Drawing Your Dad

The first thing you need to do is find a comfortable place to draw. Make sure you don't have any distractions, as they can interrupt the flow and cause you to make mistakes. Next take out your drawing tablet. I use "Premium recycled" as my choice. The paper is heavier and you can erase without causing problems with the texture or surface.

The next few items are critical in order to turn out a quality piece of artwork.

Pick a good pencil to sketch with. I use a mechanical pencil so that I don't have to constantly sharpen. It uses a .5 soft lead that is darker in value for good shading affects. Pick out a good eraser, the eraser is your friend! I use a gummy eraser because it doesn't leave any residue on the page. Other kinds of erasers also leave little crumbles of eraser to clean up and don't work nearly as well as a gummy eraser. Then finally I use a tortillion to do my blending and shadowing. It's the difference in values that make the sketch look real or at least resemble the reference picture.

Step one:

Lightly sketch in the overall shape. Take your time and get it right! You will make mistakes and that's ok. Don't be afraid to use your eraser so you get it right. Once you've gotten the overall shape correct, you can begin shading. I shade at first lightly and then later go back over it to darken it up. I use layers of shading to get it right. Don't forget that it's the values or shadowing that gives your drawing that 3-D look.

Here's a little secret! I'm right handed, so I always start shading on the left side. I do this because my hand pressure on the page will smudge my drawing. You don't want to smudge so always start shadowing on the left if your a righty, and on the right if your a lefty! You can also place a blank piece of paper between your hand and your drawing. This will help I promise. You will notice in some of the photos below that there's a blank folded piece of paper on the right side, that I use to protect the drawing as I'm shading it.

I hope you enjoy this "How To!" If you have questions or comments, please leave them in the comment section below. I would love to hear of ideas of what else to draw. I can do the drawing and make a blog out of it!

PS If you would like to get a portrait drawn of your loved ones, visit this address www.soulreflectionsbyjeff.com