Throwing Shade Your Way!

Shading consists of five areas of concentration. 

Day of the Head (Step X Step)!

The Inspiration ...

STEP 1

I always try to use some guide lines, a circle and some straight horizontal and vertical lines, it helps me structure the skull. You need more guidelines, draw them.

STEP 2

Two circles for the eyes, usually it would some kind of parallelogram but I will try circle to be able to put more decorations. An upside down heart for the nose is not too hard to draw. Then comes the tricky parts, I know the teeth should be between the middle of each eye so I imagined two straight lines and drew the top part. The cheek bones too are tricky but with the guidelines it’s easier than taking a guess. Then I drew the jaw and completed it with the head shape.

STEP 3

10 teeth on the top part; 5 teeth on the left and the right. 10 teeth on the bottom; 5 teeth on the left and the right. I try to make the teeth in the middle bigger than the teeth on each side, just to give the illusion of the teeth being further back and smaller. Then I filled the rest black and redefined the whole skull.

STEP 4

Let’s start decorating this skull with some petals around the eyes. Sketching bigger circles around the eyes to draw nice curves could help.

STEP 5

Now it’s getting harder, I started by drawing two curves on each side of the nose, following the the nose without making the lines touch each other. Then I attached a swirl to each curved lines going on the opposite direction. Then I drew a swirl in each cheek bones following the outline and leaving a gap. I drew a curved line under each eye and completed it with some dots, drops, circles and two weird shaped triangles. Always making sure to leave gaps between everything.

STEP 6

For no particular reason I drew a third eye between the eyes. Then as usual I followed the curves of the third eye and split the line in two to make two hooks close to the nose. Then I drew some circles to give it more decorations.

STEP 7

For fun I gave the skull some eyebrows and then I drew a swirl on each side. I have to admit that if I wasn’t drawing it in photoshop with my wacom tablet I would have folded a paper in two, drew half the skull, drew all the decorations on one side and then traced the other half two make the whole drawing more symmetrical.

STEP 8

I like hearts, so I drew one heart in the right eye, pointing up for positive meaning in the right eye, maybe for righteousness. And the inverted heart, pointing down in the left eye. Having good and bad in the same drawing. Maybe one side could be light and the other side could dark when it will be time to color it.

STEP 9

3 Half circle on the top of the head. 2 short and big swirls on each side followed by longer and smaller swirls going on the opposite side. I put 2 curved lines giving the illusion the there are more decoration on the skull going to the back of the head. Then I drew some horizontal drops and diagonal drops going on the opposite side. To complete the forehead I put some more drops, circles, and swirls where I had space. Then I drew the weird pentagonal shape in the forehead, I had no clue what to put there so I followed with curvy lines and that’s what it did.

STEP 10

For the the jaw start by drawing the big swirls in the chin and finished them with a smaller swirl behind the teeth, on the bone. Behind the smaller swirls draw 2 curved lines and 3 circles in between. Then draw the 3 curved scratches, giving the illusion they continue in the back of the jaw. Since there is space left, draw circles and lines behind the big swirls and that’s it. All is left to do is to color it, something I might do later and put it in my artworks. I’m pretty sure that by drawing big decorations first and then completing it with smaller ones, you could easily draw sugar skulls completely different and still be pretty cool to look at.

Hatching the Lines

Stippling - Stippling involves placing lots of tiny dots on your paper. The dots can be close together, far apart, or anywhere in between! Practice stippling by drawing dots that are close together and also by drawing dots that have more distance between them. Also, notice the difference between dots made when the pencil is sharp vs. when the pencil point is dull. Stippling is a great way to add some interesting texture to a drawing.

Hatching - Hatching involves drawing a series of parallel lines. These lines all go in the same direction. The lines can be close together, far apart, or any variation in between. The pencil is lifted from the paper after each line and then placed down again to create a new line.

Cross-hatching - Cross-hatching involves drawing a series of parallel lines (hatching) and then drawing another series of parallel lines going in another direction on top of the first set of lines. This is a great way to create shading in a drawing. You can create some interesting textures through cross-hatching.

Back and forth stroke - The back and forth stroke is probably the most common of all the colored pencil techniques. This is probably how you drew with crayons as a kid! Basically, you just put your pencil on the paper and draw in a continuous back and forth motion, without lifting your pencil off of the paper. This is a good way to fill different areas of your drawing with a lot of solid color.

Scumbling - Scumbling is another technique you probably used as a kid without even knowing that it had a name! Scumbling involves making continuous circular marks on your paper, without lifting your pencil. This is another good way to fill in different areas with lots of color.

Here

Color Wheels Ideas ...

...but not limited too.

Whose Color is it?

Primary Colors: Red, yellow and blue

In traditional color theory (used in paint and pigments), primary colors are the 3 pigment colors that can not be mixed or formed by any combination of other colors. All other colors are derived from these 3 hues. 

Secondary Colors: Green, orange and purple

These are the colors formed by mixing the primary colors.

Tertiary Colors: Yellow-orange, red-orange, red-purple, blue-purple, blue-green and yellow-green

These are the colors formed by mixing a primary and a secondary color. That's why the hue is a two word name, such as blue-green, red-violet, and yellow-orange.

 

Color Harmony

Harmony can be defined as a pleasing arrangement of parts, whether it be music, poetry, color, or even an ice cream sundae.

In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. When something is not harmonious, it's either boring or chaotic. At one extreme is a visual experience that is so bland that the viewer is not engaged. The human brain will reject under-stimulating information. At the other extreme is a visual experience that is so overdone, so chaotic that the viewer can't stand to look at it. The human brain rejects what it can not organize, what it can not understand. The visual task requires that we present a logical structure. Color harmony delivers visual interest and a sense of order.

In summary, extreme unity leads to under-stimulation, extreme complexity leads to over-stimulation. Harmony is a dynamic equilibrium.

The Masters of Theory ...Color Lovers