Notes taken on 21 June 2024.
Water can take on a many shades, colors, and transparencies. Clear water will show a thin film-like surface and detail for the areas below the surface. Muddy water will only show detail on the surface of the water. Water surrounded by snow will appear "ink black".
Dripping water can appear in five different shapes. It starts out by clinging to the surface it is to drip from, then has the classic teardrop shape. From there it starts to round out into an egg shape, before finishing the rounding process into a sphere. When it strikes the surface, it will flatten out and smaller spheres will spring up into the air from the impact site.
Swirls on the surface of the water suggest that the body of water is deep, while small thin wavy lines suggest shallowness.
"Stippling" is drawing with dots. Stippling is good for suggesting sand, soil and snow. You can also use stippling to suggest rough texture on rocks. Line shading should be used for jagged surfaces. Criss-crossing suggests a smoother look. Combine stippling with line shading to suggest mud.
Crisp highlights suggest a wet or shiny look. A lack of highlights suggests a dry or sunbleached look.
Adding depth to your drawings requires thinking about the scene in the context of depth. Draw the horizon first. Add the next most distant land features until you reach the foreground. Now go back and add any structures, then shade and add detail. It's easier to draw figures last, once the context has been established.
Hills. If there are no trees, they can be shaped with stippling and light line shading. If early spring or late fall when there are few leaves, sketch in the trunks and suggest some branches by adding a few scattered areas of treelines. More distant hills can have their forestry suggested by short vertical strokes. If in the summer, the hill will be shaped by the tree-line (the tree-tops). Nice rounded wavy lines work here.
Mountains should be suggested only by light and shadow.
Plants should be approached from a context-dependent perspective. Think about the roots - how does the plant rise out of the dirt; Think about the stem - is it straight or branched; Think about the leaves - shape, texture, veining, and position on the stem; Think about flowers and seeds and fruit and buds - where are they attached?
Lily pads have long stems that tie them to an anchor on the bottom of the body of water.
Flowers should be drawn according to the context of their bloom. Draw the bud case, then the petals, then the inner seeds.
Trees, especially young ones, grow in a "light-reaching" way, reaching for the skies, bending upwards.
When drawing individual leaves, start with the stem and basic shape. Then add the veins, and add detail as needed.
You can draw trees leaf by leaf, or by suggesting masses of leaves with shading.
Texture can be suggested on bark: short wavy lines to suggest shaggy bark, dark vertical lines to suggest rough bark, and curved horizontal lines to suggest smooth bark.
For animals: Always highlight the shine on eyes, beaks, and noses. Suggest body weight with line weight - lighter lines above, heavier lines below. Shade animals in a way that suggests hair, scales, or feathers. Draw hair the way it grows, beginning on the body and stroking outwards. Suggest feathers or scales by the way they overlap.
The more you emphasize an animals muscles, the shorter its hair will appear.
Wet hair clumps and clings together.
An animals coat grows in patches that overlap. Add a light undercoat and then the heavier outercoat. Short light strokes for the undercoat, long heavier strokes for the outercoat.
Use facial muscles as a guide while you are adding shading.
Always look for the limb structure, even if it is hidden under skin or hair.
Notice how a foot is shaped and how much of it actually touches the ground. The whole hind foot of a rabbit touches the ground, while only the paw of the hind foot of a dog or cat touches the ground. A deer has hoofs which touch the ground.