The last practice was about creating a sphere, a very common practice which widely seen in drawing workbooks. This practice is very crucial as it will help in understanding how shadows and highlights work. It will even help in getting a command in blending and shading. The three dimensionality which has to be achieved is a very difficult task as a beginner and this practice will let you know how good are you at it and where can you further improvise. If you haven't read the previous article where I discuss what are values, highlights and shadows, you should definitely read it.
This blog is to take you further more into the world of values and tones. I found an image of a crumbled cloth on internet and I thought this would be a really good reference image for practice. The reference image of this piece and other reference images are attached below in a link.
Our goal should be first to mark the line and create the shapes where we will be shading.
The next step is to identify the dark values and block them. This will give you a primitive skeleton of how your sketch will look and you will be able to proceed further easily.
You can now begin with focusing on the mid-tones and understand the direction of the flow. Once the mid tones are achieved, you should have a look at it again and rectify if any difference is noticed.
Look for the highlights and create them using a kneadable eraser. The way to use a kneadable eraser is to dab the areas we want to highlight them gently. Avoid creating a prominent mark and if it appears try blending the edge with a cotton bud or any other blending tool. Look for those thin lines which may appear between a shadow and a mid tone and use a pencil eraser or a white gel pen to highlight it. I have even provided a list of tools and material in the first blog of this series.
It will obviously take you some time mastering this but it is important to stay consistent at it and not give up. You will gradually get hold of how does all of this work and your drawings will look much better over the time.
You can definitely reach to me for any suggestions or feedbacks related to your drawings and I will try my best to help you as much as I can. Once you think you have pulled this off, you can try some still life drawings. You can get access to a few images including the one I used as a reference in this articles by clicking the button below.
Very easy to follow along, and not too many overwhelming steps, thank you for explaining it so well.