R. Schmidt asked:


Once you learn to draw, soon you recognize: a major part of this art is just craftsmanship and technique. Once you are proficient in the primary techniques, your creativeness can rely on these basics. This gives you furhter freedom for developing your drawing skills and imagination rather than concentrating on employing the basic techniques properly.

Therefore it’s a good thought to practice these primary drawing techniques regularly. Particularly as you are beginning to learn to draw, a lot of exercising these primary techniques will quicken your drawing success.

Learn Drawing Hatchings and Cross-Hatchings
Hatching implies to draw a lot parallel lines approximately. In difference to conventional shadings the lines are not allowed to touch eachother! Though there is still white space between the lines they form an area apparently shaded densely.

Cross-hatching takes it one step further. While you’re exercising cross-hatching you cover one set of hatchings with another set rectangular to the first one. Thus cross hatchings become much denser and solider than (single) hatchings.

Drawing hatchings calls for preciseness. So exercising hatchings is also a great opportunity to train your draftsmanship preciseness. First commence to fill up blank sheets of paper with hatchings and cross-hatchings not having a concrete subject in your eye.

Once you have acquired some technique, you ought to try first simple studies. Choose such sceneries that contain plenty of shadow. Try to reproduce this scene without using outlines. Instead trust completely on translating the darknesses and dark areas into hatchings. Let the hatchings’ direction follow the subjects you’re depicting. For drawing darker areas and darknesses place the lines of your hatching closer to each other or use cross hatching.

Learn to Draw Shadings

To draw shadings is more common than hatching. It’s more instinctual and requires less skills. When drawing shadings you merely fill up areas of your drawing with your pencil. By varying the softness of your pencil, the force you apply and the number of layers of shadings you create you manage the tones you produce.

Similar as when creating hatchings you draw shadings by drawing lots of lines. This time you draw them so dense to each other they overlap and blend completely. Shadings made out of lines still have a direction (though not as strong as in hatchings). So pay attention to align your shadings’ direction with the forms of the objects you are drawing. To make the shading more dense you have to apply the same techniques as when creating cross hatching.

A different way for drawing shadings involves drawing countless very little circles densely together so they merge and blend. Shadings made this way are extremely smooth and lack a visible direction. The advantage: you won’t have to keep an eye on the shading’s visible direction.

Ideally you begin exercising shadings instantly. Choose a few sheets of paper, sketch a few bare forms like rectangles and begin to fill them with shadings. Try to make them as smooth as imaginable and apply all the different techniques explicated before.

Again when you have achieved decent levels of expertise, try to begin using the techniques learned on real-world sceneries.

Use Various viewpoints and perspective types

Besides creating shadings and hatchings the most crucial technique you need to know when commencing to learn drawing, is a sound apprehension of perspective.

There are a few rules that can assist you in constructing perspectively correct drafts. But first it’s necessary you practice your eye to acknowledge common structures.

Choose easy subjects largely containing of unbent lines and not too much arcs. And then draw those scenes by drawing only the silhouette. This way you are able to focus on understanding dimensions and perspective. But don’t stay here, reiterate this practice by drawing the same scenery again and again from different viewpoints.

You’ll see with each repetition you’ll apprehend the subject better and your skills to understand and depict the proportions of any subject will increase greatly.

And What comes Next?

This trio of practices are the most important while studying to draw. There are more common skills and techniques you could and should train. You could learn your drawing expertise by yourself – just go out and draw real subjects. Start with simple ones and step-up the degree of difficultness while you advance. Additionally you can learn drawing employing exercises designed and proved to warrant ideal advancements for your drawing abilities.



GIOVANNI

Charles Salmon asked:


It goes without saying that you need to have an aptitude if you want to pursue drawing digitally. It is not an easy process and requires some kind of learning. Firstly, to be able to draw digitally you need the correct digital art software.

Photoshop

This digital software will allow you to draw digitally. It has many tools that will allow you to draw, paint, erase and create shapes. Get started initially with common shapes like a rectangle, circle. You can elaborate on these shapes and use your imagination to create drawings. You can begin withdrawing flowers, trees and other simple pictures. As you progress you will also be able to draw portraits and other intricate things.
Tool for drawing

Your primary tool for drawing would be the mouse. However, now a digital art tool called the WACOM tablet is also available that helps you to draw.

Brush: You will have to experiment with the correct brush to determine the best applicable for you. You have the option to change the size, type and behavior of the brush that you choose.

Eraser: Ditto like the brush, you have the options to choose from a set of erasers from the software. Even this has the option to change the size, type etc.

Burn tool/Dodge tool: With the Burn tool you can make your colours to appear darker. Conversely, you can choose the Dodge tool to make the colours to appear lighter.

Layers: This is one of the most unique tools in digital drawing which is not available in physical drawing. This function allows you to draw in layers. This can be explained like this – it is a transparent cell that allows you to work on every layer in such a way that you can either allow a layer to interact with the other layer or vice versa.

As you move towards drawing intricate things you can make use of the following options:

Grids: Using grids will help you to capture the drawing cleverly and easily. It will enable you to check proportions and placements etc.

Shading: Shading can also be used here like in physical drawing. It gives your photograph the characteristic of a physical drawing.

Colour: When using colours, you need to take care that you make use of realistic colours.

Adding a Background: Giving a background to your picture is quite important. It helps you to give a story to your picture.

The most important feature of drawing digitally is that it gives you a chance to enhance your subject. It helps you to correct and add more to features. Sometimes, this can make your subject look unreal; therefore you need to take care that you do not take away the essence or personality of the subject in the drawing.

Conclusion

Drawing is an art and doing it within a digital ambit it gives the artiste the freedom to experiment and do a lot more with its subject. It is good if you try to learn about art before starting with digital drawings.



LEONEL

R. Schmidt asked:


One of the most important things to learn when learning to draw is realizing the formula almost every artist uses to fill a blank sheet of paper with more and more lines until she finished the drawing. Though apparently complicated this formula consists of several separate and simple tasks.

Most artists follow intuitively these separate tasks step-by-step in the right order. Unfortunately when starting to learn drawing, you lack the experience to follow this strategy by instinct. But instead of waiting for the essential experience, you can use this shortcut.

I created a scheme close to this formula most creative persons understand and stick with intuitively. It consists of four steps: Placement, Outlines, Shapes, Illumination. These four steps are rather simple and follow the proven process to create a drawing. I abbreviated this formula P-O-S-I – a POSItive way to learn drawing.
So let’s get started:

1. Placement of the elements in your drawing

This is the opening move. Have a look at the complete scenery, identify the individual elements in the scenery and try to understand it. Focus on the individual elements’ locations and their position in relation to one another. Finally if you think your understanding of the scenery is good enough, mark on your sheet wherever you would like to place the individual elements.

Try to be as precise as possible unless you possess some competence in the art of pictorial composition. Experienced artists know how to alter the scenery for a stronger impression without disturbing realism.

2. Drawing Outlines of the individual elements

Now you know where to place the elements it is time to sketch them as mere drafts. Look carefully at each part of the scenery and try to understand its outline and shape. Then draw its outline – only the silhouette – in a couple of faint lines. Restrict yourself to the external lines of each object. Replicat this step for every element in the scenery. Ideally you begin on elements in the background and move on to the foreground areas.

After finishing the outline of the whole scenery this way, it is time to have a concluding judging look (but not overly judging though!). In this stage it is still easy to reposition any element or to correct some lines. But don’t be overly critical and keep in mind: every good drawing lives thanks to minor deviations from reality.

3. Draw the Shape of the individual elements

Now it is time to focus our attention to the elements’ shapes. Start adding the internal structures of the scenery’s parts with few and faint lines. Aim the strokes in the proper directions to travel along and build the shape of the components of every element.

For arced elements use curving lines and in plane parts use straight lines. But still restrict you to only some and faint lines. Just try to catch the contours properly. As there are still only fine and faint lines on the sheet you still have the chance to correct a line here and there.

In the end your drawing has gained a stronger perspective and three-dimensional appearance. Time to fill out the white spaces and complete your drawing!

4. Illuminate your Drawing

Until now we merely worked on arraying the scenery utilizing faint lines. Forming the outlines and contours of all elements in the scenery we created a line drawing that depicts the scenerys lookout faithfully.

But for producing real naturalism something is lacking: texture, light and shadow. In that last step we will fill in these elements that generate volume to our drawing and finally make it seem realistic. So in this last step our chances for completing a great drawing are great but as well is the risk of damaging it beyond repair.

What to do? Again look carefully at each section of the scenery. Note how light, shadow and the different surfaces are forming the textures and what the colors are looking like. Most important is the surface – because even if a surface is completely one-colored, its structure and texture creates different nuances.

The same applies to shadows. Look how the elements cast dark areas on themselves and on elements around them. Add these shadows by first sketching their outline, correcting and honing it and then filling it with darker tones.

While adding all the shadows and textures to your drawing always try to work from the background to the foreground. Whilst doing this travel from brighter tones and light contrasts in the background to dark tones and contrasts in the foreground. This ensures a stronger three-dimensionality.

After this terminal step you finished your drawing. Make one step back and enjoy. And keep in mind: when the little critic in you awakes, store your drawing away, the more you’ll enjoy it in some months!



MAYNARD

Andrew Goodall asked:


Sunset (and sunrise) photography; no other subject in nature photography is more guaranteed to inspire us to grab the camera. This does not only apply to serious nature photographers. Almost anybody with a camera is likely to have a go when a great sunset appears.

The great news is, good sunset photos are surprisingly easy to take. In my gallery, I don’t actually display many sunset photographs. You see, they are hard to sell, because almost everybody has a few great sunsets they have photographed themselves. Rather than buy mine, they are more likely to grab their camera and show me the picture they took the night before!

As a result, I am often asked to evaluate sunset photos by amateur photographers (occupational hazard for a nature photographer!), and I have learned to quickly identify where most people go wrong. It is not hard to expose a sunset photo; in many cases you can leave your camera on auto and it will do the work for you. The trouble people have is in making an interesting composition. It is not good enough just to photograph a good sky. The real challenge lies in turning a spectacular sky into a compelling photograph.

Here are my five tips for taking great sunset (and sunrise) photos.

Sunset Photography Tip #1. Learn to predict a good sunset before it happens. Have you ever seen a perfect sky, only to realise you didn’t have your camera handy? In the five minutes it takes to get your camera and set up for the photo, the moment has passed. As brilliant as a sunset can be, the effect may last for only a few minutes, so you need to be able to choose your location, set up your camera, and be waiting for the show to start.

Sunset Photography Tip #2. Be patient to get the best colours. The few minutes as the sun is crossing the horizon can be spectacular, but it is not the whole story of a sunset. As the sinking sun lights the clouds from below, often the richest colours can appear up to half an hour later. By this time it will be getting quite dark, so be prepared with your tripod. You may be shooting exposures of half a second or more to bring out the best in your sunset photograph.

Sunset Photography Tip #3. Find a good foreground subject. This may be the most important tip of all. Time after time people show me their sunset photos, and all I can think is “Great sky…pity you didn’t make a better photo out of it.” We have all seen and photographed spectacular skies, so that alone is not enough to create your work of art. Try to identify some object that stands well above the horizon (trees, windmills, buildings, power-lines) and has a shape that will create a good silhouette. It doesn’t have to fill up your picture. In fact, it may only take up a small area – that will only make the sky seem even more impressive. The important thing is to give your picture a focal point, so that your viewer has something more interesting to look at than just a great sky.

Think back to my tip #1. To get a great photo you need to be prepared in advance, so scout your location for a good foreground well before the razzle-dazzle gets underway.

Sunset Photography Tip #4. Fill your photo with colour. You have probably heard of the ‘rule of thirds’ in landscape photography. In simple terms this rule suggests your horizon should be a third of the way from the top, or from the bottom, of your photo to create a balanced composition. The trouble is, when you are photographing into the sunset, everything in the foreground will be in silhouette. This means if you follow the rule of thirds, a big part of your composition will be totally black. This is one situation where you can ignore the rule of thirds. By allowing your sky to dominate the composition, you fill your picture with colour and draw even more attention to the richness of the sunset.

Sunset Photography Tip #5. If near water, use it to enhance the effect. People often see a sunset at the beach, or by a river, and stand a long way back to get their shot. This approach fails to take advantage of the reflections on the water, so instead of a rich foreground there will be too much empty black space.

Get right down to the water’s edge or to the wet sand on the beach. By capturing the reflections, your foreground will echo the colour of the sky. Not only will your photo be more colourful, but you will start to spot opportunities for much more interesting compositions.

So there you have my simple tips on sunset photography. Notice that I have concentrated on creativity, not technology. As I said at the beginning, exposing a good sunset photo is not difficult; the challenge is to make your photo stand out from the rest. Like all good nature photography, your sensitivity to nature is far more important than technical expertise. Allow nature to inspire you, think creatively, and great results are sure to follow. Good luck!



ISSAC

R. Schmidt asked:


The biggest challenge most beginner artists face: the fear to make mistakes! Even expert artists struggle often with their lack of self-confidence. At last these feelings are causing most artist’s blocks – sometime the artist is aware of this, sometimes not.

Most probably you experience the same problem. But no need to worry, you can prevail over this main difficulty for your drawing success.

You and Your Drawings

Well, to be truthful it’s not that effortless. Your first step should be to relax and to make yourself clear: there’s no need to fear failure! You won’t have to prove anything to any person. Your drawings are for you as long as you don’t want to show them to others. Before reading on, take some minutes and instill this thought in your mind!

Ok, what’s your conclusion? Perhaps you see now, that you are fearing most to fail before yourself? For this case I can show you a recipe later.

Avoiding Drawing Failures

The next essential advise to follow: when starting your drawings, reduce your risk of failure. Follow these two vital steps:

1. Easy subjects are the one to choose! I know it’s tempting to start drawing difficult subjects – a portrait of an adored person or beautiful sceneries you saw of late. But this will inevitably lead into failure unless you are an unusual genius. You need time and practice to develop your drawing skills. So start with simple subjects. Copy other drawings, photos or simple still lives (if necessary). Prefer subjects consisting of straight lines over complicated curved shapes.

2. Simple techniques are the one to choose! Don’t use colored pencils right from the beginning. Don’t aim for drawing photo-realistic pictures right from the start. Start small and simple, first capture only proportions and outlines of your subject. Concentrate on simple parts and leave all the advanced stuff like shading, texturing etc. for later.

Ensure Constant Progress

Third you must ensure your progress is constant and regular. Two tips for achieving this:

1. Drawing a few minutes each day helps more than drawing through the whole weekend. I myself fail to follow this advise too often, but I learned it the hard way. So find a few minutes every day for drawing.

2. Don’t be afraid to repeat! Something went wrong? It’s the best reason to repeat this drawing and starting over again. But avoid overdoing it until you get bored by drawing. Instead find a new approach each time. Try different angles, light conditions, interpretations, compositions etc.

Silence the Art Critic Within You

And now the most important trick. Your fear of failure is most probably to a large extent your fear to fail before yourself. So you need to silence this small little critic every one of us has within oneself.

Actually it’s a bit tricky to silence this critic completely. It’s easier to deflect him using this trick:

Always when you want to start to criticize yourself, every time you feel your critic trying to spring into action, tell him: “Later!”. Store the drawing away and have a look at it some months later.

When you take your drawing again and begin to criticize, it is some months old. Usually you’ll see it isn’t as bad as you thought. And if it was not that perfect, it cannot hit your self-confidence. When you followed these tips, you know: during the last months you improved that much there is no need to worry about failures you made months ago!

Learn Drawing Faster

Silencing your critic works best if you can really make sure your progress is regular and continually. Besides the tips I showed you, you can additionally boost your progress by getting a some good exercise books or practices on DVD.



JAMES

Dave Text asked:


To some people, drawing gives them the feeling of expression. They are able to best convey their emotions. To some, it is a hobby that they can’t do without. Unfortunately, not all of us are blessed with the talent but still want to learn the craft anyway. But whatever your reason is, it is always best to invest on drawing supplies that will last long and will ultimately bring out the best in your drawings.

If you are just starting to appreciate drawing as a hobby or you see drawing as a career in the future well then by all means, the best time to start is now! First, it is ideal that you sketch anything you see around for at least a couple of months before you even attempt drawing. There are a lot of exercises you will find online that are good for beginners to help you jumpstart a hobby or a career. If you plan to draw occasionally as a hobby, I suggest you use drawing pencils which are equipped with erasers.

Drawing pencils with erasers allow you to erase mistakes. However, if you plan to make drawing a serious hobby or profession, then it is recommended that you start investing on different drawing supplies aside from pencils. It is also very interesting to know that there are types of pencils you can use and collect for your different types of obra maestra. Aside from the usual black and white effect in drawing, you can also obtain illustrations that require colors. In this case, you must buy “colored drawing pencils” to give more life to your drawings. Always remember that pictures could communicate what words can not say. Apart from “colored drawing pencils”, you could also use “charcoal drawing pencils” to create that beautiful portraits to capture the glow in your subject’s eyes and the way the light adds beauty, drama and interest to the portrait.

Colors certainly add life to the drawing and make it so realistic for audience to see. However it does not mean you need to get crayons and that you need some children’s basic colors. As an artist whether for a hobby or a profession, one must have a guide to picking colored drawing pencils as they place a vital role in your craft and that to pick the wrong one would mean a humongous mistake. Pick the ones that will boost your pictures and make the drawing seem to come out of the page. Looking it up online would be wise since you could judge against the items side by side and could make your decision in just a snap.

Whether drawing is a hobby or a serious profession, you will want clarity in all your work, this is where mechanical pencil comes in as it gives control and sets that higher level of drawing. There is a saying that goes “an artist is what he draws” and with that in mind, it would be safe to assume that an artist’s drawings suggest his personality. Therefore, drawing pencil kits are a must for artists because these make drawings easier and a lot more convenient. You can bring your drawing materials anywhere you go and you do not have to carry along big box full of drawing tools.

What you need to bring instead is your drawing kits and you are ready to start drawing anytime anywhere even if you have to travel far just to get that inspiration you need. You can choose among the varieties of pencil kits such as: drawing pencil kits which will make your drawing job simple and less complicated since it is clutter-free and helps you be more organized. There is also a separate kit for your colored drawing pencils to protect the quality of your colored drawing pencils. On the other hand, charcoal drawing pencil kits protect the grey edge superiority of your charcoal drawing pencils which gives your drawing balance and contrast.



SCOT

Charles Salmon asked:


Cultural art is all about depicting the history and culture of a nation in a pictographic form. This form of art developed in India and is also known as Indian art and Folk tribal art.

Indian paintings have been a part of the cultural heritage of the country and it depicts the pre-historic era in a canvas. These paintings are usually a representation of the history of the country.

Indian paintings can be classifies as murals and miniatures. Murals are usually huge and are drawn on solid structured walls such as, the Kailasantaha temple and Ajanta.

Miniature paintings are drawn on a smaller scale on paper or cloth; usually perishable material.

The mural art is a beauty and these are rarely done today, but miniature art still remains.

Cultural art can include anything and everything that is related to a country, be it the past or the present. Some paintings include the rocks, religious ceremonies, animals, and also wars. These are primarily the themes of a cultural painting.

Before you start you need to understand the culture of the country, its heritage, its ceremonies, festivals, people and every minute detail that might attract your interest. Learn these entire aspects ad then you will be able to decide what you wish to paint.

There are so many facets of cultural art that it is sometimes difficult to choose. Most of the cultural art is drawn on a canvas or cloth with the help of colored pencils, oil paints, water colors etc. you will also have select which of these you’ll be using.

Determine the theme of your painting and then you can let it flow. Painting is an art and it is better to allow it to flow, you might decide one and paint just the other, so focus.

Indian war and warriors has always been a common subject of painting. The warriors, the horses and the battle field, this has been one of the most popular forms and it still rules the world. If you are a beginner then you can choose this theme as you will find several references. Concentrate on the fine lines of these drawings and look at the expressions, these minute details are very important to highlight your work.

Cultural paintings are usually very colorful. These paintings are vibrant and you can use different color hues to make your work an exquisite piece.

You can also make an Indian woman a part of your art, Indian mothers and their children are true emotional pictures. A woman and her sorrows can also be a great idea.

If you are looking at tribal art, the themes usually have animals included. Festivals are ideally the subjects of tribal art with elephants leading the crowd and palanquins following. You might also notice bullock carts and trees in this art. House hold activities, folk culture and folk dance can also be a part of the art.

Cultural art is unique in itself, with diverse features and some interesting ways of expression. You need to do a thorough research before you begin, only then you will be able to craft an art per excellence.



ABE

Robert asked:


In this commentary we will discuss the blocking-in of large masses of tone or value.

Tone is generally thought of as shadow. Beginners generally first sketch an outline of the shadow and then fill in the shadows little by little. They usually start with an eye and then grow out the shadows. Inevitably, the outcome is a chaos of non-cohesive darks and lights.

There are two different ways of viewing tone: in Western culture we see tone as shadow; in Eastern culture tone is seen as color.

A European viewer seeing a Chinese drawing will be struck by its flatness. Conversely, Chinese connoisseurs in the 18th century seeing for the first time European portraits were perplexed by the “dirty scuff-marks” under the nose.

Applying, or more accurately, constructing tone should be approached with a sculptural sensibility. That is, think of your drawing as a block of clay that is to be carved. Once roughly carved, you then mold the surface forms with varying degrees of tone while manipulating their borders thus defining the shapes present in the skull.

A portrait sketching from life or (photo) starts with the striking of the arabesque. Two things must be accurately drawn: 1. the form of the complete head; and 2. the proportions (i.e., length and angle relationships). This is a learned skill that no one is born with.

Once the arabesque has been struck, the complete head is then broken down into two pieces: a large light and a large dark. No more than that. At this point, do not worry about whether or not one area is darker than another. Only the large light/dark pattern counts.

Note that squinting is a good idea to more clearly see the value patterns because you are not distracted by details.

A good rule of thumb is to divide an area in 2. For example, if an observed dark patch is not entirely even in value divide it in 2 and block-in the 2 somewhat differing values. Before long a multifaceted yet cohesive array of values will appear.

From the blocking-in of the primary darks you can then easily sketch the features. Over time you should try to memorize the total anatomy and “sense” the form 3-dimensionally. This, too, is an acquired skill.

You must know your anatomy to succeed in sketching portraits even at the most basic level. Study the anatomy in bite-size portions as you sketch along.

A good way to sketch is to toggle back and forth between line sketching and tonal sketching or hatching. Another way is to first do a total line sketching of the subject. That is, to sketch a “map” of the head that includes all planes and marks the boundaries of the various tonal areas. As a second phase you can then hatch-in the right values.

While you hatch be constantly aware of the planes of the head and the bearing of the light source.

Another expertise to be acquired is the expertise to cross-hatch patches in a flat and even manner. There is nothing more distracting than rough looking cross-hatching.

Finally, take note of a strange optical phenomenon called “simultaneous contrast”. It takes place when light and dark values lie next to each other. In general, white is expansive while black is contractive. The effect is that the white patch looks bigger than it is while the black patch will look smaller.

In closing, keep the blocking-in procedure uncomplicated. Look for large masses first and then for the smaller ones. It is always better to sketch from the general to the specific. And, at this stage, ignore the details.



STANLEY