Thirty Days Of Drawing

The first time I worked through thirty days of drawing, I was learning how to draw again after spending several years away from it. I had difficulty putting my mind into drawing ‘gear,’ but after drawing for thirty days, I had no trouble shifting gears again. Moving into my drawing zone was easy and natural, and that experience taught me some things.

1. Thirty days of practice is just about right for reviving rusty drawing skills or learning them in the first place.
2. Thirty days of drawing establishes a routine that feels natural.

My No-Rule Rules For Thirty Days Of Drawing (For people who hate rules as much as I do.)

• Draw every day for thirty days.
• Any line, angle, smudge, or dot counts.
• If you miss a day, that’s okay. And you don’t have to make it up. (But you can if you want to.)
• Use a single sketchbook for all the drawings. Or don’t.
• If these rules are too strict, toss ’em out. (But do try to draw regularly for thirty days.)

Supplies

My Odd Stick-It-To-Your-Sketchbook Method For Thirty Days Of Drawing Success

Illustrations Below

It’s surprisingly challenging to draw every day for a month, so I invented this quirky but convenient way to draw small objects.

• Collect small interesting objects and keep them in a bowl by your favorite chair — and if you have cats, ferrets, or nosy dogs, put a lid on it.
• Put a tall light near the chair. A reading lamp will work. (Read about simple lighting here.)
• Keep a sketchbook, pencils, and erasers there too.
• When you sit down to watch TV (that’s what I do in my favorite chair), pick something out of the bowl and stick it to the drawing paper with a tiny piece of kneaded (putty) eraser.
• Make a drawing of the object on the paper right beside it.

What To Tell People When They Ask Why You’ve Got Something Stuck to Your Sketchbook

• Tell them it’s handy to stick things to your sketchbook because:
  • You can take breaks and return to the same placement, or even wait to finish your drawing the next day.
  • If you’re drawing something round, it won’t roll away.

• Tell them this setup is a great way to draw from life because you can:
  •  Draw at a one-to-one ratio.
  • Reach over to take measurements easily.
  • Quickly compare the drawing to the object as you work, which is the key to drawing realistically from life.

• Or, say you’re an artist and are not allowed to tell. Say this while gazing at the air over their right shoulder with a far-away look in your eyes.

Here’s How I Drew A Hazelnut Anchored To The Paper With A Sticky Kneaded Eraser

If you use the kneaded eraser idea and take a break, you have to be sure to adjust the angle of the paper pad so that the shadows look the same when you come back.

Line Drawing

I arranged my light until the hazelnut cast a small shadow. (I draw that in step three.)

Using an HB pencil, I made the drawing the same size as the nut. I took height and width measurements from the nut and transferred them to the drawing on the paper beside it.

This image is enlarged quite a bit so you can see it better.

A few pointers:

• To measure with a pencil, hold it over the object and use your thumb to mark the distance from the tip, then transfer that measurement to the paper.
• You have to make lines wrong before making them right, so make some and then correct them. Do that over and over again, without erasing, until the outline looks right.
• Compare the object to your drawing by looking quickly back and forth between them as you draw.

Erased Extra Lines And Added First Hatching

I erased the “wrong” lines and lightened the outline by tapping it lightly with a kneaded eraser.

Then, I hatched the nut to what I thought was a good average value between the darkest shadow and the lightest highlight.

And then I took a break.

About Hatching
Learn how to make this kind of hatching or shading.
About Mid-Values
I used a mid-range hatch to begin the shading of this nut. You can read more about how to do that here:
Shading from a Mid-Value – Draw a Pine Cone

Added Darkest Values

After returning from my break, I made sure the nut cast the same shadow so that I’d be drawing it from the same angle.

Then I added dark value with the softer 2B pencil. I outlined the dark detail line around the shape at the top of the nut, hatched in the value patterns I saw on the rest of the nut, and added the cast shadow.

The cast shadow was the darkest value, so I made sure any value on the nut was lighter than that.

Notice that I’m not too concerned about details yet. I just added the line around the top of the nut and refined the edge shape of the nut a little.

This step was all about comparison and adjustment. As I worked, my eyes constantly compared my hatched values and shapes to the actual nut.

I added a lot of dark hatching in this step, so that means I was too timid with the first mid-range hatch. (oops!) If the hatching had been darker, it would have saved some time in this step.

Erased The Highlights

Erasers aren’t as exact as pencil tips, so I shaped my kneaded eraser into points and wedges to dab and rub out the light areas.

There were two types of light-valued shapes I paid attention to:

1. The body highlights run over the entire nut, lightening and darkening as they move over the hills and valleys of the surface.
2. The smaller detail shapes at the top and bottom of the nut.

This is a very dark nut, and I realized I’d got carried away and erased too much. (oops again!) That’s fixed in the next step.

Corrections and Final Details

I used the 2H pencil to go back over and slightly darken and reshape the edges of the details.

Details look the most real when their shadows are drawn right, so I kept the direction of the light in mind as I observed and drew the shadowed edges of the details.

Comparison Again
This last step was very much about comparison again. My eyes were on the nut as much as they were on the drawing, flicking back and forth, so I could superimpose one over the other for a fraction of a second to compare them.

Here are two more tutorials that were drawn at a one to one ratio with the object stuck to my paper.
Shiny Ornament
Shell

A basic drawing kit for beginners:
If you don’t have all your drawing supplies yet, these would make a good starter tool set.

I’m a Dick Blick affiliate and I get a small commission when you buy from my supply links with no extra cost to you. If you do that, thanks! In any case, do try these brands. They’re inexpensive, good, and will save you time and headaches.

Pencils
Derwent Graphic 2B
Derwent Graphic HB
Derwent Graphic 2H
(If one is out of stock, get the next softer grade.)
Paper
Canson Classic Cream Drawing Pad
Erasers
Helix Automatic Cordless Eraser
Faber-Castell Kneaded Eraser
Alvin Vinyl Eraser
Sharpener
Kum Long Point Pencil Sharpener