Feathers are delicate and highly intricate up close... ... but in drawing pictures of birds you can rarely see more than a block of smooth pattern with perhaps a feather or two visible in the wings and tail. The difficulty, then, is learning how to depict realistic feathers with the right amount of detail.
Drawing and painting black fur presents a special challenge in that, so often, very little detail is visible and the animal looks like two eyes floating in a black blob. This is especially the tendency if the subject is poorly lit and if you're working from photographs, which tend to flatten tones and decrease subtle
For the beginning watercolor student ... ... it may seem that the primary purpose of water in watercolor painting is cleaning the brush and wetting the colors. And while that is true to a certain extent, to think of water in such limited terms is really to do a grave disservice to your painting
Even the beginning pastel student will realize that pastels are easily blended ... ... and that the smooth, gradiated tones produce a very different feel from the rougher look that is initially put down on paper. Blending is, of course, an essential tool to have available to you and you should be familiar with
Although in a sense there are as many different approaches to painting in watercolor as there are watercolor painters ... ... there are a few broad methods of approach that can be defined. Because watercolor can be put down in thin washes or intense color, dry brush or flooding washes, flung on the page
Pastel painting, because of the differences between hard and soft pastels, allows for very different approaches to making a finished piece. And although many pastelists combine several styles to create a look all their own, in the most general terms pastel painting comes down to the linear or massive approach. The Linear Approach is
Pastels are a wonderful, vibrant medium to work with. Because they don't require drying time, the mark you put down is the mark you end up with ... ... which can alleviate a lot of frustration and save time. Furthermore, because there is no liquid binder in pastels, they do no degrade over time
Drawing people accurately is obviously necessary in making successful family portraits ... ... but you can add depth and interest to the picture by also adding props. Objects that help to tell a story, give a sense of the family's personality, and help connect the viewer to the people in the picture. Some common
It is difficult enough to draw one portrait ... ... drawing an entire family sometimes seems like an impossible task! To save yourself a lot of time and frustration, follow this procedure: 1. Sketch the Big Shapes. Get the heads on the page first and get a sense of sizing, placement, and cropping. Don't
Hair is generally more coarse in adults, finer and softer for children and babies. When you're drawing a family portrait, it's important to be able to realistically show a difference ... ... because often times a wide age range is represented in the family. No matter whose hair you're drawing, begin with some lines
It is often necessary to build up large black areas in pencil drawings, either for backgrounds or clothing. If you try to make blacks by using soft graphite pencil and "scrubbing" the paper ... ... the result will be uneven and shiny rather than a flat black. Using a charcoal pencil is an improvement,
Templates are available in a huge range of shapes and sizes ... ... and if you want realism in your drawings, you'll need to invest in some. Start with a set of circles, ovals, and squares, but it's a good idea to look over the options to keep in mind for future projects. Templates
Because graphite and charcoal are molecularly different ... ... they have unique characteristics that can be utilized to increase the realism in a drawing. Particles of graphite are uniform and flat, so laid down heavily, graphite reflects the light and appears silver and metallic. Charcoal, conversely, has an irregular particle shape. The darks that
Often times in drawings, there are white lines that are very fine sitting against a dark background. Some examples are flyaway hairs, stiches in cloth, lettering, highlights in the eye, or texture in fabrics. These lines pose a difficult problem because they're too small to be effectively picked out with an eraser after laying
Frisket film is available at many art and hobby stores, generally wherever airbrushing materials are sold. It is essentially a clear, low-tack sticker. It can be cut easily with scissors or exato knives and applied to paper, drawin over, then removed. Use it in your drawings to achieve clean, precise lines and both positive
Keep textures in your drawings distinct by utilizing different blending techniques for each. In general, for smooth skin, lay down tone with graphite and blend with a chamois. For hair, use charcoal and blend lightly with tortillons. Clothing, though, varies so much from fabric to fabric that there are no hard rules or even
There is another way to get smooth, progressive tone on the paper that doesn't involve applying medium with a pencil and then blending it smooth. That way is to paint the tone directly on the paper. Painting in charcoal or graphite dust creates different textures depending on how it's applied and blended out. The
The planes of the face that are perpendicular to the light source are of course in shadow but ... ... the depth and tilt of the plane is expressed via reflected light that bounces from surrounding objects. It is very important, therefore, to heighten the realism in your drawings by looking for such areas
There are many things a skilled portrait artist can do to elevate his or her art above the average artist's offering... ... and one of these is to take time and develop the clothes in great detail. The clothes are generally finished last on a portrait, and as such are often overlooked or rushed through
The most effective way to build up contrast in portraits is to gradually darken the tone in shadow areas by ... layering pencil strokes blending to smooth repeating until the darks are sufficiently dark. The problem is that every time you blend, you lift up tone and lighten the appearance, which means that the