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