Rendering Rocks

[Bruce Lee]

DRAWING CONVINCING ROCKS: ADVICE AND HELPFUL HINTS

PART ONE: A ROCKY ROAD

When we think of drawing stone objects, it is important to think of the characteristics of stone in order to properly convey this information visually. The obvious things come to mind: stones are solid and are usually very hard. Sometimes they can be very smooth from water and wind weathering, but often stones are very rough to the touch. Stones are often quite heavy and very bulky. Stone shapes can vary greatly. Stones can be jagged triangular affairs, or they can be very box-like or even rounded.

Common Stone Characteristics:
-HARD SURFACE
-ROUGH or SMOOTH TEXTURE
-BULK and MASS
-SHAPE and SIZE varies

It's Sedimentary, My Dear Watson
Rocks are divided into three types: igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. 75-80% of the Earth's rocks are of the sedimentary variety. Sandstone, shale, limestone and chalk are common types of sedimentary rock. These rocks accumulate on the Earth's surface and are formed from sand, mud, and dust particles deposited via fluids, under the influence of gravity. Sedimentary rocks have a layered structure, and these horizontal layers are called strata. As sedimentary rocks are the most common rocks found on the surface of the planet, it stands to reason that these will be the rocks that you will draw most often.

Shadow Dancing
Rocks can be any shape and size. What makes a drawing of a rock look like a rock has to do primarily with lighting. Solid black shadows offer artists opportunities to give objects dimension and weight. When drawing rocky objects, strong light and shadow is an artist's best weapon. In addition to supplying weight, dimension and form, shadow areas also offer up great opportunities to add textures, such as a few white dots or the occasional surface crack or strata break.

In FIGURE 1 (below), I've drawn a grouping of boulders and jagged stones. Notice how the use of heavy black shadow adds weight and dimension. Also note that the black shadows are not rendered as completely solid black shapes. Strategically, I've left bits of white amid the jetty shadows to imply levels of strata, to depict cracks, and to suggest roughness. In a nutshell, small bits of white negative space in the shadows add extra visual support, conveying a feeling of stone texture.

Cracking Up and Restraint
So what about all that white space left in the rock? Just as you should leave some white space coming through the black shadow areas of the rocks, you should also add a little black to the negative space of the rock's surface. Putting in a few texture dots here and there is usually a good idea, but be careful to add in just a few of these. Don't overdo it.

If you want, you can add a hint of a crack or imply a shelving layer of strata also, but a little goes a long way. In FIGURE 1 below, notice that I have added a few texture dots and a few cracks here and there inside the negative white space of the individual stones. I used restraint, though, because having some empty white space in the rocks is highly desirable and very necessary to maintain depth of field. Ever see a drawing of Ben Grimm in which every single individual stone on his body has been textured? It's not pretty.

Over-texturing flattens objects and creates visual chaos that is distracting to the eye. You don't want that when you draw Ben Grimm, or when you draw stones. You want your work to have contrast and a good balance of black, white and gray. Texture in moderation. That's key to making things work.

FIGURE 1:




PART TWO: A QUICK STEP-BY-STEP TO DRAWING MOUNTAINS

The numbers at the beginning of the four paragraphs below correspond to the numbers on the images on the mountain drawings below.

1) Here I've drawn in the contour lines of some high mountains in the Himalayas. At this stage of the game I'm only concerned with drawing some basic shapes. The outlines don't have to be tight. Since I'm trying to draw the Himalayas, I'm striving to draw tall, jagged peaks.

2) Now I determine where the light source will be placed. Choosing the sunlight to come in from the upper right hand corner, I'll begin to lightly pencil in some shadow areas on the side of the mountains facing away from the sun. Since I plan to finish this image in ink, the shadows can be rendered loosely and lightly. Notice that I'm leaving gaps of white space in some of the shadow areas.

3) I begin the inks by loosely filling in the shadow areas, leaving plenty small white shapes inside of the black shadow areas for the sake of texture. These bits of white amid the shadows will create the look of raised surfaces, which will help convey a rough rock surface to the mountains.

4) Since this is the Himalayas, I have gone back in and added a little more negative space near the summit of the peaks to imply snow caps. I'm careful to create both large and small shapes, and try to leave small black shapes within the areas of white. The Himalayan mountains are huge peaks, and are therefore very detailed affairs, so it's okay for the mountains to be a little busy in places. As long as a fair amount of negative space is left for contrast, things will read okay to the eye.

[Bruce Lee]

PART THREE: EXTRAPOLATING VISUAL INFO FROM PHOTO REFERENCE

When faced with drawing things unfamiliar and uncertain, a successful artist doesn't just take a guess. Successful artists seek out reference imagery, models, and uses observation to assist them when their own experiences and memories aren't enough.

Extrapolating from reference images is something I encourage, because there's no better way to gain useful visual information. If you can't make it up in your head convincingly, then why not dig up a reference image to assist you? You can gain a lot of useful knowledge and information from simply studying photographs.

Observation, Referencing and Practice

Photo 1A below depicts three cut stones standing side by side. At a glance these three stones seem somewhat similar to each other, with the exception of their obvious size differences. Closer observation reveals that each stone has its own very unique features and defining contours. To better aid you in your observation of the image, I have provided a Photoshop overlay of the photo, outlining each stone's contours and important surface areas. Now the differences in each stone's cut, shape, and surface textures is easier to discern.




2A is a photo of an interesting cluster of stones. The vertical standing stone with the knothole indentation is a particularly interesting stone. In figure 2B I have produced a pencil drawing based on my own observation of the image. Though it isn't precisely accurate to the photo on the left it gets across the gist of it. Though my aim was to stay true to the reference photo, I wasn't trying to be a human photocopier. I exaggerated things here and there for effect. For instance-some of the contours might be a bit more jagged than in the reference photo. I'm pretty sure I overused the texture dots on the vertical standing stone a bit. If I was going to ink this image, I'd probably be inclined to omit a few dots and details, because a little goes a long way. I was seeking to extrapolate the visual information and translate that to a drawing that conveys the rough textures and the varying angularity of the stones' contours. This sort of thing makes for good practice, so if you want to learn to draw great rocks, go look at some. If you can't find any outside to draw, then Google some up.

[sdowner]

Guess what? You're awesome!
Thanks a ton for this, Loston.
Rocks and mountains are something I've always struggled with, and I'm sure a lot of other artists feel the same way.
This is sure to be a great help.

(Notice how I avoided the obvious "you rock!" pun? You owe me for that.)

[Bruce Lee]

Guess what? You're awesome!
Thanks a ton for this, Loston.
Rocks and mountains are something I've always struggled with, and I'm sure a lot of other artists feel the same way.
This is sure to be a great help.

(Notice how I avoided the obvious "you rock!" pun? You owe me for that.)

sdowner: Thanks, Steve. To be honest, I wasn't really sure how to go about doing a formal tutorial on rendering rocks. I have learned most of what I do as an artist via observation, so I really wasn't sure what to focus on. I tried to string together a few tips and some advice.

NickGuy: I think you had the first reply in this thread, but during an edit, I accidentally deleted it. I apologize for that. I hope you'll repost your comments.

If anyone has specific questions about rock textures, or has ideas about how I can improve or expand this tut thread, please let me know. If there's something you need help with that's not covered here, just post a reply. I'll see if I can assist.

Loston

[NickGuy]

ha i dont remember what i posted before!

this is insanely awesome! my last attempt at rendering rocks looked like crap. this is very helpful!

[lockstep]

the art rocks (giggle).i tend to stipple when it comes to rock and stone.i am pretty decent when it comes to pencils but am still learning to spot my blacks in the inking stage yet i am much better than even 2 months ago.every page gets more polished

[jeremy dale]

... sound effects.

[Bruce Lee]

... sound effects.

Rock sound effects include: Clakk! Klunk! Ka-thud! and KRaKK!

[jeremy dale]

Thanks for the negative rep.

[50%grey]

Rock sound effects include: Clakk! Klunk! Ka-thud! and KRaKK!

Heh,someone should put a book together like this,and call it a Comic Book Sound effects library.

All joking aside ,I would buy that book if the research was done.