The formidable 'Form'

The form is one of the most important aspects of sketching and line drawings. Today we will explore a bit of that.

In the previous newsletter, we leant of shapes and how they can help us draw anything quite literally.

Today, we will learn about giving the shapes some form and it means exactly like what it sounds.

So for example, when we draw a ball, we draw it as a circle, but in reality its form is a sphere.

So how do you draw a sphere? Well, let’s find out.

The answer is simple, by light and shadow. Here is how it can be shown with colours and my favourite, wait for it , the textures!

But how to do it without the fireworks? I mean without the colours? How to do it when all you want to do is sketch in your book with nothing but a pen and chilling under a tree?

Ok, fine, in a bus stop waiting for a bus. Whom am I kidding? May be in the bathroom or chatting on a discord?

Here we go,

Along with the form, we will learn of line weight.

Line weight is basically the thickness of the line which shows where the light hits the object and where the darkness lies.

Lets take an apple to learn how to give it a form with line weights.

Thinner lines give the illusion of the light/brighter areas and the darker lines, the shadows. Notice how drawing just a thicker line on the right makes it feel darker/shadowy.

Next step would be drawing the contour lines.

Imagine you are holding an apple in one hand and with the finger on the other, u draw a line from top to the bottom along the surface of the apple and that’s your contour line.

Now, sketch them on to the apple you drew earlier like shown above. You can also make some of the lines thicker to show darker areas because of shadows.

This will be the base on which we draw upon, like a reference layer.

Reduce the opacity of the lines or use a pencil to draw them if u are going the traditional route.

In this sketch , my light is on the left side and it is casting a shadow on the right side of the apple.

Start drawing broken lines along the form of the apple giving the illusion of a 3 dimensional piece.

Always remember that the side where light is falling should have a lighter and sparse lines may be even dots if you want it to have a brightest spot like above.

Continue the line all around the apple. Longer, darker lines give the illusion of shadow and sparse, lighter lines the light.

Now lets get to ‘Hatching and Cross Hatching’. Hatching is when u draw lines crossing over the contour lines . They are drawn to represent the shadow and darker areas of the object.

Cross Hatching is similarly done to give more depth the object. They represent the darkest areas of the object.

Continue the same concept for the stem.

And you have a full apple with form. Just adding a few lines can define the form of any object and stands out from the rest.

I hope you enjoyed the newsletter and if you made some art, do share them on twitter and tag me @thebinarybrush . I would love to see what you came up with!

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