One of the things I want to do in 2011 is learn to draw, so I thought I'd get a head start on this little resolution on Christmas day. I borrowed a book called "Pencil Sketching" By Thomas Wang and have chewed up the first chapter. It looks like there's way more to this drawing thing than I thought!
Among the little things I learnt in the intro and first chapter was that there are (sorry if I sound like a total noob - I am one) different types of pencils with different properties. I knew this already, but didn't really put it together that a hard pencil is less versatile and that a soft pencil gives you different grades of shading. I guess I had to see it to really get it.
I also skipped a few chapters and found that the author uses shading to seperate hills and increase the feeling of depth in a landscape, another tihng I'd never really grasped by just looking.
I decided to dive right in and found a picture in a magazine that seemed totally out of place of a bull in the mountains. I've never really tackled landscape before, but thought this seemed a fairly simple one to start with.
This is done on a standard postcard, using B lead on a Faber Castell mechanical pencil.
Overall I'm really pleased with the effect, but there is one bit I can't work out. The little mountain on the right is actually recessed in the photo, but in my drawing it just looks weird. Any ideas?
