How to Draw Light & Shadow Course is Live!

light and shade banner

I’ve just finished creating a new drawing course that follows on from the Absolute Beginners Drawing Course.

In ‘How to Draw Light & Shadow for Beginners’ we look at new materials, techniques and work on some figurative drawings. A lot of students come to me who already have basic understanding of drawing and confidence with pencils but feel there is a gap in their knowledge when using different drawing mediums.

This course has been designed to help bridge the gap between graphite pencil drawings to charcoal, chalk and pens and subtlety introduce colour.

Are you stuck in a ‘pencil loop’ ?

Wanting to experiment with new mediums such as charcoal & chalk but unsure of where to start?

Moving onto a new medium with drawing can be a challenge, especially if you’re using the wrong materials.

I was trying to draw with charcoal for years and kept on ‘missing’ the vital ingredient. I thought it was my technique, my paper choice.

My problem?

I was using the wrong charcoal…

You wouldn’t think it would make much difference, a burnt stick! But choosing the right materials for the effects you’re trying to achieve – can be vital.
How can Charcoal improve your pencil drawings?

The secret to successful ‘Sfumato’ is easy with charcoal.

But it has to be the right charcoal.

So what is Sfumato?

A smoking of edges that can transform a flat, two-dimensional sketch into a lively three-dimensional drawing.

To create drawing studies that look three-dimensional you need to understand how to arrange your compositions to ‘draw themselves’ before we even start.

charcoal drawing
Think ‘Lights off’

Form is developed by light and shade, without these two everything appears flat.

The problem is, most of our drawing environments at home have far too many lights on at once, too many light sources & too many different colours of light.

It can be almost impossible to create form under these conditions, your drawings end up looking flat, childlike, as if they’ve been outlined.

It’s not your fault.

It’s your lighting.

Would you like to know a simple way to instantly improve your drawing?

It’s easy. Step 1.

Turn off the lights.

I’m serious.

Turn off the lights until you’ve got a dark room.

Then introduce one single table lamp. Voila, instant Rembrandt.

Drawing in the dark (o.k semi-dark) can be very enlightening!

A simple approach to three-dimensional drawing

how to draw portriat with chalk

This course shows you how to observe and draw light and shade. Beginning with the basics of drawing simple three-dimensional shapes and then moving onto shadows and cast shadows.

It will develop your observation skills and you’ll discover new materials and techniques, giving you valuable insights to effective drawing and sketching.

This course shows you, if you can draw simple geometric forms you can quickly and easily move on to figurative, portraiture, and animals. (With step-by-step video demos of all 3 in the lessons)

Giving you confidence of knowing ‘what to look for’ and then ‘how to draw it’.

A 3 step learning process

This course has been carefully designed to be simple, structured and easy to actually get drawing – not just information overload!

Each teaching layer is one on top of the other, so that you learn and move on – understanding both the context and art history of the technique. You can then implement what you’ve learnt in the practical demonstrations.

When you look back at your drawings you can see for yourself what you’ve got right, and if there are things that are slightly ‘out’ you know how to fix it.

Structure helps you learn progressively – your individual personal style and expression turns you into an artist.

1. The Theory

2. The History

3. The Practical

Simple explanations that give you an insight to the hidden techniques of the Old Masters and a context to base your drawings within. Looking at comparisons with painting (and how the Mona Lisa can help your drawings) to create strong, professional looking drawings.

If you want to learn more about the contents of the course click here

how to draw shading

 

This Post Has 8 Comments

  1. Nancy

    Awesome! Can’t wait to expand on the drawing class lessons – thanks Will! Hands down the most user friendly drawing and painting classes on the Internet!

    1. Will Kemp

      Hi Nancy, thanks for your kind words, really hope you enjoy the course.
      Will

  2. John carroll

    Ta Will, this sounds and looks really good. The back yard studio is built and I am DIY the internal cladding and painting the exterior.The art paints etc have been in storage for about 8 weeks so I have been drawing and using pastels whilst waiting. So perfect timing. I am really starting to appreciate what having solid drawing or should I say, continuing to developing solid drawing skills means to painting. The art history aspects I am also looking forward to.

    Cheers

    1. Will Kemp

      Great to hear the studios coming on well John, hope you enjoy the lessons, they could be easily adapted to pastels aswell.
      Cheers,
      Will

  3. Rene

    I’ve bought it.
    I’ve watched it.
    I’ve learned a lot.
    Thanks for this really helpful course.

    1. Will Kemp

      Great to hear it Rene!
      Cheers,
      Will

  4. joseph

    I have been trying to get back to drawing and painting portrait for sometime now,since I started following ur teachings I can go back now.thank you .

    1. Will Kemp

      Great to hear it Joseph, so pleased you’ve been finding the lessons helpful.
      Cheers,
      Will

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