How to draw The Block-In

How to draw The Block-In

What you need

• Drawing paper Cartridge or sketch paper with a little tooth.
• Blue pencil A light blue col-erase pencil, or a very light HB.
• Graphite pencils HB and 2B; a 4B or 6B for the darkest darks.
• Kneaded eraser Press and lift; pinch it to a point for highlights.
• Sharpener A sharp point makes cleaner hatching.

Step by step

1. 
   01

   Placement

   The limits of the whole

   Mark the top, bottom and sides of the whole group first. Everything else has to fit inside these four ticks.

2. 
   02

   Big shapes

   The envelope and the big shapes

   Enclose the group in a few long straight lines. Then block the pot and the mug inside it as simple straight-sided shapes.

3. 
   03

   Construction

   Measure with your pencil

   Hold your pencil at arm’s length and take the mug’s height as the unit. Then count: the group is 3.4 units tall, 3.1 wide.

4. 
   04

   Construction

   Plumb and level lines

   Drop plumb lines and run level lines through key points to see what lines up. The drooping leaf hangs straight over the mug’s edge.

5. 
   05

   Construction

   Check, then correct

   The pot’s rim came out too round. Measured, its depth is under a third of its width: lift it and draw what you see.

6. 
   06

   Construction

   Leaves, and the spaces between

   Block each leaf in straight lines, stalk to tip. Then check the shapes of air between them: easier to see than leaves.

7. 
   07

   Construction

   Refine the contour

   Now graphite: bend the straight lines into curves, cutting inside them or swelling past them as you look. Then lift the blue.

8. 
   08

   Light and shadow

   The shadow shapes

   Light comes from the upper left. Block in every shadow as one flat value: the right of each form, the soil, the cast shadows.