OUTLINE WORK
What makes the drawing stand out and come to live are details and proper shading, not outlines. A drawing without shading looks like a cartoon or “ordinary” drawing. When making a realism drawing the outlines are not that important, you can always adjust them as you go along. However it’s always smart to get some key points right so you know that the proportions are correct. It’s not fun to discover that you might need another sheet of paper to finish after 5 hours of drawing. It’s also especially important to spend enough time to get the outlines right when drawing a portrait or an object that’s very geometric, like the car you see in the photo below.
I unfortunately cannot magically teach you perfect free-hand drawing. Some people naturally have this talent and other doesn’t, however practice will make it better. Luckily there are some techniques that can replace a steady hand when making outlines. A grid system will guarantee you great results. The easiest way to make the grid work is to have the exact same-sized grid at your paper and reference photo, as no adjustments need to be made. Then you can draw what you see in the small squares. You can make bigger and bigger squares as you get better at drawing outlines. When gridding the paper remember to use a medium pencil (easy erasable), and lightlydraw a grid on your paper.
Personally I don’t use a grid, I just measure up a couple of key points and draw the rest free hand. At the photo below you can see some typical points I would measure up.
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