I used the following materials to draw the pear and apple:
– Mixed Media, Strathmore 300g/m2 paper
– Faber-Castell pencils
– KOH-I-NOOR pencil eraser
– KOH-I-NOOR 2B pencil to draw the sketch.
The colors we will go for are red, green and yellow, with the addition of brown, white and gray.
To begin with, let's squint our eyes for a while. Then we blur the contours and see only the most important elements, the distribution of falling shadows and dominant colors on our object will show better.
There are several shading techniques: dotting, lines, cross-hatching and circular movements. In this tutorial, I mainly use shading with circular movements.
1. We start drawing the sketch by tracing the general shape of the fruit. An apple, of course, is spherical, so we will depict it using a circle, while a pear can be drawn using two geometric figures - a circle and an oval - in a simple way. The drawing already represents the natural shapes of the fruit with some details. Let's also remember that the base of the fruit should be sketched in one line.
2. The resulting sketch should first be lightly rubbed with an eraser, so that we can see only very lightly the contours of the fruit. We lightly apply the first layer with crayons to mark the light on the fruit, the color tones and to direct the lines. We mark the outline with light strokes of the crayon, as it varies in intensity and hue depending on where the light falls.
3. We mark the next layers in a gentle way one by one. It is always better to apply more layers, but with less intensity, because then you control the tonality and have all the time an influence on what direction you go. If we apply few but intense layers, the colors will be more difficult to blend, apply details, as well as to control the whole drawing, also the transitions will look less natural.
At this stage I mark larger details, for example, spots on the pear.
4. In the next photo we can already see the colors of the pear more strongly highlighted. Spots and discolorations are also highlighted more intensely and in greater detail, as well as the contours of the fruit. The light spot is still left bright. I applied a white crayon to the brightest spots. There is also an outline of the falling shadow, draw it preferably with gray crayon shades.
5. Next, I apply successive layers a little more firmly on the apple. Where there are clear lines, of course, I keep the direction of the line, while in the rest I make circular movements.
6. I leave the areas that are illuminated lighter, blending them with a white crayon, and in some areas I use a muted pink and a very light, muted yellow shade. At this stage, I mark the darker areas on the apple with a dark brown crayon and use gray shades to determine the final shape of the falling shadow.
7. The last stage of the work is the final detailing (I still added and highlighted the discoloration on the pear, I intensified the color of the fruit in particular places) and highlighting the reflections, that is, all the bright spots on the fruit. We can do this, for example, by rubbing with an eraser in pencil. We also highlight the more intense shadow by blending it lightly to make the transitions natural.
Finally, we can squint again and check if the drawing is consistent with the photo we drew from, or with the natural object. This activity, of course, we can repeat many times during our work.
When making a drawing, it is important to remember the basic principles of shading. I will show the distribution of shadows using the example of a drawn apple.
TUTORIAL was published on the 2nd issue of QUARTalnik, a magazine for artists. The magazine can be purchased in hard copy on Amazon or downloaded in a free online version.
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