Mikes Art Rundown #2: Anatomy Piece and Some Tips on Realism

Hello everyone! Today I’m going over an anatomy piece I did during my senior year of high school and go over some tips on realism.

So for one of my assignments, I had to make an anatomy piece. This was my first anatomy piece and I decided to do a hand since everyone always says hands are the hardest. I used charcoal for this piece and I was glad with the results. When people ask me how to do realism for some reason I always find it hard to explain. I think one of the main actions I took to learn realism was looking at everything differently. As I was trying to learn art I started looking at everything for what it really was. I would always look at something, an object, a landscape, buildings, etc. and ask myself “how could I draw that?” And what’s funny is that I didn’t realize this until I was already really into art. What I also tell people is that there are no lines in realism. Yes, I know that might not make sense to everyone who hears this so let’s to a quick rundown on this piece. If you look at the hand, notice the contrast and the edges of the hand and the fingertips. The shading on my fingertips and the lightness on my hand both work together to create that realistic look. Some people would draw the fingers and would have a line outlining the fingers, that doesn’t work. There are no lines in realism, there’s only shading. So when you’re about to sketch something, outline whatever the subject is very lightly, then start shading by layers starting with lightest going to darkest.

I hope you guys enjoy this post for today. If you guys have any questions about anything or have any suggestions please leave them in the comments below!