Drawing #1: Highland Park
Not all parks have to be filled with trees or flowers or bushes, some parks like Highland Park can have a lovely fountain which compliments the bushes and trees surrounding the fountain. For this drawing, the traffic lights in the background can be ignored/ not included in the drawing, since it kind of takes away from the natural scenery of the fountain and trees.
For this drawing, you will need a graphite pencil, an eraser, and a sharpener if your pencil is not mechanical.
Estimated drawing time: 45 minutes - 1 hour
For this drawing, you will need a graphite pencil, an eraser, and a sharpener if your pencil is not mechanical.
Estimated drawing time: 45 minutes - 1 hour
Now, we will draw in the "skeletons" for the potted plants. The shape doesn't matter, since we will later be erasing the skeleton, thus I choose a circle to make as the skeleton. I recommend you also use a circle, but feel free to use any shape!
Don't forget to make the furthest right plant a bit smaller than the other two, since its further away from the camera/ other two plants. |
To finish off the skeleton of the fountain, we will draw a rectangle as seen in the photo, then another layer like the one previously drawn, just smaller (both shorter and a little skinnier). Repeat the same steps to draw the final layer/ the top of the fountain, and now the skeleton of the fountain is complete.
To make sure that the top half of the fountain is drawn correctly, check the spacing of the potted plant with the top half of the skeleton, and make sure it's similar to what is seen in the photo. Remember to go back and make any corrections if needed. |
Now, we will add some detail to these boxes. However, we first need to understand the perspective of these boxes/ this layer of the fountain. Notice how I have the arrows pointed out. This is the direction these boxes are facing in real life. This will help you understand how to draw the details in the next step.
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Make sure that the sides of all 3 boxes in this layer are similar in width to those shown in the photo to the left; the leftmost box is equal on both sides, the middle box's left side is slightly longer than the right side, and the rightmost box's left side is significantly bigger than the right side.
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Now, we will add patterns to the trees. We will be using the same pattern for all three trees. I decided to add two kinds of patterns to the trees, but feel free to add whatever patterns you'd like!
The first pattern I drew are the simple waves, seen on all three trees. Then, I added on squiggles. As previously mentioned, feel free to look at the Drawing Techniques tab if you can't figure out how to draw these squiggles. |
Now, we will bring our attention back to the bottom layer of this fountain. I move around the fountain instead of only focusing on one part for a long time, as we should always be aware of the outline of the whole fountain. If we become too focused on one location, it can make different parts of the fountain look too different, and the whole fountain can begin to look wonky.
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Add another shape to this layer, drawing in a smaller square in the box in between the boxes with circles. This box will also be slightly squished, since that part of the fountain is slightly facing right. Make sure to use the feint "plus" in the middle of the box to help with angling, and make sure there's slightly more square in the left side of this plus than in the right (as seen in the photo).
Although not imaged, repeat this box drawing with the other "square box" on the left side of the image, although you do not have to consider the point of view for the left box like you did for the right. |
Repeat these lines in the other two boxes with circles, accounting for the box on the left facing left, and the box on the right facing right. So for the box on the left, there is more "empty space" for the line drawn on the right than the left (as seen in the photo). This is difficult to explain, so pay more attention to the photo than the words in this step.
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Now add some detail below this layer, drawing a short line below each circle, with the left and right line angling out into the layer below this layer (as seen in the sketch to the left). Draw the thin, sideways "C's" below each circle, and account for perspective and direction. Again, this is a step where looking at the sketch is more important/ makes more sense than reading the directions.
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Now we can move onto shading. For this drawing I used a straight line shading technique, and if you're not sure how to shade with this technique, feel free to check the Drawing Techniques tab. Shade around the bottom of the fountain, around the center of the fountain, on the right side of the potted plants, and on the right side of the trees. After this step, you are done with your drawing, but why not take it further with some coloring (if you want to).
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Everything else in the drawing just needs a simple color in, as seen in the drawing example. Color most of the fountain gray with the exception of the sky blue in the middle layer, the blue-green colored plants, the dark green flowers, and the dirt on the bottom. Don't forget about the background grass and bush, and you're now complete!
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Within the lines, proceed to draw smaller squares. Keep in mind that although this middle layer of the fountain is a repeating pattern, we will have to incorporate dimension and perspective. This means that the box on the left will have a different dimension and be drawn slightly differently than the box on the right. This can be seen in the drawing, as the space between the small boxes and the lines are not the same for the two boxes.
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After fixing the circles, I drew a straight faint line across this layer to make sure my circles were lines up. I reccomend using a ruler or another straight edge to do this part. Luckily my circles were already lined up, but if yours aren't, go back and erase and make sure those circles are aligned.
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Now, I moved up a layer, and we will start off by adding a thin layer to the top of this layer. This layer also has a strong 3D effect, with each "box" area kind of coming out in a curved form. Drawing the layer on top will help with this curved form, as seen in the photos. Draw the top layer similar to what is seen on the left.
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Now I decided to return to the layer below. I started off by drawing the vertical lines towards the edge, then drawing the horizontal lines close to where we previously drew those faint lines. Then, I drew the small flicks as seen in the photo, and I made sure that these flicks were all even/ equal to each other.
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Now, we will work on this tier of the fountain. Since the photo shows three smallish bowls, we will draw these three. Start off by drawing a flat bowl in the middle first, then draw two smaller ones on the side, as seen in the photo. I reccomend also drawing in the vertical lines seen in the left, as this will help with perspective.
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Now moving back down to the 3 bowls, add an oval to the middle of the lines I told you to draw to help with perspective, and draw another oval inside that oval. The real photo had lions instead of these ovals, but the lions are far too small to try and draw. For the other two ovals, remember perspective, and only draw in the shapes similar to the photo on the left.
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Now we will add shading to the trees. I added shade to wherever I saw darker spots on the tree. I used a technique of lightly drawing big circles to add shade. i would draw more circles if I wanted an area to be darker, and less circles if I wanted an area to be lighter. I also added vertical lines for the gate.
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I finally noticed my error and drew in the water at the bottom of the fountain. You can stop your drawing after this step, or, you can continue drawing and add color (which is the best part in my opinion).
If you do add color, you will need: Light Blue Green-Blue Dark Green Medium Green Light Green Grey Brown Here, I applied the green-blue to the plants, the light blue to the middle layer, medium green to the flower layer, brown towards towards the bottom, and I colored in the whole fountain grey. |
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