MOST IMPORTANT TIP for REALISTIC DRAWINGS Video Lecture - Complete Drawing

a lot of people seem to think then order
to create amazing realistic drawings you
need loads and loads of art supplies and
really expensive materials but in this
video I want to show you a realistic
portrait that I did with only two color
pencils a black pencil and a white
pencil also I want to give you one of
the most important tips that I think
that I can give you guys for drone
realistically just before I start I want
to let you guys know that if you want to
learn even more about drawing portraits
in cut pencil then I have got a whole
course dedicated to all of my tips and
techniques for drawing super realistic
portraits in color pencil I will leave a
link at the top of the description and
you can get it from there and watch the
whole course trailer as well to see
exactly what is included in the course
but anyway guys let's get on with
today's video for this drawing I am
drawing Michonne from The Walking Dead
and as I said I am only using two
pencils for this I am using the Karen -
luminance white and black color pencil
and I'm using toned paper for this
drawing all of the materials that I'm
using will also be listed down below in
the description if you want to check
them out as well and so this was a
tutorial series for patreon that I
wanted to do and I really just wanted to
use this drawing to demonstrate one key
thing that I think is so important for
realistic drawings and the thing that I
think people will neglect the most I
feel like a lot of people focus on
picking the perfect colors for a drawing
and making sure the sketch outline is
really good and all of these other
things like the techniques for applying
the pencils and those things are all
really important but one thing I feel
that people neglect a lot is the actual
contrast and the values I feel like
people don't focus on the depth in their
shadows and their highlights and gain
that contrast in a drawing and so I
thought it would be really good to
demonstrate this practice and this point
with this drawing because only is in a
black and white pencil means that you've
really got to focus on your values and I
really want to show that just by going
really dark with the black pencil and
the areas that you need to and get in
the shadows rights and just by focusing
on getting the brightest areas by
getting those highlights in you can see
that this drawing will
it's so much and I'm not focusing on
picking loads of different colors for it
and getting the hues of like skin tones
perfect I'm using the paper to actually
help get in those mid-tones and add some
color in there and I'm not focusing a
massive amount of time on the actual
detail there's not going to be much
detail to this piece and so I'm heavily
relying on the contrast and I do think
people neglect shadows and highlights
and it is something that I'd go on in
most of my videos and you're probably
sick of me talking about it about saying
how important it is for the shadows to
go dark enough and the highlights to go
bright enough but I keep saying it so
much because it is so important and I do
feel there even if people are told lots
of times how important it is it doesn't
really sink in too much and they're too
focused on all of these other things but
what it does is when you have your
shadows dark enough and your highlights
bright enough and all of your values in
the right place when you look at your
drawing from a distance it really does
pop and stand out a lot of people
especially when I critique people's
artwork I find that a common mistake
that a lot of people make is they stick
within that mid sort of range of values
and they don't go to extremes and I feel
like a lot of people worry about going
too dark with their pencils because it's
scary you don't want to go too dark and
make a mistake and not be able to
reverse that but it's so important and I
think you should I should just
experiment with it go as dark as you
need to use your reference image and lay
down your color and see just how dark
you need to go and how much pressure you
need to apply on your black pencil for
example in order to match the color on
the reference image and maybe create
like a value chart you can do it with
graphite pencils colored pencils it
works with whatever medium you are using
so make a value chart and use that to
compare say for example your graphite
pencils your different grades of
graphite pencils with your reference
image and see which best one matches and
I bet you it's probably dark then you
think it will be and so the reason that
I'm using toned paper for this drawing
is because I've already got the mid-tone
values there and so you are forced to
have to use your dark values and your
light values in order to make this
pop and scooped in that face and the
actual drawing you won't be able to just
resort to using mid-tone values like you
would do if you're using white paper
more detail for example doesn't mean
more realism and having the perfect
colors doesn't meet your drawing
realistic
what makes your drawing realistic is
that the tones and the values and the
contrast there which really makes it pop
and so I really recommend practicing
this technique and investing as much
time watching videos and tutorials on
picking the perfect values as you do on
picking colors and creating sketch
outlines and all of that other stuff
because it is such an important and
vital skill so really just practice a
few sketches with your black and white
pencil and toned paper if you guys would
like to follow along with me in real
time as I actually drew this with
voiceover then you can find that on my
patreon along with loads of other
tutorials for color pencil graphite and
all of that other good stuff anyway guys
that is it for this video I really hope
you enjoyed it and found that tip useful
if you did make sure to give a thumbs up
and subscribe if you're new around here
but I'll see you guys in the next video
bye everybody