Traditional-Drawing Tutorial: How To draw Norman Rockwells Sunset

Norman Rockwell was a famous illustrator, many of his art work appeared on covers of magazines. You can read a bit about him here and see
some of his work here.

The image we will be drawing is called "Sunset". It appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post on April 26, 1926. This tutorial provides drawing practice for various shading techniques, good visual skills and proportion judgment. Level of this tutorial would be placed at medium.
to expert. You can view the original painting on the net, although this original tutorial was made before computers were used and adapted for the internet.

Note: Making a drawing tutorial can be very hard and time consuming, it's impossible to scan every line you draw in and to explain every pencil stroke you make. It is mainly visual and the person doing the tutorial needs to study each accompanying image very carefully. Its not like making a
photoshop tutorial, we can't give exact step by step, nor can we promise your finished image will be identical to the one in the tutorial. We all have our own style of drawing and it impacts our results in our finished image.

End result:

Author:

Views: 24577

Score: 8.7 / 10

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Practice tutorial

Tags:normanrockwell

Step 1

Materials:

#H Graphite Pencil
Ruler
Electric Eraser
Compass
Circle Template - Small
Paper (3 sheets)
Light Table or Sunny Window

Step 1
The most important part is to practice shading techniques, please practice the ones shown here. Allowing your hand to get used to the different motions and flows each one requires.

Step 2

Step 2
The first thing to do is to print out the finished image for reference and NO, you are not allowed to trace the image! (I have a nice big ruler to smack you with if you do. =p ) I freely admit that I am better at showing someone how to draw then I am at explaining it with words. Drawing is visual,
not so easy to put into words.

Once you have the finished image printed out for reference, take a sheet of paper and start blocking out where the moon and couple will go, using lines and circles to represent the head, shoulders, body and feet.

Step 3

Step 3
Finish blocking in the image, drawing the dog and bench.

Step 4

Once you have it all blocked in, trace how the bodies will go, the shape of the head, the shirt, skin, hair and so on. This is our drawing guide, it will be taped to a light table and we will place our drawing over it as we draw in our image. (It saves a lot of erasing when you draw on one piece of paper.)

Step 5

With our guide taped to the light table, take a new piece of paper and tape it over guide. (you can use a window in place of the light table.) Now draw in the heads and moon, pay attention to the shape of the hair. I have tried to give you a larger image to the right side so you can better see what to draw, but don't hesitate to use finished drawing to better study what you will be drawing.

Step 6

Draw in the boy's hair, leaving areas of highlights and try to go in the flow of the hair. A close up is on the right side of image. Add shadows to his neck.

Step 7

Now draw in the girls hair, remember her bows. follow the direction of the head, with the hair going towards each gathering for the ponytail. Add shadows to her neck. There is a close up on the right side of image.

Step 8

Start giving texture to the moon, using the dot technique and thicken the lines of the moon. Close up is on the right side of image.

Step 9

Now we are going to draw in the out line of his shirt and left arm and left knee. Basically just from shoulder to elbow and knee cap. Enlargement on right.

Step 10

Draw in the suspenders and start on some of the shirt detail, around collar and left shoulder. Larger view on right.

Step 11

Draw in the outline of his right arm, finish the detail on his shirt and waistband and suspenders. Larger area to see is on the right. (I try to draw my images from top to bottom, working left to right, I do less smearing of my drawing that way. I tend to forget to use tissue between my drawing and hand. I'm bad.)

Step 12

Draw in the boy's pants, top of her dress, the patch and hankie in outline. Larger image will guide you.

Step 13

Draw in the shading for his pants and including the knee, larger image on right will guide you.

Step 14

Draw in the detail and shading on the top of her dress, above his right arm and the area between his arm and his body, image on right will guide you.

Step 15

Now we are going to draw in the detail on his patch and the hankie hanging from his back pocket, use larger image to guide you. (Trying to turn a painting into a drawing can be hard, getting shades right and shading techniques is very different.)

Step 16

We will now draw in the rest of the detail to her dress and where the bench goes to the right of her. Add the pattern to the dress and the folds of material with shading. Image on right will guide you.

Step 17

Draw in the detail for her arm, draw in her hand, flower stems and the outline of the bench. Use larger images on right to guide you.

Step 18

Draw in the shadow and grain on the bench seat, the outline of his legs and outline of the dog head, image on right will guide you.

Step 19

Draw in the outline of the dog's body and the opened tin can. Use image on right to guide you. Remember, you have the finished image to study any time you need, even if you need to use a magnifying glass to study some areas.

Step 20

Add shading to the boy's legs under the bench and start detailing in the dog's head. Image on right will guide you.

Step 21

Draw in more detail on the dog's head, image on right will guide you.

Step 22

Start adding detail and shading to the dog's body, larger image will guide you.

Step 23

Finish up shading and detailing the dog, using larger image to guide you.

Step 24

Now we are going to start shading in the tin can, darkening the lid edges, adding some shading to the lid and give depth to the inside of the can. Let the larger image guide you.

Step 25

Add a bottom rim to the can and then shade in the tin can itself, giving it a rounder appearance. Use larger image to guide you.

Step 26

Draw in the outline of her skirt under the bench, along with her legs and shoes. Image on right will guide you.

Step 27

Start drawing the dress print and shading for her skirt under the bench, use image on right for guide.

Step 28

Finish in the shading and detail of her dress, use close up as your guide.

Step 29

Draw in the shading of the left shoe and the right sock, image on right will guide you.

Step 30

I noticed I missed some shading on her dress and went back and added it. Now draw in the shading of her right shoe,
image on right will guide you.

Step 31

Draw in the flower petals and center of top one, then draw in the detail to the right bench leg. Use larger image to guide you.

Step 32

Now draw in the pole and bobber outline, use image to right to guide you.

Step 33

Draw in some shading for the pole and bobber, draw in some fishing line, use image on right for guide.

Step 34

Now is the time to go over your image carefully to see if you missed anything, thicken or thin some lines, remove any
smears. Generally clean up your image and fix some areas you think are to dark or to light, smooth things out.

Now we are done, I hope you enjoyed drawing "Sunset" with me in this tutorial and I was able to guide you clearly.
Thank you for taking the time to read this tutorial and have a great day.

15 Comments:

annabat says:

SO cute, VERY nice! keeps the lovely feeling of the original painting, but in a new style!

(3 years and 149 days ago)

solkee says:

I can't draw at all, but this image has inspired me to try. Lovely work author and thanks for sharing your knowledge.

(3 years and 149 days ago)

Alan2641 says:

Well written

(3 years and 148 days ago)

lchappell says:

Kudos

(3 years and 147 days ago)

cabldawg71 says:

Dang I love Rockwell, nice job on this tut

(3 years and 147 days ago)

Maya3D says:

Very nice work and tut.

(3 years and 146 days ago)

nishagandhi says:

awesome

(3 years and 146 days ago)

Guest says:

exelent arif

(3 years and 146 days ago)

Guest says:

Loved your tutorial! I started along just fine but got lazy with textures and even lazier with color but check it out!

http://imgur.com/VMBKG

(3 years and 138 days ago)

Guest says:

This is a wonderful tutorial
fantastic results and sure I'll put a copy of this lesson on my site here
www.borsastreet.com/vb

(3 years and 107 days ago)

Guest says:

that's a nice tutorial like a real painting

(3 years and 104 days ago)

Guest says:

Great work ..its really amazing
i found another site having such great higher rank professional tutorials
http://www.tutorials99.com

(2 years and 322 days ago)

Guest says:

cool !!!!!!!!!

(2 years and 284 days ago)

Kapil Sengar says:

hi

best sketching tips

(1 year and 355 days ago)

Destiny01 says:

Great. My favorite are the shades. Thanks

(162 days ago)

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