Being a realistic artist, I don’t create the things that inspire me; I recreate them to appear as I experienced them in the first place.
Ben Watson III
Ever experienced a food so delicious that you want everyone else to live in the moment? Or perhaps an experience so surreal you have to see it to believe it? Or even seeing a majestic animal that enraptures and encapsulates your attention?
Regardless of your experience, today we share about how to draw and paint that euphoric moment – a sweet ambrosia or through a realistic elephant drawing.
Realistic Art Jamming: Elephant
The colours of the acrylic are generally more vibrant. Hence, it is more difficult to achieve hyperrealism with this medium. Instead, this gives a more semi-realistic feel. The colouring techniques are generally similar to using oil or colour pencils. The shading and highlights have to be emphasised clearly to make your subject stand out.
The colours used are different shades of grey. For the background, we use bluish grey, warm grey for the ground, and for the subject, a mixture of bluish grey, white (for the highlights) and warm grey. For the shadows (ground and inner ears), dark bluish grey is used to achieve the effects.
Realistic Art Jamming: Ice Cream
Sketch out the shape of the ice cream first, for the chocolate drizzles, just sketch in the lines beforehand. Next, we start with painting a baby pink background. Use cream colour and light chocolate brown for the vanilla base. Start doing the details (chocolate drizzles).
Note that at the edge of the chocolate drizzle, add the shadow to the vanilla base, and the highlight to the curved edges of the drizzle. Subsequently, colour the stick of the ice cream using a mixture of reddish brown, dark brown and white. Lastly, add the sprinkles starting with bright colours like yellow, pink and blue, by dotting the ice cream randomly in different directions.
Realistic Art Jamming: Burger
Sketch the rough sketch of the burger first. Next, paint the background of the portrait. (Brown for the table, a tinge of yellow for the glow around the burger and black for the area beside the yellow)
Start painting the subject from the top of the burger (top bun). The colours used are yellow, white, yellowish brown and ochre brown. For the onions, the colours used are purple, pink and white.
As For the cheese, orange, yellow and white are use, while lime green, grass green and dark sap green are used for the lettuce. For the beef patty, black, dark brown, yellow and white (for the highlights) are used, whereas for the bottom bun, the same colours are used as the top bun.
Last but not least, we use black for the space in between the fillings.
In general, realistic sketching (from realistic elephant drawing to foods) requires a lot of observation and detailing. Catching the highlights and the shadows are especially crucial. Although it may not be the most beginner-friendly theme to work with, nonetheless, under the expertise of our artists, they will break down the steps on how to draw the subject into smaller, easier and more digestible parts. This will in turn help our students in understanding and grasping the concept of realistic sketching better. Sign up for our Realistic Drawing Class today or stay in touch with our socials!
