How To Draw Rocks In A River

The texture of rock is deceptively uncomplicated, but it gets quite complicated when you lot endeavor to go it right. In this tutorial I will show you how to draw a texture of a unmarried rock or rock, and a texture of a structure made of stones, like a road or the wall of a medieval castle.

What You Will Need

HB pencil
2B pencil
4B pencil
6B pencil
Pencil sharpener
Kneaded (or normal) eraser
Blending stump (optional)

Information technology's very hard to draw a rock texture from imagination. You may do better if y'all accept a await at some photograph references first, for example:

Rough stone - No longer available.
Smooth stone - No longer bachelor.
Rocks - No longer available.

1. How to Describe a Stone

Stride 1

Draw a top of the rock using the HB pencil. It should be roughly an oval, merely not circular at all.

Step two

Add together a side of the rock by drawing the lesser and connecting both parts.

Step three

Gently sketch the edge of the rock to make information technology blunter. The wider these border, the rounder the rock. You can even go all the way to the height, to create a dome shape.

Step 4

Add together more guide lines to see the 3D form of the stone earlier y'all start shading. Apply the eraser to make them barely visible.

Footstep 5

Slightly tilt your pencil and shade a side of the rock. Don't embrace the guide lines completely—exit a suggestion of them by pressing harder.

Footstep six

Take the 2B pencil and shade the part of the rock that won't exist directly illuminated. This time, don't tilt your pencil then much, but try to draw little details: shadows between the "layers" of the rocks. You tin can create a very convincing texture simply past drawing long, horizontal X shapes.

Step 7

Accept the HB pencil again, tilt it, and depict rough "waves" on superlative of the rock. A rock surface is never smooth, and this will help united states show this.

rock top texture

Step 8

Add together more details to both the top and the side using the2B pencil. The texture of stone is all about chaos that can't be planned, so you lot need to exist really creative with your strokes here.

Pace nine

Take the eraser and brighten the illuminated edge with it. A bright border is a great way to accentuate the shape of the rock.

Step 10

Take the 4B pencil and use it to draw fine crevices and scratches. Think about this part of the drawing as negative space—you don't desire to draw night lines, y'all want to accentuate the vivid parts.

Step 11

Use the 2B pencil for the details on top. This is the illuminated side, and we don't want likewise much dissimilarity here.

Footstep 12

Expect at your drawing from a altitude and attempt to run into what else tin be improved by seeing the whole rock, not a ready of strokes. Adept shading does wonders, just don't use too many details—they may drag attention from the rock as a whole.

2. How to Draw a Stone Wall/Road

Pace ane

Just like with the stone, draw the top of the structure outset. Since it's homo-made, it should have a rather regular shape. Feel gratuitous to use a ruler for this, and draw using the HB pencil.

Draw the height of the structure...

... and connect information technology with the bottom.

Footstep 2

Split the height into as many parts as you need. The peak of each role will be the height of a stone.

Pace 3

Describe the rows on every side. The stones in this construction volition not exist as neatly placed as bricks, but they even so should follow this rhythm every bit well as possible.

Step 4

Imagine the stones are already on the side. Describe the width of their summit.

Step 5

Sketch the rhythm of the stones. Again, they won't be every bit regular as bricks, but a regular placement is required for immovability of the structure.

Step half dozen

Luckily, such regularity is not required within the first row. First, sketch a chaotic rhythm on top...

... then draw the outline of the rocks inside. Here they don't need to exist as regular. Instead, try to identify them very tight, with small rocks between the big ones.

Step 7

Time to add some class to each stone. Follow the perspective of the whole structure to decide which sides of the rock should be visible. Also, don't forget to make the edge blunt—this volition make it more primitive in look.

Footstep 8

Make full the spaces between the stones past pressing harder. Don't make it too regular, but rather utilize information technology to "cut" some parts of the stones for a more natural look.

Step 9

Accept the 2B pencil (sharpen it well) to brand the filling between the stones less uniform.

Footstep 10

Take the HB pencil over again, tilt it, and shade the meridian of the stones. Don't fill up the sides by accident!

Step 11

Shade the sides of the construction, keeping the edges white.

Step 12

Take the 2B pencil and make the shadowed sides darker, both of the whole structure...

... and of each rock on top.

Pace 13

Take the 4B pencil to darken the sides even more and accentuate the details during the procedure.

Stride 14

Accept the 6B pencil and shade the stones on the adumbral side with more than detail. Pay attention to the crevices that accept no way to be illuminated.

Pace fifteen

Shade the side of each top stone with the same pencil. This will increase the contrast of the whole structure.

Stride 16

The illuminated side must stay light, but non without whatsoever details. Use the 2B pencil to add together some.

Step 17

Finally, take two steps back and look at the drawing as a whole. How can it exist improved? In my example, I've used the blending stump to remove any trace of whiteness on the shadowed side, brightened the front with the eraser, and darkened the dorsum of the top.