Learn to Draw Realistic Textures

Hey everyone! In today's video I'm starting a beautiful portrait drawing of a woman with a hand, loose hair and a silk dress. I'll be using graphite, charcoal and pan pastel to create natural skin tones, realistic hair and that soft silky texture. I'll share some of my favorite techniques along the way and show you the process step by step. If you'd like to follow the complete lesson from start to finish, including all the detailed instructions, you can find the full video lesson inside the membership. Now let's get started! Okay, so I want to start here at the top left part. I want to use the pan pastel and this is the neutral gray tint. I'm going to use the smaller brush. I have these flat brushes, powder brushes. Yeah, I'm just going to use the smaller one and you can also use a flat brush for the edges and I'm just going over the sketch lines because you'll see that we need to darken them later anyway. Okay, so just move the powder around and it's okay if you go, the neckline is darker and here as well, so I'm just going to go over the edges. We don't have to be careful here with the edges. Then we can start the hair. I'm going to start with the, I think, the Pitt graphite pencil because I don't need any smooth transitions. The 14B. Yes, I'm going to focus on the direction. Also, you want to use light pressure because we want to go over this. Okay, so this is a bun, so the hair is like this inside the bun. Okay, so we're going to do some blending and smudging later, so I'm going to just go around the lights. There aren't much lights here. We can use the eraser for that. I'm just going to actually just roughly fill it all in a bit. Again, light pressure because when you press too hard on these pencils you can create like a shiny layer and once you have that shiny layer it will be really difficult to go over that when you want to layer and darken. And there are lots of individual messy hairs, but I'm going to add those later. Okay, let's blend this and you always want to clean your blending stump first, going in a circular motion, just blending this whole layer. So you can see that we need to go a lot darker, but we have our first messy layer. Let's use the HB. I can create a sharp... the sharpest tip is on the HB, but if you want to go darker and smoother then you can use the other charcoal pencils. Okay, now again the same, following the direction where I see that it's a bit lighter, you can draw around that. Only the darkest, thicker. Yeah, you see these, not all of this individual hair, but also some parts that are more clumped together. That's where the hair is a bit darker and this is the 4B because I'm going to fill in bigger areas of hair and the HB charcoal pencil is more precise. So this is easier for the bigger areas. You can also see that more charcoal comes off, it's a bit darker. I would use the stump that I use for charcoal. I'm not going to blend over these, maybe just at the beginning here. Where you can clean the stump. Okay, I'm also blending over the lighter areas. We can bring that back with the eraser. I think that gives us more of a natural layer. Blending up to the edge and yeah, just keeping this highlight a bit lighter with the stick eraser. Now we can look at the lighter parts in there. I'm going to use the 10B because the skin is quite dark. I'm going to blend it all, starting with the darker shadows that I see here behind the ear. 6B graphite pencil. Let's fill this all in. You see that I'm using really light pressure and just holding it more, or holding the pencil more to the back. But what I want to do here is go over the edge. So there isn't an outline here. The darkest part is on the face and then the lightest part is on the hand, creating this edge here. You see that now we add shading here. You don't see an outline here around the fingers, but look how flat the fingers look because it's just one value. One value means flat. Whichever value that is, it can be any value from white to black, any grays in between. If it's just one value, it's flat. So if we fill this finger in, whichever value we use, you might think, okay, I'm going to darken the finger again, but if it's just one value, it will look flat. So to create that roundness, you would need different values, creating the illusion of that roundness. And if you're still having a hard time with values and edges, you can go back to the basics lessons and then go through the lesson about edges and values. It will all help to really understand what you're drawing. This is the edge of the neck. So here it's really light. Let's fill this all in. It's smoother than this. So you see how I, what I said, one layer looks really flat. So this looks flat. This still looks flat. Let's blend this with the soft tissue. And then once we have this first layer, like the mid-tone, then we can start to create the lighter parts, highlights, and the shadows. And then you'll start to make everything look round. So the soft tissue really makes everything smooth. So when you're going to draw the silk, you can also build up layers and use the soft tissue to smoothen. But I think powder with a brush gives you a bit more smoother results. So that's what I'm going to use, the brush and the pan pastel, the 10B. And then we can use the blending stump to blend that. Also keeps it a bit darker. Let's use the bigger stump here with the 10B. Still a lot harder pressure. If you need it darker, use another pencil grade. And you see in between the fingers, it's also quite dark. Blend this again with the stump. Slowly just darken everything. Remember, no details first, the values. Details are the last step. A bit of charcoal there. Okay, let's use the smaller stump. As you see after blending, it gets lighter. We need to darken again. But this helps creating softer and smoother edges. Here we also have some here. Okay, let's blend this again. Look at how harsh it looks. Once we blend, make it look more subtle. Okay, let's use the darker charcoal. And then I want to add another layer here. This is the 4B soft. So it's darker here. Also a bit darker. Oh, I still need to blend that part of the face actually. Just use the stump, clean it to be sure. See that edge here? Not too harsh, but even here, this darker jawline can be even a bit darker. But let's use the other stump for the charcoal. I'm using the charcoal to really darken here, this part of the neck, because where it's all in shadow and where there's hair. Eraser again. Let's create a little highlight around here. Okay, just a few of those lighter layers again. Blend. Let's use the 14 and create those flywears. Or no, actually I want them lighter. So let's use the 6B, because normally I lighten them. So first I want to create those lighter ones, because there are a lot of messy layers here. And then I can also use the darker, because some are lighter, some are darker. With 14 I'm holding the pencil a bit loose, so that you don't get any stiff lines. Just these lines, loose lines. I want to use the HB now and go over the darker. There's some messy flywears here, where it's darker at the beginning, where the hair is more clumped together. Okay, we can always add some more later. Gently blending. I think I'm just going to start with the 4B, blend, 6B, and that's how I'm going to just build up the layers. You can either focus on one finger at a time. Okay, then we have this part, where it starts to bend. And here, so I have three parts with the fingers, here and here. And then here I see a shadow here. Smaller blending stump, but clean first. Yeah, I see how dirty it was, because I used it on the hair. Okay, good. And here at the beginning it's quite lighter, so let's lighten that up. Let's clean again and blend. So I feel like I want to use the soft tissue to smudge, so what I'm going to do is use the 4B and, yeah, add graphite to all of the areas and then smudge. See how that goes? 4B. I'm just going to go around the areas where it's a bit lighter. So the top part is lighter and the lower part is where the shadow is. Okay, again, these are like some first ugly stages that we need to go through. Just keep on going and focus on the values. I feel like this finger turned out too thick. Look at this curve. That's where the shadow needs to be, like this. And then the thumb is also all, yeah, more in shadow. Here you see those wrinkles, and then here's also shadow. Okay, let's go over the edge of this, so that once we do the blending that we don't lose the sketch line. And let's really light go over this edge. In this case the background is darker than the arm. And then here there's a shadow right here. Think of it as if you're looking at just all of these different shapes, instead of thinking about an arm, fingers, how it needs to look. Just focus on the shapes that you see. Okay, we can darken, but let's blend this first. Okay, you see that adding another value, already starting to make it look a bit rounder. Okay, now we need to focus on the darker value, the HB. You see that part in between? Let's use the smaller stump, so that we can be a bit more precise. I'm going to focus on each finger, one by one. Let's use the stump. Okay, and then we have that highlight. So let's see, because we did a lot of smudging, let's see if we can use an eraser and blend the edges of it. And now we have this part, and this is the 4B. I'm just going to use the 4B every time to darken a bit and blend. And then use the needle eraser to line if you need. So that's how I'm going to go one by one, each finger. Fingers are a really strange and challenging thing to draw if you really keep staring at it. So if you feel like you get lost into all of the values and shapes, just step away a bit for a moment and come back with fresh eyes. That can also help. So you see how each finger, you really want to take your time and really focus on each value. Okay, you can squint your eyes, looking at everything, and blend this. Now we can draw some more of that hair with the 10B first, maybe. Don't want it too dark. Okay, I want it darker, so with the HB. Charcoal pencil. And then the hair is a bit blurred out, so we want to also blend that with a smaller blending stump. Okay, so you see how I clean it off every time. Just make it a bit more blurred. Now I want to continue with the back. And if you look at the reference photo and the hand, now you can already see that I still need some darker values at the lower part of the fingers. See that? And the thumb as well. But once we create the back, which is also quite dark in value, because it's in shadow, then we can compare values again and then I can slowly darken. This is a neutral grey, and then this is the neutral grey tint. We're just going to build up the layers. It's the neutral grey shade and a flat brush. And then I want to use this and go around or next to that edge, that shadow edge, and just fill this in. And then with the Palme Pastel, we can also do some blending. I think I'm also going to use it here for the fingers, but then with a smaller flat brush. So I use a flat brush to be more precise, and then the powder brush to do more of the blending and larger areas. Neutral grey, extra dark, using the flat brush. And I'm going to start here at the left, where it's the darkest. And again, you can also use graphite powder. You can use charcoal powder. What makes me like Palme Pastel better is because I have different values and it blends just really well. It combines great with the graphite pencils and the charcoal pencils, but it's a preference what you would like to use. And now look at how light the fingers look. See how we need to darken those? This is what I mean about comparing values. Powder brush, blend this. Okay, let's work on the fingers. So I'm going to focus one by one on each finger and the cast shadow. So you see below each finger, and it's quite dark. Blend over the whole finger so that you create like a more of a blended look and instead of spots on the finger. Just going over the darker shadows and then I'm using the neutral grey shade and then just for the lower part, the extra dark. And with the 10B, I want to define. Look at each fingernail again and like the texture on the knuckles, like some texture lines. And then use the, I'm going to use the smaller, the smallest blending stump to blend that off. Okay. And then just go each finger one by one. Now we can use the neutral grey and focus on the lighter areas first. And then here you see a lighter part, we can gently use the kneaded eraser there to bring back that lighter part. And you want to create a smooth gradient first and then blend with the brush. It could be challenging to try to blend around that. So that's where I use the kneaded eraser. Okay. So with the flat brush, so you see some folds now, but I want to continue with the flat brush and I'm going to actually start with the lighter tint. So just like I do with the graphite, I want to build up the layers so that because you use some areas, you really see like a gradient between the brush. And let's start with the, this is the neutral grey tint. This is the neutral grey, this is the neutral grey extra dark. Those are the different values that I'm going to start with. Okay. Let's use the eraser, bring back those lights. And what you're going to do, if you get those eraser crumbs, you don't want to use the brush now because you could accidentally swipe. What you can do is use the kneaded eraser. Pick up those eraser crumbs and also lighten, blend like the edges in by softening them. You can also use the kneaded eraser for that. And go like this, soften the edges of the eraser marks. I like that. Okay. One darker is the neutral grey. And I'm going a bit over the highlights that I created there, but I don't want to go too dark. Maybe just another layer of the neutral grey here. Okay. Let's define this edge with the HB. See how I'm holding the pencil? Just to really use the tip of the pencil. Okay. And let's use the eraser again, the stick eraser, up until around here. That's where that edge, that bright highlight edge stops. Blend like this. And it's just a bit darker, that edge. So with the shade like that. Just so that we create that beautiful edge there. And here it's also just a bit darker. Just a bit here. Let's use the charcoal here. And here that's just a bit darker, not too much. Just ready with the tip of the pencil. And then here I can use the 2B, much darker. Okay. Let's blend that with that flat brush. I'm blending this also the left side of the edge, so that you create like a roundness. I really like just a fold. So remember these aren't outlines. These are folds. So they are folded over. So that's where you really want to create like that round folded effect. And the only way to create that is by focusing on the value. So I'm not thinking about this as a piece of clothing. I'm just really focusing on which value do I see. Do I see a shadow here? It's really dark. Do I see an edge on the edge here, like a gradient? All of those shadows, values, the highlights are important. So now you can take a picture and focus on the lights and the darks. Let's use the charcoal again. HP. Define this edge again. Okay. So focus on your drawing, the lights and the darks. That's what your steps are now. I'm just going a bit back and forth. Just the edge. I'm going to have to make that highlight stand out more. You can darken the edge next to it just a bit. And blend. Okay. If I look at, if I compare values, if you look at this darker value, you can see that here it's also a bit darker. But every time I darken it, I don't really like it. So I think I'm going to leave it like this. Now this is clothing, so that doesn't really matter. As long as you have the folds correct, smoothness, that glow, like the values in the right areas. It should look like silk, like a beautiful dress. Yeah. Make a picture. Step away. Take a short break. Come back. Fresh eyes. 14B. Because some got a bit lighter. Okay. So I zoomed out. I checked everything and I'm at a stage that I think that I can't, yeah, I don't know what to add or correct. Oh, I think the tape, because I moved the tape, the Pampastel got undirt. But we can clean that. You're the same. So the border isn't that clean. So let's just clean that and look at the, yeah, the table got a bit dirty. You can always see that once you remove the drawing. Okay. So this is just an edge I need to clean. And it really helps if you make a picture. So really trust me on that. If you're not used to making pictures of your drawing and checking the values, try to do that. That really helps. Okay. That's it for today. I hope this showed you that realistic drawings aren't just about details, but about building values layer by layer. If you'd like to follow along in real time, the full length version of this drawing is available inside the membership. Thank you so much for watching. And if you enjoyed this video, don't forget to subscribe and leave a comment below. I'd love to hear what you'd like to see in a future video. See you next time.