Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be by Kathryn Temple
Simply drawing shapes and figures is great, and even looks really nice if you have a knack for it. But what really makes your drawing pop, what makes it seem alive? Kathryn Temple delves into the concept in the book Drawing: The Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be. Temple's introduction to Chapter 3 really shows the importance of shadows, saying, "To make our drawings look as realistic as possible (or three-dimensional), we need to recognize that an object's shadows really define the shape of that object" (Temple 34). This shows how shadows in drawings accentuate the realism of a piece, which is a huge step in becoming a better artist! Temple continues by explaining how the process works: identify the shadows, differentiate the lighter and darker toned shadows, then apply them using techniques of your choice. She even adds examples of shadow techniques you can use (Temple, 35). By doing so, she provides a simple step-by-step procedure to create a more refined and realistic drawing.
Trying these techniques out was a blast. The artwork without the shadows was just an outline sketch of the bear (and not the greatest looking one either!), which takes more time than artistic capabilities. The transformation from no shadow to shadow was amazing, and the final product is shown below. Here, I used my old teddy bear as my test subject. The realism is truly displayed in how the lighting and position of the object is shown. In my drawing, the shadow shading technique I used was hatching, in which you represent shadows with rows of small lines, making them darker and closer for darker shadows. I used the advice given by paying attention to the different shades of grey in the shadows, and drawing them accordingly to make the drawing more vivid.
Works Cited
Temple, Kathryn. Drawing:
the Only Drawing Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to
Be. Sterling Children's Book, 2014.
David, you did an amazing job at drawing something realistic! I can vividly see all the distinct details and the illusion of depth, which makes the teddy bear in the sketch "pop"! As an artist, I do believe that there are more factors for making a piece look more realistic. It is important to remember the proportionality of the object (accuracy), the perspective (position of the object/where it's placed), and the details (from the shine in the teddy bears' eyes to each of the individual furs). If I were to draw an object to sketch its' shadows, I would draw a rose while including the scenery/environment. Yet I would not make it too vivid for that can make the whole significance of the rose disappear (could be distracting). I hope this helps! And one question that I have had in mind was what (materials) did you use to make this sketch?
ReplyDeleteThank you very much Raina! I like your choice of the rose and the added point of keeping simplicity with the background, I'll be sure to take note of that and try something similar in the future! As for what materials I used, I'm not too familiar with artistic materials and I wanted to find a basic understanding of what to do when drawing before I bought expensive materials. Because of this, I only used a basic mechanical pencil with 0.7 lead.
DeleteThe sketch is a truly excellent piece of art. Every single detail is very precise and the picture flawlessly captures the teddy bear. In my experience of sketching a three dimensional piece, I found it hard to proportion the subject precisely so I am amazed at how exact you drew the teddy bear. In addition to that, the shading is very good. I, for one, never quite figured out how to draw shading on a 3-d sketch. I liked your selection of the quote in your first paragraph. It defines what you've learned very well. In regard to your question, I believe what makes art so complex is the fact that one single element can change the whole picture. For instance, shading. However, there are more important factors to the detail and realism of a piece than just shadows. Such as the contrast between darkness and light, the position of the subject, the details in its surroundings. If I had to choose an object to draw shadows for the first time, I would draw a seagull flying over the ocean as the sun sets. I would choose this specific image because it would be a challenge and simply because I like the serene image of the ocean and a single bird. How long did it take you to draw this? What you had trouble with the most?
ReplyDeleteThank you Ha Tien! I totally agree with the difficulty you expressed with drawing 3-D designs. The teddy bear I drew was made with countless mistakes and I had to erase a lot of my work and redo it in order to make it look more realistic. I also agree with the statement you made regarding color contrast and background details, and I'll be sure to try and incorporate those into future drawings. To answer your questions, it took me probably around an hour total with drawing, erasing, redrawing, and shadowing, and what troubled me the most was the same thing that you had talked about before: making sure everything was proportional!
DeleteDavid! Your drawing is superb, the teddy bear looks real and authentic while still carrying an artistic and impressionistic feel. I have always tried drawing things in the past and being able to take advantage of shadows really pushes an image into the viewers eyes, which I think you have succeeded in doing here. I think If i had to add shadows to a piece of art for the first time I would chose something simple like a pencil. As well, in addition to adding shadows I think shading and deepening details in the image compliments a piece well.
ReplyDeleteThank you Owen! Your choice of a pencil is great, the simplicity of it is something I probably should have considered since it took me a while to draw the teddy bear. I agree with your statement that extra details definitely support the drawings well, and I'll be sure to look into that more when drawing!
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ReplyDeleteThanks Thor! the removal of you comment really shows the time and thought pouring out of you, as you realized that you needed to rethink portions of your ideas. I appreciate the time and effort you put into these comments!
DeleteDavid your drawing of the bear was very well done and really does help show how shadows really help shape the perspective of the drawing and help give the image a more realistic look. Understanding now that shadows give the drawing a more in-depth look, I would love to try and use shadows in some of my drawings. So I would like to know how did you create the shadow look in the drawing? Did you rub the lead in with your finger? Or just use a pencil to shade it in?
ReplyDeleteThank you Tionna! The shadowing was pretty simple, but tedious. I did just use pencil to shade in the shadows, but using Temple's technique of identifying the shadows, you can identify which ones are darker than others. Then, I just drew the shadows as layers, drawing them darker if they looked darker in real life.
DeleteYour drawing was incredible and I agree that adding that extra shadowing really made your piece pop out of the page. The shadowing you employed gave your piece a professional look and the way you described was very clear and I actually understood it. Keep up the good work.
ReplyDeleteThank you Thor! I agree that the added realism from shadows does give a piece a more professional look. Thank you for the encouragement, as I'll continue to try and gain a better depth and understanding for realism in art!
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