven inches tall. I’m using this picture plane to make comparisons with the edges of the picture plane and where the edges of the body of the bird are located. First, I plan out where the top of the head’s going to be located and then, the bottom of the body.

I start drawing my basic shapes, making comparisons between the edges of the picture plane. As each shape is added, I can use this information to make comparisons to ensure accuracy in the shapes that follow.

Add a Light Marker Underpainting

With our sketch in place, we’re ready to start with our marker applications. We’ll use the marker applications as an underpainting. I begin with a 20% warm gray. It’s barely visible on the surface of the paper, because these two grays are pretty similar. I like to start cautiously and gradually darken the values.

After our light applications with the 20% warm gray, we can switch to the 50% warm gray. It’s quite a bit darker and more visible on the surface. We want to be careful, in these early stages, that we don’t get too dark too quickly. We do have the advantage of using the white media that we’ll be applying later in the process, but we still need to work a little cautiously here in the beginning.

Marks added over the branch should curve over the form of the branch. This adds the value obviously, but it also gives us a little bit of information about texture and, more importantly, the form of this particular section.

Shading and Texture with Pen and Ink on the Bird

For now, we’ll go ahead and switch over to our pen and ink applications. For this entire drawing, I use the 0.1 Pigment Liner by Staedtler. Marks flow in the direction that’s consistent with how the small little feathers grow on the head. So it’s very important to think about your directional stroking, especially when you’re using a medium like pen and ink.

Although pen and ink is considered more of a precise technical medium, you can still be rather loose with your applications and still end up with a rather tight drawing. So don’t be afraid to let your hand be a little bit loose when you’re making these marks. If you overtighten or clinch up a little bit, you’re going to find that your marks are too controlled and your drawing will look lifeless.

In the areas where we see lighter values, we’re going to leave those spaces open for now. We’re going to address those a bit later with the white media, but for now, we’re concentrating on the values that exist on the lower part of the value scale or the darker values.

On the talons, we’ll allow these marks to curve over the curved surface. These are called cross contour lines and they help to communicate the form and the texture, while developing the value. And speaking of the branch, we’ll continue down on the branch, with the pen and ink applications. Here again, I’m adding more variety in my mark, leaving some spaces open, but more importantly, I’m making sure that my directional stroking is flowing over the form of the branch.

Adding White Ink to the Body of the Bird

Next, we’ll go ahead and move on to our white media. I start with a gel pen, adding the highlight in the eye and the highlights around the beak. There’s also a bit of snow on the beak here as well. At first, this isn’t going to make very much sense in our drawing, but once we get all the other bits of snow in place and all of the light values, it’ll make more sense. Initially, you can see how much contrast there is when we start applying the white pen.

We’ll go ahead and start working with the white gel pen into the white or light areas in the body of the bird, and we’ll allow some of the pen and ink applications to show through. Of course, the breast of the bird is where we’re going to see the strongest highlight, since our light source is originating from the left side. So we’re going to have a heavier application on the breast of the bird with the white media.

You’ll notice the white gel pen is not quite as consistent with the mark making as the black ink pens, so you’ll need to keep this in mind, of course. Having a somewhat broken line is oftentimes encouraged. Again, that creates more of a realistic appearance.

More Marker

With a good bit of white and black ink on the surface, we can evaluate the values. I see that some grays should be darker. I switch over to the 70% warm gray, which is a much darker marker. Most of these darker values that I add at this point exist on the underside of the shape of lighter value at the top of the head.

We’ll continue with this marker a little bit further down, making some of these areas just slightly darker. Then it’s back with the gel pen, adding a few more highlights.

Next, we switch over to the Posca marker, filling in the shapes of snow. Then, we’ll switch back to the pen and ink. We’ll go ahead and fill in some of the areas that got a little bit too light with our applications with the white media.

Completing the Drawing of Bird

We’ll add a bit of shadow to most of the tufts of snow with 50% warm gray. Then we’ll add a bit of 20% warm gray over the top, to create a little bit of a transition.

Now, we’ll add a few last marks here with pen and ink, adding a few bits of information about some of the smaller feathers while darkening some of the values. We’ll do the same with the white gel pen. Once all of the ink has dried completely, we’ll use a kneaded eraser to remove any remaining graphite lines that are still visible.

Drawing a Bird with White and Black Ink – Conclusion

Now our drawing is complete. Here’s a look at the completed drawing…

White and black ink works well together when the surface is toned. This approach is not recommended if you are working on white paper. I hope that you enjoyed this lesson, and if you drew along with me, I hope that you are happy with your results.