Hello! This book is a how-to guide for drawing fantasy-themed characters, creatures, and items. I work with a variety of art mediums and will try to give tutorials using all of them. This book most likely won't be published until I've done a few cha...
IMPORTANT!!! Any steps with asterisks (*) should be done softly with a pencil. This is the sketching phase, so you want to be able to erase your work if you don't like something!
—I recommend looking up pictures of gems to see how the reflections work!—
Basic Version:
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*Step One: Draw the basic shapes that you will build upon later to create your final piece.
*Step Two: Add lines at the corners of both of the squares. This makes the gem appear more 3D. You can do this with other shapes, too, so long as they have corners. Draw the shape, then draw a smaller version of the shape inside. Then connect the edges, and bam! You have a simple gem!
Step Three: Erase your drawing lightly, then make the line art. I used a ruler for this step.
Step Four: Shade your gem. In this drawing, my light source is from the left side. Because this is a gem, the shading on each of the sides won't be solid. Instead, there will be areas of light and dark within them. This makes the gem appear shiny.
Step Five: Because I had trouble achieving a shiny effect with step four, I decided to pull out my white gel pen. I used it to add subtle details that make the gem seem more life-like and pop off the page. This step isn't really required, because with a little more effort you can achieve the same effect.
Slightly more Complex Version:
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*Step One: Draw the basic shapes that you will build upon later to create your final piece. In this case, an oblong hexagon and rectangle.
*Step Two: Connect the rectancle to the hexagon. First, draw lines between the top corners to the top point, creating a triangle. Then, connect the top corners to the side points of the hexagon. Repeat this on the bottom.
Step Three: Erase your drawing lightly, then make the line art. I used a ruler for this step.
Step Four: Begin to shade your gem. Something I realized in this one is that to make it look reflective, take a particular side of the gem (Say, the middle rectangle). Then, moving from top to bottom, make it light, then dark, then light again, or vice versa. And on smaller sides, just go from light to dark or dark to light. Then, on some of the sides, erase little streaks. (Like on the left rectangle). This adds to the reflective look. You'll want to make sure your shading is smooth, so use your finger or a blending stump if you're having trouble getting that effect. The light source on this one is coming from the front left.
