Textures - Rock Wall

[Valray]

Hey Mike,

This is my Rockwall half finished as I followed along with your video. I decided to draw it as I saw and felt it in my mind and not stay true to the photo. I am having difficulty with scribble. See small rock on bottom left. It’s only half done. All my hand wants to do is figure 8s. So I thought I’d submit it halfway done, and get your advice before finishing it.
Thanks, Val
Photo credit: Tama66 (pixabay).

[Mike Sibley]

I decided to draw it as I saw and felt it in my mind and not stay true to the photo.

Good decision. Copying is boring. But inventing as you draw is far more exciting. And it draws you into the subject - it makes you think.

I am having difficulty with scribble. See small rock on bottom left. It’s only half done. All my hand wants to do is figure 8s. So I thought I’d submit it halfway done, and get your advice before finishing it.

Don't get too fixated on scribble. It's just a wandering line, nothing else. It might help if you purposefully inject a degree of randomness into your scribbles. However, it is an excellent way to explore a surface - it can travel in any direction, with varying weight, and no loss of concentration.

First, I think you're drawing too fast. If you're going to use scribble as I do, you need to slow down, and give your mind time to make three-dimensional sense of everything it sees. Talk to yourself. Explain what you are seeing, and how you might alter it to make it look more natural. And work small - try to make natural sense out of every little feature. For example (I hope this makes sense...):

VAL-ROCK1-A.jpg

This mark here (A) is just that: a mark. A dark blemish on the surface. If it was a depression with sharp edges (as you've drawn), the top of the depression would be darker, where the top edge casts a shadow. Below that, it will be diluted to some extent by reflected light. And its bottom edge would almost certainly pick up a thin highlight. Let's assume the sun is top left, so it will only catch the parts of that edge that directly face the sun.

That highlight can only occur if the dark part is a depression. Now the viewer knows, subconsciously, that it's NOT a surface mark.

VAL-ROCK1-B.jpg

Now let's have a look at Area B.

VAL-ROCK1-C.jpg

This has a sharp top edge, and the shadow it casts tells me this is a shallow depression... or maybe not? Because the shadow lightens with depth, as expected, but it terminates in another hard edge that leads directly to a highlighted strip. I'm not sure what sort of three-dimensional form could look like that?

So, how about we keep the top hard edge and its cast shadow (which I'll emphasise a bit more). And then, because this depression is shallow, the shadow would fade much sooner. We'll let the light catch the surface right down to the lower hard edge.

VAL-ROCK1-D.jpg

Every time you create a few marks of interest, ask yourself what it might represent. Then work on it to make full sense of it. Here, you created a hard edge. The sunlight (see my graphic) will cast a shadow on the depression below that hard edge. We'll assume the light is diffused, so the shadow won't have a hard edge. It will lighten until it reaches the part of the depression that the sun can fully illuminate. Create that and NOW we have a dish shape. And not just any old dish shape... oh no!... a dish shape that EVERYBODY will immediately recognise as being dish-shaped.

And above all else... DON'T FORGET THE LIGHTING DIRECTION. It's a crucial component that ties everything together, and allows everyone to understand the three-dimensional forms it's lighting.

Someone on YouTube recently requested a video on shadows... I'm beginning to think it's about time I made one.

Seriously, they are difficult until you take the time to LOOK at them. You see, we instinctively understand shadows, so we don't look at them. Start looking! And experimenting. Because they're important. My ADVANCED course at Drawspace spends an entire week purely on shadows.

[Valray]

Thanks Mike.
As usual, once you explain it, it makes much more sense. I will fix these bits and will try and slow my hand (and mind) down for the rest.

I’m very much enjoying doing these rocks. Each one is like a small individual piece of art and different from each other, therefore keeping up interest. Satisfaction comes with each one completed. Always looking forward to doing the next rock.

Will post when finished.
Val

[Mike Sibley]

Something I feel I should mention... I was about to answer a comment on YouTube regarding passion, when I realised I needed to say it here, too.

I've been drawing professionally for 45 years, I still find the medium fascinating, and I still have more to learn. But here's what I've noticed...

Because we only have a narrow pencil lead and not a wide brush, drawing makes us detail-orientated. So we tend to seek out detail in our everyday lives. We begin to notice things that other people miss. And over time we build up a store of visual memories - memories that we can recall as we work.

So, while I was drawing those rocks, I was probably seeing shapes emerge that I'd experienced previously. Maybe many years earlier. Or, at least, shapes that I understood three-dimensionally.

This is to say that the more you draw, the more you'll begin to notice and soak up the world around you.

All the features I drew in the rocks depended on a single lighting direction. And that lighting produces shadows... which most people never actually look at, because shadows are something everyone INSTINCTIVELY understands. But that makes them incredibly powerful in the hands of an artist.

I woke up this morning thinking I'll put the current videos on the back burner and write one about shadows... Maybe I will.

[Valray]

Finally finished (I think).
Having undergone many, many blu-tac sessions; redone almost all rocks a dozen times, I’m calling it done. My 2 photos are a close-up (showing all working)

IMG_4978-compressed.jpeg

and a bit more distance one (which I like better as it’s not so detailed)

IMG_4979-compressed.jpeg

. I tried to remember about light direction and some shadows.
Looking forward to see where you think many improvements can be made.