How to Draw a Diamond - Anyone Can Do this!

Hey, maybe you think drawing something like this is a little bit too hard or difficult for you, or out of your league. Well, that's not the case at all. In fact, anyone can draw something like this. And in this video, I'm going to show you exactly how you can do it. Hello there everyone, Matt here with virtualinstructor.com. And in this video, I'm going to show you just how easy it is to draw a realistic drawing of a diamond using a combination of graphite pencils and white charcoal on toned gray paper. That's right, I said I'm going to show you how easy it is to draw a drawing like this. Now, I know this might seem intimidating to a few of you out there, maybe a lot of you out there, but this whole process is a whole lot easier than you might think it is. In fact, I hope that you have aha moments along the way and you have some revelations, of course, that you can apply to your own drawings in the future. But before we get into this drawing, I'd like to remind you if you're new to the channel, hit that subscribe button and click the bell notification so that you are notified each time we post a new video. If you like this video, make sure you click the like button as well. If you have any questions or comments, make sure you leave them in the comments below. All right, let's go ahead and dive into this process and see how easy this can be. For this drawing, I'll be working on Strathmore toned gray paper. I'll also be using white charcoal pencils, and these are by Generals. I'll also be using a few graphite pencils, including an H, an HB, and a 2B pencil, and also some blending stumps. So the first thing we need to do is get our diamond onto our drawing paper. As you can see, I have printed out the photo reference and I have made an exact copy of the size of the photo reference, or at least the area that I've planned out on my drawing paper. This allows me to use just a sheet of regular old typing paper to make some measurements. First, I'll measure the top edge of the paper and the bottom edge of the paper. Then I'll measure the top edge of the diamond and the bottom of the diamond. Now, all I need to do is line up the marks that I've made on my drawing paper, and I know exactly where the top and the bottom of my diamond is located. I can also locate other areas too, like the middle portion of the diamond. Now we have the top, the bottom of the diamond, and the part of the diamond that curves around near the center. Now let's take some more measurements. Now we're going to figure out how wide the diamond is. So here again, I'll go back to the photo reference that I've printed out. Again, it's exactly the same size as the area that I've partitioned out on my drawing paper. Now I can find the edges of the diamond in the same way. And since I have my photo reference right next to my drawing paper, I can use the edge of the paper to make sure I'm placing these marks in the right location. Now let's find some more measurements. I'm going to find the edge of the top portion of the diamond here. And to keep myself from getting too confused, I'll mark it with an X. Now I know exactly which line I should be using to measure on my drawing paper. Now we've got quite a number of measurements. We've got the top of the diamond, the edge of the top of the diamond, the outer edges on either side of the diamond, and the bottom of the diamond. Now let's continue making measurements. Here I'm going to find a part of the diamond where it starts to diagonal its way down to the edges. This of course is an important location. I can double check to make sure I'm making my marks in the right location. And then here again, I can just use the edge of the paper to line it up with our drawing paper, and then also use my measurements to mark these locations inside of the picture plane. Now I'm using an H graphite pencil here which makes very light marks. You don't want to necessarily start with a very soft pencil because those lines might be a little bit more difficult to erase later in the process. But you also want to make sure that you don't put too much pressure on the pencil when you're using a hard pencil like this H pencil, because we don't want to create grooves in the surface of the paper. Now initially I'm just using sketchy lines to basically connect the dots. Once I feel confident about the shape of my diamond, then I'll reach for a ruler and make straight lines. These lines of course are a little bit more deliberate and more graphite is transferred to the surface. That's why I created those sketchy lines first, just to make sure that I was happy with the overall shape. Now once these lines are in place made with the ruler, I'll use a kneaded eraser to gently erase any stray lines. We want to keep our drawing clean throughout the process. All right, now that we've got the overall shape of our diamond in place on the drawing paper, the next thing we need to do is break this overall shape down into smaller shapes. So we're going to be looking for triangles and trapezoids. Now that we've got the outer contours of the diamond in place, we need to look for the smaller shapes that exist inside of the diamond. And here I've highlighted these smaller shapes, or at least the ones that I see. So our next step in the process is to simply draw these shapes within the overall shape of our diamond. Now this may seem like a complex part of the process, but it's really not. We're only dealing with triangles and maybe a few trapezoids here and there. And we've got most of our locations marked anyway. We're going to stick with the H pencil here so our marks are light. And again, I'm going to start by just drawing these lines freehand. That way I can keep my marks relatively light. And if I make a mistake, I can go back and erase very easily. Once we've got some sketchier lines in place, then we can reinforce those with a ruler. Take your time here and just pay attention to what you're seeing. Again, keep in mind that this is all simple. Just think about going from point to point. And don't get down on yourself if you make a shape that's not quite right. Remember, it's very easy to go in and erase. Now there is this little strange shape that happens near the front of the diamond, and this is simply because there's a thicker part that goes right around the middle. So of course we'll draw a shape for it here, although it's not exactly a trapezoid or a triangle. And then after we add our last bit of triangles and trapezoids, our contour line drawing of the diamond is in place. Now that was easy enough, right? Now that we've got our diamond segmented into smaller bits, we're just going to take each little piece at a time and pay attention to the values and the value relationships. More importantly, the shapes of those values in each one of these sections. Now of course this diamond is made up of a full range of value. Value is the darkness or lightness of a color. Now of course we've broken this down into segments, and let's look at one specific segment. If we make this segment a little bit bigger, we can see all the different values that exist there. We have the darkest darks, we have the lightest lights, we have some of the values in between. Our next step of the process is simply to mimic the shapes of value that we see and put the appropriate value from the value scale in those locations. And in the end we'll have a convincing illusion in our drawing. Now before we start developing the value, let's back off on some of these graphite lines. We want some of these lines to be a little bit lighter in value and some a little bit darker, so we'll lift a little bit of the graphite from the surface using a kneaded eraser before we start with our applications of white charcoal and graphite. Now we're going to start in an easy location, and that's up in the upper left-hand corner. We already see one segment that's just completely white, so we'll go ahead and fill that in with the white charcoal. Then we'll start the process of pushing both the dark values and lighter values in each section as we work our way across the diamond. Now most of the sections we're going to address are mostly lighter in value, so we're going to start with an application of the white charcoal initially and then blend it with a blending stump before applying a bit of the HB graphite over the top and then blending that application. When you're using this combination of media, white charcoal and graphite, we need to keep a couple of things in mind. First of all, we need to understand that graphite easily covers the white charcoal, but the reverse of this is not true. So in other words, it's hard to cover up graphite locations with a bit of the white charcoal, but it's much easier to cover up some of the charcoal layers with a bit of the graphite. For this reason, we need to keep in mind where our locations of lighter value are located and basically preserve those areas with a bit of the white charcoal before going over to our graphite pencil. Now also, we have areas within each one of these sections that appear a little smoky, and I think this is happening just because this is a diamond. So some of our transitions of value are very smooth. In other words, there is a gradation from dark to light, but in other areas within the diamond, because this is a reflective surface, a highly reflective surface, we see areas of contrasting values right next to each other, where we have a dark right next to a middle value or even a light value. To create this smoky appearance, we'll use the Blending Stump to ease the transitions from dark to light, but in some areas, we'll just rely on the pressure placed on the pencil in order to create the contrasting areas. So initially in each section, we start with basically the middle values and push the values outward, so we progressively get both darker and lighter. Of course, in areas that are darker, we're applying the graphite, working our way all the way to 2B, or if you prefer, 4B or even darker, and using the white charcoal, of course, to address the lighter areas. The more we push this contrast in value, the more reflective our diamond will appear. So in other words, the broader the range of value we have in each section, the more reflective the surface looks. But don't go overboard. Keep in mind that not every single section on the diamond has the darkest values or the lightest values within it. Now, another thing to keep in mind, of course, is that this is a slow and somewhat tedious process. It's important to take your time and pay close attention to the shapes of value that you see in each section of the diamond. And you can keep going as deep as you want to. My drawing is pretty small here, but if you're doing a larger drawing, you might see shapes within shapes within shapes, and it's up to you how far you want to go down the rabbit hole. Of course, the more shapes that you add and the more variety of value, the more realistic your drawing will look. Now, I should point out here that I did say that this process is relatively easy, and it is easy. We've gone through the steps that really anybody can follow, and we're at a part of the drawing really where anybody can follow this part of the process as well. It's really more about patience at this point. Are you willing to slow down and take the time to create this illusion? If you are, then you're going to be successful. If you start feeling yourself becoming impatient during the process, then just take a break and stop. Step back from your artwork and do something else for a little while and then come back to it. I did that quite a bit during this process. This drawing wasn't created in just an hour. It took about three or four hours to complete, and again, it's a relatively small drawing, so be prepared to just work slowly and take your time. Of course, the reward in the end will make it all worth it. Here's a little tip on using blending stumps. Since we're using both light and dark material to create this drawing, I like to reserve one end of the blending stump for lighter values and the other end of the blending stump for darker values. This will ensure that I don't use the darker end of my blending stump to blend or smudge in an area that I want the values to be lighter and vice versa. And also keep in mind that each one of these sections is unique and different from the next, so there's not really a formula that you can follow to create the solution. You do have to just draw from observation. Trust what you're seeing and place what you're seeing into the drawing. Don't try to figure out what it is that you're looking at, but instead just concentrate on the shapes of value and the actual values that you're adding. All right, now we've made it to the bottom portion of the diamond, and as you can see I'm working from the top to the bottom, and this is mostly because I'm right-handed. I'm trying to keep the palm of my hand out of the way of the drawing. I'm using a small sheet of mylar there just to protect the palm of my hand from smearing my work. Now as I mentioned before, each one of these sections is different with its positionings of value, but one thing you'll notice is that some of the reflections you can somewhat make out. I'm not really sure what they are, but we can tell that it's a reflection of whatever else is in the room with this diamond, and that also adds to the overall illusion of the drawing of course. So don't try to figure it out, just try to draw the shapes of value and the actual values that you see, and you can't go wrong. Now our diamond looks great, but we need to have a little bit of reflected light on the surface and also a little bit of cast shadow, so let's add that now and watch the drawing come together. Now we have a floating diamond here of course, but we need to add a little bit more realism to this by adding a bit of shadow underneath the diamond because it is a solid object, but it's also a transparent object. And what happens with transparent objects like this is light actually passes through it, and in some areas the light gets intensified, creating these strong bits of highlight right in the middle of our area of cast shadow. And we can see this happening on the surface right underneath the diamond. So we'll start here with a bit of the white charcoal and go ahead and plan out these areas, paying attention to the shapes they make. And then of course we'll use the blending stump to blend this application. Then we'll gradually get darker with our shadows. We'll start here with the HB pencil, and again we'll just fill in the shapes in between the strong highlights. We'll allow the shadow right underneath the diamond to be a little bit stronger or a little bit darker and allow it to fade out into the gray of the paper. Now at this point I see that I need to increase the contrast a little bit at the bottom of the diamond, so it stands out a little bit more against the lighter values underneath it. So I'll use the HB pencil to darken up some of the values here even though they're not the same values as what we see in the reference. Sometimes you have to make decisions about your drawing that deviate from your subject. Then of course we'll use the darker end of the blending stump here to blend the HB graphite applications. Of course we'll apply less pressure on the blending stump as we work our way to the outer edges of the shadow so that it fades into the gray of the paper. We'll make the shadows right underneath the diamond a little bit stronger, again with just a little bit more pressure on the HB pencil. And then we'll make those areas where the light is intense even stronger with heavy pressure placed on the white charcoal pencil. And now it's all come together and our drawing of a diamond with graphite and white charcoal is complete. So there you have it. Hopefully you can see that this process is not as difficult as you might have thought it to be. It is time consuming of course, but if we just slow down and take our time then really anybody can do this. Anybody can do this. Anybody can draw anything that they want to, not just this diamond. Now if you do want to take your drawing and painting skills to the next level, check out our membership program which includes a variety of drawing and painting courses on a variety of subjects and media. There's also weekly critiques which are part of the members' minute. Weekly live lessons that we broadcast each week for an hour. All of those live lessons are recorded and stored in our vault. 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