Drawing in the Digital Age: An Observational Method for Artists and Animators

Chapter 6

Drawing Complicated Scenes

The whole is simpler than the sum of its parts.

—Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903), American theoretical physicist, chemist, and mathematician

So far, you have learned various techniques for processing individual objects. The ability to handle items independently is a fundamental drawing skill. But artwork rarely contains a single object. Artists typically put multiple objects with different materials and shapes together to achieve visual harmony. Because there is no natural bond between such objects, you can organize them in any way you want for an observational drawing. However, this doesn’t mean you can draw them randomly on paper. After a scene is set, you need to duplicate not only individual objects ...