The Blog | Drawing Tutorials Online Blog

Joie’s Sketchbook – Fast Crayola

by Matthew | Feb 17, 2018 | Sketchbook Videos, The Blog | 2 comments

Joie is a student currently enrolled in my foundation drawing class a the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan New York. Joie is an incredibly hard working student with a ton of drive.

Joie is really into drawing fast in a very bold way. Using crayola markers and crayon’s she has the uncanny ability to create very strong looking images that pop right off of the page.

What inspires me about Joie is that even though she truly dislikes doing quote, long tedious type drawings, she understands the importance of striving to learn new techniques.

The takeaway from Joie’s sketchbook, try new things. Don’t just do the same old same old.

This is especially important as a first year student in college. It’s really important to make experimentation a big part of your sketchbook.

Thanks Joie for sharing your work!

Check out Joie’s Instagram. Thanks again Madeline for sharing your art. looking forward to the next sketchbooks.

Incorporating Inspiration Into Your Illustration Process

by Matthew | Feb 14, 2018 | Illustration, The Blog

I just recently finished up Lesson Two – Inspiration for my new Illustration Process course. I love this lesson because it helps to provide the illustrator with clarity.

When we are not clear on what our illustration is all about, the viewer is not clear on what our illustration is all about. That’s a bad thing. Especially if we are trying to tell stories through our art.

In this short lesson I explain to the members of Drawing Tutorials Online three techniques that have helped me to confront a white blank sheet of paper. Have you ever been there before, stuck, with no ideas. I know I certainly have.

One way to fight artist’s block is to simply write a sentence describing what your scene is all about. Writing a sentence will most certainly provide you, your model, the art director and the viewer with clarity.

This has always worked for me. It all evolved from reading manuscripts. When working on illustrating book covers there were usually two ways to get started. Read the manuscript and come up with an idea or, be told what to do by the art director.

Either way included a descriptive sentence of some sort. I like working both ways.

It was always fun to read a manuscript and discover a scene simply from reading a really descriptive sentence. Certain sentences from the manuscript would just click for me. I would have a visual in my mind immediately for what the book cover was going to look like. Ah inspiration to deal with an empty sheet of paper.

After reading many manuscripts over the years I could tell who was a descriptive writer and who wasn’t. Certain authors just had a knack for creating visuals in just a few words.

The other more direct way was being told what to do by the art director. Not much creative freedom, however there was always a sentence where the art director would explain what they wanted on the cover. That was the inspiration.

Now a sentence is just one way to get inspiration for the visual you are trying to create from scratch. What lesson two is all about is finding inspiration that will provide you with clarity on what your visual is all about.

Super important.

I cannot tell you how many times I have asked students what their image was all about. Worst answer, I don’t know. When you show your illustration to someone do they look puzzled as to what they see? Not good.

You can see where I’m going with this. Be clear on what your images are all about. This will allow you to create strong confident illustrations. When you start on a new project, write a sentence describing what the project, scene, illustration, visual is all about.

A strong illustration should convey a story in a second or two. If it doesn’t try writing a sentence for what your image is all about.

It will definitely help with your image making process.

Your Work Process

by Matthew | Feb 8, 2018 | Illustration, The Blog | 1 comment

Sometimes I completely forget all about my past life. I once was a full time freelance illustrator working on several book projects at one time. My life was all about creating high quality artwork under the pressure of deadlines.

Sitting down to paint for eight to ten hours in a row, then working on sketches for another project at night was commonplace. The pressure was certainly there.

I definitely had to preform, I had to keep up my quality control. If I didn’t I would loose clients. The market was flooded with many talented illustrators just waiting to take my place.

After eighteen years I had enough of deadlines. My body just couldn’t take the pressure of creating detailed paintings for extremely long periods of time. Not to mention I had completely lost interest in the subject matter that I was painting.

That is when I decided to put my talents elsewhere. That elsewhere was Drawing Tutorials Online. In essence I created my own publishing company. I created my own softer deadlines. I also worked on a subject matter that I become obsessed with, the figure.

This year will mark Drawing Tutorials Online’s tenth year anniversary. During the past nine plus years I have certainly critiqued a lot of member art in our critique gallery.

I have been critiquing some individual members for well over five years. I have seen much growth and I have seen much disappointment. Some members just have such a hard time improving. They take two steps forward then three steps back.

What I’ve discovered is that the members who struggle with creating finished art have absolutely no process for creating high quality artwork time and time again.

Now I do not mean creating a gesture drawing in life class, I mean creating a finished product. That could be a finished portrait, a portfolio piece for a gallery show or any image that takes time to complete. Not a rough sketch.

So I decided to finally teach my illustration process from start to finish. I never gave much thought to teaching my process for illustration. However I’ve noticed over the last couple of years it’s really needed.

Even if you are not looking to become a professional illustrator it’s really important to recognize that you need a process or system to create consistently good artwork time and time again.

Let’s face it our time is limited. Who wants to waste their Saturday working on a piece of art only to realize on Sunday that it totally does not work. That’s where frustration comes into play. We all know that frustration kills momentum.

If you are looking to end any frustration you have been experiencing with creating your art, I encourage you to start thinking about your process.

Currently I’m in the midst of creating a thirteen part “Process” course over in the members area of Drawing Tutorials Online.

In this new “Process” course I will create a finished illustration detailing my entire process from start to finsh. I mean everything from thumbnail sketches to review notes.

Now of course I do not expect every member to use my exact work process. That’s not the point of the course. I’m just trying to show members that creating consistently good artwork do not happen by accident.

If this sounds interesting to you definitely consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. My main goal for the website is to help members create better art, period. A system will certainly help you with that.

Thanks for reading! Now get started immediately with improving your work process.

Ren’s Sketchbook – Short and Sweet

by Matthew | Jan 20, 2018 | Sketchbook Videos, The Blog | 1 comment

I wanted to take a moment here to share with you Ren’s sketchbook. Ren is currently enrolled in my foundation drawing class at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan New York.

I didn’t film too many sketchbooks last semester best Ren’s was a must. She arrives each week to class ready to work. Ren can just sit and draw for long periods of time, no distractions, no lack of focus.

Ren is certainly a model student who is really focused on improving her character design through life drawing.

I look forward to seeing more improvement from her this semester. Thanks for checking out her sketchbook.

Unfortunately Ren has no social media available at this time.

If you would like to learn more about how Drawing Tutorials Online can help you visit our member login page.

Emily’s Sketchbook – The Yellow Submarine

by Matthew | Dec 22, 2017 | Sketchbook Videos, The Blog | 2 comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a sketchbook video. I think Emily’s sketchbook is totally worth the wait. Over the course of the semester I’ve really enjoyed seeing Emily’s work progress into something special.

Her style of art is so perfectly suited for animation. She is excellent at character design with a unique sense of humor. It’s students like Emily that make teaching at the School of Visual Arts so much fun.

Think about what you can take from viewing Emily’s sketchbook. What is your main focus? Do you have a sense of your style? Does your style change with each image that you create? These are very important questions you should be asking yourself.

In 2018 I will be creating a brand new course that will help you to develop your style. Stay tuned.

To find out more about our course library visit Drawing Tutorials Online.

Check out Emily’s Instagram. Thanks again Emily for sharing your art. Looking forward to the next sketchbook.

How To Make Your Drawings Three Dimensional

by Matthew | Dec 12, 2017 | The Blog, Video Critiques

Every Monday at Drawing Tutorials Online I film three to four of video critiques. Members who take the time to upload their artwork definitely improve weekly. It’s pretty amazing what a different set of eyes can do to help you improve

Sometimes we get much too close to our drawings loosing all sense of objectivity.

Stella has been a member of Drawing Tutorials Online for a little over a month now. She is really taking the time to seek out feedback on her drawings. She is being super proactive learning new skills through our begin here step by step course. I really appreciate that.

In this short critique you can see what Stella is struggling with. She is doing too much outlining on the light side of the statue. She is separating each muscle with an outline. When you do that you compartmentalize your drawing. You chop up the muscles and bones into small stiff parts.

The second element in this critique, not shading the shadow shape in a solid dark enough way. This is a very common occurrence. For whatever reason many artists have a difficult time seeing the shadow side of what they are drawing in a solid dark way.

Stella is also showing too much crisp detail in the shadows. Shadow shapes should be left simple. If you put detail in the both the light and the shadows that creates a flat look.

So what can we all take away from this critique? Keep your shadows dark, solid with not too much crisp detail. Don’t outline each and every muscle. Keep your lights light. Be very cautious about dark outlines in the light. Yes you can and should put details in the light, just keep those details light.

Thank you Stella for sharing your artwork with us in our member critique gallery. Thank you too for reading this post.

Who can benefit from our weekly critiques? Are you putting together a portfolio to get into college? I can help you create a strong portfolio that gets you into the college of your dreams.

Is drawing your hobby? Do you have limited time? If so let me help you get the most out of your drawing time. Pointing out things you can do to improve your artwork on a weekly basis.

Sign up to Drawing Tutorials Online today and let’s start working together to improve your drawings.