Everyone Can Draw

Barrington Barber

• Publisher: Arcturus
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781784281588
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Art Techniques

Barrington Barber takes as his starting point the belief that everyone - whatever their experience - can learn to draw well. A fresh and accessible book that will appeal to all those interested in learning to draw, or who wish to hone their skills.

Chapter 1

MARKS AND MATERIALS

The classic materials for drawing are pencil, pen and ink, charcoal in its various forms and brush and wash. Each of these has its own characteristic marks, and which you choose for any particular drawing will depend on your own preference and also what will best suit the subject. Experiment with other tools, too – a twig or the quill of a feather you see lying on the ground will give you new and exciting marks when dipped in ink, for example.

PENCIL

The most common medium for drawing is pencil. Use B-grade pencils as they make a darker mark with less pressure required than the harder H pencils. Ideally you should have B, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B as a range.

B-grade pencils are soft and wear down quite fast, so have several sharp pencils to hand. It will interrupt the flow of your work if you have to keep stopping to sharpen your pencil.

1When you’re ready, start drawing a wavy line in any direction just to get the feel of the pencil on the paper. This is more important than it may seem, because experiencing through your hand the way the pencil meets the paper gives your drawing greater sensitivity.

2Scribble lines in all directions to make a patch of dark tone.

3Then try a series of quickly made lines, all in the same direction and as close together as you can, to make a patch of tone.

4Next, draw a number of lines in all directions, but shorter and spaced around to build up like a layer of twigs.

5Draw a tonal patch with all the lines going in one direction in vertical strokes.

6Next, draw horizontal strokes in the same manner.

7Now combine horizontal and vertical lines with diagonals to produce a very dark patch of tone.

8Draw a circle as accurately as you can. Although it’s easy enough to imagine a perfect circle, drawing one takes careful work and yours will probably look like the one shown.

9Now add a bit of tone to one side of your circle to give the impression of a three-dimensional sphere. Put a patch of tone underneath the sphere to look like a cast shadow.

10Now try a drawing of a group of leaves, keeping it simple and just aiming to express the feel of the plant’s growth.

11Similarly, draw a flower shape – don’t try to be too exact at this stage.

Now we are taking a further step towards picture-making, because you are going to attempt a shape that resembles something that you might want to draw.

12First draw a diamond shape that is flatter horizontally than vertically.

13Then draw three vertical lines down from the left corner, the lower centre corner and the right corner. All the lines should be parallel to each other, with the outer two about the same length and the central one a little longer.

14Now draw lines from the lower ends of the verticals, similar to the lower sides of the original diamond shape. This now looks like a cube shape.

15To increase the illusion of three dimensions, make a light tone across the background space to about halfway down the cube, then put tone over the two lower surfaces of the cube. Make the tone on one of the lower sides even darker. To finish off the illusion, draw a tone from the...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Marks and Materials
• Chapter 2: Line Drawing
• Chapter 3: Tone and Texture
• Chapter 4: Perspective
• Chapter 5: Composition
• Chapter 6: Still Life
• Chapter 7: Landscape
• Chapter 8: Urban Landscapes
• Chapter 9: Animals
• Chapter 10: Portraits
• Chapter 11: The Human Figure
• Chapter 12: Practices and Projects
• Back Cover