Hello, welcome back on the interview, and in this video, I'll be talking a little bit more about seeing value changes. So and you can actually create realistic graphite drawings as well as I'm going to be talking about the importance of keeping your pencil sharp and protecting your paper. And also I want to talk about every line will create a contrast and how to use cross hatching in your realistic drawings. I've went over before the different reference images that I have, I have a lighter image and I do it in different stages so that I can actually see the values of the subject that I'm creating. So it's important when you're printing out the reference images to have different values so then you can actually see the different changes and the gradual value chain Is this dark print right here, I can actually see that the light is shining right on this section here.

And that creates that shadow going in this direction. Because light is hidden here, this area right here is going to be darker because light isn't really hitting that, that area. So that's going to create that curve of this subject of this egg. And if I didn't see that, or I didn't understand that, then my John's going to be flat and I don't want that I want to make sure that I know where the light source is coming from. And I also want to understand the curve of the object that I'm looking at. Because I will know that place where late isn't hitting, it's going to be darker.

It can be the same color egg. So this is a brown egg. But it's going to get darker where light isn't hidden and it's going to get lighter or lighter. Head neck. And you can see definitely seen value changes. And it's gradual.

It's not a drastic value change. So when you're drawing that you want to be able to make sure that you're john, the subtle value changes as well. And that's what helps me with these lighter images, too. So I can really start to see where the darker areas are. If I print out lighter images, and then this way, when I start to draw, I can use all of the references that I have to be able to help me to determine what is going to be my best plan of action, what am I going to be able to do and then this way, I don't have to worry about creating something so dark in the beginning and then have to adjust the whole drawing according to my darkest areas. So here's the image that I have and hopefully you've been working on this And you can see I kind of went on and added a little bit more value.

And if you notice in this drone right here, it's darker in the section here, just like the reference image, but it's gradually going lighter. And over here, it's a little bit darker and reference image. So I want to make sure that's a little bit darker because light's not really hitting that it's creating that curve. Okay, and you can already start to see a three dimension illusion off of this two dimensional john surface just by concentrating on how light is actually hitting that subject. Now when I start adding value to the shadow of the egg, it's going to create even more of a contrast, and it's going to give it more of a three dimensional look. So I want to make sure that the shadow value is accurate to the value of the egg if I don't If I'm not accurate with that with the shadow value and the egg guy, you something's going to look off and you're going to know that something's off.

So you want to be very careful of that as well. So I'm going to just start adding a little more value here because I want to make this egg a little bit darker. And what's great about this project is you can make this project as dark or as light as you want. If you add the values on slowly, like I'm doing, you can say that the drawings done, I could say that my drawing is done right now if I wanted to. Or I can continue to add value, but I'm going to add it gradually and I'm going to add layers, and I'm going to concentrate on where the darkest values are. And by doing this, I'm not going to be having an area where it's really dark.

I could have easily taken a section right here and I could have easily added a lot of value to that made that really dark. But if I did that, everything else would have to be the same value change as this area right here, the darkest, so everything would have to support that. So by adding values slowly and not drawing too dark in the beginning, I'm able to say okay, my drawings done right now if that's what I choose to do. I'm not saying I have to make everything else darker. Because I've drawn this area so dark, I don't want to do that. I don't want to put myself in that position.

When you draw any lines, Make sure that you're filling in all of the spaces that you're going to see some imperfections with the paper that you're drawn with and use that for your advantage. It's, it's great the texture of the paper will give you it's inconsistent. So you have to be careful of that. But use it for your advantage, use the texture for your advantage, everything that we're drawing is going to have texture. So you can actually use the tooth of your paper for your, your advantage, it will actually make your drawing a lot easier. Unless you're drawing something really smooth like maybe a, I don't know mirror, sheet of metal or something like that, where there's no texture, it's just really smooth.

You can you can use this texture of the tooth to make your drawing a lot easier and I use it all the time for my animal portraits or even people portraits because skin has texture skin has little imperfections in it and you can actually use the tooth of your paper for your advantage and your benefit and it's going to save you a ton of time. Once you learn how to do that, don't try to fight to to thier paper. Use it, use it to benefit your drawing. Now you can see I'm working from the darker section, and I'm going to the lighter section. I'm using a really small strokes right here. And I'm doing that because I want to fill in all of those areas.

I want to make sure that the graphite is not leaving any empty spaces or any lines. I want to make sure that I'm filling in Have the paper. And I'm doing that by using a really small strokes. And I'm going to be turning this paper around so that I can use my best stroke. And I'm not fighting with the john. So don't be afraid I see a lot of people that are afraid of turning, they're drawn around.

Don't be afraid of doing that. Turn it as many times as you want. And sometimes it's actually a really good benefit because you're going to see something that you might not see looking at it at a certain way. So by turning your image around, it makes you look at that image that you're drawn at a different angle in a different way. And there's going to be things that you're going to notice and be like I didn't see that before. You know, I can add this into it and it makes it a lot easier.

And also by turn turning the paper on you lines are going to go in different directions and you're going to be able to fill in some more of those closing gaps that you don't want. One thing I do want to talk about is the importance of having a sharp pencil. Especially for realism, john, you want to be able to have control of your pencil, you want to know where the line is going to be drawn. And the only way for you to do that is by having a very sharp pencil. If your pencil is dull, then the area of the of the graphite is going to be wider and you're not going to really know what's going to be hit in the drawn surface. So, you could be saying, Okay, this is going to be where the line is.

But since your pencil is a little duller than it should be, all of a sudden the line that you've drawn on your paper is in a different area. And the difference between a drawn looking correct or incorrect could be just one small thin line. So always use a sharp pencil. And also that sharp pencil will make it easier for you to get into the tooth of the paper. And that's why we condition the paper with a harder pencil a harder lead with like a four H pencil or a two H pencil. So then this way, you're not having all of those little white dots everywhere, those imperfections.

You don't want that And I don't know if you notice to another little trick that I've learned and wasn't really even aware that I was doing it, but I'll be twisting my pencil period periodically. And what that's doing is that's actually sharpening the pencil for me, so I don't have to spend time always sharpening my pencil to make sure that it's sharp by turning the pencil and using an angle that I'm using for drawn helps me to keep that sharp tip on my pencil. And this saves me a lot of time from stopping and going and sharpening the pencil. So you'll see me doing that. My daughter actually without even thinking I just lift my hand up, turn the paper Then the pencil is actually sharpening by itself. Before I start drawing every time, every time I start drawing, everyday I search on I'll sharpen all the pencils, just to make sure that they're all sharp.

And if I start to feel like the pencil is getting a little dull, I will definitely take the time to sharpen it. And one little tip that I do want to talk about too, while we're talking about sharpening pencils, is always make sure that you wipe off the extra graphite. When you're done sharpening your pencil when you sharpen your pencil, there's going to be like a little dust on on the graphite. I mean on the tip of your pencil, and if you don't like that off, the first few strokes that you put on the paper is going to be inconsistent. Are you going to spread that graphite onto your john surface, and you're not going to want to do that. So every time I'm done sharpening my pencil I take my kneaded eraser, I roll the pencil on the kneaded eraser.

And that kneaded eraser will actually just grab all that loose graphite off of the tip of the pencil. And then this way when I'm drawn and I'm going to put my first couple strokes onto paper, it's going to be accurate to the value that I want, instead of spreading graphite all over my drawing and then have to worry about how am I going to get that off, how am I going to lighten that up, so that saves a lot of time too. Another thing that I want to talk about for realism, john, because just a real basic one. said, I'm going over with you just trying to give you all these little different tips to help making your john experience a little bit more enjoyable and more productive. always protect your paper. Never allow your hand to touch your drawing surface.

What happens is that your hands have oil on it. Or maybe if you put lotion on your hands, you're gonna have lotion or anything like that on if that gets on your drawing surface. Once you add graphite to an area that has a little bit of oil or lotion, or anything like that, that craft fights can get very dark, and you're not going to be able to control the value changes and those value changes are going to make the value changes are what make your drawn look good or bad. So you want to make sure that you are consistent with the value changes and you have control over your value changes. So make sure That you always separate your hand with a piece of paper you see as a piece of paper here always between your your hand and the drawn surface and never touched the drawn surface.

Even when I'm turning the paper around, you're going to see me turn the paper around with another piece of paper, or I'll just grab the area that's not that's not drawn on, like this right here. So I have it all blocked off. Here's the grid right here. So this right here, I can put my fingers on it because that's not the drawing surface. I still don't like to do that just in case my hand slips. But I will always use paper to turn my drone around.

And another thing to be cautious about is to not press too hard on your paper. So when you turn in it, you want to do it softly. You don't want to be pressing too hard on this because then what happens is you're going to be lifting graphite up Your other paper and you don't want to do that. So it's important to just do that softly approach, you're going to be removing some of that graphite that you've already put on your drawing surface. So this drawing right here, this practice, this is an excellent practice, it's going to help you to actually get control of your pencil, you're going to start to learn a different value that each grade of pencil offers just by doing this exercise. And then what's going to happen is when you're actually drawing a real drum, you can know exactly how each tool is used and how it reacts to the paper, which is important.

This way, you can make a better decision for every situation that arises. So this is a great, great, great exercise and it might seem like it I don't want to draw an egg or, you know, I don't want to draw a circle or, you know, why do I have to draw a cylinder. But in order for you to be able to get a realistic drawing, you have to understand how to control your tools. And you have to understand how light actually affects or reacts to different textures and you have to understand how to make subtle value changes. So it doesn't look too drastic, you know, it doesn't look fake. So and that's, that's by practicing misuse a great practice.

And, actually, it's, I use an egg because I want to draw something real. I you know, I don't want to just draw a circle and try to create, you know, value changes with a circle I it makes it a little more rewarding for me to be able to draw something that's real like, like an egg or a barrel or something. With a nice curve to it. And the more that you do it, the better that you're going to be at it. So you can do this practice right here for as long as you want, you know, and do it as many times as it takes for you to to be able to get control of your pencils and get control of the different values of each pencil and get control of your stroke. And learn how to see the different value changes.

Do it as many times as you have to because your drawing is going to reflect the practice that you the time that you put into it. And like like the old saying goes practice does make perfect, perfect. Practice makes perfect. So you want to make sure that you're you're practicing. You don't want to be practicing on a commission drawn. You don't want to be trying new things and a commission drawing you want to know what you're doing is going to work.

Aren't you going to be wasting your time starting over and starting over and you don't want to do that. So I'm just working from the darker sections go into the lighter sections, trying to even out all the values so that I don't have any spaces and the values gradually getting lighter. I'm not having like streaks of dark and white. So just trying to concentrate on balancing that all out. And if you notice, I'm not using any 2 trillion stumps, that's just something that I don't like to use. I've used them in the past.

I used tissue paper in the past, they used key tips in the past, they use my finger in the past and I just don't like The end results of using that every now and then I might have to use something just to kind of soften up the lines but I really try not to use it at all. In fact, I can't even remember the last time that I I used one I like to be able to have control my pencil and do everything with the graphite pencil and the eraser. And then this way, to me it looks more realistic. I'm not damaging the paper, I have control over my pencils, the the harder lead will actually kind of blend in the graphite. So that's pretty much what I use just to kind of Polish things off or make things smoother. I'll grab my four H or six H pencil and and use that more for a blending tool than I would Going grab a 2 trillion or a blending stump that something that's gonna damage my paper and I never, I never could get a gradual value change using that either some parts would get a little bit darker than others, where with the pencil, I just have total control over it.

And I like that feeling. I like to know that when I'm adding graphite to the paper, it's going on there for a reason, instead of saying, I'm hoping that when I blend this with a blending stump, I hope that it's going to give me the the value change that I'm looking for. And then if it doesn't give you the value change that you're looking for, you're going to have to try to adjust that and fix it and that is a lot of work. So I just find it a lot easier to take my time and do everything With the eraser and graphite pencil, you're not going to get as many John's done as quick as you could be used to tilian or blends and sums, but I think the end result is definitely well worth it. No question about it. Now what I would like to touch on is every line that you draw, this is going to create a contrast.

So every time that you put a line against another line that's going to make the line that was already there look whiter. And the reason is because you're now creating value or Contrast on the paper. So you want to make sure that you're aware of that. So when you're drawing something on a paper, just remember that when you draw a line next to it, you're creating contrast. And that's going to affect the value of the original line that was there. So you want to be aware of that.

And you want to be able to use that to help you to draw more realistic. And if you draw this egg right here, and you're kind of doing it thousand, you're not paying attention of where your lines are going or your pencils not sharp, or you're not concentrated, I'm a different value changes, then all of a sudden, the contrast is going to be off. And then the end result is something's just not gonna look right. And I, you know, you don't want that. So just remember that every time that you put a line down, like every time I'm pulling the line down here, it's actually making Lines before look lighter. And that's just because I'm adding value.

So when I'm going to make a decision right here, and I want this to be a little bit darker, I got to continue to add graphite to that while a man and graphite to the slider section. And if I don't do that, all of a sudden the value here is going to make this section look whiter, or vice versa, this really dark section so I'm going to make sure that I continue to add graphite to that to make it consistent with the value changes that I'm trying to make. And just notice little area that I kind of skipped over so I'm just touch on that. Why are you doing this you're going to see little areas that you missed some areas a little bit lighter and darker because you continuously change changing the direction of the drawn surface. So when you see that, take care of it right then and there.

Or you don't say okay, I'll get back to that later because you might end up forgetting about it. So you might be familiar with cross hatching. cross hatching is just a technique that's used for graphite drawn or even ink drawn. And what it is, is you're creating lines going across like this, and then you'll turn it around and you'll do lines in a different direction. And that's basically what we're doing here is we're cross hatching. Now cross hatching.

I guess in the traditional term, it leaves like boxes or like little checks, check boxes, and that's not what we're going to be doing. We're not going to be creating value with bases. So this is a little bit different, I think then then cross hatching. Even though the winds are going in different directions, it's kind of like cross hatching. And every time that I go over a line, the line that was already drawn there becomes darker. So every time I add graphite to another line, that line becomes darker.

So you always want to kind of go with the direction of the curve of the subject that you're drawn. And you want to make sure that there's no space and, and if you do, if you have spacing, what's going to happen is that John's not going to look realistic because surfaces of objects that you're drawing do not have checkboxes unless it's just a design in it. But you're not going to have that space and you're not going to have the imperfections of little white dots everywhere. So you want to make sure that you're drawn lines and all kinds of different directions. And that's why I'm using this real small stroke here, I'm concentrating on other area. And I'm just going to kind of touch up on the end of this video here.

What I'm going to do is I'm going to just continue to add some value here. And then this way, this section right here will look really light and kind of give it that dimension. It's going to make it look like it's popping off of this page. And then when I'm done with that, I'm going to start adding the value of the shadow. And I'm going to have the direct light which is hidden right here, which is going to make the look like it's standing out but also I'm going to have the reflective light right here. And that's going to give it a real nice three dimensional look.

So I'm going to continue to do that. So continue to keep adding value to your egg and continue to focus on the subtle value changes. Always use a sharp pencil. Protect your paper with a piece of paper before When your hand in the drawing surface, and always know that every line that you create is going to create a contrast to the lines prior. So when you're drawing if I if I want this dark, and I want it to go lighter and a thumb drawn lines going this way, I have to adjust the value here, because this value is going to change every single time that I add value somewhere else. So I want to make sure that I'm paying attention to that.

And also cross hatching. Put your lines in in all kinds of different directions, especially if you're going to be doing like portraits. You want to be able to create a nice smooth texture, and you're going to be doing that by little short lines and changing the direction of the lines and you're going to be able to fill in all those spaces. I look forward to seeing you in our next video and have lots of fun drawn and I really look forward to seeing you next time.