Friday 30 October 2015

How To Draw: Spiders (Halloween Special)

It is Halloween tomorrow and to celebrate, I am going to draw a group of creatures that many people are afraid of... spiders!! Arachnophobia is perhaps the most commonest of phobias in the world. The long hairy legs, scuttling movement and with some of them, venom that can be harmful to us, it is no wonder that thousands of people are scared stiff whenever they see a spider. But do they deserve such a reputation? I think spiders are fascinating creatures. They produce silk, an amazing substance that man has yet to reproduce artificially, and they can build ingenious and beautiful structures to catch their prey. I think they are creatures to admire than fear. But if you are afraid of spiders, one of the best ways to conquer your fear is to draw them.

Stage One
To draw a spider, create a large circle for the abdomen, a kidney shape (sort of) for the head and eight lines for each of the spider's eight legs. On either side of the spider, a set of three legs are positioned by the head end and one leg positioned by the abdomen pointing upwards.









Stage Two


Next we focus on the pattern on the abdomen. Of course, each species have a different pattern, but for this drawing I am doing a garden spider. Another name for this spider is the cross spider because the white spots resemble a cross. I start at the bottom of the abdomen and draw a set of dots along its back before spreading out to either side of this line of dots, applying the rest of the detail. The legs are created by drawing round the lines with a narrow space inbetween and adding small black dots inside them. There are also two leg like things by the head end to draw. These are called palps and are the sexual organs of a spider.





Stage Three


Redraw the spider in pen and shade in any dark or hairy areas. Along the side of each leg, lightly flick an extremely short line for each hair.










Stage Four







Colour in your spider. Try and avoid colouring over the white spots as best you can.










Web Stage One





The web that orb weaver spiders, such as my garden spider, is a complex structure, but is reasonably simple enough to draw. First, draw lines radiating out and around the spider. Then starting at the top of the web, weave rows of lines through the radiating spokes, gradually getting smaller and more compact towards the centre of the web.




Web Stage Two






Finally, redraw in pen and rub out the pencil. Working each section of the web at a time helps to adjust and neaten the shape of the web.









Stage One



My next drawing demonstrates how to draw leggy spiders. The common house spider is a good example of a leggy spider. Drawing spiders with long legs can cause a few headaches as they can cross over one another. Here is how I deal with this problem. Draw two ovals for the head and abdomen and then draw the eight legs. These legs are created with long double lines and each leg is divided into three to four sections to represent the bends in the joints.

Stage Two




Next I readjust the body shape and add any body pattern and features. The best way in dealing with the legs so that they do not cause confusion when I redraw the spider in pen is to shade them in. I actually only shade the legs on the side of the spider facing us as dark as possible and a lighter shade on the legs on the other side. Leave a small gap in the legs where the joints are.





Stage Three
When you redraw your spider in pen, draw the legs on the nearest side first. Draw around each of the dark shaded legs, adding any detail within them (light shading and the joints). Then draw around the legs on the far side of the spider, leaving a gap whenever the legs you have already drawn in pen crosses over. As you redraw each leg, you can draw sections of the body as you go along. Don't forget to draw the hairs on the legs when are finished redrawing everything and rub out the pencil marks.






Stage Four





Complete your spider by colouring it in.








Stage One



As it is Halloween, I thought it would be appropiate to make my final drawing for today a tarantula. Tarantulas are the largest kind of spiders in the world. Though they can only be found in the tropics in the wild, tarantulas are popular pets across the world. Drawing a tarantula is similar to when I was drawing my garden spider, just much bigger. A large circle for the head, an oval for the abdomen and the eight legs and two palps. The legs are drawn like a link of three sausages.
Stage Two






Shade in your tarantula, leaving parts of the legs white as well as a 'ring' around the centre part at the head end.








Stage Three




Shade in the black parts of your tarantula and link the outlines of the white areas on the legs with the black parts in pen. Rub out the pencil lines.










Stage Four





Colour in your tarantula. I have added a bit of shadow to make the tarantula a little bit more 3D looking. And my tarantula drawing is complete!

I hope this has inspired you to draw these amazing creatures. Hopefully, this How To Draw has cured your fear of spiders. If it hasn't, I hope my drawings haven't fightened you! Until next time, happy Halloween! Mwhahahaha!!!

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