Learn to Draw a Horse at Drawspace

Here's another of my drawings from a lesson at Drawspace.

Grendel Gremlin - Lesson at Drawspace

Here's a one of my drawings from a lesson over at Drawspace.

Drawing the Structure of the Head and Face

Proportions of the Human Head

To draw the human head accurately, first become familiar with the basic proportions. Traditional rules of proportion show the face divided into six equal squares, two by three. The upper horizontal division is roughly at the 'third eye' level mid-forehead, the lower at the base of the nose. The eyes sit on the horizontal centre, the mouth on the centre of the lower third.



If you are skeptical of such simple mathematics, try it out on some models in magazines - it works! While this is an ideal which does not account for racial and individual variation, observing these basic proportions gives you a starting point to measure against.

By ensuring your basic proportions are correct to begin with, you will avoid major re-draws at a later stage of the drawing.

To construct a well-proportioned head, follow these simple steps.

• Begin with a ball. 
• Drop a line from mid-forehead to the chin. 'Slice off' a circle at the side of the head, and from the front of this circle, curve a line down to the chin. Complete the plane of the face with a line on the other side. Now add the jawline. 
• Construct the nose, indicate mouth and chin position and elongate skull slightly. (The distance from chin to crown is almost the same as from forehead to the back of the skull).

Drawing Tips - Top 10 Mistakes Beginners Make

Common Drawing Errors and How to Fix Them

By Helen South

Because drawing is often self-taught, you tend to keep making mistakes much longer than when a teacher is available to help. Here are the 10 most common mistakes beginners make when they learn to draw. Some big, some small, all fixable. Check and see whether these errors crop up in your drawings, and get some tips on fixing them.

1. Drawing With a Hard Pencil

If you have no very dark shadows and the whole picture is rather pale, check your pencil. Are you using a Number2 (HB) pencil? These are too hard to draw with (though they are handy for light shading). Get a B, 2B and 4B for darker values.

2. Portraits from Flash Photography

This is the major cause of beginner drawing problems. Using flash photography flattens the features, giving you nothing to work with. When the person is facing you, it is very hard to see the modeling of the face, as the perspective vanishes behind their head, and add a cheesy snapshot grin and you make life very hard! Have the person turning slightly to one side so you can model their face, with natural lighting to give good skin-tones, and a natural expression to show their real personality.

3. Incorrect Head Proportions

Because of the way we focus on a person's features, we usually draw them too big and squash the rest of the head.

4. Twisted Features

Because we are used to looking at a person straight-on, we naturally try to make their features look level when we draw them. If their head is on an angle, this results in strange distortions in the picture. Sketch guidelines first to ensure that the features are on the same angle as the rest of the face.

5. Pet Drawings from Human Eye Level

When you take a photograph standing up, you are looking down at your pet. They have to look up, and you end up with their head seeming much bigger than their body, and a rather odd expression on their face. Have someone distract them so they aren't staring down the lens, and squat down so the camera is at their head level, and you'll get a much better reference photo.

6. Being Afraid of Black

Often when shading, the shadows don't go past dark gray. If your value range is restricted to in some cases half what it ought to be, you are limiting the modeling and depth in your drawing. Put a piece of black paper at the corner of your drawing, and don't be afraid to go dark. Really dark.

7. Outlining in Value Drawings

When value drawing, you are creating an illusion with areas of tonal value. When you use a hard drawn line to define an edge, you disrupt this illusion. Let edges be defined by two different areas of tonal value meeting.

8. Drawing on the Wrong Paper

If your drawing is pale, it might be the paper. Some cheap papers have a sheen on the surface that is too smooth to grab the particles off the pencil. A thick notepad has too much 'give' under the pencil to allow you to apply enough pressure. Try a basic photocopy/office paper, or check the art store for cheap sketch paper. Place a piece of card under a couple of sheets to give a firmer surface. If you are trying to do even shading, some sketch papers can be too coarse, giving an uneven texture. Try a hot-pressed Bristol board or similar smooth drawing paper.

9. Scribbled Foliage

Don't use circular scribbles to draw foliage. Use more convex shaped scumbling - like crescent shapes and scribbly calligraphic marks - to draw the shadows in and around clusters of foliage, and your trees will look much more realistic.

10. Wiry, Pencil-Line Hair and Grass

If you draw every hair or blade of grass as a pencil line, you'll end up with a horrible, wiry, unnatural mess. Use feathery pencil-strokes to draw the shadows and dark foliage behind areas of grass.

Father’s Day Cutout Frame

Is Dad's closet filled with Father's Day neckties? Looking for something special the kids can give Dad? I know my husband loves when our son gives him something handmade. I love when I receive them on Mother's Day because they come from the heart. Well, I found a picture frame over at Martha Stewart's that kids will enjoy making and Dad's are going to love it.

The present will stand proudly on a desk or bureau with the assistance of bent paper clips. The photographs, trimmed to show kids' faces, peek through the holes of the letters.

Frame How-To

Photocopy and cut out the frame template. Lay the template over lightweight card stock; trace with a pencil and cut out. Mom can cut out the middle parts of each letter. Trim photos to fit the openings, making them slightly larger than the holes; tape them behind the frame. To make the frame stand up, bend open two paper clips and tape the small sides to the backs of the letters at the very bottom.

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts

by Mark Montano

Mark Montano is part of the design team for TLC’s While You Were Out and the host of TLC’s Ten Years Younger, as well as co-host of the Style network’s My Celebrity Home. He is a contributing editor to CosmoGIRL! magazine, and his weekly column, “Make Your Mark,” appears in more than seventy newspapers across the country. Mark is the author of Super Suite and Dollar Store DÉcor and co-author of Window Treatments and Slipcovers for Dummies.

The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is packed with ideas for sprucing up your living space; concocting fabulous, all-natural body products; designing your own  unique stationery; and creating countless other crafts that will convince your friends and loved ones that you're the secret love child of Martha Stewart (only much, much cooler).

Forget crocheted doilies and itchy knit sweaters -- TLC's While You Were Out top designer Mark Montano has created stylish and imaginative projects that range from a Warhol-esque Ultrasuede iPod case to photo-adorned boxer shorts to African mask patio chairs to wooden night-light boxes. Divided into sections that include Outdoorsy (ideas to enhance your backyard), Dishing It Out (decorating plates using different techniques), You've Been Framed (innovative picture framing ideas), and Can I Have a Light? (creating and decorating lamps, lanterns, and chandeliers), it's as entertaining to read as it is endlessly inspiring. With more than one hundred and fifty inventive and fun projects, The Big-Ass Book of Crafts is the perfect activity book for readers of every mood, budget, and skill level.

Paperback: 377 pages 

Publisher: Simon Spotlight Entertainment; Original edition (February 19, 2008)

Click Here!

How To Draw Caricatures

How To Draw Caricatures - Quickly and Easily!

• Easy Step By Step Video Guide
• 7 Day Home Learning Course
• Fun Video Lessons To Follow
• 30 year veteran artist, Mr Graeme Biddle.
• Now only $29.95

Graeme Biddle is a highly successful caricature artist with over 30 years experience and would like to share with you his secrets that he is about to take with him into retirement. 

Mr. Biddle has made a tremendous career out of knowing how to draw caricatures for over 30 years and he has been paid very richly for something that is fun and easy to do. You'd be amazed at just how many secret markets for this sort of work he has had to himself. So since he is about to be off the scene for good, he thought it might be a worthy idea to pass on his TRADE SECRETS, so some other up and coming artists like yourself could benefit from all his hard-earned wisdom, tips, tricks and techniques.

Learn To Draw Caricatures

Whether you just want to learn to draw in an easy way to make people laugh and have fun when you draw their face in a fun way, or you want to learn some of the tricks that Mr. BiddIe have made a lot of money from, then "Fun With Caricatures" is the product you have been looking for.

Suppose you could find a way that guaranteed your artistic success with a constant flow of work that most other commercial artists or illustrators miss out on or overlook completely, what would that do to the lifestyle you could be leading, just by learning his secrets on how to draw caricatures?

Imagine … being able to find out the secret formula to caricature success, from someone who has built a solid career over the past 30 years as you share in his secret ways
to learn to draw caricatures and make a little money if you fancy as a caricature artist.
Imagine ... having the skills to draw caricatures that most people will not believe you could do!
Imagine … the way you are going to feel when you uncover a stream of work that is constant, consistent and shows no sign of going out of fashion anytime soon!
Imagine … making extra money for drawing funny faces that is really easy to do!

So What’s Included In the Total Package?

You get the following incredible package of STEP BY STEP resources:

• 7 days of tutition, tips and tricks from the master artist himself guaranteed to raise the profitability of your art business
• 10 Videos showing you step by step just how to create show stopping caricatures
• Exclusive! 3D Poses engine that works right on the page of the ebook, helping you to master the art of drawing hands, feet and heads from any angle you choose
• Over 400 drawings and poses for you to learn every detail and trick of the masterful art of Graeme Biddle
• The entire 90 page ebook delivered by immediate download to your desktop for you to begin changing the course of your art career today!

Just take a look at one of the videos in the learn to draw caricatures home study course, to get an idea of the type of instruction provided for you to learn to draw caricatures.

Product Website: How to Draw Caricatures

Product Creator: Graeme Biddle
Starting Price: $29.95
Product: E-Book
Refund period: 60 days (100% money back guarantee)

Click Here!

Show off your Drawings

Here's one of my drawings. Please feel free to comment and if you would like to show off a drawing, please leave me a comment.

Drawing Shading Exercise

Have you been practicing your techniques? Well, I have a drawing exercises for you today.

What you'll need is a light colored rock, ping-pong ball or something that is light in color and round in shape so you can get some shadows. A piece of copy paper and a 2B pencil.

Now place your object on a table where there is some strong, directional light. You can use a single lamp or window as your light source. Adjust your light as needed so that your highlights and shadows are clear. Do you see how the light source is casting shadows on your object. Look at the shadows, highlights and the reflected light that is bouncing back from the table. You may not have any reflective light if your table is dark.

Observe the diagram to the right. You may even use this if you can not find an appropriate object. Notice the shapes that the shadows and highlights create. Very lightly sketch the outline of the object and the shapes that are created by the shadows and highlights.

Let's start with the darkest shadow first. Without lifting you pencil, use a continues back and forth shading technique to cover the area. So as not to create just a solid band of stokes on your paper, vary your stroke lengths and as you're going back and forth, use a rounding motion at each end.

Continue shading the reflective light and other highlights with lighter stokes, but remember to use directional lines or curve your stokes so that it appears as if the shadows are wrapping around your object.

To give your overall object some texture, try an overhanded grip and shade very, very lightly with the side of your pencil.

Finally, use a kneadable eraser in a dabbing motion to lift out, rather than rub, the graphite where you've applied to much pencil and to re-work some lighter areas.

Remember to draw what you see!

Call for Artist - Fantasy Art Contest International

Fantasy Art Contest International

MyArtContest is pleased to announce a call for Fantasy Art. The theme is open to interpretation.

Cost: $25 for 2 entries

Juror: Carl Baratta

Painting and Drawing Faculty at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

BFA, 1999, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia

MFA, 2005, School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Charity: TBD

Prizes: Cash and magazine features

To enter, visit: www.MyArtContest.com

Deadline: 07-31-2011
MyArtContest
Garden Grove, CA

Contact: MyArtContest
email: myartcontest@gmail.com
Website: http://myartcontest.com/

New York: Finger Paintings by Jorge Colombo

Jorge Colombo is a Portuguese-born illustrator, designer, and photographer. He has lived in the USA for more than twenty years and he has been depicting American urban landscape ever since.

So, if you admire the Big Apple, he has some beautiful illustrations of New York that are being published in hardcover on October 5, 2011. These illustrations were finger painted on location, on his iphone. This book presents one hundred of his best pieces in full colour, accompanied by his recollections and comentaries about each location.

Google him and check out some of his work. He's brilliant! I pre-ordered the book over at Amazon. Don't miss out!