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How to Draw (well part one)

How to Draw (well part one)
This instructable is your basic guideline to how to draw a tonal (shaded drawing) with pencils, draw a simple pen outline character and simplified cross hatching of shapes.

Before you start I would like to say that there is no definitive guide for drawing, it is something very personal down to the way you hold your pencils and pens.
 
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Step 1Materials you will need

Materials you will need
Today class, we will be using pencils, pens and paper.

For now the drawing is kept simple and yes if I get good feedback I will add more instructables as follow ups that as the pictures below show will take you up as far as the level I am at. Unfortunately I will have to become a better artist when that point in time comes along. I would be able to give better examples and plan to add them when my art coursework finally comes back to me from moderation as I was under special circumstances this year due to my fathers passing away.

In the meantime these two images will have to suffice, the first being a caricature of Angus Young, or was it Bon I did too many caricature in one night and the second is from my coursework that shows a good example of shaped cross-hatching on the lighter's body (best ignore the rest I was firing out a page a minute for a deadline)
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31 comments
Mar 15, 2012. 6:26 PMPfarmkid says:
hey the dude in step 14's my neighbor i thing :)
Aug 6, 2011. 9:36 AMbigjeff5 says:

"As far as artistic talent goes you have it or you don't"

I disagree with this, at least within the context of drawing what you see.  It's true that some people understand how to draw more intuitively than others, but drawing is a skill that anyone can learn to do well, and isn't even a particularly difficult one.  Knowing what to draw is the difficult part, but that isn't what you are are talking about here.

I think you are doing a great disservice when you gloss over things like how to hold a pencil and what basic movements to use to make the strokes you want.  Yes there is a lot of variation in how exactly people hold and move their pencils, but there are also fundamentals that all good drawers use.  No doubt you take for granted that you grasped these techniques when you were doodling instead of listening to the teacher in your younger years, but those who weren't doodlers (like myself) must learn these things first if they are to draw well.  You could at least mention them (and focusing on those fundamentals would help you recover your drawing skills more quickly, but you broke your arm three years ago so I'm sure it doesn't matter now).
Aug 6, 2011. 9:47 AMbigjeff5 says:
Excuse me, five years ago, not three.
Aug 29, 2009. 7:52 PMwizerd 745 says:
Nice 'ible. Just one question, evergoing to post a part 2? (oh, and btw, I'm having trouble drawing my charecter the same way consistantly, if you have any advice, it would be appriciated!)
Aug 20, 2009. 8:26 PMjabbaduhut says:
don't worry about acting teacherly; you are teacherly because you ARE our teacher! Nice Instructable my man, hope to hear you did well with your course work and all. thanks very much Iain
Nov 29, 2007. 3:30 PMjongscx says:
wait, is this part 1 of "How to draw well"? Or just How to draw?
Jun 30, 2009. 1:23 AMwill421 says:
Flashback:Banana_King joins in on one of the shortest reply challenges when people are fighting about who`s the Banana King and one of them had an avatar just like yours.
Mar 8, 2009. 1:20 PMStevieRay98 says:
what paper do you use?
Mar 8, 2009. 1:17 PMStevieRay98 says:
wow youre good
Jul 16, 2008. 3:49 PMSunny124613 says:
This is really cool! I wonder how long it took you to draw that well!!!
Jul 17, 2008. 8:00 AMSunny124613 says:
Yeah my bro takes art class and he was using textures with acrylics and he wrote his name big like graffiti, kinda like your intro pic!
Jun 6, 2008. 2:07 AMkiwi_soccer_maniac says:
If you like this, check out my forum topic with some of my doodles/cartoons, scanned and imported, then vectorised & coloured using inkscape. Hope you like them. http://www.instructables.com/community/Cartoons/
Thanks
Jun 6, 2008. 12:33 PMkiwi_soccer_maniac says:
Thanks!
Jun 6, 2008. 12:31 PMkiwi_soccer_maniac says:
Do you mean drawing them in a vector program or scanning then importing into vector program? Yes please upload
Feb 6, 2008. 8:02 PMllopez23 says:
i like ur drawings ur the next picasso
Feb 11, 2008. 3:04 PMllopez23 says:
uh no
Jan 8, 2008. 11:59 AMjz1127 says:
Thank you so much for this Instructable! Very well done. Don't listen to those others. Everybody's a critic. You have inspired me to give it drawing another try and I can't thank you enough! Pleas post more.
Dec 11, 2007. 8:46 PMtheadamlevy says:
worst ball in world ever
Sep 7, 2007. 7:03 AMdarkmotion says:
Formula based drawing is stiff. Drawing is more natural and free with gestural underlays, and rhythm in line work in both thickness and directional flow.
Sep 5, 2007. 3:11 AMKarel Jansens says:
Shading comes over as more natural if you allow for -- what I call -- "backlighting". This means that the darkest part of the shade is not where the object touches the floor, but a little bit higher; some light will almost always reflect off the floor onto the object, so leaving a small band of slightly less darker shadow on that edge makes it look better.
Sep 5, 2007. 1:31 AMzupHC says:
Very well made instructable!! I'd to try to draw something... when I was children I was good at! PS:first! :)

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Author:killerjackalope(My website)
A northern ireland based maker that likes breaking stuff as well as fixing it, of no fixed abode for now Working PR for a club in Belfast and freelance photography. I enjoy working with computers,...
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