The 'Drawing' Tool That NO ONE Uses : Hyperrealistic Charcoal Wolf Drawing

This video is about one of the techniques that I use that shouldn't work but really does. Do not switch off this video, I promise you this is going to be one of the best pieces of advice you've ever heard. It's a technique that adds a final layer of depth and dimension to finished drawings. And the problem that this technique fixes is one of the biggest problems that I see beginners make. And by using this technique you can take your work from a beginner level to an advanced level in minutes. You don't even need to start a new drawing. This technique can be applied to pieces that you finished years ago. But before we get on to that, first we're going to need a charcoal piece to demonstrate with. If you've watched my first video in this series, you'll know that this is the second of five large charcoal pieces that I've been commissioned to do. I'm using this series to demonstrate my process for large scale charcoals and share some little tips and tricks that will hopefully help you with your own work. So make sure you don't miss out and subscribe to my channel. I am primarily a wildlife artist, as you could probably tell by my channel name. I am very used to painting fur, but things like leaves and branches are something that I struggle with. So I'm trying to include a bit of both in all of the drawings in this series. It's something to tie all the pieces together, but it also means that each piece is challenging me with something that I know I struggle with. And that's my first little nugget of wisdom. Try to push yourself with every piece that you create. It doesn't need to be the whole piece, but in a small section, try something new. Then the next piece, try something a little bit more. Build up the skill in small, manageable sections until you become more confident in what you're trying to create. I found with foliage, it's easier to think of it as shapes rather than the thing that you're actually drawing. Just putting those little blobs of values in the right place is enough to trick your eye into seeing a branch or a leaf or a log when you step back from the piece. The trick with charcoal is getting the values correct. I've got a few different methods for charcoal drawing, all slightly different, that produce different results. In the first video of this series, I demonstrated how sometimes I go really dark straight away. This allows me to remove charcoal with an eraser to create the value transitions. This is faster and works really well for darker and more contrasting pieces, but this piece requires a slightly more subtle approach. I want this piece to be a little bit softer, so rather than put those harsh black marks in from the get-go, I started building up my values with some dark charcoal powder first. The dark charcoal that I normally use is this from Cretacolor. It is a fantastic charcoal. I also use the Cretacolor charcoal powder. The issue with this is it doesn't quite go as dark as I would like. The solution is using the Cretacolor chunky charcoal sticks to create a charcoal powder. The powder that you can create from this is so much more rich and dark, and you can get a much wider variety of values from powder made from this, than you can the charcoal straight from the top. So I do recommend, if you are doing realistic charcoal drawings, that you invest in some chunky charcoal sticks and make your own charcoal out of the compressed charcoal, rather than using the charcoal out of the top. That small change can make a huge difference with how the finished piece looks. Because I'm using that powder made of the compressed chunky charcoal, I am still going really dark with it, but because I'm using the brush, it gives a softer look, and I can create a much wider variety of values for this base coat of charcoal. I'm pretty confident in drawing and painting fur, but there's something that I have noticed recently in a lot of my pieces that isn't quite right. It's something that I see in a lot of beginner and intermediate painters work, and in fact some professional pieces too, and because of this I've tried to slightly adjust the way I create fur for this piece. I start by creating that base coat with the charcoal powder, again thinking about the basic values and the block shapes. Then I move on to using a putty eraser to add in clumps of fur by removing the charcoal. The putty eraser is great for this step, as you can mould it into different shapes, and because it changes shape as you use it, it can create some really interesting and unique marks, which add a little bit of randomness and variation that you would see in real fur. Removing the charcoal like this reduces the variation in values. Everything just gets a little bit samey. So next I go in with some soft charcoal, adding in some strands and clumps where the fur might be a little bit darker. Then I take the brush and I blend the charcoal into the paper. It's not as dark anymore, but it has increased the number of values. Next I take a 2B charcoal pencil, the softer the better, and I use this to add some darker marks and strands of fur. We've got our extreme darks in, and our mid-range values, but now we need to add our final details. For this I mostly use a small detailed Tombow eraser. They are absolutely fantastic for smaller detail work like fur. I use this to pick out the lighter strands, being careful not to go overboard, and just picking up on the subtle areas that need to go a little bit lighter. For the main section of the face, near the eyes, nose and mouth, I want the fur to be quite sharp and detailed, so I'm trying to give the impression of adding each strand of fur. Remember, I'm not actually adding each strand exactly like the reference photo. I'm not copying it exactly. I know I want it to look like detailed fur, but it doesn't have to be the exact detailed fur from the reference photo. I'm using my own knowledge and muscle memory of painting and drawing fur to improve it, adjust it, and just get this fur texture down really quickly. Okay, I'm going to talk a little bit more about that mistake that I've been making in my own work, and how we can improve it. Are you ready for tip number two? Now, the mistake that I see loads of artists make with their work, and I'm guilty of this mistake too, is that we make our fur strands too long. Sometimes in reference photos, because of the way the fur lines up, it can look like relatively long strands of fur, which we then try to replicate in the painting, when in reality, those long strands of fur that we're seeing are actually made up of three or four shorter strands that have just lined up one after the other. With the way that I paint and draw this idea of the impression of fur, you need to be able to understand the length of the fur of the subject that you're trying to paint. Blindly copying the reference, without the understanding of what's happening, can make a realistic artwork look less real. So, for this piece, I'm trying to make a conscious effort to make those strands of fur much shorter, and hopefully give it a much more realistic finish. And I think the length of fur is something that a lot of beginners don't think about, and it's that you should really be concentrating on in your realistic wildlife pieces. For this piece, I intentionally created the eyes, nose, face, and mouth of the wolf first, that is because I wanted to concentrate on the length of fur, and I wanted these areas to be the focal point of the picture. So these are going to be the sharpest areas of the piece, and have the most detail. The rest of the picture, the ears, and the fur around the neck, and the face, I want to appear set back slightly. They aren't as important features of this painting, so they don't need to be as detailed. They can be softer, and not as contrasting, and I just repeat the process for my fur in those areas, the only difference being I don't go as dark or as light in those less important areas. So I don't use as much of the dark charcoal pencil, and when I bring that lighter fur back, I mostly use the putty eraser, which creates much larger and softer lines than the Tombow eraser. Now I said those areas were not as important, but that's not really the best way to describe them, because they are just as important as the detailed areas. They provide a contrast between the two areas that guides the viewer's eyes to a specific area of the piece, that you as the artist get to decide which area of the piece the viewers are drawn to. And that's tip number three. Choose a focal point for your piece. That area can be sharp with lots of details. Everything else surrounding it can be gradually less detailed, less sharp, and less contrasting. That's going to create a focal point for the viewer to look at. Do this even if the reference photo is completely sharp everywhere. You do not need to stick to that reference photo. Trust me, it will add more depth to your artwork, and it will make it so much more pleasing to look at. I'm pretty much done with this piece now, but there is one last tip that I want to show you, and this is the tip that is hopefully going to improve your work more than anything else I've talked about in this video. And it's about a technique that I've not really seen used with charcoal or graphite. Now I've mentioned values quite a lot in this video, and one of the things that I see in beginners work is that they seem a little bit scared of pushing the values. Mainly, scared to go too dark, which means they're a little bit conservative with their values, and their pieces end up looking a little bit flat and lifeless. Sure, the details are there, but without those deep, rich shadows, there's no form, and there's no life. What I like to do to add a little bit more depth to my pieces is use this, an airbrush. You don't need a super expensive one, I'll link mine in the description. You might have used an airbrush before, you might have seen them, but you might never have thought to use an airbrush on a drawing, and one that you've pretty much finished. But trust me, it will push your work to a whole new level. This only works if you're using good quality paper. I'm using Fabriano 300gsm hot pressed watercolour paper, so it can take the paint no problem at all without buckling. I fill the pot with just some water, and just a few drops of black airbrush paint. You don't want it too opaque, it needs to be quite transparent still. And also make sure to wear a mask and do this in a well ventilated or open space. I look for any areas of shadow in my piece, and I use the airbrush to just darken those areas and push those shadows a little bit more. The airbrush is perfect for this, as it doesn't remove or smudge the charcoal, and it leaves a soft, subtle transition rather than harsh lines. It blends perfectly into the charcoal underneath. I sometimes like to use it on my paintings too, and I use it to add a darker vignette, and I can do the same with the charcoal piece. It just helps to frame the painting, and again draw the viewer to that central focal point. It's such a simple and quick process that just adds a whole new layer to these pieces. And before we get on to the reveal, I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone that supports me on Patreon. I would not be able to do this without you. I hope you're finding all of the videos really helpful. There's new real-time video tutorials that I release each month, going into more detail about my charcoal, acrylic, oil and pastel processes. Now for the reveal! If you haven't already seen the first video in this series, go and check it out now for loads more realistic drawing tips. As always, thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you next time!