Artist's Back to Basics

"Deep End of the Pool- part 1"

I’ve written lots of articles about a lot of different aspects of freehand drawing over the years, now it’s time to delve into the most arcane techniques and methods I know and use every time I draw.

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

Usually I try and do a quick catch up for the uninitiated in articles dealing with more advanced concepts but these are too wide ranging and far too far by far from the raw beginnings of “Basic Drawing Techniques” and “Drawing Straight Lines” to make that possible, so I’ll have to just dive in deep right from the start this time. If it makes sense to you all well and good, if not, reading previous articles by me will give you the grounding you need to grasp these very advanced ideas in this four part article. They are all concepts I have developed myself out of necessity over the course of my drawing life and all directly tie in and follow on from all I’ve written from the beginning about freehand hyper-realistic drawing. Most of the terms are just what I ended up calling them over the years for want of knowing any better, or in other words, what I am saying to myself in my own head as I go about the. I wouldn’t know what else to call them as I’ve never seen or heard of them anywhere else (not that I go looking) so I guess they are what they are. I’ve tried to group them together into some semblance of contiguous order despite the disparate nature of some. The common thread throughout though is the highly advanced and in some cases all but mystical concepts and techniques described. We’re really in the very deepest part of the pool now. It may seem murky at first but the water will clear if you let your mind relax and open to accepting new ideas and remember that all these ideas are really quite simple once you gain an understanding of the fundamental principle I am trying to get across and a realisation of just how useful (crucial) they are to drawing freehand realistically. Let’s hurl ourselves in from a great height then.....

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