Thursday, December 22, 2011

Drawing Lines of Length, Width and Direction

Drawing lines can be complex or simple. Line divides space and form and may describe contours of the form. As your line moves over the surface of the paper, has a rough or smooth edge, has a light or dark tone, it starts to describe an image.

These lines can then begin to describe your experiences, your thoughts. Your drawing then takes on an emotional quality and therefore conveys a message to the viewer. I've heard it said many times that art represents "the quality of communication."

You have to ask yourself first "What is art?" The bumper dictionaries do not define this too well and many of these definitions give the idea they are groping around in the dark for something more concise.

Here is a recent definition "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles." What does that tell you? What are aesthetic principles? Does this mean that a work of art is good only if it is beautiful? I don't think so. Anything that is beautiful or ugly is only in the eyes of the beholder. Right? And that depends on education, experiences and emotional feelings towards the subject matter, the painting itself.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Watercolor Fast and Loose

This is one of the more difficult mediums to use with many beginning artists giving up almost after their first try!

With watercolor, you must plan your painting first; you cannot erase your mistakes with white opaque paint. So you paint the correct colors (in value and hue) first. If you try to paint over an area again, it will look a mess. This takes practice—a lot of practice.

Watercolor paintings must look fresh and spontaneous, not muddy and overworked. My advice is to start with a LARGE brush about 1 inch wide, preferably a Purdy from Home Depot as they are a lot cheaper than the art store brushes.

Get a fair amount of paint (say blue for the sky) and mix it with water so your brush is loaded with paint. Before you put paint to paper, wet the watercolor paper with a damp sponge, then take your loaded brush and make a sweeping stroke at the top from left to right (if you are right-handed) and run your brush down the paper as you blend it into the white areas with more water on your brush.

In one or two attempts at this you should have a nice even and blended blue background from your dark blue color at the top fading into a white (your white paper) at the bottom. You work fast and loose with NO fiddling.

Sunday, December 18, 2011

Are Your Drawings Expressive Enough?

There are many drawings by famous artists, living and dead, on display in the top museums here in the USA. Many of these are expressionless and rather boring.

Because a drawing has been created by a famous artist does not make it expressive at all or even good...you will find many sketches in this category that are taking up real estate in the museums!

How DO you make your drawings more expressive? That is a good question as there are gazillions of ways to make a drawing expressive: here are a few; your line quality, thick or thin, light or dark, length of line, short or long or variable? All lines can be bold or slender, curved or jagged, strong or weak...the varieties are endless.

Beginners have timid lines, and the best way to overcome timidness is to start gesture drawing—quick bold strokes giving vitality and strength.

Go here for an e-book on "Beginners Guide To Drawing" which will not cost you a cent...you have to sign up for the monthly newsletter on Drawing and Sketching.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Drawing Rudiments - A Guide on Learning How to Draw

Drawing rudiments are of course only for the beginner who needs basic understanding.

I have a basic guidebook on learning how to draw which is free. You can go here to sign in for the monthly newsletter which entities you to this e-book. It is very easy to understand and absorb so you will be delighted with the results.

This book covers these basics:
  • How to be a good artist
  • The advantages of pencil and charcoal
  • Learning to see things as they are
  • Getting started with materials
  • How to hold the pencil
  • Doodling and its pleasures
  • How to draw lines
  • The basics of perspective drawing
  • Basic drawing shapes
  • Various shading techniques
  • Erasing and dusting

You can draw and anyone else can but not everyone can make a good drawing. Pencil drawing is a skill that needs a good foundation on theories because pencil drawing is a blend of theory and proper execution of these theories.

Practice makes drawing perfect but foundation on the theories and techniques in drawing paves the way for better drawings.

This ebook mainly targets beginners in pencil drawing and those who wish to enhance their pencil drawing skills through other techniques and insights that one may find here.

If you are a beginner and want to be a good artist, go here!

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Drawing Fashion Sketches: From Modern To Trad

There would seem to be an abundance of really new fashion styles but if you look around in the stores, most styles are old hat. Some of the big houses do try and revamp style with accessories and color changes but if you remember last season's latest trend with this year, you will be disappointed to find they are pretty much the same.

Don't believe it? Check out Nordstrom's or Penny's, Sears or Old Navy to name a few. Many of these stores seem to aim their target market at the middle-age women and these style are really boring.

There are many top-of-the-line fashion stores where you can get plenty of fresh ideas. But why go there? Who sets the fashion trend? No, it is not usually some designer sitting behind a desk designing the latest fashion using Adobe Illustrator.

So who does set the trend? No, it is not Pantone who claim "A secret group of 10 people meet twice a year at the invitation of Pantone, a company based in New Jersey, to decide on the hottest fashion..." I don't think so.

Fashion, color and style are set by the top entertainers, Lady Gaga, Adele, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Beyonce and many others. Madonna use to set fashion styles but she has now taken a back seat.

Watch these stars carefully and note the colors, the styles (yukky or otherwise) and their accessories. Then with your creativeness, take it a step beyond and your designs will be showing at the top couturiers in no time!

.




Monday, August 22, 2011

Figure Drawings Over The Past Three Decades

I've been slacking here on these posts lately but not on my website. Recently I have looked into my archives for thousands of life drawings over the decades. Most of them are gesture drawings completed in about 10 to 15 minutes. All these were done in charcoal.

Go and have a peek at the web page I've created last week. You will find it here.

Being gesture drawings they are very rough but these can be quite dynamic with line and movement.

If anyone would like to do life drawing there is a wonderful group in Boulder, Colorado where they meet up three times a week. The sessions range from 5 minutes to half an hour with the mid week session is one long pose - mainly for painters.

There is also the Student League in Denver with weekly sessions. If you really want to be proficient at figure drawing, there is not shortcut but to go to one of these groups.


Wednesday, August 10, 2011

How To Sketch For Fun and Profit

Here is an article written by Mz Sock from the Philippines. She would like to share her views on How To Sketch For Profit. She has suggested to give comments on this article to help her climb the ladder of success in the literary world.

How to Sketch for Fun or Profit

What does the word Sketching bring to mind? A good way to kill time? Something to do when you're bored, right? All of these things? Yeah, probably. Sketching is a waste of time and energy! It gets you nowhere! That is a huge misconception. People tend to think of artists as homeless men and women, spending day in and day out by the street, making a living off of selling their paintings. Life, basically, sucks. Not in this day and age it doesn't! If you're an artist, someone who's interested in the arts, or just a really bored person doodling every class period away, you'd be glad and relieved to learn that you can not only sketch for fun but also for profit!

Sketching As A Hobby
Let us begin by exploring how you can sketch for fun. Sketching is very enjoyable (duh), whether you are a seasoned painter or someone who merely doodles every now and then in class. Sketching can be very therapeutic as it can act as a distraction. It also helps with something experts call “flow,” which is basically an almost meditative state that a person gets into when he or she is absorbed in doing a particular thing, such as sketching. Besides that, sketching also provides you with a hobby. When you have a hobby, you will feel like you have a more balanced lifestyle, you feel like you have a purpose in life. All of these are very relaxing, which is why sketching is fun.

Sketching For Law Enforcement
We will now discuss another benefit of sketching – profit. Contrary to popular belief, the fine arts do not doom you to a future of selling your paintings by the street. There are many opportunities at careers that require skilled sketchers. Firstly, there is the sketch artist. “Sketch artist?! Don't those only exist on TV?!” I hear you exclaim. No, they're real jobs for real people. If you are an avid fan of crime shows like CSI or Bones, you should definitely give this field further thought. As a sketch artist, you can either be in the police squad or the forensics unit. The police squad would require you to draw sketches of faces as described by victims. The forensics unit would usually require you to sketch with a computer software to reconstruct a crime scene.

Sketching For Entertainment
Next, we will look at another career field that an artist can go into. It is an obvious albeit interesting choice – a cartoonist! What does a cartoonist actually do? Well, have you ever flicked through the pages of a newspaper just to get to the comics section? The job of a cartoonist is to create content for that section. Of course, you don't have to limit yourself to newspapers; you can branch off into different media like comic books, magazines, or you can even do freelance work.
Society has always been appreciative of the fine arts, way back into the days of the Renaissance, the time when naked sculptures and paintings sprung up all over Europe. The problem lies in the way that the fine arts is interpreted, that you will only end up as a painter, a sculptor, or something along those lines. Times have changed, though, and sketching can now be used not only for fun and entertainment but also for legitimate business and career prospects. So, don't throw away all those smiley faces and hearts you drew in Math class; turn them into a portfolio!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Are Your Drawings Expressive Enough?

There are many drawings on show in some of the top museums in the country, many of them are expressionless and boring. Few of the old master's drawings are in this category.

So how can we make our drawings more expressive with an emotional message?

There are many ways of course--from the quality of your lines, thick or thin, light or dark or even the length can have an impact on the overall statement. The subject matter does make a difference, if it is the same old stuff regurgitated you are not going to create much impact.

Great drawings have to have a cohesion between the form being drawn to how it is being drawn. That also implies the quality of line you have used to express the emotions.

A jerky line can be expressionless whereas a bold line has character...there's no doubt a timid line can be expressive against a bold line to give the latter more strength.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

The Passing of One of India's Great Artists

Maqbool Fida Husain better known as MF Husain, was one of the great artists in the world. There are more than 60,000 paintings to his credit. He was born in a traditional Muslim family in British India in 1915.

During his childhood itself he had a passion for art and his father was very supportive. In 1935, Husain joined J.J.School of Arts in Mumbai. Before being recognized in the late 1940s, he had a tough time in Mumbai when he struggled financially. His first painting exhibition was held at Bombay Art Society in the year 1947.

Many successful exhibitions were held in Europe as well as America. He also tried his luck in the film industry. It was an honor for him that his first film Through the eyes of a painter earned the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Some of his paintings in which he depicted nude portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses brought up many controversies. Later in 2004, some Muslim organizations were against him as he used certain words from the Holy Quran in one of his films.

Again there arose objections against him as he painted Mother India as a nude woman. He apologized and went to live in exile to Dubai. After some years he got Qatar citizenship. He was honored with much recognition in India and his paintings were sold out for huge amounts. On June 9, 2011 he passed away at the Royal Brompton hospital in London.

Vishu Shaktar
June 2011

For Drawing Pencil Sketches

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Indian Film-Making Hero: An Art Form We'll Not Forget

Sathyagit Ray was a wonderful film maker of India. He had a great passion for film making where he brought real life stories into the movie business.

He was interested in artistic films rather than the commercial junk. His departure was quite a loss to the Indian film industry.

Influenced not only by film but affected by a humanitarian attitude of this wonderful art-form. Simplicity was the trademark of this hero but not only in India. His worldwide acceptance was mainly due to his humanistic approach to real life in India.

Ray made his films in Bengali which is a language spoken in west Bengal on the eastern state of India. In 1992 he achieved honorary academy award for lifetime achievements.

Ray's films are both cinematic and literary at the same time--it is sad to remember that today he is no longer with us but his films are still alive which is an asset to the nation.

Ray's film has a rare blend of intellect and emotion. His first film was Pather Panchali which established his reputation as a major film director by winning numerous awards. Ray directly controlled many aspects of film making. He wrote all screenplays many of which were based on his stories.

In addition to film making Ray was a composer, a writer and a graphic designer who wrote short stories, articles and novels in Bengali, also he made a significant contribution to children's literature in this language.

His stories were unpretentious and entertaining. The subjects include adventure, detective stories, fantasies, fiction and even horror movies.

Aditaya Drupada
Bengal

Monday, June 27, 2011

Painter of Light

 
One of my favorite contemporary artists is American Thomas Kinkade. Known as the “Painter of Light”, he is famous for serene but colorful light-filled scenes of beauty that seen more idealistic than real. Quaint cottages in the sunset, stormy seas crashing against lighthouses, pastel-tinted bridges over lilypad-covered water, these are all images that Kinkade imbues with his own way of highlighting with an ever-persistent glow. His paintings are viewed as inspirational, and he has spoken publicly about how his Christian beliefs impact his art.

Thomas Kinkade strikes a chord with the public so that he is also one of the more lucrative and well-known painters of modern day. He is one of America’s most collected artists. While his original paintings may be out of the price range of the average person, it is easy to find a likeness of a Kinkade painting on note-cards, mugs, ornaments, mousepads, and screensavers, to name a few. Prints of his paintings are popular, and even puzzles of his paintings have been known to be put together and framed as art.

Kinkade is a prolific painter of simple scenes of everyday life. His continues to evoke emotion and inspire people around the world with his unique, illuminated style.

Abraham Rosen

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Drawing Pencil Sketches Blog: Egon Schiele: THE Master of Drawing and Sketching

Go here for images of Egon Schiele: http://tinyurl.com/3uvqcrx

Egon Schiele: THE Master of Drawing and Sketching

He did mention that he had taken his art to "its fullest possible development" just prior to his death in October 1918, almost at the end of WW1.

He did make an outstanding contribution to self-expressionism in modern art, raising the bar far in excess of his peers (Gustav Klimpt is one) to achieve exemplary works of art.

Most of his drawings which I've seen personally in Amsterdam, are charged with energy not seen before in the world of art. It has all of Egon's emotions and feelings with his drawings becoming almost volatile.

No other artist in modern history has come close to his vitality.

He did base some of his paintings from photographs if you compare a painting of Adele Harms taken by Schiele with a photo he took earlier. This painting is mildly erotic which could explain a sexual tension between the artist and Adele!

Go here for images of Egon Schiele: http://tinyurl.com/3uvqcrx

Friday, June 24, 2011

Abstract Drawings Will Take You Beyond Realism

Powerful drawings of abstractions conjure strong emotional feeling if the viewer can relate to it. If the viewer can perceive the artists viewpoint, they can then be transported to other dimensions beyond 3D and/or above the 2D paper surface.

If one walks in the exhibition room with a closed viewpoint, this does not give the mind enough freedom to discover other elements the artist intended.

You do not have to be savvy in the art world to appreciate fine abstract drawings—only your perception of the lineal forms and the related tone values. Often the artist does point you in certain directions—but don't look at the finger, look towards the direction he is pointing—or what is beyond the drawing; this is very much like a koan.

If there is an essential feature in the artwork you recognize and can relate it to realism, you will be able to "feel" what is behind the abstractions.

There is no good definition of abstract drawing or abstract art and if there was something created with pure abstractions we would not be able to perceive it at all.

Any abstract drawing or painting, good or bad, must be able to communicate something to the viewer—even a bad drawing can invoke nausea.

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Conversations About Figure Drawing and Painting

Have you ever overheard conversations between people in a gallery presentation?

"Well, I don't think there will be a return to figure drawing in the foreseeable future. I mean, look at those figurative paintings plagiarized almost from the Fauves!"

One of the things creeping in from the younger generation are about the attacks on the so-called "know-it-all gallery owners" who denounce the student's mimicking the old master's.

But, take note, that today the young artist's have embraced abstraction with more passion than their peers.

Figure drawing is here to stay and will always be part of an artists' bag of forms to inspire his and others' creativity.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Ever been out drawing or painting landscapes?

The discomforts experienced by artists can sometimes be severe from force 10 gales, freezing temperatures, rain or snow, heat and quite a variety of insects.

Apart from that, you can get human invaders who, in their kindness, make flowery statements on how good it is or sometimes the occasional critique with "It does not look much like the scene--and the grass isn't red, it's green!"

Did you know the artist John Singer Sargent employed a manservant to carry all his art equipment? He painted landscapes to get away from all his commissioned portraits. I think that might have been quite a bore for him with his sitters' comments "Please make me look 10 years younger!"

For us poor artists without the means to employ a servant, we have to prepare for any contingency; sun glasses to cut down on glare, a sunshade, portable drawing boards, all our drawing materials and a comfortable stool. And don't forget the digital camera for recording things.

Soft pastels, charcoal and 4B pencils help the beginner to they can work rapidly to capture those fleeting moments.


Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Learning To Draw What You See

If you are seeing them realistically, then draw them that way. The proportions of course must be correct right down to the last detail.

To do this, your observation of the thing being drawn, the basic structure, must be sound but this is not always possible unless you are in a relaxed state of mind.

I have tried several times while drawing from life (figure drawing) while being tense about something outside of drawing class, and my sketches have reflected this emotion.

When your mind is totally focused on something else, your direct observation becomes flawed. This is my opinion but if you have observed otherwise please make a comment here.

Being able to draw something realistically does not make you an artist--far from it. A literal translation without self-expression means it is just a copy--like a photograph.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Doodling Along in Those Spare Moments

There is tremendous creativity in all of us, even those that tell me "I can't even draw a straight line!" This creativity is not pertaining only to drawing, it is across all the arts.

Most of these creative juices lie dormant in the depths of our unconscious minds. We do have the ability to delve through these doors by unblocking with the use of doodling on scraps of paper--without any thought of "quality" in the doodles.

When scribbling with a mass of lines and shapes, this can trigger images of abstract forms or things you see around you every day. Ever had a persistent thought during the day and it turns into a dream or nightmare at night? Similar kind of thing.

It is of great value when doodling (or scribbling) to give yourself freedom to improvise-- and not thinking about anything which is quite difficult to do.

When a thought enters your mind about anything insignificant in your doodle, follow it and see where it takes you. See if you can "feel" the form in 3D, great if you can and that is when you come up with some really creative ideas!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Heart Drawings: Make Yours Elegant and Understated For Great Effects

Don't forget to sign in for our monthly newsletters on Drawing and Sketching. Lots of news and comments as well as suggestions on how we can improve our skills.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Dynamics of Drawing

We love variety in all things whether that be TV programs, the food we eat (imagine having pasta every night) the vacation time in the same place or in our artwork--drawing or sketching. I get tired of repetitive things and love change like everyone else.

So how do we introduce variety into our drawings? It's all in the BIG C: composition.

Example: in your mind, which of these two pictures would you prefer. One, all dots aligned vertically and horizontally like a grid pattern--or two, the same size dots randomly scattered? You could also have lines equal distance apart or each line unequal.

I will be writing more about composition with illustrations in the next blog. You comments here are welcome.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Fashion Design Sketches


Creating Fashion Design Sketches


They say that food, shelter and clothing will never go out of business and the time has never been better for a career with fashion design sketches.

Read page here: http://tinyurl.com/6zvcvxc and discover creativity in Fashion Design.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Gesture Drawing For Beginners

Gesture drawing is the basic skill required to master the art of drawing.

To lessen the learning curve you can start off by drawing faces or figures of various people--fat ones, thin ones, scraggly ones, bearded, ugly, beautiful and all those in-between.

To capture these basic elements you apply gesture drawing which will only be a few basic lines showing the main characteristics only--leaving out all detail!

Drawing rapidly gives your drawing life and vitality and there is always less tendency to add detail which actually kills a drawing.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Drawing Without Boring

What makes a drawing boring?

Any sketch or drawing that is overworked because the artist (possibly inexperienced) does not know when to stop.

He/she thinks by adding more and more detail makes the art look more professional. The key is knowing exactly when to stop.

Put your painting away for a day or two, then, with a fresh eyes, re-evaluate. You will see quite a difference as you now have a different viewpoint. You will notice the weak and strong points in your drawing or design.

Another test is to hold your artwork up to a mirror—you may well be surprised with what you see!

Friday, June 3, 2011

You should see this...

Robert D. Steele, former spy, the son of an oil man, blows the cover off all the mess that is going on. LISTEN UP to what he says, if it's the last thing you do. The government needs to be fired along with the electoral reform system. Spread the News! UNITED WE STAND! DIVIDE WE FALL! We bloggers and those who make videos (vloggers) do make a difference. You are the Paul Reveres and Patrick Henry's of our generation. You are the intelligence minutemen of the age. We have the power. Take it back!

Some states have already seceded from the Union of the once United States of America. Take back what belongs to you, what you worked for and for your families. Most important, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you in these dark days ahead. A storm is coming on the horizon. Be ready! Stand Strong!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttDF9ATr57E&feature=player_embedded

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Do you want to sketch a car, but have no idea what to do or where to start? Fortunately, you have stumbled across the perfect beginner's guide to sketching cars.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6315678

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Drawing Effectively With Passion and Expertise

Drawing Effectively With Passion and Expertise: "Is there such a thing as an innate ability to draw well? Let's probe a little to see if we can come up with some answers.

We all know there are many people with no inherent ability to draw well but have a passion to develop their drawing skills.

Of course, drawing is more than getting an exact likeness in a portrait or figure study. Drawing as well as any other art genre is mainly about self-expression of the subject being drawn which should be as unique as one's own handwriting. It carries the artists' emotions and experiences, viewpoints and the ability to transform 3D objects to flat non-dimensional surfaces that tell a story.

An audience will respond to any art form according to their education, their experiences in life, the emotional feeling at the time of viewing the art-which can vary considerably and, more importantly, the originality in the art that tells one about the artist.

There are many art teachers who believe that formal training in drawing (as in the Renaissance period) stultifies the development of originality. This is observable in most pre-schools and the lower grades when it is passively enforced by 'This is the correct way to draw a tree.'

The final aim should not be learning to observe and draw shapes and forms accurately, but to develop a unique vision by his or her creative interpretation while making a concise statement. The fewer lines drawn mean a more concise drawing with pizzazz. Look at Rembrandt's drawings for absolute economy of line.

If you can draw really well like Rafael or Rubens then it is time to throw your guidebook in the trash can as you will no longer need guidance from any quarter.

Don't give up the disciplines of drawing well 'because it has not room in modern art' but once a firm drawing skill has been developed with accuracy, verve, simplicity of line-you can then add originality with your expertise for an impressive audience response.

The great artists knew their basics so well they did not have to think 'Now what is the best way to create this scene?' or 'What two colors make that dark hue?' because they did it on autopilot and gave intense thought to their 'message' to create an original art piece to tell a complete story.

Interestingly, Michelangelo said 'You would not think I was a genius if you knew how hard I worked!' He of course knows the basics so well-and applied originality with his expertise to create masterpieces.

- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Drawing Pencil Sketches

Drawing Effectively With Passion and Expertise



Saturday, April 16, 2011

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Friday, April 8, 2011

Thursday, April 7, 2011

3D Sketching for the beginner

Friday, March 18, 2011

Learn How To Draw Online In Your Own Time and Way

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

New pages on site www.drawing-pencil-sketches.com/

Monday, March 7, 2011