Drawing School

A comprehensive drawing course

Jim Dowdalls

• Publisher: Walter Foster
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781633224872
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

A traditional drawing class in a book to help you master basic skills, including form, space, depth, proportion, composition, perspective, and more. California State University art professor Jim Dowdalls starts new students out by demonstrating how to use the different types of drawing tools, including how to hold a pencil, how to use supports, and how to make a variety of marks and strokes. Artists will discover helpful information for understanding value and learning to create a value scale, as well as how to build value in their drawings using various techniques. Throughout this educational book, myriad step-by-step exercises and drawing projects encourage artists to put their newfound knowledge to use and practice the concepts and techniques demonstrated. With the skills and techniques they acquire in this comprehensive yet affordable drawing course, beginning artists will be ready to take their artwork to the next level. Filled with beautiful artwork that will inspire budding artists to continue to build and grow their craft, Drawing School: Fundamentals for the Beginner is the perfect place to start a mastery of fine art.

COLOR

This chapter deals with two different drawing media: colored pencil and pastel. This chapter is not meant to be a color theory or painting class, but rather a simple introduction to the beauty and pleasure that color can bring, as well as an introductory lesson in color application with drawing media. As we learned in the previous chapter, value can add drama to a drawing, and in the last chapter, we’ll see how perspective is the mathematics of drawing. But in this chapter, we’ll explore how color is the magic in drawing.

Colored Pencil

Colored pencil is a versatile drawing medium that can emulate watercolor, oil, or pastel effects. It can also be used successfully on its own or in conjunction with other dry media for high contrast, intense color, and value application.

Student colored pencil drawing. Time: 12–15 hours.

The best and easiest way to develop high-contrast, high-chromatic drawings in colored pencil is to use gray marker as an initial value underpainting, with glazes of transparent and opaque colored pencil layered on top—a technique known as grisaille. Similarly, gray marker on gray toned paper acts as a monochromatic underpainting upon which transparent glazes of colored pencil can be applied, without a heavy buildup of wax—a key ingredient in most colored pencils. Too much waxy buildup on paper will limit the artist in the number of colors and layers that can be successfully used, which can be problematic when trying to build up color and value simultaneously with only colored pencil. By applying a marker underpainting, the value is already there, soaked into the paper without any changes in paper surface. At the end of the process, the brightest and lightest colors can be applied as strongly as desired with a technique called “burnishing,” which involves laying down heavier pressure with the opaque light colors.

Color Basics

Colored pencils are transparent by nature, so instead of “mixing” colors as you would for painting, you layer colors on top of one another to create blends. Knowing a little about basic color theory can help you tremendously in drawing with colored pencils. The primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) are the three basic colors that can’t be created by mixing other colors; all other colors are derived from these three. Secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) are each a combination of two primaries, and tertiary colors (red-orange, red-purple, yellow-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, and blue-purple) are a combination of a primary color and a secondary color.

COLOR WHEEL A color wheel is a useful reference tool for understanding color relationships. Knowing where each color lies on the color wheel makes it easy to understand how colors relate to and react with one another.

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are any two colors directly across from each other on the color wheel (such as red and green, orange and blue, or yellow and purple). You can actually see combinations of complementary colors in nature—for instance, if you ...