However, I wanted to show you that you can achieve a very passable impression of your subject in a very short time. I could have added a lot more detail and even worked a bit slower to get a more refined image. You might see various parts of the bird differently. You don’t have to use the same shapes that I’ve used.
Now lightly sketch in several basic shapes to create the rough outline of the flamingo.
Using a piece of tracing paper (or if you haven’t got tracing paper, greaseproof/baking paper will work just as well) tape it down lightly over your photo to keep it in place. Now print a copy of my reference photo at the size you want - black and white will be fine. The confidence this gives you now to move in and add the more realistic shapes and details cannot be overstated. More importantly, the proportions are correct, ie: the legs look long and spindly enough, that neck is the right length and the body is neither too big or small. Without even picking up the pencil, you can see already that the outline looks pretty good and very much like a flamingo, even though it’s just triangles, ovals and oblongs. Here, I’ve deleted the photo and we’re left with the basic shapes. It’s a classic pose, with the bird in shallow water, ready to use that huge beak to dig out morsels from the silt for his lunch. Here’s the main reference photo of a lovely pink flamingo on a bright, sunny day. Ok, I couldn’t take a photo of a flamingo into the meeting with me, but by then, I was able to keep images in my head which I used to re-create from memory.
Very simple drawing free#
This was long before Art Tutor was born but the reverse of those agenda papers provided an endless source of free drawing surfaces. In a previous life, I developed a fair amount of drawing skills attending many a boring meeting, waiting for my items to be discussed. The only area that we then have to deal with is getting the relative proportions correct of each part of the body. I’ve chosen this because as you’ll see, it’s made up of just those few shapes that can be easily reproduced.
Very simple drawing how to#
In this short lesson, we’re going to look how to draw a flamingo, a wondrous mix of elegant body, spindly legs, the oddest-shaped beak and never-ending neck. In fact, if you think that the oval and oblong are just a stretched circle and square respectively, you've actually only three shapes to think about. In fact, you'd probably instinctively simplify even further in your head, remembering 4,6,3,5 & 8 and then just add the hundreds to each one as you quoted them.Īnd that's really all we're going to do here, except we use a pencil and simplify a complex figure to just five basic geometric shapes - the triangle, oval, oblong, circle and square. However, if I rounded them up or down to the nearest 100, you'd find things a lot easier to recall. If I gave you the following list of numbers to look at for five seconds then look away for 30 seconds and then repeat them aloud, you'd probably struggle. The solution can be pretty straightforward and that, as with many things art, is to simplify. Very quickly, the item they’re drawing appears all misshapen and wrong and frustration sets in.įear not. One of the difficulties for anyone learning to draw is that the brain tries to take in all the information and detail it sees in their subject and then in attempting to transfer it to paper all in one go, shapes and proportions become jumbled up and distorted.
However, it’s one of those skills that benefit from periodically re-visiting, as a reminder to those who still struggle and as an aid to those who are just setting out.Įven experienced artists will tell you that regularly doing some little basic doodles like this refreshes their brain and helps them from over-complicating pictures. It’s based upon using a few very simple geometric shapes to construct animals, though the technique can be used for human figures, landscape objects, buildings, vehicles - in fact virtually anything. Many of you may recognise this process if you bought my Watercolour Secrets DVDs in the past, or viewed the lessons more recently on Art Tutor.