Soul Reflections By Jeff

Drawing From a Photo

Drawing from a photo is a lot easier than you might think. In fact anyone can do it! That is right; even YOU can draw easily from a photo.

Before we get started you will want to find a picture that is "clear." It is important to be able to see all the little details if you want to make it "lifelike."

Another tip is to pick out a subject that interests you. If you try drawing something that isn't interesting, you will not do well or enjoy the drawing.

An ideal size would be 8" x 10", but don't worry if is smaller. I will show you how to get it sized correctly on the paper. Ok now, let's get ready to DRAW!

First things first

Before you begin you must have the proper tools. You don't have to spend a lot of money here, just get the basics. Get these supplies at an "art supply" store. You will not find these items at a general merchandise store such as Target or Wal-Mart. They’re great stores but they don’t carry the types of supplies that you will need.

1.   Get a sketch pad. There will be several to choose from. The better (thicker) the paper, the easier it is to shade and erase mistakes! Trust me on this you will need to erase a lot! Sketch pads aren’t expensive; you can get a good one for around $10. For most of my sketches I use a 400 series premium recycled paper.

2.   Next you need some pencils. Pencils are your “most” important tool when it comes to sketching. Your pencil is your friend, so get a GOOD one! You will need a simple pencil to do the preliminary sketching. I would suggest that you get a mechanical or drafting pencil for this. Your lead can be similar to a number two pencil. It doesn’t matter if it has an eraser or not, because you are not going to use it! You can get the kind of pencils that need to be sharpened, but it can get old having to sharpen your pencil all the time. The Mechanical is easier to use and right now the detail isn’t important. As for an eraser, you need a “kneaded rubber” or gum type eraser. It has the consistency of gum! You can roll it up in a ball and make shapes out of it. That isn’t why you need it though. This eraser will not leave marks on your paper and is the best kind you can get.

3.   Next get some pencils you can use for shadowing. There are many kinds. When you look at the different pencils used for shading you might want to get a few different variations. They will be labeled as an example 2B, 4B, 6B, 8B and etc. the bigger the number, the darker the lead. Personally I like to get the darkest pencil and use my fingers and pressure to control how dark it will appear on the paper. I use only one other pencil besides my mechanical one. I use an ebony pencil. It is as dark as you can go without resorting to using charcoal.

4.   Now we have our paper and pencils. But we need to be able to erase and sharpen, right? Your mechanical pencil is fine but your ebony or whatever you are using for shadowing will need to be sharpened precisely! It is critical that you are able to keep a nice pointy tip on your pencil if you want lifelike detail. Keep this part simple, ok? For the sharpener. Spend about $5 at your local Wal-Mart and get a battery operated pencil sharpener. I like the ones that stand up on the table. I place it right in front of my work area so I can easily reach it. The other tool you can use is a sandpaper block which is just a small piece of wood shaped like a paddle. It has sand paper attached to it. You can touch up the edge of your pencil without running it through the sharpener. It saves on having to buy too many pencils, trust me!

5.   The next item is equally as important as your pencil choice believe it or not. It is what you are going to use to bring your drawing to life! It is called “tortillon” or a “blending stump.”  It is no more than a piece of paper rolled with a fine point on one or both ends. It is the “tip” of this tool that you use to blend the different shades of your pencil on the paper.

6.   Finally get a clear plastic ruler. There will be some times when you need to measure or draw a perfectly straight line. This will come in handy! You also might consider investing in a small plastic tackle box to keep your supplies in.

Ready Set DRAW!

Find a comfortable chair and make sure you have good lighting. This is critical! For your first drawing I would suggest that we keep it very simple. I want you to feel good about the results and later we can get into more detail, fair enough?

For the first example I chose a puppy. You don't have to do anything that difficult, although that little wiener dog is a pretty easy to sketch. I would suggest you start with a baseball or similar object. All I want you to do right now is get a feel for it. Actually a baseball would be a good one. It has a definite shape with some stitching and shadows. It will allow you to experiment with the pencils and learn the art of shadowing to make something look 3-dimentional. To make it easy on you, I uploaded a baseball that you can download to sketch. It is below this text and above the puppy!

For now I want you to try to draw your chosen object without the use of grids or other measuring devises. You will need to train your eyes and hands to work together. It is ok if you make mistakes. You have plenty of paper and a good eraser!

Begin with the mechanical pencil and sketch softly. You don’t want to make these lines very dark. You will use the ebony pencil for that. Go ahead, don’t be afraid. Draw the circular shape that the ball appears to be. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I am more concerned about you understanding the techniques right now. The control and accuracy will happen in time.

Once you get the general shape of the ball on the paper, take a good look at it closely. Does it look round? If it seems to be lop-sided, I will give you a hint on how to fix it. You can use your pencil as a measuring devise. Lay the pencil across your sketch. Figure out where the center is and then just rotate the pencil around the drawing. For example imagine a clock with the hands located at the six o’clock hour. Now just imagine that the little and big hand were just one straight line and you turned it clockwise. If you create that with the pencil on your drawing, you will be able to see where it is out of whack. When you find the parts that need to be corrected, use your gummy eraser and gently erase the lines. Now correct them. And use your pencil again to see if your sketch is round.

Once you have a nice round ball on your paper, you will need to place the stitches on your drawing. It isn’t hard, just pick a place to start and begin. I like to start at the left side and work my way over. Just look at your example photo. You can go back to the clock example and figure out where the stiching starts. Is it at 3 o-clock, 4? Where ever it is at, put it on your drawing in the same location. You can use you pencil as a measuring device to get it right. Just lay your pencil on the photo and use your finger to mark the pencil. Then move over to your drawing and lay the pencil down on the paper. Now just put the lines in the same place. Detail isn’t important right now, just try and get the lines in the same place or as close as you can. You will get better in time.

Ok if you are happy with your circle and stitching. It is time to make it appear to be 3-D. I am going to give you my secret, that is right, NO CHARGE!

Take a good look at the baseball. Look at it really good. Do you see the shadowed areas? Now look at where it appears to be all white. Do you see that too? Ok that is the SECRET! Learn to distinguish between “light and dark.” That is all you have to do to get really good. Where it’s all white, you don’t have to even touch it. You only use the pencil where it is shaded.

Start at the left side if you are right handed and at the right side if you are a lefty. I say this because if you don’t do it like that you will likely smear your drawing and get it all messy. We want it to be clean and fresh. The other thing you can do is use a scrap of paper under the palm edge of your hand where you lay it on the paper. This way you will not smear when you are really getting into it. Just lift your hand and slide the paper over as you progress over.

Later on we will get into lighting and how that shadows your shape, but right now I just want you to copy what you see. So go ahead, pick the darkest area. Now sharpen your ebony pencil and softly begin to shade it where the darkest area is. Go softly now, you can always darken it up if you need too. Follow the edge of the shape to make it flow! The shading needs to follow the lines of the drawing. Don’t worry! It doesn’t have to be perfect we are just having fun and experimenting.

Ok, now it is time to see how the magic works. Stop with the shading and take one of your tortillons. This is the paper blending tool I asked you to get. I hope you have one, because it makes it so much easier. If you have one, just hold it like it was a pencil in your hand. Touch the pointy end to the dark shadow areas you placed on the paper. Start to rub a little and see what it does. You will see that your tortillon shades for you. You don’t even have to put any more pencil down. You can use what is already there on your paper. Just smooth it around and make it circular looking. Look back and forth at your photo and your drawing. If it needs to be corrected just use your gummy eraser. Try tapping the eraser on the paper first. You might not even need to rub it around. The tapping motion usually removes the dark pencil marks.

I will leave you with that for now, so you can practice. Once you finish your baseball sketch, I would like to see it. You can email it to me here. Jeff_470@hotmail.com

Look below at other examples of my drawings. I have many and only attached a few. Sketching is fun, I hope you enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions.