How To Draw Anything To Pat for her support. How To Draw Anything by Mark Linley Constable & Robinson Ltd 3 The Lanchesters 162 Fulham Palace Road London W6 9ER www.constablerobinson.com First published in the UK 1995 Material in this book has been drawn from The Right Way to Draw, The Right Way to Draw People, The Right Way to Draw Landscapes, The Right Way to Draw Animals and The Right Way to Draw Cartoons. This edition published by Right Way, an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2010 Copyright Mark Linley, 1995, 2010 All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-0-7160-2223-7 Printed and bound in the EU 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents 1. You Can Learn To Draw 2. Start With Landscapes 3. Don’t Rush Your Bridges 4. Tangle With Timber 5. Take To The Hills 6. Buildings In Landscapes 7. Off To The Seaside 8. Be A Good Composer 9. A Useful Little Aid 10. Animal Magic 11. Count Sheep 12. Be Up To Scratch With Cats 13. Be Foxy 14. Bright-Eyed And Bushy-Tailed 15. Gee Up 16. Woof, Woof 17. Feathered Friends 18. Moving On To People 19. A Nose And A Bit Of Lip 20. Eyes And Ears 21. Bring On The Wig 22. Hands And Feet 23. Arms And Legs 24. The Torso And The Big End 25. Put It All Together 26. If It’s Still, Draw It 27. Cartoons For Fun 28. Doodle Who? 29. Express Expressions 30. Funny Figures 31. Feature Creatures 32. Draw Funny Things 33. How To Change A Humdrum Day 34. Draw Your Own Greetings Cards 1 You Can Learn To Draw Yes, you really can! Many people think that learning to draw is difficult if not impossible. In fact, it need not be. If would-be artists treated the subject as fun and went about it in the right way, it could be possible for nearly everyone, like learning to drive. At first it may seem hard, but it isn’t if the basic instruction is correct. Once you have discovered how to draw landscapes, animals, people, cartoons and all the other things in this book, you should have no problem at all managing with any subject. Expect mistakes When tackling any new skill it is common sense to expect and accept that lots of mistakes will be made. It’s part of the learning process. It is not unusual for students with no previous experience of draughtsmanship suddenly to discover that they can put down accurately what they see. It requires just three things for this to happen: 1. The ability to look properly 2. Self-confidence 3. The capacity to remember and carry out basic instructions. You have the touch I have not mentioned skill with pencil, pen or brush. The reason is because all who can write their names, already have sufficient touch and control to make a multitude of complex shapes – called the English alphabet. There are no harder lines, in nature, to record. A semi-illiterate navvy with scarred, calloused, insensitive hands and a tendency to drink too many pints might start off at a disadvantage. But there are talented handicapped artists with no fingers who can draw; some use their feet, or mouths. Think positive Folks who learn quickly are often those who have enthusiasm for their subject and self-confidence. The way we think is vitally important to the way we operate. Many of us are brain-washed from childhood into thinking negatively about some things. We have all heard others say, for example, “I can’t draw a straight line.” When this is thought or said it becomes a command to the human computer, the sub-conscious mind, which then obeys the instruction by programming the individual to this end. “I can‘t” is then a barrier for as long as it is thought. Think negatively and you will be programmed to do exactly what you have thought. You will never be able to control a pencil or pen well enough to put down the lines you see. You won’t be able to observe shapes accurately, or define texture, and, of course, it will be your own fault. Fig. 1 Yes, you really can learn to draw! You have bought this book, so you are probably already a positive thinker; if not, you will be from now on. How do you do this? Very easy, just think and say, “I can learn to do anything” then forget about it. How long will it take? About a tenth of a split second or faster. What’s more you can apply this simple rule to any subject for the rest of your life. You will have no barrier to stop you moving forward. It may encourage you to know that I am a self-taught artist. Gifted? I believe the term ‘gifted’ is too lightly used in respect of artists. Only one in every million or so can be truly said to be gifted. The rest of us are craftsmen with different degrees of skill. If you can write your name then you have enough touch to learn to draw. If asked to write an A, G, R or K you could do it without thinking. Well, within these pages you will not be called upon to draw anything harder than that. Most lines in nature are gently curved, wavy, or straight; even those that appear complicated at first are not if examined closely. This is why it is vitally important for us artists to look properly at what we want to record. If our drawing goes wrong it is always because our looking was at fault, If, for example, you draw your spouse with a broken nose, cauliflower ears and crossed eyes when in fact the features are more or less normal, then your viewing is wrong or your humour wicked. If your sketch of the family moggy turns out to resemble a furry crocodile then you haven’t focused correctly, or need glasses. Looking properly is important and will be touched upon again, frequently, later in the book. 2 Start With Landscapes All the drawings you do from this book should be bigger than the printed version. What to use Black-and-white drawings have a special charm and power. Indeed, before colour printing was invented, most illustrations were in this medium. Black ink and various nibs used to be common, but today artists use ready-made pens. All the drawings in this book were done with them. There is a huge range to choose from. I find that a small selection of pens, graded 0.1, 0.5, and 0.7, is more than adequate for most illustrations, and suggest that you purchase the same. Figure 3 will give you an idea of what to look for. Figure 4 shows examples of the widths of line these different sized pens produce. Despite being “throw away” pens they are made to give long service. One pen will contain enough black ink to make dozens of drawings. And they are not expensive. Fig. 3 Drawing pens. Fig. 4 Different line thicknesses. A soft eraser is necessary. The person who makes no mistakes makes nothing! Drawing pencils, graded 2B and 4B, are ideal for sketches. A size A4 cartridge drawing pad, or good quality typing paper – which is cheaper to buy by the ream – should enable you to get going. After you have gained a little experience you could add a small paint brush (number 3, 4 or 5) and a bottle of black drawing ink for blocking in large areas. Fig. 5 An extended landscape. Generally, though, the outlay on gear for drawing is much lower than for other art mediums. The satisfaction you will receive from this hobby will be worth many times more than the money spent. When your pictures reach an advanced standard you could well sell just one, and recover all your costs. Isn’t that a happy, encouraging thought? Off you go Begin with the very simple illustration in figure 5. This is called an ‘extended’ landscape because it covers a large area of land. I happened upon this scene while on a ramble, and took a photograph of it from the vantage point of a hill top. When you sit at a table in your kitchen-cum-studio, or wherever you decide to produce your masterpieces, a drawing board is useful. A purpose-made artists’ board is expensive but strong plywood or chipboard is fine. I use a 50cm by 50cm piece of chipboard both for drawing and watercolour painting. One end I prop up to give a sloping surface, which helps the eye and makes drawing easier. Two hefty books do the job. Churn them out Some amateur artists believe they’re doing well if they turn out three or four drawings in a week, but this is almost useless as a way to learn to draw. The more you draw the better you become. It’s possible, and not hard, to draw ten subjects per hour. Prior to writing this chapter I wandered slowly round a zoo and recorded twenty six different subjects, some of which are in this book. The actual time spent on this was under two hours. One two-hour session in an art gallery produced forty quick sketches of people. This is not unusual for someone who can draw. It might seem difficult for a beginner, but if you follow the instructions given and do the assignments at the ends of the chapters you will be amazed at your progress, creative output and genius. Always put the date on your work. When you look back you will be able to see the improvement, and this will bolster your self-confidence and enable you to go from strength to strength. You are about to begin your adventure into art by drawing landscapes and learning what materials you will require. Good luck. Fill in the white paper Illustrators and artists need to know how to fill a blank sheet of paper. This is done both with the lines of the drawing and with shading. The latter marks are used to suggest different forms, distance and so on. Use the most simple of shading for your first few exercises. Look at figure 6. Notice how distant patches of forest, hedges, and trees are recorded by vertical, even-spaced fine lines; how the field in the foreground is drawn with horizontal shading. Meadows further away are suggested by broken lines and small dashes. Trees in the foreground are made to look darker by a trick-of-the-trade often used, known as cross-hatching: diagonal lines are crossed at right-angles by similar diagonal lines going the opposite way. Grass is shown as little lines, dots and dashes. Go over your pencil out- line of figure 5/6 with a pen. Then rub out the pencil marks. Isn’t it easy? You could do this with one eye closed! Fig. 6 Simple shading. Next, go to figure 7, which is a scene on the Isle of Wight. Take a long, careful look then draw in pencil. Much of our U.K. countryside, incidentally, is inhabited by sheep. I always used to think of them as silly, nervous animals. However, when I was once sketching in the Yorkshire dales, an angry one with horns chased me. It must have gone mad. I finished up racing my friend to a stone stile where we climbed over to safety, but not before my friend had hurt her ankle. The sheep depicted in Figure 7 are in the middle distance. They look like small oblongs with rounded ends. No detail is visible from a distance. Figure 8 shows you how to shade in figure 7. Simplicity is the keynote again. However, the shading used for the trees in the foreground is slightly more advanced than in your previous sketch. Those trees to the left are partly cross-hatched, to help give a feeling of depth to the field. The ones in the middle are fully cross-hatched, with the addition of some simple squiggles. The effect of this extra shading is to bring these trees forward in the picture, towards your eye. Try it. Fig. 7 Isle of Wight scene. Simplification Beginner artists tend to try to include every detail of what they see. This is impossible! Who has the time to spend a month drawing one tree? You can leave exact copying to a camera. What you must aim to do is simplify what you want to draw. Indeed, one of the highest forms of art is that in which detail is left out, the artist suggesting what things are like with as-few lines as possible. You have a lot of freedom. You can remove unwanted trees or buildings, change the way a river runs, or put in features that will improve a picture. You are learning step-by-step the quickest way to reach a very high level of skill. Don’t try too hard to produce identical copies of my drawings. That is not important at this stage. I want you to develop your own style. You can use your own ideas about how to create shading. We are all different, and express ourselves in our own, unique, way. One of my aims is to teach you basic drawing and shading, so that when you unleash yourself on, for example, the highlands of Scotland, you will know how to draw any scene that captures your attention. It would be very frustrating to sit before a breathtaking scene, pen poised over pad, and not know what to do! Look for pictures as you go about your daily toil. Think how things could be simplified. We often take for granted those scenes with which we live constantly. When you take your spouse, children, or dog for a walk look around for pictures. If you glide off to work in your chauffeured Rolls-Royce take a squint at the countryside you are passing. The top of a bus is a good place from which to scan your environment. Parks, pretty gardens, golf courses, and all kinds of other local beauty spots will provide possible pictures. Part of being an artist is knowing how to look. Practice makes perfect The more you draw the better you become. We all know that, but success requires self-discipline too! We tend to take the easy way out (and expect to succeed without putting in the drawing hours...) but this works against us when learning a skill like drawing. It’s interesting to know, however, that when newcomers begin to show good results their drawing tends quickly to become pleasantly addictive. I hope this will soon apply to you. Keep a small sketch pad with you and force yourself to draw scenes within easy reach. If you can’t get about use photographs, old Christmas, or greetings cards, and so on. Fig. 8 More advanced shading.