Lesson 6 - Change the face?

So we have a nice simple cartoon style face that is easy to draw and anyone can do it!

We can now change the look of the features for the face and it is really easy!

All we do is move the detail, the eyes, nose and mouth, together in different places up or down the egg.

Above you can see this and the end result is two features to the egg head!

On the left is a tall forehead (you could use this to represent a professor or such like character)

On the right is a long chin (you could use this to represent a builder or strong man)

And all we did was move the detail up or down, easy!

Lesson 5 - The face

This is most likely the one aspect to drawing that people think they cannot do.

But if we look at the shapes and stages that we can take to make up a face, then you may surprise yourself when drawing a face.

Children at school draw faces and get straight onto the job of drawing and produce some wonderful results. The thing is, they do not hesitate or worry about the 'trying to draw' phase, they just do it!

So lets have a look at the shapes for the face.... (looking at keeping it simple and cartoon style)

Head shape - it's an egg! I am sure you have heard it said before that the shape of the head is almost egg shape.... and it is!

Ears - Well they sit on the side of the 'egg' and could almost be the shape of the letter 'C' (not on the drawing above, but I want YOU to imagine them there...)

Eyes - Half way down the centre of the egg and can be two simple dots

Nose - just below the eyes and can be a simple small circle

Mouth - just under the nose and can be a simple line

Easy!

Example!

So here is a great example from a professional animator about drawing a squirrel...... no blue pencil but you will see the shapes being put down first and then the build of the drawing from that...

Lesson 4- Lets layout the shapes!

Ok, so we can see shapes and how they make up the structure that allows us to start to draw.

What we now need to do, is get pen or pencil to paper!

We are going to use a process that is used every day by many artists, cartoonists and animator's all around the world. It works and if those guy's use it, then we should too!

The process involves two stages.

Stage one - We have our shapes that we can see and first we lightly sketch them on the paper to create  what we can call construction lines. These are not the finished drawing so do not worry about how they look, a circle will not have to be a perfect circle, that is not what we are trying to achieve here. What we want is shapes on paper that gives us the base structure to work with.

So draw or sketch the shapes so that you have a rough representation of the subject down on your paper.

You can use a light blue coloured pencil for this, it helps you play with the shapes as a structure because you know that the blue drawing is not your finished drawing.

Stage two - The final drawing! In front of you is a drawing of rough shapes that have a structure of the subject you wish to draw. Now you can go over these shapes and 'draw' the final lines that will make your drawing.

As you do this, you shall need to look for two things as you draw.

The shapes you have drawn as rough structure will actually show you where lines work together and where lines are wrong or incorrect in representing the subject you are drawing.

This is the very reason why we drawn the rough shapes first. You can now see what works and what does not!

For this you can use your pencil to draw your final lines.

Lesson 3- Your abc to shapes

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The reason I use the alphabet is because we all know our abc's and can recognise the shapes that letters make.

So to help us 'see' shapes we can look for letters of the alphabet in the subject we wish to draw.

We have already looked at a pig and seen the circle as it's key shape and of course the letter that represents a circle is the letter O

Lesson 2 -Shapes in a picture?

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OK, so simple shapes and letters are easy but lets take a look at some in a picture.....

A tip on how to see shapes is to ignore detail and just look for large shapes and then as you begin to 'see' them, others will pop out at you. This is the ground work that will prepare you to draw when you put pen to paper.

More about drawing shapes on paper later, but first take time to get used to looking at shapes.

As you train your eye to 'see' shapes you will find it a very powerful tool when you come to draw.

What shape is your flatscreen television?

What shape is your car steering wheel

What shape is Africa?

Africa is almost a triangle shape!

Lesson 1 -What do we look for?

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Starting to draw is not just about putting pen or pencil to paper! First you will find it very helpful if you have a reference to draw from. Now that can be a photograph or even a mental image of the subject in your mind.

What you need to do next is from the reference, look to see simple shapes that are making up the reference.

Simples shapes are varied, like a circle or square etc and can even be the letters of the alphabet.

Intro - Hello & Welcome

Yes, hello and a very warm welcome to the blog and what will grow into an ever expanding knowledge base and lessons of information on how to draw!

We will start with the basics and then move onto each step so that you will find the information helpful and interesting.

The material here is used in my 'teaching' presentations that I give on the subject of how to draw.

So if you have attend one of these presentations, you should find this blog a good resource to refer back to when ever you feel you need too. And that is one aim of the blog, to help you and make it easy for you to visit at anytime to review the content. So there is no need to carry around lots of notes or books on the subject of how to draw, just stop by here and check out all the lessons!

So let's get started...