Hey all!

I found a really beautiful picture of an owl online several days ago. Yesterday I decided to try and draw it.

I broke out my nicest drawing paper and drew a very, very rough outline of his body, wing, eyes, and beak. Then I started paying very careful attention to every tiny detail and filled in his beak, shaded, and blended.

After about 1-2 hours I was happy with the beak. Then, also paying very close attention to all the details, I slowly worked my way in a straight line from the beak to one of the eyes. About 4 hours of work total and I had maybe 3 square inches of filled in area completed including the beak area.

Today I slowly worked up from that spot with the plan to completely surround the one eye, filling in every small detail and shading I could find as I went.

After 5 hours, and although the drawing was looking very nice, I was starting to break down mentally over the entire project. After all that time I had barely doubled the area of finished drawing. Sure, after countless hours I could probably complete it...theoretically. But it would take me weeks and weeks of daily work for 4-5 hours. And frankly I was getting stressed putting all the tiny puzzle pieces of shapes and shades and lines together fraction of a centimeter at a time.

So, realizing that this method would probably prevent me from ever finishing the drawing, I lightly shaded in the area all around the eye full circle back to the beak again, blended, started squinting at the reference picture to pick out the patterns of different levels of shades, and gradually started building up the area around the eye. Planning to work from large detail down to fine detail.

So what I was wondering is this:

Do you draw by painfully drawing every detail as you go?

Or do you draw by building up the picture from drawing first the large details and then work down to the tiny details?

Thanks!
Ryan

It differs with what kind of mood I'm in, how large the drawing is, or just how I approach it in general. I'll usually work the entire drawing in layers.

If you start to break down like that, its time to just stop and walk away so you don't do something stupid. Or just put that one down and pick up another one to work on. I've found that when I push myself to work on a piece that I'm losing interest with, it not only effects the outcome, but it makes it harder to draw anything later. Drawing is a series of choices, if you start to make careless choices, it'll all add up to a completely different result than if you were to make thoughtful choices.

Post your work for us to see

I sometimes feel like that but when I do I go and do something else till I get "in the mood" again

Personally I tend to do a general outline and shading and then gradually get to details. Going from large to small I guess. I found that if I concentrated too much on one small section I don't get a feel for the image as a whole and loose proportion and just generally ends up a mess. That's just what I have found for me.

Jacqui

Personally I will begin with an outline, whether gridded or freehand. Then erase the outline to be barely visible. Then I will begin in the top left corner, and begin working my way diagonally down and over to the bottom right. This way I never smudge anything, or blend (with the heel of my hand) something I don't want blended. I will render to near completion as I go.. working maybe 1/2 to 1" squares each to 80-90% complete before moving on. I find it nearly impossible to get all values totally on without a bigger "picture" of my drawing, but after a 4-5" area is nearly done I can usually tweak it enough that in the end there is only final touchups to do. I have to say this way takes patience, because as you mentioned it is slow. I have a 12" x 13" portrait posted (Doug & Peter) in this section that I know took me 60+ hours. Though I used a technique called "circularism" which is slower than most also. I did take some pics of it is process, I'll try to upload them later to show more what I mean.

I work a lot like dragonshade, but at fine works - which is very long time intensiv - I make a break and draw in a different section of the image, it also happens that I put away the image of 2 days

Great topic ,

I am fanatical about the paper I study it for marks blemishes etc, before I start and then I capture a specific point on the paper which relates to the drawing I am going to produce. I never start in the same place on the paper, the drawing will dictate the starting point.

Then I draw, no more than three hours per drawing I limit myself to capturing only the essential details, lately I limit myself to only one pencil, so that I can push the pencil to the extreme,,, see what can be achieved from a single pencil.

I am more interested in the marks on the paper than the drawing. I draw every detail as I go along and eventually the drawing is finished.every artist is different so there is no fixed technique that is correct.do what you feel comfortable with and enjoy the drawing.

Kind regards Wayneo