Drawing From Photos or Not?

Drawing Pencil Sketches

If you love painting from a photo which is often more simple than drawing from life, your drawing can be a bit lifeless unless you stretch your imagination a bit.

As we're all artistss, do we not then have the ok to be fresh with our drawings in any way we like? Can't we devise great art by using our imagination instead of being robotic? Sure we can, mainly from real life or from photos, and there have been many high-quality artists who have created directly from snapshots.

You have the right and choice to go along with your imagination by using solid reasoning and your own experiece. Pencil sketching from a photo is a great place to start off learning all about how to use a pencil, how to shade and other  things like what to draw on, type of paper etc

Drawing from a photo makes us use our minds on what to draw and what to draw on, how strong or weak the lines have to be or where the shading should be placed. It's our choice.

Actually, if you are a cartoonist and like to overstate the features, play down other characteristics with the idea to make it three dimensional, then use a photo? It's great for doing caricatures and cartoons.

With a little experience under your belt, you will be able to create your sketch from a photo exactly as you want it to be. The key is to work out what is best for you and that comes with a little practice.

It is not a good idea to trace the photo as that really makes it look wooden and unnatural. The best drawings are always done freehanded with no aids at all and that gives it YOUR own unique handwriting.

Let's Draw Shall We?

Much progress can be made in your drawing by establishing your attitudes i.e. if you have the dreaded "I can't Draw" syndrome. Everyone can draw and, as I've mentioned before, art or drawing is not an inherent ability, it's a developed ability through learning.

So line up these basics:
* Set aside 30 minutes of your time with no interruptions
* Phones should be disconnected
* Get your sketchbook out with sharpened pencils
* Sit in a comfortable chair that gives you the correct posture
* Get a medium felt marker (a marker so you avoid using an eraser)
* Next: draw a scene with a house, people and a few trees

Learn to be relaxed as you draw. Write down any thoughts or emotions you have as you draw. This is important to follow up with.

Do not try and evaluate or analyze your drawing, that comes later. Remember, the main reason people can't draw is because they reinforce the notion that they "Can't Draw." So NO self evaluation at this stage.

Drawing skills are developed as we learn new skills. Gradually, it becomes a fun thing to do and you'll love it!

What's YOUR Genre of Art and Its Application?

There are zillions of ways to apply paint, goo, graphite, ink, watercolor etc to as many surfaces to apply it!

You can blow paint on canvas besides the tradition brush method, you can dribble the paint a la Jackson Pollack, you can throw paint on as David Hockney has done, use kitchen utensils to apply paint, rags and many other things that can hold paint.

And the "canvas" can be silk, paper, cardboard, masonite, glass, concrete and another million or so surfaces to attack.

By getting paint airborn (throwing it on or dribbling from a can) in random fashion, can this be called art? Applying different ways of getting paint on a canvas is taught quite a lot in schools which is, in a way, creative and gets the student to think outside the box. But can this art have any merit?

What I've found is the student who applies the "airborn" method usually does not know when to stop and the overall effect looks like a mess.

How To Draw Meme Faces and Other Farcical Drawings

So you want to learn how to draw meme faces and similar crudish parts of humans? Well, you've come to the right place where you can be truly creative in your sketches.

First thing is to get some drawing instrument perferable something blunt and dirty—the dirt really helps the drawing look even more amateurish—then get a piece of drawing paper with coffee or tea stains on it, this also helps with the "grunge" effect and adds an even more tacky look. Yeah, the tackier it is, the more people love it. Think viral.

Next will be for you to draw a blob, or something like a blob—or,in other words, a meaningless shape. The shape can be similar to a deformed humanoid where genetics have not been kind.

Once you have this blob in place, do not give any thought to where the bulging eyes will be placed. Take a blind stab at placement and you'll be pretty near the correct position. Remember, it does not have to look "right." If it looks really ugly, you are doing well.

The nose feature is unimportant, just place a slash where you can find space and it should be fine. One of the important things (nothing is important in this drawing) is the mouth where ripe profanities emerge, this you may have to give some thought to unless you're the kinda guy that uses the "F" work in every sentence then your drawing should be a hit.

The final step is to draw with your blunt drawing tool a few non-meaningless words that do not make sense. Take a look at it and really this first drawing of yours should be a viral HIT. If you have tried to refine it in any way it will not go viral.

Copying The Old Masters by The Masters

Obviously one does not acquire a unique style of art by copying or by emulating a master. The beginners' target in copying the masters is to grasp the understanding behind the old masters' technique.

Hopefully this will help the student develop his or her own handwriting in drawing forms. Constable did copy a landscape by Ruisdael whom he admired but made copius notes in his sketches and with all the subtle nuances and the overall design of Ruisdael's landscape. It is worth comparing the two together.

A pen and ink study by Delacroix copied an etching by Goya but Delacroix changes the momentum and pace giving a vibrancy which takes the copy far apart from Goya.

The bright student in copying others' work does not enjoy an intimacy than a professional layman might. The copycat can grasp the positioning and how the forms protrudes in space, meanwhile the complexity in the original is often lost, even by the layman.

The old practice of using triangle, circles, rectangles, and s-curves over a great work of art is really silly. What does one gain by over-analysing a famous piece of art? Most of the old masters had a sixth sense about form and structure as it related to a spiritual awareness NOT a physical one! This is the primary downfall of the student.

If you can climb out of this physical universe (and remain exterior to it) you will become aware of energy flows and how even physical forms (not humans) put out and pull in vibrations. Ever watched a solar flare? It's a little like that.

John Constable Landscape

What Are The Functions of Line in Drawing?

We all know there is an endless variety of lines in drawing, some expressive others boring. I do not know of many artists who practice on a conscious level the quality of their lines.

What is line quality? Well, there are meandering lines, curved ones, emphatic and flowing, ziz-zag and other infinite possibilities.

The image here is Vincent van Gogh's The Bridge at L'Anglots completed in China ink. Notice the varying line characteristics from bold to meandering and how his lines indicated the forms almost in 3D.

Try this exercise: copy small sections of this drawing and "feel" the contours of the forms. Do not slavishly copy unless you want your drawing to become "wooden."

When you start your drawing, think of the type of line you think is most suited to your work. Work freely without too much thought and if impulse takes over your drawing should be quite creative and part of YOU!

Drawing implies lines thick or thin, strong or not, suggesting direction, volume and form. It also has width and texture. As lines change direction, new dynamics come into play as the line curves around which begins to describe the form.

The beginning student cognites he or she has a powerful tool in their hands. A simple drawing can express feelings and emotions that words cannot—even Shakespeare would not be able to find the words!

Every line or scribble or doodle reflects something of the person holding the pencil. An experienced artist know most if not all the emotions in human nature and can use this to great effect in his drawings. The purpose of the drawing should be to create an effect of one sort or another on the viewer.

The effect could be political, humorous, apathy about the economy, the poor people of Africa's plight and a myriad of other things. Words can be spun and become meaningless or outright lies but a drawing can create quite an impact from a professional's pencil.

Drawing by Willem de Kooning