Follow these simple rules to achieve realistic looking drawings, as I learn more I will add to these... use the scroll bar to move down the list.
1. If you are right handed start at the top left and work your way right and down... this will stop your wrist smudging all your hard work! And If
you are left handed the rule is reversed.
2. Always have a blank sheet of paper protecting your artwork from your skin... there are oils on your skin that interact with the paper and can
ruin your shading leaving oily blotches and dark patches.
3. Work harder on the proportions than on any other part of the drawing, if the proportions are wrong then the rest of your drawing will look
wrong.
4. When drawing eyes, remember the eyelids (both lower and upper) Eyelashes are random, not orderly, and the Whites of your eyes are rarely
completly white! they themselves may even have a highlight... check out my eye drawing tutorial.
5. Don't draw solid lines... solid lines rarely appear in nature, try to achieve distinction with shading.
6. As well as comparing your drawing with your reference, compares the tones of your drawing with each other.
7. Shade smoothly making sure that your gradients from dark to light are smooth and not abrupt.
8. Use negative drawing to draw light areas... see tutorial on negative drawing.
9. Don't press down hard with the pencil, this will leave little reflective lines all over your drawing, instead, to achieve depth, build up dark
areas with layer upon layer of graphite.
10. Work on small sections at a time being careful to draw what you see, and not what you think you see... our brains have a habit of filling in
the gaps! artists need to learn to ignore this 'filling in'.
11. In contrast to rule 10, add little details to bring your drawing to life, fly away hairs, highlights in the eyes and dark areas of depth are all
useful tools to make your drawing more lifelike. There is nothing wrong with a little artistic license!
12. Highlights are not always completely white but sometimes have tone of their own.
13. NEVER use your finger to blend... a lot of beginner artists make this mistake. It is a terrible method that makes your shading blotchy and
uneven, instead use, cotton wool, Q-Tips, facial tissue or for large areas a clean chamois leather.
14. When drawing hair, keep your pencil sharp at all times or use a mechanical pencil, Don't draw each individual hair but create the illusion of
hair with shadows, midtones and highlights.
15. If working from a reference photo, always prepare the image before beginning. you can change the contrast , brightness and midtones with
a simple program such as microsoft picture editor. I would also recommend you make the reference greyscale. If the reference looks good in
black and white and you are accurate with your methods, then so will your drawing.
16. As you near the end of a drawing, dont rush! it will show! if you only have a little left but are getting bored dont try and finish it in that
sitting... come back later refreshed and eager.. your drawing will look so much better for it!
17. Take your time in general, very few good artists spend less than 20-30 hours on an A4 work. these things take time and you will need a lot of
patience if you want to do a good job!
18. Dont be afraid of going darker! this is the mistake that 99% of all new artists make, your drawing will not look real until you have learned to
add depth with a good solid dark shadow!
19. Use fixative on your drawing when finished to make it last and remove glare.
