Drawing With Confidence

Hey I hope your having a great day!

Evan here,

I want to share with you 3 things that I do every time I begin or teach how to sketch, that have made my work get better without even learning a new and challenging sketching technique. Its’ taken me a small fortune and a good portion of my life to seek out, collect, process, and sort these gold nuggets into a step by step drawing methodology. I pushed out the fluff, and let the proven principles muscle for rank.

Here are some steps that I take before and during every drawing I do:

You might ask, “so how to did I learn how to sketch like a pro, and why did it take so long?”. And my answer is first, practice. Nothing can take the place of actually sketching and drawing on a regular basis. That’s not all, if we scribble all day and night we won’t reach our true potential as a draftsman. The second key is to have a strategy to learn how to sketch. So find principles and sound ideas that you can implement while you sketch. This will accelerate your improvement each time.

How to sketch: During drawing I like to focus on these 3 factors to start out.

• The major height versus width of my drawn object.
• The major quality of each shape: ie; round, long, narrow, straight, even if I intend to do a complex drawing I keep the beginning simple so I can build on it later.
• Then perspective and how it effects what I am working on, the axis of each part in relation to the viewers eye.

• Bonus: The pattern of light and dark, especially when working from life, I will seek out and indentify the light and dark pattern, how it fits together with the cut and direction of light.

Opening up channels of creativity and letting your inner old master flow out of you. Literally imagine what it would be like to be John Singer Sargent, or Leonardo. Good luck learning how to sketch!

Enjoy, Evan

Learning how to draw people can appear as one of the most challenging tasks for a budding artist. However, it is not as difficult as it may appear at the first sight. Budding artist who has a keen interest in drawing people can easily do so. The various steps for drawing people are simple and easy to understand and are explained below.

To begin drawing people, collect all the necessary materials needed like pencil, pencil sharpener, an eraser, felt-tip pen, and paper. Examine the person and their clothing carefully before proceeding to the first step.

The first step in learning how to draw people is… Click here to read more...

your gonna love this,

Evan here, lets get right into it…

The single worst problem we run into when figure
drawing human proportion is foreshortening.

Ya know, when you see an arm or leg pointing
right at you, creating a bizarre looking shape
that doesn’t look like a plain vanilla side view.

I want to show you how easy it really is with these
figure drawing tips. It takes a 3 steps, to get it
right.

• Slow down to increase accuracy
• Ask yourself what animated shape it resembles
• work piece by piece with points and angles

Step 1:
Slow down at first. It may take more than your first try to
begin seeing the human proportion correctly. If you
take your time and enjoy the bizarre and funky shape
that is there, you will be able to get it that much faster.

Step 2:

Isolate the entire space where that shape exists, look at it and
ask yourself… What shape does that look like?…a “puppy face”,
the number “7″, the letter “B”?

Then… Click here to read more...

If you have ever wondered how to draw something that is real looking, versus more cartoonish looking people. Then this can be your moment to clarify the difference between the two very distinct approaches.

One is that when you draw from life you are translating the visual information in front of you. It can be very zen like, to just transcribe small bits of information piece by piece into a related whole. This is a powerful method to learn Click here to read more...

Shape:

I know it sounds like a really simple and over used word among the many art lessons around. But this simple term is a robust and intimate topic for the seasoned artist. As we look at objects and try to draw them well, we begin to learn that the more we focus on the shapes of the objects, the easier they appear to be drawn. This phenomenon is one that artists have used to their advantage for centuries. It is a skill that can be developed like any other.

take a sheet of glass and place it in front of whatever you are trying to draw. Now take a marker and etch the points and locations of each shape in a graphic way on top of the glass. You will find that the pattern is quite different from what you initially interpreted it as.

There is a strong tendency to interpret objects we see in their symbolic form. For example, an eye would turn into an almond shape with circle for pupils. When in fact it is quite dynamic and has much more subtle variation with in each of its pieces.

Symbolic weight:

The eyes and face carry significant emotional weight for all of us. We have gone through life reading others subtle facial expressions since birth. It is a well known fact that we humans read more than 60% of others communication through their own body language. In short we are wired to associate huge amounts of meaning to others faces and bodies. Ironically, this can get in the way of creating an expressive drawing from scratch. Our goal in learning to draw is to see things as they truly are. Seeing in graphic shapes allows this to happen more easily over time.

Some important terms in the language of drawing are:

• Points
• Angles
• Shape

These are the building blocks of every drawing. The foundation, the concrete and container that hold the contents of form and shading.

After a strong set of shapes are setup and defined with accurate proportion and clear distinct angles; these shapes are then filled with value. The second step of a three part process.

Value is also known as shading, tint and form modeling. It is simply the dark to light range that your materials are capable of making. When painting this is defined by the white and black paint, creating a gray “value” scale. When drawing it is the white of the paper and darkness of the pencil that create the span of your values.

Form modeling:

there are two very different gears in the artist’s mind that he must cultivate independently of the other. One is the ability to register light versus dark shapes. His ability to see dark, then see light, and create a line describing the difference between each. Imagine Ying Yang symbol, this is the balance between two opposite yet balancing forces. I approach shapes in the same manner.

The other critical ability is to apply value with pencil to paper. Shading in a way that gives the illusion of form. This is best done with dark to light tones. Yet I reserve the right for anyone to break the rules as long as they have a good enough reason to do so. Rules are helpful guidelines to grow, yet at a certain point can confine and stagnate further growth.

This all depends on the stage that the artist is at. I know from my own personal experience that the rules that I so vehemently stuck to just 4 short years ago I now get some sort of sick pleasure from breaking and directly opposing them. Funny how the mind works in mysterious and wonderful ways.

Here are some more tips to help continue the growth from me to you.

Always work from zero:

that means start fresh, clean up your mess of a work space, and not to mention your mind. Your mind, yes, this is by far the key to working at your best.
Here is how to do that:
get a sheet of paper and pen, then start emptying your head, really every thought that you have just dump it out onto the paper….they come in wierd strings, just keep moving your pen.

set a timer and stick to it, by working with a deadline and a clear outcome of what you are trying to achieve in a limited amount of time you have a far better chance of getting there.

Ask yourself and answer in as much detail as possible….What am I trying to do? & how am I trying to do it? This will help solve any problem that you run into every time.

Set up “You Time”, no that is not a new video on youtube, it is your own private time every morning, preferably 30 minutes that you take for yourself before the crazyness of the day crowds in….that you spend giving back to yourself, enjoy the moment, spend time doing something for yourself. Reading, meditating, or a brisk walk to get the blood flowing.