Amarpreet Singh: Drawing a Present

Ever since I was child, I've always wanted to learn how to draw. I was always fascinated by how people could draw amazing things on paper. I'm sure some of you guys have had similar goals, to accomplish something that you've always wanted to do.

In my learning process, I will be using the book "How to Draw Cool Stuff: Basics, Shading, Texture, Pattern and Optical Illusions" by Catherine V. Holmes.

This book includes lot's of descriptive instructions with lot's of vocabulary. Not only is this book great for starters, it's great for people who have always wanted to get into drawing.

First I wanted to start with turning simple shapes into objects. The book says that you must have an understanding of "the value added to a shape (2D) when drawing creates form (3D), the lightness or darkness of a value can indicate where a light source falls onto an object, overlapping and shading the four basic forms in art can lead to combining them for other forms." (Holmes, Pg. 32)

I first wanted to draw a gift box. I started out by making the outline of two squares on my paper, each lined up to make it look like a cube. Then I connected the two squares together to finish my cube and then erased the bottom left hand corner of the cube to make it look more like a box. Trying to draw on the ribbon lines was the hardest part for me to do since you had to angle the lines just right to make it look good. I then drew a faintly outlined ribbon on top of the box for reference to when I would be shading the ribbons in.

As I shaded in the ribbons I made sure not to shade into the part where I had outlined the bow. After I finished shading the ribbons lightly, I erased the space where my bow would be and then drew it in again before shading it in.

This was my first time drawing something and if you'd like to leave any helpful tips or comments below that'd be greatly appreciated.