Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. Today we're going to learn how to do a drawing step by step. The first thing you want to think about, what are you drawing, then get a good reference, today we'll do a parrot which I just happen to have hanging up in the studio. You start with a very light sketch of the construction elements, and usually I'll start with a pencil, draw very lightly. Draw just construction lines, and the reason I'm drawing lightly is because I'm going to come back and erase these lines a little later on. Okay. Now I'm going to draw a cartoon version of this parrot which means I get to exaggerate, and that's another consideration is how much of an exaggeration you want, and then you draw a parrot. The thing that makes your parrot a parrot is its beak. So I'm really concentrated on exaggerating the beak, okay, so that's the standard construction lines. I have his perch drawn out and then in the step by step process, I don't erase until I'm done with my outline. Okay, so I may draw a million lines and I don't have to worry about it until it's finished. Okay. So now that I have my construction lines I come back with my marker and start fleshing it out. The parrot's eye, the exaggerated beak, maybe he's a happy parrot, I'll give him a smile. His head, down to his back. The construction lines are just simple guidelines. I don't even have to use them and I can actually correct correct them as I go through and draw with my marker. Tail feathers, got your perch. Again, if I'm drawing these construction lines, construction lines light enough, when I come back with my eraser very easy to get rid of. I usually like to use a white eraser more of maybe a tan art kind of eraser, both seem to work very well. And once I've got my construction lines fleshed out, then I can come back, look at my parrot, and add the elements or color that accentuate him even more. Now another couple of things you want to think about is one maybe where your light sources come from. Your light sources coming from here, you want to shadow the source or the side of the parrot away from the light. Okay. So you do little things to make it a little more 3D. And you know that you can progress from there. And that's how you draw a drawing step by step.
