When starting out, you don’t need specialty art supplies. Any pen, pencil, or paper on hand will do.
The shorter you make your line strokes, the steadier your drawing will appear. Don’t critique your work. Move fast and hone your stroke.
This can be practiced by doing a shading bar. Start at one end of the paper. Move your pencil back and forth as you move across the paper. Apply more pressure to transition to darker marks. Value bars are also good practice. Divide a rectangle into five sections. Leave one end white. Darken the other end as much as you can. Layer your lines in the squares in between to make different shades of gray.
Spend time observing subjects, figuring out how you can fit them into your forms.
Refer back to these sketches to improve your other drawings.
Simplifications are okay and can lead to your own style. For example, it would be too time-consuming to memorize every muscle in a body.
Anatomy books are also an option for learning realistic drawings. Sketch skeletons and muscular diagrams.
For pencils, HB (#2) is standard. Pencils in the H range are harder and make softer lines. Pencils in the B range are softer and make darker lines. Pencils go from HB-9. In H pencils, 9 is maximum hardness. In B pencils, 9 is maximum softness. Vinyl and gum erasers are gentler on paper than rubber erasers but they don’t streak color. Kneaded erasers are shapeable for removing individual details.
The goal is to see the details instead of the labels. Instead of thinking of the eye, think of the lines and colors you’ll fill in to form the eye. [8] X Expert Source Kelly MedfordProfessional Artist Expert Interview. 10 March 2021
