Chapter 5. Mastering the Basics
LIKE ANY LANGUAGE, VISUAL communication has its equivalent of letters, words, and phrases to learn, before you can combine them in lots of interesting ways. That’s what this chapter is all about: showing you some letters, words, and phrases to try first.
I should emphasize again that there’s nothing stunningly new here; whether you’re new to sketching like this or a seasoned veteran, it’s nice to establish the individual parts of this visual language first so that you can combine and extend them in any way you see fit.
Here’s what we’ll cover in this chapter:
Basic mark making
Sketching figures and faces
Characterful lettering
Sketching lots of basic objects
Sketching frames and separators
Warming Up with Basic Lines
It’s time to warm up and get some basic lines and shapes happening. As you go through this book, and as you advance in your own sketching proficiency, you’ll come to realize that there’s really just a fairly small set of different marks that you make, over and over again.
Figure 5-1 shows an array of different marks and patterns that you can use to get warmed up.1 Go ahead, grab something to draw with and something to draw on, and fill a few pages with these lines, loops, and shapes.
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