Drawing Tutorials | Drawing Tutorials Online Blog

How To Draw The Figure In Ten Minutes

by Matthew | Apr 7, 2020 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog

Well, here we are in this strange situation, Covid-19. I have basically turned off the news and have resorted to watching Tiger something on Netflix.

I have been super busy with this whole live class thing. Primarily teaching my college classes on Zoom. I have also been teaching live classes to members of DTO every Saturday.

Come mid to late April I will be teaching live classes to non-members of Drawing Tutorials Online. I’ve been working out the kinks in recording on Zoom. The quality is not great.

In the meantime I wanted to share with you this gesture drawing. I think you will most certainly get something out of watching this short figure drawing tutorial.

Please let me know if you have any questions about my technique.

Thank you so much for taking time to stop by and visit. Stay safe.

How To Draw A Ten Minute Gesture Of The Figure

by Matthew | Feb 11, 2020 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 2 comments

I just recently added a new figure drawing to the members area of Drawing Tutorials Online. This course is title Figure Drawing Class Exercises.

There are so many more diverse ways of teaching in the classroom versus online. The options for creativity in the classroom is endless. You can incorporate the student in activities you just cannot do online.

The purpose of this course is not to complete the perfect drawing, quite the contrary. The purpose of this course is to share with you many of the short style twenty minute exercises completed in class.

The drawing in the video below is the type of drawing I have my students do often in the classroom. A simple top to bottom line/gesture drawing of the model using minimal shape.

The goal of this exercise to gain confidence by constantly drawing the figure from head to toe in ten minutes. Starting again, starting another one, and then another one. Kind of like doing drills.

Thank you so much for taking the time to watch this video. Make sure you get to a life drawing class and draw some quick ones. Don’t be perfect, just have fun.

Thinking Technique – Drawing In Your Own Style

by Matthew | Sep 26, 2019 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 2 comments

There is a time and a place to draw certain techniques physically on the paper. While other times you just will want to draw in your style. The key is to think about certain techniques as you are drawing in your style.

In terms of practice, I believe its a must to draw techniques in their purest form. I have my students do this in class. During the classes morning session, I have the students draw pure technique.

However, during the afternoon session, I have them develop their style of drawing. The point of this post is to get you thinking about the difference between style and technique.
If you just draw a portrait or the figure in traditional techniques, your drawing will not have their voice.

Make sure you practice both every week. Cultivate your style while practicing new techniques. This practice will serve you in the long run.

Thanks so much for taking the time to watch. Let me know your thoughts.

How To Draw Soft Hair

by Matthew | Sep 12, 2019 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 11 comments

I just recently finished up a new portrait drawing course. I wanted to share with you a technique for drawing soft hair.

You want to work in layers. Your first layer in terms of drawing hair is to block in tone. Don’t try to put in your darkest dark all at one time. You’ll want to gradually lay in tone.

With the technique shown in the video, I put down tone, then pushed the tone into the paper with a stiff bristle brush. What this does in push the pencil into the texture of the illustration board.

You will want to do this process a few times. Blocking in tone, using the brush to push it into the board. In the final layers that is where you will refine the details with both an eraser and your pencil.

When working on the final layers you should use a more pliable brush. One that is more forgiving. You can then proceed to pull out the light with a thin eraser. With this drawing, I used a mono-zero cylindrical eraser.

When you use the bristle brush, not a blending stump, you can easily pull out lights with your eraser. Try it it’s a ton of fun.

Let me know what you thought about this technique. Leave a comment below.

How To Draw The Structure Of The Eye

by Matthew | Aug 20, 2019 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog | 2 comments

I recently completed a portrait drawing course that focuses on how to draw the features of the face. In this particular drawing lesson, I share with you two different ways to think about drawing the eye.

The first way to think about the eye is basically drawing a ball in a socket. Do your best to visualize light hitting a sphere. That sphere is sitting in a socket, the eye socket of the skull. I love drawing with outlines, however, too many artists focus on the linear aspect of the eye’s lashes.

Instead, try drawing shapes of light and dark. Those shapes of light and dark with be dictated by which direction the light is hitting the ball in the socket.

Another way to think about the eye is with surface planes. The master of surface planes is certainly George Bridgeman. I never like my surface plane type drawings. However, they are a necessary evil when learning how to draw the eye. Try your hand at completing a surface plane drawing of the eye.

Lastly, in this short lesson, I also share with you what not to do when drawing the eye. You do not want to draw the eye in the form of an almond shape. You do not want to draw super sharp eyelashes, instead, think of grouping the lashes together in a soft shape.

Lastly do not draw the iris as a full-round circle. The round iris is usually covered up by both eyelids making it look more like a rounded rectangle.

This drawing lesson basically provides you with two exercises to complete. These exercises will help you to think about how to draw the structure of the eye.

Thank you so much for watching.

Learn more on how a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online can help you with your portrait drawings.

How To Draw The Ear

by Matthew | Jul 18, 2019 | Drawing Tutorials, The Blog

I recently just finished uploading the last lesson in a course titled ‘How To Draw The Features Of The Face. This last lesson focuses on the ear.

Drawing the ear can certainly be tricky. There a few techniques that you really want to keep in mind.

First, think of the entire ear as an oval. All of the detail of the ear is housed in that simple oval.

Second, the details located inside of that oval, those details are basically cylinders. To be more specific they are cylinders that are curved. What makes these curvey cylinders hard to draw is the type of light that is hitting them.

I always place my light source above and to the side of my subjects, in essence creating form light.

Third, shade in the shadow shapes of the ear. Keep the shadow shapes more of a middle tone, do not go too dark. I learned my lesson the hard way a long time ago while working on a book cover painting. Let’s just say the ears were a bit too dark.

Ears are very translucent, shade the shadows with a middle tone. This will allow for a glow in the shadow.

Fourth and last, implement the modeling factors to really promote the three-dimensional quality of the Helix and the Anti-Helix.

If you have any questions or comments leave them below. I’d love the hear from you.

Don’t forget to check out myInstagram. I’m always adding new drawings.