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Start Art 5 12 RT START www.painters-online.co.uk Start with blind contour drawings The first blind contour drawing is often the best (draw the outline of your subject with your eyes closed). Once you look at your first drawing, you naturally try to control your lines in the next one rather than just drawing what you see Identify light and shadow with dimensional lines Once you’ve chosen a blind contour drawing to work with, add dimensional lines and indicate where you’ll place your values for shading and volume. Look back at your subject often. Notice the shadows and highlights. Indicate their placement in your drawing Reference photograph Value plan Exercise: Practise simple value drawings IDENTIFY AND USE VALUE You have learnt the basics of value by practising ten-step value scales. As you become more aware of value and better able to capture it with graphite, you’ll find there is no limit to what you can draw. You must first train your eyes to recognise values and then train your hand to replicate them with the pencil. One of the best ways to practise this is with simple value patterns. A three-step value plan — a plan with a light value, a middle value and a dark value — is best to start with. The lightest areas define the highlights, the darkest areas define the shadows, while the middle value develops volume as it bridges the highlight and shadow areas. This limited value scale is so simple, you’ll gain confidence as you see the results immediately. Identify values in the five- step value plan A five-step value plan provides a wider, more realistic result as values are established. Match the values in the duck to the values in the five-step value plan (above). Three-step value plan Five-step value plan .5mm mechanical pencils 4B 2B B HB 4H