Your Work Process

Your Work Process

by | 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.

 

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.

 

Ren’s Sketchbook – Short and Sweet

Ren’s Sketchbook – Short and Sweet

by | 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.

 

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.