DRAWING for BEGINNERS
SHAPES
"Anything and Everything can be derived from these three basic shapes, Circle, Square, and or Triangles. Remember a "rectangle" is just a stretched square, an "ellipse" is just a stretched circle."
Look at the object (s) carefully. what shapes do you see, take it down even further, what ONE shape?
The image to the left shows the basic steps of breaking the items down to 2 shapes, a rectangle and a square. Start with the biggest object, and base your sizes of other shapes in comparison to that one.
"Whittle" down the basic shapes, a little at a time, "Simple to complex" , don't worry about the "values in the beginning, they come next, as in "step 3". Getting the shapes CORRECT is the 1st important step.
Got a question? Post it in the "Student Forum"
What shapes can you see in the drawings below?
VALUES
Drawing and painting is about seeing. Value deals directly to light. We see things because light reflects off of objects and goes into our eyes. Our mind processes the light and rationalizes what we are seeing. Without light, we cannot see anything. In order to draw or paint in a way that creates an illusion of what we normally see, we must fully understand light and how it reacts on surfaces. Value is the key to the illusion of light. This is why value is so incredibly important to drawing and painting.
Values describe where the light is coming from, what is the "shape" and where it is in space. As long as there are dark values in harmony with light values, your artwork will most likely be aesthetically pleasing. A full range of value means that there is a good balance of light values- called tints, and dark values - called shades.
Shapes
Perspective
