I have documented the entire process here too, with time lapse and processes of shadings. ^^ :)
Introduction
Pencils always lay the ground work for any art, its used for making rough sketches, or even storyboard telling.
But, often pencils alone can make a very realistic sketch and it can make almost any kind of art.
In this we will learn ways to make one ourself.
Basics
The basics when making a sketch with pencils you have to keep two things in mind that is shading and light source.
If light source and shading are done perfectly you will already achieve half realism
Light source & Shading
In your sketch you will have to decide one place from where you decide to place the light source.
The object on which the light is falling will be bright at the first place of its contact with the light.
To explain its basic lets first make a circle with its light source on the top right hand side.
As you can see the part where the light would make its first impact has been brighten while the bottom part is darker
slowly make the transition from dark to lighter shade as you get close to the place of contact with the light for the object
Try adding a little shadow on the ground.
Now select the blend tool.
Start blending in the shades to give it smoother transition.
Notice how the pencil parts has been blended in, even the Place of light impact is blended in, No worries^^ we can change it at any point.
Now change the color of pencil to white
Add the lighter shades at the place where light would hit.
Further blend the lighter shade
Select the Soft eraser
Now in somewhat a curved shape at the top part use the soft erase to gently clear out some part to make it as if its shining.
Shadow
Making shadows is very easy just keep this point in mind.
Lower the light source is longer will be the shadow and if the light source is closer to top then shadow will be very small.
Lets Make this Sketch very quick^^ :)
Using the above basic tips and ticks we will make this sketch very easily.
Tools
Before starting let me show all the tools I will be using, to make this tutorial easy to follow I am using all the basic tools only and very few tools as well.
pencil
Firstly these two pencils.
Although I will use mechanical pencil only once or twice barely for most of the part I will use ‘Pencil’ only.
These two will also be the only color I will use.
eraser
Both these erasers will be extremely helpful.
You can also see my settings and it will stay constant as well throughout
Blend
Lastly will be blend tool
Note: all my settings will also remain constant so it will be easy to follow along.
Rough sketch
NOTE: This will be my canvas properties, try to keep this similar otherwise you may not be able to full follow with my pencil/eraser/other tools sizes.
But its not a big issue you can keep the canvas size however you’d want.
We will start by making the face first.
To make the head we will draw a circle then draw a line from its center.
Now the circle is in two parts, one half will be the face while the other part would consist of hair/back of the head.
See the image for reference.
Ears will be just on the line as shown in image.
use simple lines and circles to represent the basic structure of your pose.
you may notice that around the waist i have mad it slightly more inward curved.
I want to make the girl look as if she is walking forward hence around her waist her gown would be closer to her
Notice the curve in green its more towards outside while the one in yellow color is inward towards her belly giving it a look as if she is walking forward.
Sketching
Starting with the basic setup
>reduce the opacity of the the layer with rough sketch
>add a new layer on which we will do outline/sketching
start adding details to the rough sketch.
Remember the more details will help you better when we will be doing shading part.
When making hairs keep one stroke constant, and make the pencil size smaller as you can see in my settings.
try to make as many strokes possible which will be representing the hairs.
add a light source
Okay so before we get further on, lets just make any spot on the canvas which will be representing our light source.
sketching/shading
So now back to sketching and shading.
Before proceeding let me just give you few insights which will be very handy.
>keep adding details throughout the sketching.
>its not necessary that you have to draw only one particular part at a time you can keep on drawing others as well, this will give you an insight of how the sketch is looking, also this way even if you would make a mistake it will be easy to go back
>best to divide the sketch from very rough shading to a full detailed shading.
To add shading I will first add strokes like this at the places where I want to add the darker spots.
using the blend tool, blend the shading.
I have made the back part darker compared to the part where the light would first hit, As I explained in first section.
You can change the density of your pencil from over here.
This will help you to make areas under shadows darker, plus to make it even darker you would have to draw over and over it with pencil,
Eye
When making eye, keep the pencil size low to make the eyelashes, give it a finer look. as for the eyeball. Add such fine lines as i have did here when this will get blended it will give a very nice look.
Have reference for an eye which will help you to make it even better.
Now blend the those lines we made in the above part in the iris.
Once you have used the blend tool to make such shades at the edges use soft and hard erasers at few parts like I have done here.
This will give shiny/reflective effect.
Hairs
Even for hairs, remember that hairs will be lighter at the place where light have hit it and darker at back.
One can use pencil alone(that is without the use of blend tool) to make a very realistic sketch.
When I have moved towards the braids part see how each strand is in curve line with a vanishing point too
this will help you to notice that vanishing point.
At the place where light would first touch the hairs I have given that area a light shade while the one which will be in shadow area is darker.
Robe/Wooden staff
In here as well you can see that the part which is far from the light source is in darker shade. I made this part using the pencil tool with full texture density.
>Remember guys may have to give 2-3 strokes at the same spot to make it darker.
then we will move towards making the rest of robe, As you can see that when making the robe I have give single strokes which are slightly slant. This part will be of a lighter shade as its represent the area that is near to light source.
adding folds is a very easy part and it will give life to the cloth.
You have to increase the size of the pencil as per your requirements in my case it ‘30’
also increase the density to full and give a strong stroke like I have done, also try to keep the folds in a little diagonal way not totally straight and slight curve.
You can also make such criss-cross patterns this will give nice fabric look.
Start using blend tool to blend it gently.
See the spots where I have made red circles we will have folds there so you can notice a slightly dark line visible inside the circle.
Once blended it will give such a look.
At the hand add such dark line to show the part of folds.
For making this wooden staff define your lighter and darker parts first. Then add darker shades to the darker part.
Now fill in the lighter parts with simple strokes as you did for the robe part, except here try to make different strokes as well. As in wood you will notice that the strokes are often very distinct.
This part in the middle of the wooden staff at first I thought to leave it empty then I thought lets add some glossy sort of glass instead.
So to make this you can use a similar trick as used for eye.
Make corners dark though and add few spots in the middle with a darker shade. Blend it slowly together.
use soft eraser to add that shinny effect at someplaces.
lips, nose, jaw
Add pencil strokes to the shape of your lips.
The bottom lip will be slightly darker compared to the upper one just slightly.
Smoothly blend both.
At the jawline and under from where neck begins add more dark shades over there to give it more realistic view, also you can see I have added shades at the nose too.
Finishings
Remember when we made hairs we gave each strand by making a single stroke.
Now we will add more realism to it.
So we will use blend tool here, Unlike in other parts we used the blend tool to completely blend it here. We will use light strokes that too only in the direction of the stroke and all strokes with the blend tool should be constant.
We would not want to blend the hairs totally.
Now add more strands to the left part which was meant to show the lighter shade part.
One tip I’d give to make dark and lighter parts in hairs is to make more dark but fine strokes for the darker shades while to make the lighter shade keep the strokes less with a soft hand also before giving the shade make the part below it a little blended with pencil.
Once you have done it blend the hairs lightly, don’t blend it in a circular form, blend in straight stroke form only that is blend in the shape that you have made your hair strands
Use pencil to add dark shades to the parts where shadow will be at like I have done here
Once you have made up all the blends as mentioned in above steps. You will again have to make pencil strokes like I have done, Do such strokes to make transition between the darker and lighter part.
Background and touch ups
So now make a new layer.
place it below the layer you have done the sketching for the witch.
Use pencil with similar settings as mine and make the background like this, keep disparity i.e. at some places keep darkers shades at some lighter, though at the bottom keep dark and lighter at top and even light as you move from left hand side to the right hand side as there we had our ‘light source’.
The layer in GREEN box is the one with all works of the witch.
The layer in RED box will be the one for background.
haha looking weird? No worries it will look good just wait a minute.
Select the blend tool.
..And start blending.
blend it all the way till it looks like this.
Note: remember to make this background in a separate layer otherwise entire sketch will get blended in.
Now using the soft eraser start giving light to the witch.
Remember where you placed your light source?^^
Check 1st section about basics if you get confused of light sources or shadow parts.
So even after using the pencil like 12times at least over the same place (at the neck) I am still using it again. LOL.
So notice how at the lips I have added a dark line in between both.
I have also added very thin lines on the lips because if you look closely at your lips you will notice there are many such lines.
The upper lip have comparatively less lines and is also lighter, plus I have given it a shine to by using soft eraser.
this is a very delicate and fine detail, but it will give very realism to your sketch and also its super easy to make.
See how I have made very thin hairs, you can make such single strands of hairs at different places to give it a realism. Also you can use ‘white’ pencil as well as that will give it a very shiny look.
This is a very small but powerful detail.
Now again I have blended it and its looking even better.
Once adding more darker shades at the robe, staff and hand too, gently blend and it will already look like its complete.
But we won’t stop just yet hehe^^
Now with use of SOFT & HARD ERASER ADD such effects.
You can also use white pencil.
Erase at some random parts on eye to give this effect.
With use of eraser again I have added such white strands as well this will give more life to the sketch.
The spots where we used dark shades to make folds over there you can use eraser or white pencil again (preferably use soft eraser).
Then just slowly erase certain parts and it will give this look easily.
So now you can say that your witch is done. You can spend more time on the witch to make it more detailed and it will look more fabulous with your magic ^^
Making background Elements
Lets begin with making the terrain.
Okay, So.. let’s start off with making a new layer, keep this layer below the layer you have made the witch on and above your background layer this is very important.
Since I am making some rocks here you may have to strictly follow this part as making some other background like flowers, grasses will have a different process.
Okay so to make such terrain firstly make lines like I have for the rocks.
Further on fill that part with pencil.
You can erase the part that’s overlapping our witch.
You will have to use the same trick we have used till now for the background as well, remember your light source?
According to is darker spots at the back and lighter on top.
With use of pencil or hard eraser add such sharp edges.
you can also add some grass or vegetation like I have.
Kitty & bird
To make the kitty draw of rough like this.
Then let’s get straight to shading it.
A cat’s fur is very short in length so when we will add light shades the strokes will be very short.
You can add its nails as well on the cat’s tiny paws.
Don’s forget its whiskers.
with use of soft eraser add its fur.
Use hard eraser to make sharp furs at some places only few.
Draw the base of the bird.
keep the beak sharp while the wings soft.
Gently Add strokes to make its feathers.
Blend it gently.
Use eraser to make lighter spots.
… and that’s all ^^
Conclusion
So everyone this will be the end result, you can add more details to it try to play with settings and experiment on your art you will end make it so fabulous.
Like I always says please like, share comment.
and KEEP PRACTICING ^^:)
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