Step-by-Step: ‘The Devils Hole’ by Linda Weil
Materials:
- Drawing Board
- Acid free masking tape
- Arches 300gsm Cold Press Rag paper
- Derwent ‘Sketch and Wash’ pencils, HB and 4B
- Derwent ‘Graphitint’ pencils, #01 Port, #04 Indigo, #14 Russet
- ½” Taklon Dagger Brush
- #10 Taklon Round Brush
- #1 Series 7 Windsor Newton sable brush
- Art Spectrum Artists White gouache
- Staedtler Mars ‘Karat’ Aquarelle pencils. #129-59 indigo and #124-79 brown
- Staedtler Mars 2.mm ‘technico’ pencils HB, 2B, 4B
- Staedtler Mars ‘barrel’ sharpener for Technico pencils, standard pencil sharpener for the Derwents/Karats
- Blu-Tack
- Cotton gloves
Life sketch of planned drawing
STEP 1:
I strongly believe that drawing from life is the key to good understanding of any animal and consequently a good finished drawing. Before I draw I like to meet the animal, to see it move, see it interact with others, listen to it, even smell it! When you sketch from life it helps you to work out the anatomy and form of the creature. Often you will note something in the field that may not be obvious on a photograph. I use life sketches as a form of visual note taking that I can refer to back in the studio. These sketches of young Devils were done at the Halls Gap Zoo, Victoria 2012.
As well as sketching from life, I will take many digital photos of the animal from as many angles as possible. You can never have too much photographic reference! And with digital photography you can take hundreds of shots without costing a fortune. One of my sketches and one series of shots in particular enticed me and that is the image I will work up into a finished drawing.
Primary reference photo
Secondary reference photo (for nose, ear, mouth detail)
Step 2. Freehand composition
STEP 2:
Having decided on my main reference images, I begin to work up a freehand sketch from my photographic references and initial life sketches. I tend to work my compositions in ‘thirds’. This composition will have the head of the animal centrally placed within a square format, with the eyes roughly two-thirds up the drawing area. The animal will be in sharp focus, fading into the darker background of the cave, with less detailed drawing of rocks and bedding framing the head.
If time allows I prefer to work freehand, but I have no philosophical objection to tracing from a photo – providing you have done the ‘life’ work first. My only concern when tracing from a photo is that it is easy to replicate any errors or lens distortion. Additionally, photos often are flat or washed out from flash and the artist can fall into the trap of copying this. When working from a photo it is important to remember you are drawing a living animal and it needs to look alive and three-dimensional – you are should not just ‘copy’ a photo, but try to interpret it and breathe life into the image.
Step 3: Outline
Step 3 hint: test your paper and materials!
STEP 3:
Carefully tracing an outline of the major features from the compositional drawing onto a sheet of tracing paper, I transfer this outline (using a light box) onto a piece of 300gs Arches cold press paper. The paper is taped to a drawing board the full length on all four sides with acid free masking tape. I use the Derwent HB sketch and wash pencil to trace onto the paper. This means the outline will not remain permanent on my drawing, but move and wash out as I work the first wash step. (see Step 4 washed)
ARTIST HINT: Different papers will give you different results with these mediums. I often use a hot press paper for this technique, but with hot press the pencils washes tend to ‘slip’ more on the paper and are more difficult to handle. On the plus side, hot press means that you can achieve a great level of detail in the dry drawing stages. Cold Press paper (as I have used here), absorbs the wet stage better and is more controllable with great texture. You can also get some lovely textured effects with dry pencils. The downside of cold press is that it is harder to work detail with dry pencil. I have chosen to use cold press for this work because it will work better with the large areas of rock textures, the nose and rough fur of this animal.
ARTIST HINT: Graphitint and Sketch and Wash pencils change tone and colour when washed. I always recommend that before using these pencils for the first time you do some test sheets on the two types of paper to see what sort of results you get letting you choose the best paper for your style. It also means you have less chance of getting a nasty surprise when your Graphitint changes to a totally unexpected colour! Remember to always code your tests with the pencil number.
Step 4: 4B Sketch and Wash dry tone
STEP 4: DRY SKETCH AND WASH LAYER
Using the 4B Sketch and Wash pencils, I lay down some rough areas of tone where my darkest tones in the final work will be. I am careful to work in the same direction that the fur is falling, and use block areas of circular tone in the cave areas.
Step 4 washed
STEP 4: WET
With the #10 Round brush I wet the 4B pencil and start to wash the graphite and move it around to create tones in the rocks and background. Because the graphite wash gets picked up by the brush I carry some of that tone into the ears and parts of the foreground rocks and bedding. The ½” Dagger brush is used over the facial areas, wetting the graphite and flicking and moving it in lines and feathery
forms. I take care to leave large areas of the white of the paper showing where the highlights of the animal are. Remember that the water-soluble graphite can look darker on the paper once washed, but you can ‘lift’ the tone with your brush and move it into other areas of the drawing as required. It is important not to over work the graphite wash, but direct the way the graphite moves and create tones. Once I am happy with the result I allow the work to dry naturally. I avoid using a hair dryer as it tends to bake the surface of the paper. Hair dryers also dry the surface of the paper leaving the core still damp. You want the paper totally dry to avoid damage to paper surface.
Step 5 Dry
STEP 5: DRY GRAPHITINT LAYER
In the same manner as Step 4, I put down some areas of line and tone using the Graphitint pencils. I use #01 Port as soft tone in the ears and around the mouth. #04 Indigo is placed as line work on the darker fur areas and as tone in the darker cave and rock areas. And finally, the #14 Russet is used as line and tone in the fur, rocks and nose area.
Step 5 Wet. The scary part
STEP 5: WET
This is perhaps the scariest part of the drawing. When you wet Graphitints it becomes a surprise. Suddenly what were nice muted tones become surprising blobs of colour. There is also real danger of over-washing and mucking all the tints together into a big muddy mess. Avoid soaking the paper with too much water. You need to have faith; let the wash and colour happen and don’t overwork it.
Taking a deep breath I start to splash about with water. I use the round and dagger brushes again in the same way as step 4, taking care to often dip them in clean water to avoid mooshing the colour together too much. I try to work quickly, moving colour and tone around with my brush, leaving areas of white paper showing through. Yes, it looks pretty horrible at this stage but I have a clear picture in my minds eye on how this will look in the end. These wash stages layer of tone to support the dry drawing stage.
The paper is left to dry completely again.
ARTIST HINT: Provided the paper is taped securely on the full length of all four sides and you do not soak the paper too much, once dry, the paper will flatten out without too many bumps or curls.
Step 6: Dry Karat Indigo pencil
Step 7: Dry Karat brown pencil
STEP 6: DRY KARAT COLOUR PENCILS LAYER ON FACE
In this step I begin to work on the facial areas, starting with line work only, using the Staedler Mars ‘Karat’ Aquarelle pencil. #129-59 indigo blue. I am very careful that the lines always follow the natural fur direction of the animal. When drawing fur it is important to keep your pencil very sharp. I need to restore the point to the pencil about every 6-8 strokes.
STEP 7: DRY KARAT COLOUR PENCILS LAYER ON FACE
I add more line work using the #124-79 brown Karat pencil. This brown line work is carefully placed in the darker areas of the fur. A rough circular fill technique is used over the muzzle to create a soft fur texture. A tighter circular fill is used in the eye area to create a block of stronger colour.
This is the basic colour that I will be using in the face, although I may go back into the drawing at later stages to intensify the colour tones where needed.
Step 8: HB pencil
STEP 8: HB PENCIL LAYER
This step begins to build up the fur and tonal ranges in the face. I always use Staedler Mars 2.mm ‘technico’ pencils for my dry graphite work because they are reliable graphite tones, have no ‘scratchy’ bits in the graphite, never change shape or weight and can be sharpened to an exceptional point. I work in successive layers of graphite, starting with the lighter tones. I never ‘push’ the pencil into the paper, my strokes are light, letting gravity do most of the work. Each layer of colour and graphite will intensify the colour and tones. I begin to draw over the entire fur facial area with short, sharp strokes, always moving in the fur direction using the HB Staedler. Once again, I keep my pencil very, very sharp – using the ‘barrel’ sharpener especially designed for these pencils.
ARTIST HINT: When you are drawing fur and hair it is important to recognize that each line you draw is NOT a hair but actually the shadow cast by that hair. So these lines I am drawing are the shadows – the lights of the paper and the wash under layers are the actual hairs.
Step 9: 2B and HB pencil
STEP 9: 2B AND HB PENCIL
With a 2B Staedler Mars 2.mm ‘technico’ I now begin to really build of the layers of fur creating more highlights by working the darker 2B pencil into the shadow areas. Working over the entire facial area, always stroking in the correct fur direction I begin to establish the form and texture of the fur.
I also swap back to the HB pencil to create line and tone in the ears, the nose and around the mouth. Somehow I have given my devil one short tooth, but I decide I like it and leave it that way.
The eyes require a bit more work so I lift off some of the previous colour pencil using a bit of blue tack. Then I add more definition and strength of tone with the 2B. Over this I layer more of the Karat brown pencil to create a rich dark colour in the eyes. A bit of the indigo blue in the pupil area intensifies the dark into a lovely ‘cool’ black. The Devil has started to really come together and is developing life and personality.
ARTIST HINT: It is important not to be too regimented or orderly with your line work in fur. Each stroke should travel in the general direction of the fur, but its length and angle should vary each time. You do not want to create repeating patterns of lines, but the random feel of hair.
Step 10: 4B pencil, Karat Indigo and Brown
STEP 10: 4B PENCIL LAYER, KARAT INDIGO AND BROWN ADDITIONAL LAYERS
Now I work over the entire face with a 4B Staedtler Mars 2.mm ‘technico’. I establish dark tonal areas in the nose, around the mouth, eyes and ears with a combination of fill and line. Then I work the fur areas in line, intensifying the shadows cast by the hairs and allowing the colours of the under wash and line layers show through.
Where required (chin, muzzle, nose and some fur areas around the eyes) I use the Brown and Indigo Karat pencils again over all the graphite to deepen the colour tones in the line work and fills.
You can see here that I have also begun to establish the darkest blacks of the cave background by laying down some tone of Karat Indigo and layering 2B the 4B on top. This establishes the darkest areas of my drawing and also helps to through the lighter fur on top of the head forward.
As always, my pencils are kept very, very sharp for all the fur!
My Devils face is now almost complete and I can start to establish the surrounding areas.
Step 11: Surrounds
STEP 11: SURROUNDS
Now I must build up all the surrounding areas of the receding dark side of the Devil, the dark cave shadow, rocky overhang and out crop and the dry grass nesting material.
The darker right side of the Devil is created in the same way as all preceding steps only with a greater intensity of colour and graphite layers. Almost none of the white paper is allowed to show through, but layers and layers of colour and graphite line work are built up to create the dark fur.
The cave shadow is continued as described in Step 10.
The dry grass is lightly sketched with the 2B pencil and then negative drawing around and within the grass gaps is started to create the shapes.
Step 12: Final
STEP 12: FINISHING THE WORK
To complete the work I use the HB, 2B and 4B pencils. All of the surrounding area is drawn in a looser, less finished style. I want the Devil’s face to be the focal point of the drawing so I keep the detail in the grass and rock faces minimal.
First I complete the dry grass material using the HB and 2B pencils, with negative drawing in 4B as needed in the darkest areas. I fade out and keep the grasses only lightly sketched in as it nears the edge of my drawing area.
The Devils right side and cave interior is completed – once more layering successive layers of line work in the Karat Indigo, HB, 2B and 4B.
The cave interior is worked with successive layers of circular tonal fill starting with HB, then 2B and 4B.
The rock face and overhang are only suggested, there is almost no detail drawing here at all. I allow the earlier Graphitint wash layers to tell most of the story here. A soft 2B on the rough cold press paper creates a great textured effect over the colour washes. I use the 2B with a circular fill, lightly traveling back and forth over the rocky area creating darker shadow areas and texture.
At this stage I turn the work upside down and stand well back from the work and look at it overall, Looking at your work from a distance and upside down can often show up small inconstancies or errors that need fixing. When I return to the board I sharpen the HB pencil and work all over the drawing once again improving details in the facial features and fur.
Because I have washed tone into the background, it was too difficult to leave white highlight whiskers. I dislike using masking fluid and the wash would just flood colour into any indenting technique. So for this drawing I use a #1 sable brush with some white gouache to carefully draw back in some of the Devils whiskers around the eyes, chin and nose.
I sign him and he is finished!
ARTIST HINT:
- Draw from life as often as you can. If you do not live near a zoo or sanctuary, try drawing from videos Test your paper and pencils before starting. Avoid unexpected surprises.
- When drawing fur and hair, keep your pencils sharp, sharp, sharp! At all times!
- Be careful not to overwork the wet stages
- Always allow your paper to dry completely before beginning the next layer.
- Use LAYERS, not pressure to create your darks and tones.
- Adding layers of colour under your graphite can help create richer darks.
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