Pencil to Picture: Learn to Draw from Zero

What's inside

1. Level 1: Your Budget Kit and First MarksFree
   You'll put together a cheap drawing kit of pencils, paper and erasers, then learn how to hold your pencil in different ways and make your first confident marks.
2. Level 2: Seeing Shapes Instead of SymbolsFree
   You'll learn to stop drawing the 'symbol' your brain expects, like a lemon-shaped eye, and start drawing the simple shapes that are really in front of you.
3. Level 3: Contour and Blind Contour Drawing
   You'll slow your eye and hand down together with blind contour and modified contour drawing, so your line follows the real edges of an object.
4. Level 4: Drawing the Spaces: Negative Space
   You'll draw the empty shapes around and between things, like the gaps in a chair, which is a surprisingly easy way to get tricky objects right.
5. Level 5: Measuring Proportion with Your Pencil
   You'll use your pencil held at arm's length to measure sizes and angles, so the parts of your drawing sit in the right proportion to each other.
6. Level 6: Building Basic Forms: Cube, Sphere, Cylinder
   You'll move from flat shapes to solid forms by drawing cubes, spheres and cylinders that look like they take up real space.
7. Level 7: One- and Two-Point Perspective
   You'll learn how the horizon line and vanishing points work, so boxes, roads and rooms recede into believable space in one- and two-point perspective.
8. Level 8: Value Scales, Light and Shadow
   You'll make a value scale and learn the parts of light on a form, including highlight, mid-tone, core shadow, reflected light and cast shadow.
9. Level 9: Shading Techniques: Hatching to Blending
   You'll practise hatching, cross-hatching, stippling and blending, and use them to turn your basic forms into solid, shaded objects.
10. Level 10: Capturing Texture
    You'll learn to suggest textures like wood, fabric, metal, glass and fur using varied marks, contrast and a kneaded eraser.
11. Level 11: Your First Full Still Life
    You'll set up a simple still life and take it all the way from composition to finished drawing, using measuring, form, value and texture together.
12. Level 12: Head Proportions and Facial Features
    You'll learn the basic proportions of the human head and how to place and draw the eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
13. Level 13: Gesture Drawing and the Figure
    You'll capture the movement and energy of the whole body with quick gesture drawings, then build basic figure proportions on top of them.
14. Level 14: Drawing Outdoors and Buildings
    You'll take your sketchbook outside and use perspective, simplifying and value to draw buildings, streets and landscapes from real life.
15. Level 15: Animals in Outline
    You'll draw animals by finding their gesture and their simple underlying shapes first, then refine the outline and add a hint of fur or feather texture.
16. Level 16: Drawing from Photos Versus Life
    You'll compare drawing from photographs with drawing from life, learn what each one teaches you, and avoid common photo traps like flattened form and lens distortion.
17. Level 17: Sketchbook Habit and Trying New Media
    You'll set up a daily sketchbook routine you can actually keep, and get a quick first taste of ink, charcoal and digital drawing.
18. Level 18: Final Challenge: Your Pencil to Picture Portfolio Exam
    You'll bring the whole course together in a final challenge, making a small portfolio that shows off seeing, measuring, form, perspective, value, texture and drawing from life.

Access

The first 2 levels are free with a free account. Every level, the podcast edition and the AI tutor come with All Access at £4.99/month or any Creator plan — see pricing.

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