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.