Emily’s Sketchbook – Italian Inspired

by | Feb 3, 2018 | Sketchbook Videos | 3 comments

Emily is a student currently enrolled in my foundation drawing class at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan New York. Emily certainly brings a ton of energy into the classroom.

What I like most about Emily’s sketchbook is her originality. I like so much that she expresses how she is feeling through her drawings.

For instance how she drew the pain she was feeling with a terrible headache is pretty incredible. When I have a headache I just want to crawl up in bed. Plus drawing her dreams is pretty cool too.

I really do see a ton of improvement in Emily’s drawings midway through the sketchbook video. Her black ballpoint pen line is amazing.

I hope you enjoyed looking through Emily’s sketchbook drawings. I certainly did.

 

 

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

Learn more about a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online.

 

Critique Of The Week – How To Draw A Cat

Critique Of The Week – How To Draw A Cat

by | Dec 19, 2017 | Video Critiques

Paul a member of Drawing Tutorials Online just recently uploaded one of his images for a critique.

I really liked his drawing of this cute furry cat. The drawing was done in a combination of pencil, colored pencil, pastels (both pencil and stick), as well as charcoal.

I thought the piece looked great. My recommendation for Paul was to add more texture to the drawing. Specifically where the cat hair touches the background. Creating more of a jagged edge in certain areas would make the cat fur look more like cat fur.

Plus I suggested adding more pencil strokes within the interior of the cat that showing volume. That would dramatically enhance the three dimensional quality of the cat.

The other item mentioned in the critique that would enhance Paul’s art is playing around with a couple of value studies. I’m all about loosing edges however arranging the value structure in a different way would certainly improve the look and feel of this image.

When working on an image take some time to create at least two value studies before you start working on the final art. Having two diverse value studies will just provide you with more options.

Thanks Paul for sharing your art for a critique.

 

 

You can read more about our drawing courses over at our member login page. Looking forward to working together with you.

How To Make Your Drawings Three Dimensional

How To Make Your Drawings Three Dimensional

by | 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.

How To Create More Mood & Depth In Your Drawings

How To Create More Mood & Depth In Your Drawings

by | Aug 16, 2017 | Video Critiques | 2 comments

How you ever had the situation arise where when you look at your drawing something seems flat? I certainly have.

Sometimes I’ll step away from my drawing and it looks too light. I then realize I need sit back down and put more pencil down on the paper. You see a lot of artists stop too soon. They leave so much mood and depth on the table.

If this has happened to you use this concept. When you think you are done, you really are not. You most likely will have to sit down for a few more minutes to add more tone.

Make those shadows darker. If there is not enough shadow value your drawings won’t have mood and depth.

You’ll also want to think about big surface planes. Don’t get caught up in the gazillion surface planes offered to you from the photo reference. Think big.

Take a peak at the video below. You might be leaving a lot of mood and depth on the table.

 

 

To Learn more about having your artwork critiqued check out https://members.drawing-tutorials-online.com

How To See Gesture

How To See Gesture

by | May 20, 2017 | Video Critiques | 1 comment

This video will teach you how to see the gesture of just about any pose. It’s important to be able to see through complicated fabric folds. Fabric certainly will mask your ability to see the clean gesture lines within a figure.

You want to see gesture from the top of the figure to the bottom. Seeing what I like to call “Long Gesture” is crucial to drawing figures that have grace and flow.

Without gesture what you have is a stiff figure drawing. One technique that can really help you is the “Opposite C” technique. The “Opposite C” technique provides you with a physical way to draw the natural flow of the human body.

If you need help with your figure drawings consider a membership to Drawing Tutorials Online. Through our weekly video critiques we can help you to see the gesture in just about any pose that you try to draw.

Thanks so much much for visiting our blog. Enjoy the video below.

Read more about what Drawing Tutorials Online has to offer you.