Key Stage Four more confident students
The final part of my drawing programme should develop your ability to measure complex angles and reference points, shade to a complex level then bring those skills into an excellent piece of observational drawing. Once you have mastered this section you should be able to draw anything! You could go out on a field trip into a city centre and draw interesting buildings or take yourself off into the countryside to draw the landscape. Perhaps you love drawing graphic cartoons, graffiti or fashion design, well now you should have the skills to draw all of those things with greater precision, accuracy and skill. The more you draw the better you will become and the more confident you will get. Just draw the things you love and keep doing them, whatever that may be because drawing should be pleasurable, fun and enjoyable - not BORING!!
Mastery: Try to really master the exercises in this programme before you move on. It's important not to rush through the tasks, take time to get them right!
Exercise 1: Advanced Measuring
You didn't think you were getting away with just holding a pencil out did you? There's a lot more to measuring than that and it can be quite complicated trying to measure accurately when drawing but it is vital to know what to do. Like always, it takes time to master and you need to practice.
Paul's Tip
This exercise might seem a bit complicated at first. You might even think that you don't need to learn it to be able to draw and you'd be right! You can get away without learning about reference points and angles etc. but when you know them and how to use them they take your drawing to the next level of brilliance.
Exercise 2: Shadows
I love shadows. I could just look at them all day and night! I often take photos of shadows because I think they are so good. Shadows make your drawings come to life, they make a drawing powerful and interesting. Shadows are often overlooked, but once you can see them you'll love them like I do I promise!
Paul's Tip
Learning how light affects objects is REALLY hard! I've been drawing for decades and it still takes a long time to work out where the shading has to go. The trick is to always be thinking in thre areas of tone; light dark and middle and when you've got that right you need to think of highlights (where there is no shading) andcast shadows where the tones are darkest. Applying dark shadows and highlights to as drawing brings it to life!
Exercise 3: Complex Observational Drawing.
Ok, are you ready for it? This complex drawing of a group of still life objects should take you at least three hours to perfect. By now you should be able to bring all of your lessons into play. You should be able to draw the 2D and 3D shapes, measure the angles and reference points, build tone, detail and shadows to create a really excellent drawing. Send me the results
Paul's Tip
This video is a long one and you may get restless watching it. It's ok to skip through bits and get the gist of things as long as you know the stages you need to go through to draw a complex scene like this one.
Assessing your work
The following guide should help you to see how to improve your work. When we draw anything there are always things to improve, so don't take it personally. Drawing takes time to improve. Look at the images below for further guidance on assessing your work. Select which code applies to your work then follow the advice given.
