How to and what to ‘see’ in an object that you want to sketch with pencil?

Passionate about sketching, but don’t know how to observe the minute details about an object, or even how to choose an object for sketching is a big deal? NO PROBLEM!

Even I used to encounter this problem, when I was new to sketching. And so, today’s post is focused and meant to solve this.

Day before yesterday, it rained heavily and the weather was pleasant. All the plants and trees looked so green, as if they got a new life! It was a soothing view in my backyard, which forced me to click some pictures of the serene beauty of nature.

I’ll now use those pictures to show you people step-by-step, that what and how we have to observe in our ‘subject’ to sketch like a ‘pro’.

How to and what to ‘see’ in an object that you want to sketch with pencil (or even any other medium)?

The first picture is of a plant (idk, what it is called...lol).

A plant in my backyard

Try to observe it for a few minutes. What do you see? Okay, let’s discuss.

1.   Firstly, what I saw in the picture, were the super-shiny leaves, and immediately I interrupted that I’ll have to use a ‘Kneaded Rubber' for highlighting this part of the leaves.

2.   Next, I observed the end part of the leaves, which is also the dried part of most of the leaves, so now; I think that while sketching this with pencil, I’ll have to use two different tones for the same leaf.

3.   Further, I can also see a white flower on the top left corner. Looks interesting, right?

4.   The inner part of the plant is completely black, so I will use 6B pencil for that part.

5.   The yellow leaves in the background give another shade to the picture, and hence, my pencil sketch too!

Trees after the rain: color tone contrast

The second picture is to study the color contrast between the flower and the leaves. Also, I clicked the picture from the angle, where it feels like; one plant is ‘overlapping’ the other.

1.   For the creeper in the front (one with the pink flowers), various tones have to be used. There is a notable contrast between the colors of the flowers and the leaves in the picture.

2.  At the left hand side (bottom of the picture), a very ‘beautiful’ and fine shading in ‘that’ particular stem of the creeper, will do the work!

3.  Finally, in the background, the background, we have a pomegranate tree, whose leaves are presently, the best mode to study, observe and then sketch ALL the shades of green color.

The bark of a tree

Now, the only reason to click THIS picture is that, I really admired the beauty of the bark of the tree. It is always fun sketching out things like these, isn’t it?

Hope you creative design guys like it! Thanks for reading! :)

Follow the blog on all social sites: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram- @ilovesketchart to get latest updates!

Videos you may like

Good Reads:
Stuff You Look: Sketching Practice- Perception

Medium