Howtostartdrawing Ebook [PDF]

Zitiervorschau

Bought at gumroad.com/mitchleeuwe

HOW TO START

DRAWING by mitch leeuwe

YOU'LL LEARN: The basic techniques to draw characters, vehicles and buildings

bought at gumroad.com/mitchleeuwe

HOW TO START DRAWING

Copyright © 2021 by Mitch Leeuwe All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reselled, reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. For personal use only mitchleeuwe.nl

by mitch leeuwe

Printed in the Netherlands First Printing, 2021 Graphic design: Harmke Leeuwe harmke.com

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Hi there! Let me introduce myself. I’m Mitch Leeuwe and am an illustrator from the Netherlands. I always drew a lot as a kid. I even had the childhood dream to become an animator at Disney. During my teenage years, I lost that dream. Luckily, I slowly started drawing more and more. When I was 19, I began to do some freelance work as a graphic designer, which made me consider picking up drawing again. I attended several drawing programs at schools, but I learned most from online resources. Now, I’m a freelance artist working on visual development. This means I design characters, props, and backgrounds for games, animation, and toys. However, you probably know me from my Instagram account, where I release tutorials and more. My goal is to create a place where people can learn what I wanted to learn when I started out.

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Let’s go! Awesome that you made the first step to learn how to draw by buying this bundle. I often get questioned on how to get started. Honestly, the best way is just to start drawing and keep drawing. I understand that that probably sounds very lame, and when I started out, I’ve searched for a simple answer. But there is no other answer. This ebook contains multiple lessons for you to learn the foundations of my drawing techniques. I have added

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some examples you can use for practice by following the steps. Try to stay as close as possible and try to understand each step. I think it’s also important to realize that learning to draw takes time and patience. Don’t be afraid to try, experiment, and maybe fail sometimes with this. I have been there too. By don’t giving up and try and try again, you can grow as an artist. If it feels hard, remind yourself that this means that there is space to learn something new. It doesn’t matter whether you draw with a pencil in your sketchbook or on a digital device for learning to draw. Use whatever suits you or experiment with different things to find this out. So, let’s get started! Just start drawing, practice as much as you can, and have fun. Best, Mitch Leeuwe

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construction If you’d like to draw characters, drawing with construction can help you a lot. By construction, I mean ‘how the character is built up from basic shapes.’ Basic shapes are a cube, a sphere, and a cylinder.

When I draw characters, I always think in 3D and in terms of construction. In this image, you can see the steps I take to draw a head. Try to draw this head and follow the steps I show. Notice that you can draw basically everything you want by using basic shapes. When you draw the details on top of these shapes, you let them follow these shapes’ lines. Think of it as a texture that follows the 3D shape, like with the egg.

To understand how construction works, look at this example of the egg. See how the shapes distort from these different angles. In the front view, the eye looks different than in ¾ perspective.

eggsercise

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Try this for yourself with a roundish object like an egg or a Ping-Pong ball. Draw a face on it, and look at it from different angles. Draw your egg in points of view. 8

check out my ebook about character design

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how to draw a dog

When drawing characters, it's perfect to start with some basic shapes. Here, I began by drawing a flat circle. In step 2, I drew an ellipse inside this circle, making the circle appear three-dimensional. In step 3, I added a horizontal ellipse. The dotted line emphasizes that the line is going around and back of the other lines. Notice how this gives an angle to the sphere. As 'man's best friend,' the dog is a very popular character to draw. When I was a kid, a dog actually was one of the first things, after stick figures, I liked to draw the most. In this blog, I'll give you tips on drawing a dog step by step, and I'll show you how you can apply these steps to draw other animal characters.

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the mouth and the eyes. At step 5, I add the ears, jaws, and cheeks, and it starts to look more like a dog now. The smaller shapes, like the nose, eyebrows, and beak, are added in step 6. Now you have a final sketch you can use to make the final drawing, and you can start adding the colors.

With the next step (4), I start adding shapes on top of the ball. Try to think as if you're using clay to sculpt the basic shapes. Start with the biggest shapes first; in this case,

exercise Copy the dog’s head by following the steps in this example. Try to copy it as closely as possible. 11

drawing emotions When you draw a character, you want to be able to show what your character feels and/or thinks. These thoughts and feelings are translated to emotions, which result in expressions. These expressions bring your characters to life. There are seven different basic emotions: anger, fear, disgust, happiness, sadness, surprise, and contempt. For each of these basic emotions, there are sub emotions. For example, a sub-category of happy consists of emotions like fulfilled, content, glad, complete, satisfied, optimistic, or pleased.

It’s challenging to draw original unique expressions from memory. That’s why I would advise you to use a mirror and act out some expressions, then try to draw these (see photo above). Another great way to practice drawing expressions is to watch people in public. For example, when you’re on the train, you can observe people and try to draw those expressions in your sketchbook. If you find that difficult, first draw them in a more realistic way and then simplify it using the real reference.

exercise Brainstorm a list of emotions and draw those in the most simple, graphical way you can. Try to apply them to the dog on the previous page, or another character. 12

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squash and stretch When drawing facial expressions, it’s essential to understand the head’s basic anatomy and how it moves when there is an expression. See the differences between the three different balls above. For example, notice how the head becomes stretched when there is a shocked expression. You can also see the opposite of this (head becomes squished) when there is an angry expression.

learn more! check out my ebook about facial expressions

Here you can see the same movements but with more detailed heads. Specifically, notice how the stretch and squish of the head have an influence on the expressions. The nose, eyebrows and other facial details move around the head.

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body construction

exercise Fill a page with different shapes and try to see their direction. Now, add the perspective lines is the direction more clear now?

Construction is like the foundation of your character. With a good construction, you can create a strong and solid character. To get started, follow these steps: 1. For drawing, I always use three kinds of shapes. A sphere, a cylinder, and a cube. I use these shapes because you can build anything with them, and they are easy to rotate in 3D. You can also stretch and distort these shapes or combine them to make variations. 2. When I draw characters, I always use a line of action. You could also call this the character’s gesture. Here you can also see the benefit of using 3D shapes when you allow them to follow an action line. This is also a great way to practice it. First, draw a line shaped like an S and let the shape follow the action line. This way, you get an excellent sense of flow and depth in your characters. 3. Here you can see how I use spheres, cylinders, and

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cubes to draw a character. Drawing your character like this helps you to understand how it moves the 3D world. When you first draw your character like this, you can add its design on top of it. Starting like this is way easier and lets you focus on getting the basics right before adding the details.

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Here I’m going more in-depth about drawing the basic shapes. Spheres are great to build your character with, but you can’t see the direction without perspective lines. With a cylinder, you can see direction because it has three surfaces. With a cube, it’s really clear what the direction is because it has six surfaces. If the direction and the volume of a shape aren’t clear, you can add perspective guides.

check out my ebook about Anatomy

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Other poses The use of these basic shapes makes it easier to draw a character in different poses. This is because it's easier to imagine how a sphere, cylinder, or cube looks when shown at different angles.

draw the dog’s body When I'm drawing the whole body, I follow the same principles as when I drew the dog's head. Now, I start with a line of action (see step 1). The action line is simply a line that represents the pose. Most of the time, it has a simple S shape. I use this line to give the character some flow. Without the line of action or flow, the pose will look stiff. On top of this line, I draw the limbs by building construction with basic shapes.

exercise Practice these techniques by drawing the examples and follow the steps I’ve shown you. Draw all the different shapes in each step. The significant thing is that everyone can start practicing this. Just use a pencil and paper.

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This is another example of how to use construction. You can also see me using the line of action. Without a line of action, your character would look stiff and like a doll. Try to look at some classic cartoons and look for the action line in those figures. You can also practice drawing action lines and construction by studying these characters.

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exercise

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Copy this character step by step. Then do it again, see and feel how you improved already?

check out my ebook about drawing animal characters 21

draw a house I really like to draw houses, and I like to share with you how I approach this. I start by setting up a construction with big basic shapes. This makes it way easier to draw buildings like this. It’s also a great way to determine the proportions before you start adding details. Make sure the details follow the shapes (and perspective) of your construction.

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Think from big to small. So, start with large, lump shapes and define this step by step. As if you are a sculptor creating a sculpture.

exercise

Follow the steps I show here to draw this house. If you find it difficult to add the details, you can also focus on the bigger shapes first in your attempts. To challenge yourself more, you can change the design a little bit by changing the elements at step 3.

learn more! check out my ebook about drawing perspective

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draw vehicles

The approach of drawing with construction also applies to vehicles like this helicopter and tuk-tuk. You start with the big shapes first. Don’t forget to add perspective guides to the tuk-tuk. After this, you can add the smaller shapes and draw in some large details, like the windows and doors. When that is set-up, you define the design by adding smaller and smaller details every step. For coloring your design, I work the same way: I start with large color blocks, as you can see in the helicopter’s image. After that, I add lighting and shading and some detailed colors.

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exercise

Draw these vehicles by following the steps. It can look very challenging at first, but when you follow the steps, I’m sure you can do it!

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pick up your sketchbook Learning to draw takes a lot of time (and pencils). Having a sketchbook with you is an excellent way of getting that drawing mileage because you can bring it with you wherever you go in your daily life. This allows you to draw whenever you feel inspired with real-world references all around you!

(trust me, they love it!) when they are around. You can also take your sketchbook to a public place and see if you can find some interesting expressions from the people around you. Whatever you choose to do, remember to pick up your sketchbook regularly as a practice is the only way you’re going to become the illustrator you want to be. Have fun with it and let the creative juices flow.

Drawing expressions by using references from your favorite TV show or movie can also be fun! For bonus points, draw your roommate, family, friends, or partners 26

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that's it! I hope you had fun and that I have inspired you to start drawing and keep drawing. It can be challenging at first, but I assure you it will become easier if you keep going. This ebook contains some basic lessons about drawing. If you want to learn more about a specific subject, check out my other ebooks in this bundle. You can start in every ebook, but I recommend to start with learning how to draw construction and the line of action. After that you could continue with learing perspective. This gives you a good basic knowledge for the other ebooks. What helps me is to make drawing a daily habit. Like something you do at a certain time of the day. Even if it is only for 30 minutes, you are making more progress than by not drawing at all. Tip: Sign up for the newsletter at gumroad.com/mitchleeuwe to be the first to know about new ebooks! Best, Mitch Leeuwe

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