Lamp Drawing Using Pencil, Watercolor Pencil & Micron Pen - Sketching Tutorial

Jacquelin Vanderwood July 15, 2004   1 I've decided to sketch an old office lamp for this lesson. The first thing I do is develop the lines or flow of the lamp with simple strokes as shown below.   2 At this point I added in more of the detail but still consider it a rough sketch. As you can see, the lamp is not drawn straight on but at an angle so that the base of the back of the lamp up near the light area has a oval as the bottom part of it. 3 In this step I have tried to fix dimensions in the sketch such as the base of the lamp, the arm, etc. I find if I cannot get something to look right, turning the sketch upside down helps.   4 Here I've tried to straighten out the lines even more and add in some of the detail. I also erased some of the lines.    5 Here I began to look at the shadows on the lamp and apply them as I saw them. Notice on the base that there are actually two shadows, one from the light being that is casting a shadow behind and the other is a reflection.   6 I sprayed a fixative on the drawing to stop smearing. Then I applied watercolor pencil to the piece.   7 With paintbrush in hand, I washed over the colored pencil laid down in the previous step. Then added color using the watercolor pencils and washed over them. You can also deepen the color by using the watercolor pencil while the paper is wet and then using the paintbrush to move the color around.   8 Finally, I used a Micron pen to add detail to the lamp and surrounding areas. I also used the watercolor pencil to add some detail in the table cloth. This is a simple method of creativity that can be used to make a much more detailed image.    Copyright 1998-2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved