3 April 2020

Mary Woodin's 10 simple steps to drawing nature.

Posted in: Artists, Design, Illustration, Nature, Publishing

Mary Woodin’s follow-up to her first ten-step drawing book “Flowers” has arrived!

“10 Step Drawing: Nature” aims to provide readers with clear and simple instructions on how to reproduce Mary’s beautiful pencil drawings.

The challenge with working on books like these, Mary says, is being “…able to break each subject down into logical and progressive steps.” Not easy when you make your living as an illustrator;

“I really had to imagine that I couldn’t draw and needed to be guided through the main of even the simplest of shapes that I would normally dash off freehand.”

The editor of the book gave Mary free reign to pick and choose the subjects of the book, the only thing she had to bear in mind was that the book would be sold on both sides of the Atlantic!

“I did have to mug up on the most common North American fauna and flora!”

Besides the clarity of the instructions, the materials that aspiring artists/readers would need to recreate Mary’s drawings would have to be equally accessible, “It was important to me that I did all the work old school, pencil and paper, as that is the whole point of the book.”

After coming up with her drawing, Mary found it easier to work backwards using a Lightbox and deconstruct each drawing into 10 easy steps, meaning the 10th step would always be texture and detail and the first step, a simple framework.

The best part of the project though, is when Mary gets to see readers recreate her drawings and share them on social media;