Drawing / Sketching

Drawing with white chalk on black paper can look really effective and dramatic. But handled badly, it can also look really 'wrong'! The biggest problem is the temptation to outline in white, where we would normally be using a graphite pencil. The trick is to reverse the way we look at things. With graphite or ink, we draw the darks and shadows, and sometimes don't give the highlights much attention. When drawing with white on black, we need to pay lots of attention to the lights, as well as shading the darker and mid tones lightly to bring them into the correct value range. It's a fantastic mental exercise, even if you prefer to work on white paper, as it will challenge you to really think about what you are drawing and develop your sensitivity to light and shade. If you are a pastelist, working with pure white on black is a useful way to improve your awareness of value without the complication of color.
Try the White Chalk on Black Paper drawing exercise.

It's generally better to draw from life than to draw from a photograph, but sometimes having a subject sit for hours isn't possible. Kids are particularly challenging sitters - they just won't sit still for a moment! If you're going to draw from a photograph, you really need it to be a good one. A well-lit picture with a natural subject is so much easier to draw and will give you really great results. It's particularly important when drawing animals, so I put together a tutorial on photographing your pet for drawing and painting. For more quick, expert advice on taking great photos, head over to About.com's Photography GuideSite and check out some of the great articles from Liz Masoner. 5 Ways to Get Great Kid Photos is a good place to start - the examples are so full of color and life that you wont' know what to grab first, your camera or your colored pencils!
Photo (c) Liz Masoner / About.com

Hot off the press, here's a wallpaper of Van Gogh's 'Starry Night' drawing in ink, with an inspirational quote revealing how Vincent felt about the importance of drawing. There are two versions, one for iPad and one for a small computer desktop. More coming soon! Check out the Starry Night Wallpaper

If you love fantasy, action and adventure movies you've probably already seen 'Thor' and 'The Avengers' starring the Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth. The movies are based on the Marvel comic books and so don't spend much time in the ancient world - Thor looks like a thoroughly modern hero! Here's a more traditional comic book take on an heroic Viking character for you to draw. Draw a Viking Warrior.

Leonardo da Vinci is a fascinating artist, and while a few enigmatic pieces get a lot of airtime, I often think that the old master has a lot to offer the modern artist beyond these iconic works. I thought I'd take a look at where Leonardo is coming from and what he has to say on a few topics about drawing, perspective and learning to be an artist. Leonardo Quotes and Drawings

An error I've noticed in many beginner (and even more experienced) artists' work lately is a gap in the tonal range. Often artists will focus on the outlines, so these will be strong, and they know they need confident darks, so they'll shade quite powerful shadows. But then things go a bit pear-shaped when they start to tackle the rest of the shading. I think in part it's a desire to get the subtleties of tone so not to be too heavy-handed, but they get stuck in the upper register. Or perhaps it's fear - once you've laid down a lot of graphite, it can be hard to go lighten up.

We also see a lot of high-key and high-contrast images in the popular media - strong lighting, heightened contrast and airbrushing give us pale, featureless photographs with dark outlines. So maybe we are used to that lack of richness through the middle values.

Try creating a Grayscale test strip, being careful to get every step distinct. You might want to make a reference strip on your computer and print that out. Compare the printed or drawn grayscale values to your subject and drawing. You might want to try a softer pencil to add more more tone; a toothy paper surface will also hold more graphite or pigment than a flat one.

Of course, there are times when you want to manipulate the tonal values in your drawing for expressive or compositional reasons. But if you feel that - despite gutsy dark shadows - your drawing somehow lacks a bit of 'oomph', it could be washed-out middle tones that are your problem.

Follow me on Twitter | Join my Facebook Fanpage

The trouble with being stuck in a rut is that you don't always know it - you keep going over the same old ground and it's not until you're entrenched in a well-worn groove that you discover that you're repeating yourself. If you're lucky, it just means that you never get beyond being 'pretty good' and your work always has that familiar 'look' to it. If you're not, it can mean mediocrity and a slow wearing-away of creativity and enthusiasm. Here are six ways to push give your creative skills a boost and get out of the same-old. Check out the article on Ways to Better Drawing.

Practicing shading with simple objects is a good way to develop skills quickly. Instead of thinking about a composition with many complicated textures, you can pay attention to subtle changes of tone and concentrate on handling the pencil to get the kind of shading you want. It's useful to try these exercises out with different papers and pencils - for example, as well as basic sketchbook paper, try a smooth hot-pressed paper as well as something with a rougher surface, laid paper or handmade. Try using only a 6b, and also try using some harder pencils. Be sure to check out Introduction to Pencil Shading for tips on different ways to shade with pencil, then try the Pencil Shading Exercise - Shade an Egg.

Summer for most of us means the sea - if not in it or on it, at least beside it, getting some vitamin D in the warm sun. For me heading into the cold of an Aussie winter, that's a very appealing idea! Shawn Encarnacion created these cute and friendly sea animals to draw and color in. With simple shapes and easy steps, even young kids will be able to draw these cartoon sea creatures. First up is a cute cartoon seal. These adorable furry friends are always popular!

Next, a bit less cuddly but still kinda cute - at least in its cartoon version - is an octopus. With all those legs, this guy looks a bit tricky, but remember - you don't have to get it exact. It's a cartoon, so you've got a lot of room for mistakes creativity! Draw a Cartoon Octopus

One of the most popular sea animals is, of course, the dolpin. They feature in many mystical-themed artworks that focus on the beauty and wonder of the sea. Shawn, being a cartoonist, takes a slightly less reverent view in this drawing lesson, capturing the cheeky, fun side of the dolphin. This fun guy reminds me of a talking dolpin character from an animated cartoon - Flipper I guess, though there must have been others. Draw a Cartoon Dolpin

It's always enjoyable to draw the easy things - it's fun when everything goes well and the drawing flows smoothly. It's only natural to avoid difficult things. But unfortunately, avoiding them isn't going to make them any easier! It's a classic feature of any first-year drawing class (especially once they've done enough to realize which bits are hardest) - lots of focus on the torso but the hands and feet either fade out, or fall off the edge of the paper.
The best time to practice drawing hands and feet is outside of class, when you're not using an expensive figure drawing model. Draw the feet and hands of friends and family watching television or reading. Do consider the whole figure and relate the feet and hands to the rest of the body, considering proportion.
How to Draw Hands
Examples of Hand Studies
More Hand Studies
Anatomy Reference Photos