Hello and thank you for joining me today in the Navy from Navy find out marketing Comm. I hope that you're really excited about learning how to draw realistic subjects. And today what I want to concentrate on is showing you how to create subtle value changes. So then you can create a realistic dimensional drawn on a 2d surface. So before I do jump into it, I want to go into some supplies that I use, I use a kneaded eraser, which is very helpful. definitely get this I have bought maybe two or three or four of them.

I usually always buy them and I kind of put them all together. And this is a great tool for racing, lightning, some values. It's just a great tool that you're going to want to have in your toolbox. Another tool that I like to use is this brush right here. I gets rid of anything crumbs are the Brie also helps to spread some graphite on your paper. And I'll go over that in the, in the future, I use Tombow graphite pencils, there's a lot of different brands out there, find out which ones work well for you.

I found these are great, there's the lead is actually grounded very fine. So then there's no imperfections in the graphite. And in this way, I don't score my paper and ruin my draw. And so I'm really enjoying these pencils right now. I always have a pencil extender here. This is great.

So then when the pencil gets a little bit shorter, I don't have to just throw it away because it's halfway done. This will let me use the whole pencil. So to begin with, what I did is I grabbed out the grid here of the picture and I'm gonna be doing I'm gonna be doing an egg. So get a picture of of an egg and in this way, you can kind of draw along with me in a couple videos before I showed you how to create Read your image and also how to put the subject on your paper using a grid method and using the divider. While you're taking images and you're printing out your subject, what you're going to want to do is you're going to want to take the subject and make it into a black and white and I use Photoshop for this. So it will take the image that I'm using, and then I can put it to black line.

This helps me because I'm working with graphite, it's a grayscale helps me to really see the different values. And while I'm doing that, too, I also lay in the image. So then I can see different textures. I'll make lighter images, I'll make darker images. And this is really helpful. And you can see what this image right here with light is hitting.

So this is the direct light right here. If I look at this image, for example, it doesn't show that as clearly. And that's why I use a darker image. It shows me things that lighter images can't show me. Now, I'm not going to draw a base off of this, but it helps me to understand where the light is hidden. And that's the important part of drawing realistic drawings is understanding how light affects different subjects and different textures.

So the latest hidden this right here, and you're going to see also a reflection light that's right here. So you want to be able to know where the lights being being shown or directed on. And also you want to know where the reflection light is. So then you can make the contour you can make the depth you can make the curve of the item that you're actually drawing. So take some time to print images, lighten them up, darken them and then this way You can actually have a better accurate drawing, you can use all of them to help you see different value changes, so it's going to be very useful. Another tool that I like to use is my mono zero eraser.

It's this right here, I use this a ton for my animal portraits. This is a great tool and when I go, if I'm going to be using it, I'll show you how to use that as well. That's a great tool to have in your toolbox. The other thing that I do is I sharpen my pencil using sandpaper. So you can see that I have a long tip there. I use that because then this way I can actually see where the graphite is hitting the paper.

It's easier for me, I have better control and I use the sandpaper to actually sharpen the pencil. So let's get started. So now that we have our subject paragraph though, We're going to be doing is I'm going to be looking at this drawing right here where the greatest and these grids are going to actually show me where the value is darker. Okay, so I'm drawing this, I don't want to draw it dark here and say, Okay, this is where it's really dark. I want to know exactly what blocks are what sections have the darkest value, and then this way, the draw is going to be more accurate and saves me a ton of time in the future as well. While I'm doing this, I am going to be erasing the grids while I'm drawing the value in here.

Depending on the subject I might keep, I might work box the box, depending on how much details in there, but other times I will just erase the lines and you want to be careful when you're erasing those lines. Because if you press too hard and you ruin the paper, you're not going to be able to get smooth value change. And also if you leave the line there too much that line is going to show through as well. So you want to get the line off, but you want to make sure that you're doing it very softly. So a trick that I like to use is I'll take my kneaded eraser, and I make a nice point out of it. So I'm just kind of formed minute.

And actually, while I'm drawn, I always have this in my left hand and I'm kind of fooling around with it, kind of mold in it, Paul and john kind of helps me to relax a little bit, gives me something in my hand. So now I got this nice, nice point here. Dependent how fine of a line I have to erase will depend on how pointy of a tip that I have. So the first thing that I want to do is I want to map out where the darker sections are going to be and I'm going to be just doing this freehand depending on the subject or detail, I will use my divider but just for this Purpose right here, I'm going to be just kind of freehand in it. So the curve goes right about from here goes down, like that. So I'm just going to kind of draw that in.

This is sort of we're out there kind of just so I have a map of where it's gonna go. Not to be too accurate here because I'm gonna be adding the value anyways. Just a little guide, it goes around here, kind of stops right about there. This is the great thing about the grid. You can just kind of eyeball it and get some good ideas. I'm just sketching this and so I know where I start to get a little bit lighter.

Now I hope that you can see the light lines that I'm working with on this because it cannot, it tends to not really show up Good. So as the john comes the life, you're going to be able to see the john a little bit better for you. Now the next thing that you want to do is take off some of the graphite that you put on there. So then when you start adding in the value, that lines not going to get darker because every time you go over a line, that lines can actually get darker. Even these grid lines right can just happen lightly on a paper on graphite, and I'm trying to erase even these grid lines right here, I'll take off that graphite before I use my model zero eraser to get rid of that bind. This way, I don't have to press really hard with a model zero eraser.

I'm not going to erase all of the lines here, even though I could. But I'm just not going to right now just for the purpose of this video. So then when we get into more complex videos, you can See how I work from square to square. So now I'm going to take my mono zero eraser. I'm just going to lightly take out that value. Again, you want to make sure that you get in that line off.

And that's the important thing when you're actually drawing the grid on your surface. You want to use a real light touch on use a hard lead, I usually use a four H or a two h to draw the grid. And I do very lately I did a little bit darker here in this video just so you could see it a little bit better. So I hope I can actually get it all off. But this way you can see actually how I'm working. Just want to make sure you get all those lines off because every time we've drawn a line, that line is going to get a little bit darker.

Okay, so now that there's debris in there, if I don't have any graphite onto paper, I use my brush. I just get rid of it. If there's graphite on the paper and use the brush that's going to spread that graphite around your drawing, so you want to be careful with that if you're going to be using it. What I also do is I'll pick up the debris with this razor. So this will also take up all those crumbs which is a great great little trick.