Hi guys welcome back to my channel, thanks for tuning in again. So today I will be discussing my top 5 tips for drawing in black and white. So this could be with graphite or with color pencil or with pastel pencils. Just drawing in black and white. First of all sorry if my voice sounds a bit scruffy. I've got a bad cold. So my voice sounds weird. Sorry for that. But let's get on with the video. I'm working on this horse with graphite and a black color pencil. So I will be demonstrating my tips while I explain my tips. I do want to mention that I have narrated tutorials available of this drawing on my Patreon. So I have one about drawing the fur of this horse and also one about drawing the leather of the bridal. So for that you can go to my Patreon and it's available for the $4 reward tier. So yeah if you're interested in specific tutorials about this drawing you can go there. And now let's get on with the video. So I'll start with number 5 first. Now number 5 is use the right tools. So when you start with drawing with black and white drawing you have no idea what to use or what works best for you. So it's good to experiment with that to use different tools. And eventually you will find out the tools that work for you and then you can stick to that. So I really like to use my pen tell me cancun pencil in combination with a black color pencil because I really like the effect you get that way. And I also like to use a Tombow Mono Zero eraser so a very thin eraser and this combination of tools works really well for me. So find the right tools that work for you. The next point is number 4 which is understanding anatomy before you start drawing. So if you want to draw something an animal or a thing an object it's very important to understand the shapes and the anatomy first because if you understand that it's much easier to draw that thing. So I've studied horses for many years so I know how they move, I know how the muscles work and how the bone structure works. So because I know that it's much easier for me to draw horses. I have much less knowledge about fish for instance so for me it's more difficult to draw fish. So when I want to draw a fish I'm going to study the anatomy first and then I'm going to draw it. So that would be an important tip to study the anatomy or the shapes of the thing you want to draw. Tip number 3 is to get the proportions right before you start shading the drawing. So it's important to when you study the anatomy you have an understanding about it and then you want to draw the outlines of the thing. So you have to get the proportions right because if the proportions don't look right the shading won't make any sense. So be very patient with your outlines, really study your reference photo and then make sure the shapes are correct. And then if you're happy with that you can start shading. Of course this takes a lot of practice so don't worry if you don't get it right the first time. It will probably take several years before you can really freehand an outline correctly. But that's alright it's normal. So yeah focus on sketching proportions and understanding anatomy before you really start focusing on shading. So tip number 2 would be to focus on contrast and values. So after drawing in the outlines it's time to start shading and to get a realistic shading it's really important to get the contrast right and the values right. And that means the difference between the darkest parts in your drawing and the lightest parts. You can see in this drawing there's a lot of contrast like the little details on the bridle and the dark leather. So yeah to really get a lively effect in your drawing it's very important to study your reference and to copy the darkest areas and the lightest areas and to not be afraid of going really dark. So I really like high contrast. So for the darkest parts I use a black colored pencil. You can also use 6p or 8p graphite pencils or when you're working with pastels use a black pastel pencil but really focus on that contrast. When I started out I was afraid for contrast. So my drawings looked really flat because everything was basically the same value and my drawings weren't really interesting to look at. But if you really can get the nice contrast between dark and light you really get that 3D effect. So focus on contrast and don't be afraid of that. And then my number 1 tip is to have a lot of patience. This might be obvious but it is I think the most important part about learning to draw. If you don't have the patience you won't get really far. A realistic drawing takes a lot of hours to complete. Mostly about 20 to 30 hours when I'm working on a drawing like this. So that patience is something that you can train as well. But it takes a lot of perseverance. So try to build up the patience. If you rush a drawing you can really see it and it won't look very realistic. So for realistic drawing you have to build up a lot of patience and that takes practice as well. You could be really really talented but if you don't have the patience to finish drawing or to practice your skills it will really show in your drawing. So my first tip would be to practice and to have patience. And these were my top 5 tips for drawing in black and white. Or these are pretty general as well so it could be used for any type of drawing. Yeah let me know what you think of it in the comments. Let me know your tips for drawing or for art for improving that. I would be really interested in that so let me know below. If you liked this video give it a like. I hope you learned something from it. Yeah don't forget to subscribe to my channel if you want to see more and I will be posting this drawing if it's finished on my Instagram and Facebook so you can check those out as well. Thank you very much for watching so are you for my sewer voice. But it's all I can do today. Thanks for watching and I'll see you very soon. Bye bye.