Part 2: Theory

We can think of drawing as a language.  In this course, we will use that language to describe what we see.  However, the goal is not to copy what we see.  That would be impossible, since we do not see in images that can be copied.  Instead, drawing is more like describing our experience of seeing with marks on a page, the way a writer describes an experience using words.  Like a writer, you choose what aspects of your experience to include and what to leave out.

The vocabulary of drawing consists of the visual elements.  These are the basic categories that describe the marks, or the absence of marks, that an artist can make in an image.  The visual elements are Line, Shape, Value, Proportion, and Color.

Line

A line can be a physical mark or a visual path that guides the eye.  It may be created by a tool moving across a surface, by the edge between shapes, or implied by a sequence of aligned elements, such as a dotted line.  The value of a line can help to depict light and shadow.  Lines also create shapes when they enclose space.

Shape

A shape is a two-dimensional area unified by color, value, or an outline.  Shapes may be geometric, like circles or squares, or organic, with irregular curves and edges.  Lines and shapes are closely connected: lines can enclose space to form shapes, and shapes can create lines at their edges.  In everyday language, “shape” often refers to three-dimensional forms, such as calling a book “box-shaped.”  In art, however, “shape” specifically means flat, two-dimensional elements, while “form” describes three-dimensional volume.

Value

Value refers to the range of light and dark within an image, from the deepest black a medium can produce to the brightest highlight or blank page.  Every mark falls somewhere in this range, lighter than some areas and darker than others.  Value communicates brightness and darkness as we perceive them, with lighter values representing illuminated surfaces and darker values representing shadow.  Value is present in all lines, shapes, and colors, and differences in value are necessary for any element to be visible at all.

Proportion

Proportion describes the relative sizes and distances within an image.  For example, the height of a rectangle compared to its width defines its proportions.  Every mark in an artwork creates proportion automatically, as it has its own dimensions and its own spatial relationships to the borders of the image and to other elements within it.

Color

 Color is our perception of light wavelengths reflected from surfaces.  It has three properties: hue (the type of color, such as red or green), chroma (the intensity or purity of the color), and value (its lightness or darkness).  Value is considered both part of color and its own visual element, since it can exist independently in black-and-white or grayscale images, while color cannot exist without value.  Unlike the other elements, an image can be created entirely without color.  This course will not cover color in detail.

Drawing What You See

Understanding our visual experience can help us describe it more effectively in a drawing.  It might seem like our eyes work like small cameras mounted in our heads, sending a live video feed to our brain.  However, our visual experience is actually a three-dimensional mental model of our surroundings created by our brain, based on the light our eyes take in.  This mental model includes the objects and surfaces around us, along with their positions in space from our point of view.  We recognize these objects by their forms, which is why we can still recognize them even when they look different when viewed from different angles.  Because we see through light reaching our eyes, the brightness and darkness of a surface also tells us about its form and position in space.

When we draw, we are describing visual experience.  If we can accurately describe our object’s forms, surfaces, and how those forms are positioned in space, then our drawing will look like the object.  In other words, it will capture the experience of seeing it.

For example, in this drawing:

Now let’s look at how surface, form, position, and light can be described using the visual elements: line, shape, value, and proportion.  These are general approaches, and there are nearly infinite ways to represent these concepts in a drawing.

Surfaces and Form

We recognize forms by their visible surfaces.  So, any technique that describes a surface can also describe form.

• Lines can describe surfaces by following their contours.  These might be outer edges, like an outline, or cross-contours that describe the surface inside the silhouette.
• Shapes can describe the different planes of a surface, such as the faces of a cube.
• Value can describe how light interacts with a surface.  On rounded surfaces, light shifts gradually, creating smooth gradients.  On sharp edges, like corners, light changes abruptly, resulting in more abrupt value shifts.

Position

We understand the position of forms in space by how they appear in our visual field.  To show this in a drawing, we place elements at the same relative distances that we see.  If these distances are incorrect, the proportions of the subject can look distorted.

We study these distances using visual measurement techniques.  You can do this with a stick, pencil, or brush.  Close one eye, line up the tip of the stick with one end of a distance you want to measure on the subject, and mark the other end of that distance on your stick with your finger.  You can then compare that length to other distances in your subject.  We can compare similar distances in our drawing to keep proportions accurate.

Another visual measurement technique is using horizontals and verticals.  By holding a stick or pencil straight horizontally or vertically with one eye closed, you can observe how features align and where those horizontals and verticals cross the subject.  Using similar horizontals and verticals in your drawing lets you check the alignment of features and place them more accurately relative to one another.

Light

Value communicates the lightness and darkness of the surfaces we see.  Because we perceive the brightness of surfaces in relation to their surroundings instead of objectively, it is more useful to think in terms of value relationships.  Instead of trying to match the exact brightness of a surface, we observe its relationship to the brightness of its surroundings and the darkest and lightest areas of the subject to place it within the overall range of brightness.  We then communicate this brightness by using values with similar relationships in the value range of our medium.

Why Photos Are Not Good For Learning To Draw

When we draw from life, we translate our visual experience into the elements of a drawing, such as representing form with lines and light with values.  Drawing from a photo, however, is different.  Instead of translating what we see, we are simply copying an image from one medium into another.  We represent the visual elements of the photo with the visual elements of the drawing. 

When drawing from life, we must decide which parts of our experience to describe and how to represent them.  When drawing from a photograph we can skip this step.  It is easy to copy the lines, shapes, and values without thinking about the forms, position, or light that created them.  This does not mean you should never draw from photos.  It is possible to reinterpret a photo in the same way we would when working from life, but it is much harder if you have not first practiced drawing directly from observation.

There is a trap that artists can fall into by only learning to draw from photographs.  They can become skilled at copying the visual elements of the photo into a drawing, and develop control of their medium.  Their drawings may look impressive, but they have not developed the ability to translate what they see or imagine into a drawing.  Without practicing the translation of three-dimensional form, position, and light, they remain dependent on photos, unable to create without having the work already flattened and translated for them.  Because of this, their skill does not transfer to drawing from life or imagination.

Drawing From Imagination

Although this course does not focus on drawing from imagination (my free how to draw book covers that), the skills you gain from drawing from life carry over directly.  When drawing from imagination, we translate ideas into visual elements.  If we can express our ideas in terms of forms, their positions, and the light that strikes them, we can describe them with the same techniques we use when drawing from life.

For example, to draw this dinosaur, I can express the ideas that make up the dinosaur in terms of forms and the positions of those forms.

Of course, there is more to expressing ideas in terms of forms, proportion, and light than is covered here in this course, but the skills developed in this course are an important part of the process.