The Most Important Secret to Drawing

Who doesn’t want to be able to draw and do it well? The problem is that most people believe they can’t draw even though they’d love to be able to do it. Well, the good news is that drawing is a skill that anyone can learn and develop. And just like any other skill, drawing requires a bit of knowledge and practice. Now, the practice is up to you, but in this lesson, I’m going to give you one major piece of knowledge that may dramatically affect your drawing ability.

See also: Why You Believe You Can’t Draw and What to do About It

Many people believe that drawing is about making marks, and yes, this is true. You must make marks to make a drawing, but there’s a lot more to it than just making marks. Our drawings are the results of making marks on a surface, but the true essence to drawing is about what happens between your ears.

Michelangelo is quoted as saying, “A man or woman paints with his brains, not with his hands.” But what does this mean?

It means that our brains are actually more involved in the drawing process than our hands.

Drawing From Imagination

Now, let’s see if we can go deeper to understand the quote above. We’ll do a few drawing exercises. For all of our exercises, you’ll need a piece of paper and a pencil.

For our first drawing exercise, simply draw a hammer – just a plain old hammer from your imagination. Don’t look at anything to create this first drawing.

Your hammer might end up looking like this…

Now, this drawing does look like a hammer – right? But, it could be better – much better. So drawing purely from our imagination is not enough.

See also: Improve Your Drawing Skills in 6 Days

Drawing with 100% Observation

Now we’re going to create another drawing, but this time we’re going to have a few restrictions. This time we’ll actually look at a hammer. I’ll use a photo reference and we’ll look at it, but you can not look at your drawing paper.

Yes, you read that right. You can not look at your drawing paper. We’ll only be looking at the reference photo and not the drawing.

Here’s a look at the photo reference…

We’ll create this drawing using just one line. This means that once we place the pencil to the drawing surface, we can’t pick it up again. The goal here is to pick a place to start observing on the hammer and try to move your hand with your pencil at the same speed and angle in which your eyes move over the reference. This is called a blind contour line drawing.

Don’t worry about what your drawing will look like. Just concentrate on observing and moving your hand with the pencil.

This is what my drawing looks like (along with the first to compare)…

We now have two drawings, one from our imagination without any observation, and one that was created purely with 100% observation. Drawing accurately is somewhere in between these two drawings.

Now here’s the big secret… Drawing is at least 50% observation.

Drawing is about seeing and recording what we see in the form of marks.

Drawing with 50% Observation and 50% Mark-Making

Let’s create one final drawing and we’ll use the same reference photo, but this time we can look at the reference photo and we can look at our drawing paper. We can also pick up our pencil this time too.

Now we’re making comparisons between what we see in the reference and the marks that we’re making on the drawing paper. In fact, it’s a continuous process of going back and forth with our eyes between the photo reference and the drawing paper. All the answers are sitting there waiting for us in the photo reference. All we have to do is see them and place them in the correct location on the drawing paper.

This is the essence of drawing. It is all about observation – well, at least 50%.

#1 Secret to Drawing – Conclusion

The number one secret to drawing is that drawing is at least 50% observation. It’s about what happens between your ears a bit more than just making marks on the surface. When you’re practicing your drawing, you should also be practicing your observation skills because ultimately, drawing is about observation.

Step by Step Approach to Drawing Anything

In this drawing lesson, I’m going to share with you a simple three step approach to drawing and sketching that improves your accuracy and probably will improve your speed as well.

When most of us first start drawing, we usually start with drawing the outlines, and these are often referred to as contour lines. The problem with this approach is that it is a little bit harder to be accurate with your drawing. You might find a place to start on your drawing, and then when you come back and connect the contour line, sometimes it doesn’t always match up or you have distortion. In this way of drawing we’re starting with the outside part of the subject and working our way to the inside. So we’re working from the outside to the inside. But what if we switched that, reversed it, and instead worked from the inside out?

In this three step process, that’s exactly what we’re going to do. We’ll take a look at two different subjects – one that’s simple and another one that’s complex. We’ll see how this three-step process can be applied. Let’s take a quick look at this three-step process before we go into the examples.

The Simple Process of Drawing

The first step is to break our subject down into simplified shapes. Now this works for simple subjects and also complex subjects, and we’ll see this in just a minute.

See also: Drawing 101 – Simplify for Success

After we’ve broken down our subject into basic shapes, the second step is to draw the contour lines or the outlines. These are the lines that we normally begin with when we create a drawing, but in this case we’re going to start with the simplified shapes then move on to the contour lines.

The third step in the process is to develop the value. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color. It’s one of the seven elements of art, and it’s perhaps one of the most important elements of art. When we develop the value a lot of times people refer to this as shading. We are creating the illusion of form, we’re creating the illusion of a light source, and we’re making our object or subject appear more three-dimensional. So let’s take a look at our first example.

See also: 6 Reasons to Draw on Toned Paper

Example 1 – Drawing a Dolphin

For our first subject, we’ll draw this wonderful dolphin.

Step 1 – Draw the Basic Shapes

Our first step of the process is to break the subject down into basic shapes. We don’t have to worry about drawing a series of controlled shapes. We just want a generalized idea of the shape. I’m drawing loosely and quickly before moving on to the next shape that I see.

It’s important to note that you may see different shapes in this subject or any other subject that you decide to draw, and that’s completely fine. You just want to find shapes that are simple and easy for you to draw. And for some subjects, it’s going to be very easy to see these shapes. But for others, it might take a few minutes of thinking.

Step 2 – Draw the Contours

Now with a bit more pressure and a lot more refinement, we’ll go ahead and draw the contour lines or the outlines. But since we have a faint version of our dolphin in place, we can draw these contour lines with a bit more conviction, meaning we can be a bit more confident with the marks that we make here and we can concentrate on the quality of the line that we make.

Step 3 – Shade the Drawing

Now it’s time to develop the value. Value, of course, is the darkness or lightness of a color and a lot of times we refer to this as shading. In this case, we’re just adding darker values and we’re leaving lighter areas using the white of the paper to create the tints. And of course, we’re adding graphite in areas to create the shades. Our goal is to create a full range of value. This leads to the illusion of form and texture in our drawing. This is the step that is the most time-consuming part of the process.

Example 2 – Drawing a Drill

Now we’ve seen how we can apply this simple three-step process to a simple subject. Let’s take a look at applying this process to a more complex subject. This time we’ll draw this very complex drill.

Step 1 – Draw the Basic Shapes

At first glance, this drill might seem overwhelming and overly complex, but we can break this down into simplified shapes. We’ll draw the simplified shapes first, and then worry about the contour lines.

Just like with our first example, I mentioned that you may see different shapes, and that’s completely okay. We’re all going to see things differently. What’s most important is that you just find shapes that you feel are easy for you to draw.

Step 2 – Draw the Contours

Now we can start with the contour lines. This is a complex subject as we’ve already mentioned, but now we have a better idea of where these contour lines need to go. Drawing these contour lines is much easier now that we have a map in place – the map we created with basic shapes. My goal is to be as accurate as possible with these contour lines, but as is the case with any drawing or painting, I’m allowing myself to be a little bit more free with my drawing. If my drawing’s a little bit different from the subject, that’s completely okay with me.

Step 3 – Shade the Drawing

After our contour lines are in place, it’s time to develop the value. Again, this is the most time intensive part of the process. It’s a slow process, but it’s also not that difficult. All we have to do is match the values that we see or match them to the best of our ability in order to create the illusion of form and light on our subject.

3 Step Approach to Drawing Anything – Conclusion

This three step approach is great for creating quick drawings and sketches. It ensures accuracy like we have seen, and it will also improve your speed as well. Now that you know and understand this approach, we’ll find use for it in your own drawings and paintings.

Nature has so many curiosities, and cones are one of them. We see various cones on a walk in a forest or park and in holiday wreaths and floral decorations. In this pen and ink drawing lesson, we take a look at drawing several pine cones with ink.

In other words, pine cones become a habitual part of our life. Chances are that we don’t even pay much attention to these small jewels of nature. But does it mean that cones are just something simple or ordinary?

In the recent past, we worked on an interesting project called “Ink Herbarium”. Today we’ll explore a similar idea, but at a different angle. The subject of our inked collection will be pine cones of different sizes and shapes.

Cones are a wonderful candidate for a project. Why? They can be found even in winter, when all the beautiful leaves, flowers and other numerous wonders of the natural world are temporarily not available.

I consider this drawing as a set of sketches that we create to study nature. That’s why I’m going to use cones from my collection. Some of the exemplars were brought from another country!

I recommend that you gather some physical pine cones before starting the project. We’ll talk about the reasons for that in the next chapter.

To introduce some challenge to this project, I’ll be using one ink liner (number 0.2) to draw the whole artwork. This tool doesn’t allow much variation of the line width, in contrast to nib pens.

However, we can achieve a slight variation by changing the level of pressure on the liner. The lighter the pressure is and the faster we draw, the thinner our lines will be.

Also, using a tool that creates lines of medium width by default will add a sketchier, more spontaneous feel to the artwork.

So, please use any kind of inking tool you have or prefer. Maybe you’ll even choose graphite or colored pencils for this idea!

How to Understand the Structure of a Cone

A Wonderful Responsiveness to Humidity

It’s useful to know that scales of seed-bearing cones move in response to changes in relative humidity. The scales gape open when it is dry. But when it’s damp, they close up.

To a certain extent, you can use this mechanism to adjust the appearance of your cones so they fit your vision. One of the methods to ‘close’ a cone is to put it into a container that is filled with water.

Two Basic Shapes of Cones

We usually use the term “pine cone” to describe any cone we come across, but that’s not technically correct. Evergreens come in many types: for example, fir, pine, hemlock, cedar or spruce. They are called conifers and bear cones.

Basically, cones are found in two common shapes – we’ll talk about them in a moment. It’s necessary to mention, this classification is just something that I invented to simplify the explanations and the further process of drawing.

Of course, the world of cones is much more complex than just two categories of shapes.

For example, each evergreen has two distinct cone types – female and male. They usually differ in size and appearance, too! If you are interested in this topic, please take your time to explore it. Additional knowledge will only enhance your project, making it more credible.

The first type of shape is an egg-like cone (like fir tree cones). It looks rather solid and massive. The top tips of scales can move away from the general shape of the core, creating an uneven silhouette, but the main egg-like mass is still visually dominating. Such cones usually have a predictable, symmetrically organized rhythm of scales.

Another type is more complex – it features extended scales arranged around a core. In this case, scales go aside from the core quite noticeably. Scales have a rhythm too, but it isn’t as strict and obvious as with the first model. Pine tree cones are an example of this second type.

Chances are that you’ll come across a cone that has features of both types, too. Nature is versatile!

In the image below, you’ll find a scheme that represents the first step that you can undertake to analyze and draw a cone of any of those types. However, your drawing doesn’t have to resemble any scheme – please feel free to develop your own approach. 

Analyzing Your Cone

The best way to analyze a cone is to get a real one and observe it at different angles.

How does it look in from a side view or from above? Can you see the rows of scales on top of each other? As a general principle, look for the guidelines (like separate scales that attract your attention more than others) and rhythm in the pattern. This will help to develop your observational skills.

Also, it’s useful to study the separate scales – especially those bending aside of the “stem” quite noticeably. How do they look if we change the angle of view? Is there anything special about the shape of their tip?

Compare the scales at the center of the cone and at its periphery. How do the location and the shape of the cone itself affect the appearance of the individual scales?

Pay attention to the density and height of the scales’ rows. How do they change from top to the bottom? If we observe a cone from above, we’ll see how the scales fill in the shape of the cone. It’s possible to draw a scheme with imaginary lines that mark each row of scales.

Just keep in mind that cones may be slightly – or significantly – asymmetrical. Especially the cones of the “pine type”. Sometimes an exaggerated inclination or distortion of the cone’s core adds natural charm and expressiveness to the artwork.

A cone may seem to be a simple object, but when it comes to drawing, its complexity uncovers itself. Take the time you need. It will pay off.

Qualitative photos used as a reference can be helpful. But, they may lack important nuances that allow us to understand the structure and volume of the object. By the way, any step-by-step instructions on how to draw a generic cone may lead to a similar point of confusion – the goal is to study, not to repeat a scheme that somebody has made.

That’s why having real nature at hand is quite useful, if not crucial. You can deviate from that object’s shape which is completely normal.

Working on the Composition

I’m going to draw several kinds of cones of different shapes and sizes, emphasizing the priority of cones with additional elements – like fir twigs and small cone seeds. A combination of smaller and larger elements will make the composition more balanced.

I plan to gather my sketches inside one sheet of paper, so this collection will look like an art poster. That’s why a harmonious composition is absolutely desired here.

See also: Composition in Art

I create several miniature sketches, playing with various possibilities.

The depicted elements may be stylized. The only thing that is important is your understanding of what is going on the final surface. For example, the meaning behind that relatively large shape on the left side of my sketches may seem dubious, but I know – it is a symbol for a big fir cone. 

Creating the Graphite Pencil Underdrawing

In my experience, having a preparatory drawing that serves as a structure for ink lines is invaluably helpful. It allows being more confident and, at the same time, relaxed while inking.

So I sketch our objects, adding as many details as I feel necessary to start applying ink. It’s important to reflect your observations in the underdrawing and be deliberate.

For example, I don’t just repeat the pattern of scales on the biggest cone. The top scales are smaller, featuring a minor change in the rhythm.

Also, a couple of cones in my drawing may seem very similar – the only difference is their size. In reality, the discrepancy between their shapes and their tips suggest that these cones belong to different trees. However, we already know that conifers are relatives. 

Drawing the Cones with Ink

I outline the main contours of the cones and their scales, paying particular attention to the silhouette of each object.

As I work with only one ink liner, it’s necessary to vary the pressure on the tool. When I draw with a lighter pressure and at a higher speed, the lines become just a bit thinner. That’s exactly what we need!

The cones of an alder tree are the smallest in our drawing. They present so many compact scale-like shapes! I avoid making their contours too complex as this may overload the drawing right away. 

To allocate the shadows, we need to determine where the light source is. In the case with relatively small objects, a common model is an illuminance from above. As we have several sketches gathered together, the model of light and shadow should be the same or similar for all your sketches.

With groups of hatches, I accent the darker areas of the cones, focusing on the individual scales. Keep in mind the general shape of the cone. The bottom rows of scales usually present darker values, owing to the cone’s core shadow or numerous drop shadows from the upper elements.

See also: How to Shade a Drawing

Also, practice shows that darkening the area near the pine cone’s core helps to move forward the tips of the front scales visually.

Hatching can be a powerful tool – if the characteristics and direction of lines conform to the shape of the object, you’ll easily create an illusion of volume. That’s why I use contour hatching to make the cones more three-dimensional.

To learn more about the common hatching techniques used in ink drawings, check out this course: The Pen and Ink Experience

Also, the direction of hatches accents various planes (sides) of an object – for example, the upper plane of the pine cone scale, its width, and the side plane. Sometimes it’s helpful to see everything you draw in a simplified manner.

The alder tree cones require a different approach. To darken the gaps between the rows of scales, I use a spontaneous scribble line.

Feel free to erase the graphite lines as you go. At the time, I prefer to keep them – grey marks create interesting tonal nuances here. 

I increase the contrast in my drawing. The fir cone, which has a solid, massive shape, needs a more pronounced core shadow, so I apply a couple of hatching layers to the sides and the bottom part. The pressure on the liner is minimal because the lines should be as thin and unobtrusive as possible.

Also, I darken the areas between the scales to separate the rows visually.

I pay special attention to the contours – they should blend into the sides of the cones smoothly.

There is an advantage in working on several sketches at once. For example, such an approach increases the chances to notice new nuances as you go, because you see your drawing with fresh eyes each time. Also, you can digress from one object and have a beneficial moment of rest while working on another part of the artwork. 

I add dots here and there, especially to the tips of the scales, to reveal a beautiful organic texture. Also, dots help me to soften the transition between darker and lighter values on the scales. Some areas seem too light, even highlighted, so I mute them with the deliberate use of dots.

As a final touch, I make sure that the fir tree needles, which are relatively dark in real life, have enough ink marks. The individual needles remain lighter than their neighbors. They stand out because of the contrast. 

Drawing Pine Cones with Pen and Ink – Conclusion

Congratulations – we’ve completed this special project! I hope that you found cones truly fascinating and made another step in developing your artistic skills. The great news is that now you can apply this knowledge to the new projects.

Thanks for being with me on this journey. I wish you much inspiration and luck!

Cupcake Drawing with Pastels and Pastel Pencils

In this extended lesson on drawing with pastels we’ll draw a colorful cupcake. Soft pastels and pastel pencils are applied to PastelMat paper to complete the drawing. This lesson is presented in real-time. The intention for this type of video format is for the student to draw along and create their own drawing.

Here’s a look at the completed drawing…

Materials Used in This Pastel Drawing

You are welcome to use any brand of pastels and pastel pencils as well as any surface that you wish. Keep in mind that your results will vary depending on what surface and materials you use. PastelMat paper is a unique surface and while it is a bit pricey, a substitute is not currently available. Also keep in mind that different brands of pastels will behave differently.

Here are the materials used in this lesson (the following links are affiliate links which means that I make a small commission if you purchase at no additional cost to you.)…

• PastelMat Paper
• Rembrandt Pastels
• CarbOthello Pastel Pencils

Cupcake Photo Reference

A photo reference is used to complete this drawing. Here’s a look at the photo reference…

Surfaces for Drawing with Colored Pencils

I’ve had quite a bit of experience drawing with colored pencils and I love colored pencils. Colored pencils are one of my favorite drawing mediums to work with and I’ve found some pretty exciting surfaces over the years. They all have their advantages and disadvantages.

In this post, I’m going to share with you each one of those surfaces, the advantages and disadvantages of each one of those surfaces, and the unique characteristics of each one. (Some of the links that follow are affiliate links which means that I make a small commission if you purchase at no additional cost to you.)

See also: Comparing Colored Pencils

Bristol Paper

The first paper I’m going to share with you is Bristol paper, specifically the vellum surface. Bristol paper comes in other surfaces other than vellum which are smoother surfaces. Bristol Paper, even with the vellum surface is relatively smooth, but the vellum surface does have a little bit of tooth or texture associated with it. It is capable of accepting multiple applications of colored pencils, but it’s still limited because of the overall smoothness of the paper.

This paper is a little bit heavy. It’s very similar to card stock, but its rigidity makes it a great surface for working with colored pencils.

Notable Characteristics of Bristol Paper:

• Easy to find.
• Inexpensive.
• Easy to develop details.
• Limited layering.
• Only available in white.

Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper

The second surface that I love to use with colored pencils is Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper. Even though this paper is called pastel paper, it is a wonderful surface for colored pencils.

This paper features two distinct sides. One side is heavier in texture compared to the other side, but both sides have ample texture or tooth for multiple layered applications of colored pencil. This paper is easy to find and it comes in a variety of different colors. So if you want to allow that color to show through or if you just want some of that color to be your background, this is a major advantage.

As I mentioned, this paper comes in two distinct sides, or it has two distinct sides associated with it. One side has a very heavy tooth, which will require multiple layered applications of colored pencils to fill in the tooth. The other side has a less pronounced tooth, but it’s still enough texture to accept multiple layered applications of colored pencils.

Notable Characteristics of Canson Mi-Teintes Pastel Paper:

• 2 distinct sides.
• Easy to find.
• Variety of colors.
• Heavy to medium tooth.
• Encourages layering.
• Tooth may be too heavy for some.

See also: How to Sharpen Any Pencil

PastelMat Paper

The third paper that’s absolutely fantastic for colored pencil drawing is PastelMat Paper by Clairefontaine. This paper has a heavy tooth, almost like fine grit sandpaper. This paper definitely encourages layering.

It is a great surface for use with other media like soft pastels. Again, this paper is called PastelMat Paper, but even though it’s called PastelMat Paper, it’s still great for colored pencils. If you want to use soft pastels in conjunction with the colored pencils, then this is a great surface for that. This paper comes in a variety of colors, so you have that middle value to start with and that’s going to encourage a full range of value in your drawings.

This paper is heavy and high quality. But because of this, it’s going to be expensive. In fact, compared to the other papers, this is probably the most expensive paper on the list and it is hard to get in some locations. For where I am in the world, I do have to order it online, and it does take quite a while to get to me.

Notable Characteristics of PastelMat Paper:

• Heavy tooth.
• Encourages layering.
• Great for combining with pastels.
• Variety of colors.
• Heavy, high quality paper.
• Expensive.
• May be difficult to find.

Stonehenge Paper

Stonehenge Paper is a soft paper, but it does feature a fairly heavy tooth. You can easily create multiple layered applications on the surface, which again is so important to building up that depth and color that you want in your colored pencil drawings.

This paper is 100% cotton, so it’s really soft. But, there’s plenty of tooth for layering. It’s available as large sheets and smaller pads. So if you want to create larger colored pencil drawings, you’ve got that option. It’s probably my favorite surface for colored pencil drawing.

Stonehenge paper is great for using other drawing mediums such as graphite. If you’re interested in creating graphite drawings and colored pencil drawings, Stonehenge Paper might be a great choice for both.

Notable Characteristics of Stonehenge Paper:

• Soft paper with a medium tooth.
• 100% cotton.
• Available as large sheets and smaller pads.
• Great for other drawing mediums.
• Expensive.
• May be difficult to find.
• Limited colors.

Dura-Lar Polyester Film

One of the major disadvantages to using colored pencils is that they can be extremely difficult to erase. However, this next paper on the list takes care of that problem for us. Dura-lar is a polester film.

This paper is unique on this list because it has a very, very smooth surface. The tooth of this paper is very weak and that means that it’s going to be difficult to create multiple layered applications. There is a limit to how many layers you can apply to the surface, so you really have to think about your color choices when you’re using this paper.

The major advantage is that this paper is very easy to remove colored pencils. You can erase from the surface, and you can even use tools like the slice tool to remove the colored pencil from the surface. It’s almost like there has never been colored pencils applied to the surface at all. It’s really fantastic for that.

This paper is also semi-translucent, meaning that tracing and transferring images is pretty easy. One of the disadvantages of this paper is the smooth tooth or texture. It can only handle a few layers on the surface, but that disadvantage may be outweighed by the advantage of erasing, which is a completely unique aspect of this paper

Notable Characteristics of Dura-lar Polyester Film:

• Smooth surface with a weak tooth.
• Limited layering.
• Easy to erase and remove colored pencils.
• Translucency makes it easy to trace or transfer images.

Marker Paper

The last paper on this list is somewhat of a bonus paper because you do have to use it with another medium to get the most out of it. And the paper I’m referring to is Marker paper. Again, this is a paper that doesn’t have anything with colored pencils in the name, but it’s actually a pretty good surface for colored pencils if – and that’s a big if – you are using it alongside alcohol-based markers.

You can apply the alcohol-based markers as a base, which will cover large areas of the surface quickly. This saves time because colored pencil drawing is a time-intensive activity. But when we combine colored pencils with markers, we save quite a bit of time.

The disadvantage is that this paper is super smooth, so layers are limited. But when you’re using colored pencils in conjunction with markers, this isn’t really a big deal. Marker paper is a surface that you might consider that you might not have considered before but it’s dependent on using it with markers in order to get the most out of it.

Notable Characteristics of Marker paper:

• Great for use with alcohol-based markers.
• Saves time.
• Smooth surface has a weak tooth.

The Best Papers for Colored Pencils – Conclusion

Colored pencils are at their best when they are used on a surface or paper that allows you to use them to their full potential. Each paper has its own advantages and disadvantages. No paper is perfect, but each can be used to develop wonderful, professional colored pencil drawings.