#8 - Thomas
Some more teaching material (feel free to remove this caption if you’re just here for the picture).
If you’re serious about learning sketching and realism, try to add this intermediary step after drawing the outlines.
Before shading, divide everything into two tones: white for places the light hits, grey for places it doesn’t hit. Forget the nuances for now. Just think about the binary: either the area is in shadow or it isn’t.
Of course, shadows in the reference won’t be as clear cut. Where the shadow line is ambiguous, you’ll have to make a decision where the line should be drawn. Think about the angle of the light source, the shape of what you’re drawing, and how theoretically the shadow should fall.
By doing this, you’re forcing yourself to understand the structure of what you’re drawing, rather than just copying what you see. It’s one thing to just mechanically replicate how dark the tones should be, it’s another thing to actually understand why they are that way.
Drawing with understanding allows you the freedom to make educated guesses, to make little changes/enhancements, and to draw with “feeling”. The result is often a lot more natural and convincing than a drawing that’s been copied without the same understanding.
They're whispering his name through this disappearing land