When I was asked to draw Alfie I knew creating the wet fur look would be a new challenge. It was the first time attempting to draw this type of effect but I tackled it as I do all my portraits – I broke it down into layers and worked in small sections to make the piece look less daunting. The wet look created shapes in the fur. It’s very true what’s said… Draw what you see and don’t think of it as fur.
‘Draw What You See’
This is the same with any subject.. If your drawing/painting a flower. At the time your brain says ‘I know what a rose looks like’ but when it comes to it you want to draw what you think a petal looks like. If you just focus on the one petal at a time and draw the shape, draw what you see and when you have a few petals drawn in then it will start to look like the reference photo.
‘The Ugly Faze‘
In many cases you have to get many elements and sections of the drawing blocked in and layers down before it starts so look anything like what you want. Many times artwork goes through a ‘ugly faze’. There were so many pieces when I was in my early teens while still at school that I threw away. But if I knew then what I know now in that continuing past this difficult section all artists hit then those pieces may have turned out to be my favourites. Or at the very least I would have learnt how to correct mistakes I had made and use it to improve on future pieces.