Drawing With Cat 11/07/2012

Good morning, good day, good afternoon, good evening! That ought to take care of all the times during the day people pop over to say howdy. :)

Now that it's getting so cold and decidedly winterish outside, I thought I'd hit us all those non-winter people with a pang of nostalgia and "Oh please YES!" So, for this tutorial, we are going to draw a cute li'l girl at the beach!

Yes, you heard me. The beeeeeeeach! It will be lovely.

So now, grab you:

• One dullish HB or 2B pencil
• One automatic pencil
• One white artist eraser
• One basic Bic pen, or any cheap ink pen that leaves nice, pencil-ish lines
• One nicely illuminated work station

Okay, now that we've got all the necessaries out of the way, start with this Gollum-ish looking figure. (You do all know who Gollum is, right? If not, why haven't you read Lord of the Rings, or at least seen the movies yet?!?!?!) Draw it fairly small, with a head slightly down-turned. Draw a mostly straight back, gently bowing it out just a hair. Draw in her knees, so she looks like she's crouching a bit. Draw two mostly straight sticks for her arms.

Draw in her box dimensions. She's going to be a pretty little thing, so make these boxes kind of small. Visualize a thread running from her neck through the torso book, passing through the ball in her middle until it connects everything to her hip box. Once you've done that, mark in all the joint circles, drawing where her shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles join. Also draw a circle at her hip, where her leg attaches to her upper body. Last, draw in a small diagram of a foot. Draw this lightly, because it is NOT going to remain that way. It's for grounding purposes only.

Now, cover everything with a layer of skin. Draw a smooth, bowing line from her nearly invisible left shoulder all the way down her spine to where her leg attaches. Draw in her legs, making them fairly small and slender. Make her arms also fairly slender, as well as he neck. Mark in a very faint suggestion of her ear, and gently diagram the areas on her face where her eyes, nose, and mouth will go.

Now, using your artist eraser, get rid of most of the guidelines. Use the corner of your eraser when navigating through the small areas, such as her arms, neck, hands, and feet, so you don't erase too much of the pencil marks you want to keep. Draw in her nose, and darken the line where her mouth is. Diagram her hands. Refrain from hissing "my precioussssssss!" at this point.

Since it is a day at the beach, you actually have it really easy in the clothes department! Really, all you're going to do is draw a circle around her arm where the strap of her suit sits, and then you're going to draw a line around her thigh where the suit ends. Flesh out her fingers and toes, making them a bit more obvious. Enhance her ear just a tad, and draw in the rough outline of her hair. Since she's at the beach Mom doesn't want her hair to get too tangled, so little Beach Girl is wearing it in a braid. Draw some wiggly lines for waves.

Ink her in very carefully with your pen, being careful not to smudge around her face. Leave the waves in pencil. Don't ink this part in, or the "sand" she's crouching on. Once you've done that, completely erase all the pencil lines on her body.

Now, using the HB, or 2B pencil again, layer in the shadows. Very, very lightly touch up her face with a very faint bit of shadow. Add the same kind of shadowing to her neck, arms, and right leg. Now, pressing a little bit harder, heavily darken the area on her chest and stomach, gradually lightening as you work toward her back. Now, less heavily, shadow in her entire left leg, only leaving the top of her foot unshadowed. Once you've done that, colour in her hair, using alternating strokes of light and dark to create the contrast of highlights. Leave some areas completely white, to show where the sun is reflecting off her head. Use your pencil to draw more wavy lines on the wavelets ebbing and flowing toward the shore.

 

There you go! That is that! How did you do (gollum! gollum!)?

Well, kewl! If you've stopped by for a check, drop a suggestion in the comment box for the kind of tutorial you'd like to see next. Nothing TOO crazy, please. I'm not sure how great I'd be with cars or robots. :) Remember, I'm a fantasy artist, with some real life thrown in.

Stop by on Saturday for my next update. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this FOURTH INSTALMENT!!! of Drawing with the Grand and Glorious Cat, artist extraordinaire! (At least, that's what she wishes people would call her. ;)

God bless, and take care!

Cat