How I Achieve Hyper Realism in Drawing

Throughout my years of practising Art professionally I have come across various techniques used by a diversity of Artists to achieve many different styles of Art, specifically Hyper Realism, which I specialise in. Here you will learn about the technique I use, the process that lead me there and some of the challenges I have encountered along the way.

This is my most recent Hyper Realistic drawing, titled "US", and is comprised of 67 hours of work.

Every artist has a unique way of viewing the world, and a unique way of creating art that reflects that perception.

Every Artwork undergoes a process, which usually begins with an idea, then the basic sketch, outlay or study/studies of that idea, then refinery/adding of details, and eventually the final piece is born.

For me personally, I have always been more attracted to drawing as opposed to other mediums, therefore I have had time to develop the first essential step in creating most styles of Art, which is the drawing stage.

As a child my imagination was a constant churning machine of ideas and so the fastest way for me to release those ideas in physical form was to draw them, then move on to the next idea, which had already risen in my mind.

Left Here is a portrait I drew when I was around 11 years old of my brother and I as babies. You can see, given that I started from the top and worked my way down, that there is a lot out of proportion (the heads are abnormally large, as are the eyes), and the shading is very minimal and rigid.

In those early years I had complete confidence in my ability to channel from my imagination through my hand without any physical reference because as children typically are- I was free from preconceived ideas, expectations and fear of judgement by others, but as time passed and my consciousness expanded a few things happened: one being that the praise and compliments of those around me felt incredibly good that I constantly strove to impress my spectators- in fact became fixated on it, and secondly I began to want to draw my surroundings because they were a constant source of reference.

I would have bouts of severe frustration when my drawing did not absolutely reflect my reference (and being only about six or seven years old they most certainly never did) and this caused many tantrums, whole reams of paper to be scrunched up and thrown in the bin, and waterfalls of frustrated tears.

My obsession for trying to achieve perfection in my drawing (which as a side note is a subject I am currently in the midst of trying to deconstruct the reason behind and will likely write a Blog about it in future) lead me to rely completely on

references, and so I had to develop an approach to viewing my references in a way that would help me achieve the most realistic outcome.

Aa child I seldom adhered to any well-known technique- rather I would naively start drawing from the top of the page and draw all the way down, often realising too late that I hadn’t left enough room at the bottom of the page for the subject’s legs, or the animal’s back end would leave the side of the page, and after spending hours perfecting each section this would cause me outrage, so I was forced to develop a different approach.

Above

Here is right around the time I adopted a new technique to help me get familiar with achieving better proportion and perspective. I was about fifteen years old.

I decided to try the basic shape drawing technique found in a few small blue books my Dad had bought me a few years prior, and although it felt rather rigid and structured ( two things I was not a fan of as a child) I found that it really did help, especially because I could see early on whether the size and placement of the shapes I had chosen would fit on the

page or not, as well as get an early glimpse of proportions.

Left

Here, a more recent drawing of an Australian Kookaburra with clearly defined basic shapes that I would have used in the initial sketching stage.

I would start out drawing the largest, most spacious shapes that made up the subject I was drawing, and work my way down through the smaller shapes, lastly returning to add more smaller, more intricate details. This not only enhanced my ability to draw in a more “true-to-life” way, but it also opened a door in my mind to be able to see the shapes that made up the skeletons for potential drawings of the world around me.

As well as being able to view my references as shapes rather than the objects themselves, this technique of drawing allowed me to learn to see the shapes in everything that made up my drawings; whether it be the round bean-shaped abdomen of a bee, or the tiniest irregular shaped change of tone in the shading on a dog’s wet nose, it was learning to see these subtleties- and paying attention to them- that really fast-forwarded my ability to draw in a realistic way.

Right

Here is an example of how I see the various changes of tone as shapes on a dog's nose.

However, as capable as I now feel in being able to draw things realistically from a reference I have begun to realise in recent years just how far I have strayed from creating from within my own mind and imagination; for me to create the images I see in my head in the way I want to now feels nearly impossible without a physical reference to work from. As a child I had no qualms about creating from my imagination- it was a place free for me to dwell in exploring my inner creativity, whereas now I have become so attached to drawing realistically from references that dipping in to my imagination feels like a terribly daunting feat.

It is realisations such as this, though, that remind me of the constant journey I am on as an aspiring Artist; we never really reach a point of satisfaction; there is always more content to create, different mediums to try, different subjects to attempt, emotions that cry for expression, and curiosities to be fed.

But that is the beauty of Art in itself.

Until next time, keep creating.

-Madeline x