Light & Shadow Drawing Course

How can charcoal improve your pencil drawings?

You wouldn’t think it would make much difference, a burnt stick! But choosing the right materials for the effects you’re trying to achieve – can be vital.

The secret to successful ‘Sfumato’ is easy with charcoal.

But it has to be the right charcoal.

So what is Sfumato?

A smoking of edges that can transform a flat, two-dimensional sketch into a lively three-dimensional drawing. To create drawing studies that look three-dimensional you need to understand how to arrange your compositions to ‘draw themselves’ before we even start.

Think ‘Lights off’

A form is developed by light and shade, without these two everything appears flat.

The problem is, most of our drawing environments at home have far too many lights on at once.

With too many light sources & too many different colours of light, it can be almost impossible to create form under these conditions, your drawings end up looking flat, childlike as if they’ve been outlined.

It’s not your fault.

It’s your lighting.

Would you like to know a simple way to instantly improve your drawing?

It’s easy.

Step 1. Turn off the lights.

I’m serious.

Turn off the lights until you’ve got a dark room.

Then introduce one single table lamp. Voila, instant Rembrandt.

Drawing in the dark (ok semi-dark) can be very enlightening!

A simple approach to three-dimensional drawing

This course shows you how to observe and draw light and shade. Beginning with the basics of drawing simple three-dimensional shapes and then moving onto shadows and cast shadows.

It will develop your observation skills and you’ll discover new materials and techniques, giving you valuable insights into effective drawing and sketching.

If you can draw simple geometric forms you can quickly and easily move on to figurative, portraiture, and animals. (With step-by-step video demos of all 3 in the lessons)

Giving you the confidence of knowing ‘what to look for’ and then ‘how to draw it’.

A 3 step learning process

This course has been carefully designed to be simple, structured and easy to actually get drawing – not just information overload!

Structure helps you learn progressively – your individual personal style and expression turn you into an artist.

1. The Theory
2. The History
3. The Practical

Simple explanations that give you an insight into the hidden techniques of the Old Masters and a context to base your drawings within. Looking at comparisons with painting (and how the Mona Lisa can help your drawings) to create strong, professional looking drawings.

If there is one ‘secret’ I want you to come away with from the course, it’s the power of edges.

Learning to see lost and found edges and where you can blend out – or sharpen up, will give an instant change to the quality of your work (not just in your drawings but also your paintings!)

“The first things to study are form and values. For me, these are the things that are the basics of what is serious in art.”

Jean Baptiste Corot, Artist

What’s in the Course?

• 9 follow-along drawing demonstrations.
• 7-downloadable video lessons, split into separate chapters that follow on sequentially.
• Practical step-by-step instructional videos so that you can follow along at your own pace.
• ‘Done for you’ reference images to break through overwhelm and get drawing, faster.
• Downloadable jpeg reference images and a full materials list.
• Over 2 hours of detailed video instruction.
• Lifetime access, downloadable on separate devices.