Drawing Tip #4: The Sketch

The sketch is the foudation of your drawing. A bad sketch will lead to a poor finished product. Aside from accuracy, there are a few things to keep in mind when making a sketch:

• Use very light pressure. Any indentations on the paper will show up as white marks if you put any charcoal or graphite over them (this is why, of course, the indentation technique works when making whiskers or white hairs).
• Use the fewest lines that you need. Outline the big shapes, color changes, shadow areas, and highlights. You don't need to locate every clump of fur. Also have only one line for each purpose. Don't scribble and don't make several passes. Your lines should be efficient and accurate.
• Use scratch paper to work out the proportions first, if needed. You can be messy on this one, and then transfer only what you need to the good paper.
  

I will comment about setting up a sketch with reference photos in a future post.