Drawing notes#

This page aims to collect notes from various ressources I encountered while re-learning to draw.

As all craftsmanships, drawing is a complex mix of theorical and practical things to learn, remember and apply. Those pages aim to help me doing just that.

Those notes are public but heavily opinionated and are not to be taken as face value. Think about them as cards you pick when you have to remember a specific thing.

Shapes#

Shapes are areas created by lines, colors, and textures. They are what composes an image and allow the artist to direct the eye of the viewer, convey mood, render feelings.

In nature, shapes can come in great variety, which makes their reproduction not only difficult, but sometimes undesirable. If they are too numerous and don't serve the meaning meaning the artist needs, then it's required to merge or transform them.

Merging shapes#

Merging shapes is one of the many ways of simplifying what we see by reducing the amount of information we draw. Simplifying requires the artist to be less literal about what they see and reduce it to an essential design to convey meaning.

By merging shapes, the artist can direct the eye of the viewer to another part of the piece, convey specific moods, and make the piece more easy to grasp.

Making good shapes#

But while reducing information is good, it has to be done qualitatively. Designing a good shape requires work. Good shapes:

• Are abstract
• Are simple and easy to draw
• Have a good design all by themselves
• Are readable even from a distance

In order to create those shapes, it's good to mix different type of lines: S curves, C curves and straight lines allow the drawing of any shape. Looking at an existing shape and asking if a complex set of lines can be merged into a single one to reinforce a shape is important.

Visual language#

Visual language is a subset of theorical tools a visual artist can use to convey meaning, akin to words for a writer.

Message

Thinking about the intention of the piece before starting it.

Composition

Directing the viewer eyes to a focal point or into a specific direction to express the message (Full page on composition)

Contrast

Creating relationships (not just light versus dark) between elements to reinforce the composition (Full page on contrast)

Values#

Value refers to the gray scale between white and black and is used to express how light interacts with the elements represented in a piece. The values are added on the existing shapes by trying to now think of those as planes, a.k.a surfaces that have an orientation on the Z axis and convey a 3 dimensional form.

This is important because light comes in a straight line and will bounce on the planes, creating shadows. Shadows come into two types: cast shadows adopt the shape of what is blocking the light ; but form/flat shadows occurs when planes turn away from the light, and the only way to know by how much is by identifying the direction of the plane.

It can be difficult to add values, because there can be so many of them on the scale. But to convey realistic light, a few rules can be followed:

• Start with 3 values : the specular light, the midtones, the shadows.
• Like a photographer, choose if you want to expose for the light (2 values for light, 1 for shadows) or expose for the shadows (1 value for light, 2 for shadows). Don 't do both or it will look like a photo made by an HDR camera.
• Consider the midtones as the whole area hit by light excluding the specular and the shadows.
• There more room for information in the midtones hit by light than in the shadows.
• The range of midtones should not be too large from each others on the scale, as keeping them close helps reading them as planes.
• Outside of cast shadows, specular light and shadows should be kept away from each others as they create harder edges.

Lighter
|
| <- The Specular
|
| <-
| <- The midtones
| <-
|
|
|
|
| <- The shadows
|
Darker

Sources#

• 10 Minutes To Better Painting_ by Marco Bucci.
• Creative Fundamentals by Devin Korwin.