Drawings of Flowers
Here is a video clip test on how to draw flowers. There will be other clips within a week or two aimed at beginners on how to draw specific things. They will be very short clips of about a minute or so.

Artwork Inspired By What?

I see plenty of well executed drawings on DeviantArt but they are not truly original. If it is an original or pure creation and not been seen anywhere before then it could be quite inspirational.

My muse has not been visiting me for some time now and so I have to think outside the proverbial, see if there is anything at all which will give me some direction towards originality.

Sure, it is easy to get ideas from images that have been manipulated with p/shop but there is that p/shop style that smacks you in the face and you think "Yeah, just another one - didn't we see that last week?" And more of this stuff creeps in on Pinterest and other social media website.

Is it possible to be truly creative with your artwork with something that has never been seen or done before? I don't know the answer to this question so I'll just have to hang in until my muse shows up.

Drawing Pencil Sketches

Just released a trial video clip on YouTube all about Drawings of Flowers. This is clip #1 in this series and being a trial run I have not yet put in voice-over. But check it out and let me have feedback. There is a link here to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB6e2pmFUrQ&feature=g-upl

Drawing Pencil Sketches

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

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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.