How To Shade a Realistic Bumble Bee

Part 2 of our realistic drawing series explores modern shading techniques using ink! This was in no way intended to be a series, but I was thrilled to hear how much you enjoyed part 1, where we explored the contour (outline) and followed a few simple drawing tips. In that video, many of you requested a shading portion of that tutorial—so I’m here to deliver with a different bumble bee and slightly different angle.

Why a completely different reference photo? Well, if you've been here long, you know that I HATE formula style drawing—where you draw every animal or flower the same way every time? No thanks.

When I say that I believe everyone can learn to draw, I mean it—and you aren’t going to learn and grow if you draw from the same reference or angle every time. Stretch yourself! Try something new, dig a little deeper. It’s not as hard as we make it out to be in our head and I think you’ll learn a lot from this little tutorial! Enjoy:

Improve your drawing in 5 days: Floral Drawing Challenge
My full shading course if you’re ready to get serious and study different techniques in more depth: Shading Techniques

Supplies:

Paper: Bristol
Pencil: HB
Pen: Micron 01 & Micron 005
Eraser: Kneeded

The next part in our series will feature a realistic WATERCOLOR bumble bee! I’m so excited to explore this aspect of realism and creating with you—I’m searching for the perfect reference photo(s)! I’m thinking right now that we’ll make 2 different bumble bees on that day, just to switch it up, what do you think? I can’t wait! Don’t forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel so that you don’t miss it when that video goes live at last. And until then, happy drawing!