How to Make a Sketchy Drawing From a Photo
- 1). Place your materials on your desk, with the photograph you want to sketch within easy viewing range and well-lit. You don't want to risk eyestrain.
- 2). Grip the pencil loosely between your thumb and index finger, supporting it with the middle finger.
- 3). Locate the dominant element of the photograph and begin sketching it lightly. The dominant element of the photo is located in the foreground and will likely take up the majority of the image.
- 4). Work inward from the edges of the photo until you have blocked out the photograph as a collection of geometric shapes.
- 5). Fill in the details. Try to not think of objects in the picture as as reflection of reality, but rather as a series of lines and curves. This prevents your brain from tricking you about the appearance of the object because of its own preconceptions of what the image should look like instead of what your eyes register.
- 6). Continue sketching lightly until you finish the photograph down to the last detail. Do not erase any lines you've made.
- 7). Go back over the lines you want to keep as part of the drawing to make them slightly darker, but leave the other lines present.
- 8). Draw with crosshatching -- a series of criss-crossing lines -- as a shading technique. Densely grouped lines indicate darker shading and sparsely grouped lines indicate lighter shading.