Pencil Drawing Lesson

By Darren WK Chow

The first question you should be asking yourself is, "What is it that you are going to draw". Choosing and deciding on the subject can make or break your pencil drawing.

I suggest choosing something that you're comfortable drawing (that means taking your skill level into consideration) and the subject should be something that you're interested in drawing. Also take into consideration the amount of time that you're going to spend on your drawing.

If you don't have the time, try not to choose a subject that's too ambitious. Two things may happen here. You'll either get bored with the drawing due to lack of interest, or you run out of time and so the drawing is left unfinished.

Try to avoid these mistakes.

Once you have decided on your subject, it's time to start your drawing. Prepare the following tools: (1) a range of pencils from 2B - 8B, (2) ordinary drawing paper, and (3) kneaded eraser.

You need a range of pencils because that will help you in achieving the many different tones of shades that's so crucial to your drawing. In a monochrome drawing, that's the only thing that'll help you describe shapes, contours, dimension and depth.

And if you're wondering if the paper matters in a pencil drawing, the answer is yes. If you're more particular about the surface that you're going to draw on, note that there's two types of drawing paper that you'll commonly come across.

The first type is cold pressed drawing paper (also commonly known as NOT paper). This type of paper has a textured surface and is commonly used with watercolors. However, you can use it for any drawing or painting if you feel it's appropriate.

The second type of paper is hot pressed drawing paper. This is the opposite of NOT paper. Its surface is smooth, making it the ideal drawing surface for pencil drawings. That's because it's easier to blend on a smooth surface. Experiment with both types of paper to see which type you prefer. I would recommend smooth surface drawing paper.

The kneaded eraser is a soft eraser that you can pinch and mold into any shape. It's dust free and commonly used to aid in creating highlights in a drawing by using it to pick up lead on the paper. 

And there's one more tool that will help you but it's optional. It's called a paper stump or a tortillion. A tortillion is used for blending and spreading lead around on the paper. It creates a more consistently blend than fingers.

Yes, you can use your fingers if you want but I like to keep mine clean. Besides, tortillions are very affordable. 

Once you have these tools ready, you're set to go.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com]

Article Source: Pencil Drawing Lesson

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Drawing Tutorials For Beginners

By Darren WK Chow

So what makes a good drawing tutorial for beginners? The keyword here is "beginner", so it's a little bit different from ordinary drawing tutorials that usually assume that you already know something about drawing.

There are many reasons why someone might want to pick up drawing. Some say it runs in the family, while others say they haven't been able to find time but would like to try it out now. Whatever the reason may be, if you're the kind of person who's very fickle minded and always change direction to pursue various interest, you may find that you'll not be very successful. Your attention will be diluted, and you'll find that your hobby will be short-lived.

But if you're really serious and passionate about learning how to draw, good for you! If you can stick it through and be patient when it comes to foundation building, you'll come to reap the rewards of drawing in the not too distant future.

Speaking of foundation building, that should be your primary goal if you're a beginner. Drawing is not difficult to learn, but it does require some practice. Remember that there's no magic pill, so no matter how good a drawing tutorial is, it's not going to help you if you don't practice.

Nevertheless, good drawing tutorials can still help you to accelerate your learning process. What you need is step-by-step instructions on how to draw, which is what I always stress in my home study course.

The best foundation building tutorials are those that isolate various elements of a drawing and walk you through how to accomplish each step. Afterwards, you'll be able to see for yourself how the whole drawing actually comes together.

Also, good drawing tutorials for beginners should also focus on repetition. That means if there's a key point to take note of, the good tutorials remind you of them. Otherwise, there's a very high chance that you may forget about the whole process once you finish reading the tutorial.

Again, don't forget to take the time build a strong foundation if you're just starting out. If not, you'll find that you may run into a host of unwanted problems later on when you learn the more advanced techniques.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com].

Article Source: Drawing Tutorials For Beginners

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How to Draw Great Pencil Sketches

By Darren WK Chow

It's easy to be impressed by any drawing that's drawn by a skilled pencil artist. A skilled pencil artist can sketch a drawing with such fine details that it looks almost like a black and white photograph. How do they achieve this realistic effect?

First, let's start by understanding that there's nothing complicated about making a pencil sketch. At least when it comes to the tools involved, there's just pencil and paper. There's no color mixing, no drying times, and other complications compared to working with paints. But if it's so simple, why do some art students still find it difficult to master pencil sketching? 

The answer lies in two areas: the observational skills of the artist, and the mastery of the pencil. Let's talk a little bit about using the pencil.

This is a technique thing. For instance, there are many different levels of pencil blends that can be achieved with different pencils, and not artists are able to achieve a wide range of blending effects. As a result, they're limited by their own skills in terms of expressing themselves on paper. 

One popular technique is called the hatching, or the cross hatching technique, which is basically shading by using lines. Another popular technique is called the caressing technique, where you use a paper stump or a finger to create smooth blends. A combination of these techniques allow the pencil artist to eloquently capture the desired effects on paper. 

The other thing that sets the students apart from the masters is the observational skills. Different artists observe and perceive things differently. They also have different concepts and thoughts about the things they see and usually come up with different interpretations based on their past experiences.

Some artists choose to draw close to reality, while others choose to express their ideas. Depending on what's more important to the artist, the end result can be very different.

But remember that the fundamentals of drawing remains the same. Strengthen the fundamentals and use your skills as a way to express your own artists. If you can do so, you're on your way to drawing great pencil sketches.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com]

Article Source: How to Draw Great Pencil Sketches

How to Draw Lips

By Darren WK Chow

In order not to spoil a portrait, it's important for art students to practice drawing individual parts of the face so that when the whole drawing comes together, it'll come out right. Most students who fail to draw a portrait successfully find that they do not have a strong drawing foundation yet. In other words, when it comes to drawing lines, drawing shapes, blending, working with contours and shadows, they're still struggling. No wonder the portrait doesn't come out right. You can tell that an art student's foundation is weak when he or she tells you that the faces always come out looking the same.

That's because these students keep drawing the same shapes over and over again without realizing it. They are not drawing what they see, but rather what they think they see. And they keep drawing noses that look alike, lips that look alike and so on. That's why the faces always come out looking alike.

To avoid this problem. art students can try taking the different features of a face apart and focus on drawing just one part: e.g. the lips. Start by building a large collection of lips images. Use them as reference images and work on just drawing lips alone.

The whole point of doing an exercise like this is to allow the student to pay attention to the subtle differences on the lips. To achieve this goal, drawing close-ups of lips will be particularly helpful. 

Further separate the lips into the upper lip, and the lower lip. What happens when you have a thicker upper lip? What happens when you have a thicker lower lip? What happens when both lips are thin and so on. How do the lips appear when a person smiles? How about a laugh? 

You'll find that lips can indeed take on many shapes and forms. Don't be put off just because there are so many different shapes and forms that the lips can take on. Instead, try matching each shape and form with the behavior of the subject. For example, when a lady is pouting, what is she thinking? This will make your lip drawing exercises more interesting.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com].

Article Source: How to Draw Lips

How To Draw Realistic Hair - 3 Easy Steps

How To Draw Noses

By Darren WK Chow

Knowing that, what I've done is that I've gone ahead an isolated each feature of the face in my home study course to zoom in on how to draw each part really well.

When you sit done to think about it, drawing portraits is all about the sum of all features. When you can draw each feature really well, the only thing that's between you and a really great portrait is the proportions. There's a systematic way to nail proportions every time but for this article, we'll talk more about how to draw a nose.

There're many different types of noses that we may come across. Flat noses, pointed noses, long noses, short noses and so on. First, you have to decide if (for the face that you're drawing) the nose is a prominent feature.

Some people just have prominent noses naturally. For instance, the eyes and mouth can be very tiny, allowing the nose to stand out. 

If it is a key feature on the face, then you'll have to pay more attention to the shades and details of the nose to make sure that it stands out. To draw a nose, you have to know two crucial measurements. 

Measure the height of the nose (from top to bottom) and with width (from one nostril to the other). That'll help you determine the shape and form of the nose really quickly. However, just having these two measurements are not good enough. The drawing is still just two dimensional.

To make it look real, pay a little attention to the ball of the nose. You can't really use lines to bring out the ball of the nose. So you'll have to rely on your shading skills. Shading is always useful for bringing out three dimensional effects. 

Once you get the tones of the shades right, the nose should come out really nicely. Try drawing just noses for practice, then move on to the other features of the face.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com].

Article Source: How To Draw Noses

Portrait Drawing Techniques For Children - Ages 9-12

By Tara Scott

What would you think if I told you that children as young as age 9 years old can be taught how to draw realistic portraits of people? Impossible? You may think because of their age they haven't fully graduated from drawing animation characters, and using color markers, and construction paper. Yes, your child can learn how to draw realistic people portraits using the (five tones of shading, a high quality black and white photo, 8" x 10" plastic acetate sheet grid, gridded 8" x 10" drawing paper, and a 1/2" cardboard square viewfinder). By using these basic drawing techniques and drawing materials your child will be able to draw a realistic portrait within two hours without taking any previous drawing lessons from an instructor, or ever picking up a sketching pencil and drawing paper.

Are you still puzzled? I was, and I am still puzzled today. I was an independent Art Teacher teaching at Michael's Art and Crafts, located in Waldorf, MD on Saturday's. I noticed in my area a lack of art classes available for children ages (5-12). Most of the art instructors taught art to individuals ages 13 to adults. But know one wanted to teach the younger children, or it was hard to find an art teacher close by who would have the patience to teach younger kids, because of their short attention span.

I thought to myself. If a child can learn how to draw animals, landscapes, and animation characters using basic shapes such as a (circle, straight line, angle, curve, and square). They can apply these shapes to draw a realistic portrait of a person. I started reading articles on the Internet and other reference materials on how children learn how to read, write, and draw. I then incorporated my research into a six-week portrait drawing workshop for children ages (9-12).

I learned when a child learns how to read, write, and draw, everything is upside down, or right to left. In other words, they read from right to left instead of left to right. Instead of drawing right side up like adults do. A child will turn their photo upside down to draw, like they are looking in a mirror were everything is in reverse. So I came up with a fun and creative portrait drawing workshop by combining children's games, 5, 10, 15 minute drawing time drills, grid line drawing, light and shadowing or toning, upside down reverse drawing, etc . I had to think like a child, and reverse the way I was taught how to draw into the way a child learns how to draw.

For example, by the fourth week of classes the students were ready for time drills. You say time drills that sounds like they are in military school. Not quite, time drills helps the student to focus on the shapes, expression, and movement of the subject without using shading. The basics of this technique is to remind the students to draw the subject exactly the way they see it without stopping. The students were given a cartoon character to draw in five minutes such as Mickey Mouse or any cartoon character. I would tell them not to rush because five minutes is a long time. Some students finished sketching the character in less than three minutes. If they finished before the five minutes were up they could go back for the two additional minutes to correct their mistakes and erase out unnecessary lines. The students would do this exercise for one hour alternating between (five to fifteen minutes time drills) sketching as many as six drawings or more.

Another great exercise is the upside down reverse drawing. The students were given a 8"x 10" black and white photo, a plastic acetate gridded sheet, and 8" x 10" gridded paper. The students were instructed to turn the photo upside down, place the plastic acetate gridded sheet on top of the photo. What they are now seeing is the photo divided into (8) squares (horizontally), and (10) squares (vertically). The number of squares on the acetate gridded sheet, should be the same number of squares on the gridded paper. Instead of focusing on the photo the students are now focusing on the shapes, and tones of the subject in each square. The purpose of this exercise is for the students to draw and shade in the shapes exactly how they see it in each square. In other words, its like playing connect the lines, or connect the dots. Once the exercise is completed they now have a portrait of a person with the right placement of the eyes, ears, nose, mouth without spending time making corrections. All of the corrections of the portraits can now be finalized by turning the paper right side up and erasing unnecessary lines and heavy shading.

 You may think that you need years of drawing experience to draw a realistic portrait. However, I found that to be false. I have taught students with no drawing experience, and some with a few years of drawing experience. Anyone with the desire to want to learn how to draw can do it. The three key points to remember is:

1) Patience - Go at your own pace. Do not compare yourself to other artists, or you will get frustrated and want to quit.

2) Technique and Style - Everyone has their own unique style. Choose a drawing or painting medium that you feel comfortable using. For instance, if you enjoy using oil painting, but feel uneasy about exploring with watercolors. Stick to the oil painting.

3) Practice - I always say this to my students. Practice makes perfect. Then practice again and again.

Article published on the Intuit Business Directory website (4/2/09). To see samples of my students artwork projects visit [http://www.yourelegantportrait.com]

Tara A. Scott

Owner

Your Elegant Portrait

"Specializing in Memorial (people, pets) and Special Events Portraits (weddings, birthdays, proms, graduations, babies birth, anniversaries)"

email:  [mailto:tarascott@yourelegantportrait.com]tarascott@yourelegantportrait.com

(301) 638-2749 (Washington Metropolitan Area)

1(866) 446-5547 (toll-free)

Article Source: Portrait Drawing Techniques For Children - Ages 9-12

How to Draw People - A Beginner's Guide

By Sharon Rosa

A common challenge among artists, especially beginners, is learning how to draw people. The human form is complex and can be moved into an infinite variety of poses, making it difficult to draw a person accurately even once and especially difficult to draw someone consistently in more than one pose. However, there are a few simple steps which can be used to help draw any individual, in any pose.

Gesture Line The gesture line or "action line" is a curve which marks the general direction a body is moving in. Even in a seemingly static pose, the gesture line is useful to show the lean of the body and help when it comes time to lay in the angles of the hips and shoulders. 

Other Guidelines Once the gesture line is drawn in, other guidelines are placed to help ensure correct proportions. Exact proportions vary from person to person, but in general, an adult is about eight heads tall. The torso and upper arms take up the length of two heads, with the elbows reaching the waist. The pelvis takes up another head's space, with the wrists reaching the bottom of the pelvis. The remaining four head lengths make up the legs and feet of the figure.

Keeping these proportions in mind, it is easy to add other guidelines to your gesture line. The most common form of guidelines is a stick-figure "skeleton" consisting of lines to mark the angles of the shoulders, hips, arms, and legs, with an oval for the head. Many artists will also add ovals for the ribcage and pelvis, small circles to indicate the elbows and knees, or roughly blocked-in hands and feet.

Filling Out the Figure With the skeleton complete, it's time to fill in the rest of the shapes to indicate the volume of the figure. Here it's especially important to pay close attention to your subject -- note whether the limbs and body are fat, skinny, muscular, average, etc. It's easy to make mistakes at this stage, so sketch in very lightly to begin with and continuously check your work. Avoid making any lines straight or flat -- the human body is full of curves and often even lines which look straight at first are in reality slightly curved.

Finishing the Drawing By this point you should have a rough drawing of your subject, and now you're ready to refine the details so the drawing is fully recognizable. Smooth out lines for the skin and sketch in the clothing, paying careful attention to how it folds and drapes around the body. Add fingers and flesh out the hands -- as with forming the overall figure, this is usually easiest if you start with a "skeleton" consisting of an oval or rectangle for the palm and sticks for the fingers, then add form from there. 

The hair and face of your subject are the most important elements in making a truly recognizable drawing. Use a vertical guideline to mark the middle of the face and horizontal guidelines to mark the location of the eyes, nose, and mouth. Be sure to have the guidelines curve to match the roundness of the face -- otherwise your drawing will look flat and unrealistic. When drawing the hair, start with the general shape and work down, drawing the hair in clumps before trying to draw individual strands. Except for a few places around the edges of the hairstyle or in very unusual styles, individual strands won't affect the look of the finished drawing. Drawing the hair in larger chunks and then texturing it with rough strokes is faster and will look the same. 

Now, you have a finished drawing which was made using steps you can easily repeat whenever you please. As you may have realized, some elements of the drawing process will be different for every drawing -- such as the gesture line, which changes from pose to pose -- but others, such as proportions, will be nearly the same or, in the case of drawing the same person repeatedly, completely identical. By keeping these elements in mind you can draw anyone accurately and consistently.

Sharon Rosa

Artist & Illustrator [http://torncanvas.net/howtodrawpeople/]

Article Source: How to Draw People - A Beginner's Guide

How to Draw People

By Christopher Guiles

It's only natural that as people, most artists want to be able to know how to draw people. It's a handy skill to have, as well, as being able to sketch out a picture of a friend or loved one makes for a great gift.

A great place to start when learning how to draw people is the head. Start with some sketched circles, it doesn't have to be perfect. You'll be leading the facial features at the lower part of the front, but a basic circle will provide decent framework. Now that you've got your circle, draw a vertical and horizontal line from top to bottom and side to side, but stop for a moment. 

Try to think of your head as being three dimensional and slightly facing down and to the right or left. Now without looking straight on, but more off centered a bit, imagine where the eyes, mouth, and nose would be and draw the lines between the eyes for the vertical, and just above the mouth and below the nose. You can think of the head as more of a globe in these early stages. Once you have those two framing lines circling your globe, you can go about working in the eyes, nose, mouth, all of the basic facial features really. It's a lot easier once you have a reference point.

Moving along with how to draw people and down the form, we can go to the neck. Remember the neck in the back is largely a continuation of the head, whereas in the front of the head it the chin cuts in maybe a third of the way before coming down. Come out to begin to form the shoulders. Don't worry too much about muscle definition or anything towards that end yet. You can sketch in some toning lines here or there, but you can add the majority later, right now we're just concerned with getting the basic structure together.

The next step in how to draw people covered will be the chest. You can use another three dimensional circle like you did for the head here as well. The top side areas of the circle where it curves off can be used as a basis for setting the arm pits, and from there you can fill in the arms and connect them to the shoulders. Use the same idea for the vertical line to divide the chest and ribcage. 

Finishing up the lesson on how to draw people, it's pretty straightforward from here on. It's largely up to you as to where you want to begin to transition from the chest/stomach into the legs in terms of how far you want to expand and how high up you'll do it. Make sure you come out somewhat to make it more realistic and get away from the image of the stick man. The knee joints will have a little definition, and the calves will come out a little, as well, before narrowing out again and ending with the feet.

Now that you have the basic form down, you can add more features, definition, tone, and muscle and bone structure by adding in marks here and there. Remember sketching can go a long way. For hundreds of step by step illustrations as well as a wealth of information on the art of drawing, visit http://yourreviewsite.com/learntodraw/index.html and learn the secrets of drawing as well as the famous artists of past and present.

Article Source: How to Draw People

How to Draw People - Simple Steps to Get Proportions Right

By Todd T Harris

Most artists will agree that learning how to draw people is one of the most challenging techniques to master. With so many distinct characteristics, proportions, settings, poses, lighting, and more, even the smallest mistake can ruin the entire work. This task can be simplified by keeping a few key elements in mind and following these easy steps.

Now take into mind, this is only one of many ways to draw people. There are several different methods that can be taught. This is one that is enjoyed by beginners because it helps to keep the proportions correct.

The first step when learning how to draw people is to keep proportions in check and start off by drawing the head. One of the best ways to keep proportion accurate on your page is to take your pencil, hold it up in the air in front of you and line it up with your model. Hold the tip of the pencil at the very top of where you see the model's head, and then use your thumb or forefinger to mark on the pencil where the model's chin is located. Holding this measurement, lay the pencil down on your paper and mark these guidelines. Once you have these rough guidelines you can then draw the head to the proper scale, adding details now or at the completion of your drawing.

The next step for how to draw people is drawing the feet. Since you have completed the head to an accurate scale, drawing the feet second helps to keep the remainder of the body proportionate. This is done by using the common rule of thumb that assumes an average sized person is approximately seven heads tall (including the head). This means that the feet should be located seven times the length of the head downward. To do this, begin from the bottom of the head you have already drawn, even if you only drew a simple oval shape to mark the place of the head, and draw six more ovals of the same size end to end down the center of the page. This may look strange or seem as though the figure will be too tall, but once the remainder of the body fills in you will notice this is quite accurate. The bottom of the last oval marks the location where the bottom of the complete foot will be situated.

Now that you have the entire length of the body drawn, you can begin to mark other key points that will help your person take shape and come to life. The third step of how to draw people is to locate and accentuate the appendages (arms and legs), the hips, and the waist. This process is the same for both male and female drawings and begins with the third oval down on the page. This oval marks where the elbows will fall, as well as where the waist is located. Once you have the location of the elbows, the rest of the arm can be drawn from there. Half way down the oval below the waist is where the hips are located, and the legs can be drawn below that location. Now that you have the rough outline of the figure arranged in exact proportion, you can go back and add as much or as little detail as you desire.

The same basic principles can be followed for determining how to draw people in a sitting position as well. The instructions are the same as above, however instead of using seven ovals, only five are needed. This modification compensates for the space lost at the waist when sitting.

Todd Harris is a master artist who has been helping people learn how to draw people for years. He works for a multi-billion dollar company as a concept art director. He is trained in the Florence Academy Method. To see some free articles and tips on how to draw visit, [http://www.learning2draw.com]. For the best video instructions on how to draw people visit his new site at [http://www.alldrawnout.com].

Article Source: How to Draw People - Simple Steps to Get Proportions Right