Matthew Archambault | Drawing Tutorials Online Blog

Seeing The Head As A Box

by Matthew | Oct 29, 2019 | The Blog, Video Critiques

Arjun consistently uploads his work for a critique every week. In this week’s critique, I help out Arjun with seeing how to fit a box to a head. You might ask, why even bother with this technique, what’s the point?

I think what Arjun is practicing is super important. He is trying to understand how to see and decipher the surface planes of the head. Placing a portrait within a box is the most primitive way to see the surface planes. It’s the most macro, front and side.

There is a multitude of surface planes on the head. With portraits, it’s important to know where the big surface plane shifts occur. They occur at the temple and cheekbone, otherwise known as the Zygomaticofacial foramen. I know, anatomical terms, ugh.

Understanding where to see and place the big surface planes will most certainly help you to improve the way you draw a three-dimensional portrait. It’s even better when you light the portrait whereas the front planes catch the light, and the side planes are in shadow.

Lastly, trying to place a perfectly geometric box around an organic head just does not compute for a lot of artists. That is why I suggest drawing curved edged, organic boxes instead of right-angled boxes.

The human body is not synthetic, it’s super curvy. In other words, round all of your corners.

Thank you so much for checking out Arjun’s critique. You can check out his Instagram page @AKTracer.

Five Tips For Drawing A Portrait Likeness

by Matthew | Oct 22, 2019 | The Blog, Video Critiques | 1 comment

I recently completed a critique of Arjun’s portrait drawing. Arjun is a member of Drawing Tutorials Online. He is a super hard worker and is improving immensely as of late.

Here are five tips to help you capture a likeness the next time you work on a portrait drawing.

First, you will want to pay attention to the centerline of the head. This will help you tremendously in terms of measuring both sides of the face. It will aid you in getting the correct angle of the head.

Second, do your best to look out for the three angles that make up the lower jaw bone. The mandible is an important structure. It acts as a frame for the lower half of the head. Do not overlook the jawline.

Third, avoid using high-contrast value shifts within the model’s face. Especially when drawing from photo-reference that has soft lighting. Extreme value shifts within the light will make your drawing look too patchy.

Fourth, tilts will most certainly help you capture the model’s likeness. I like to look at the tilt of the eyes. You can also use the tilt of the mouth from corner to corner. This is often overlooked.

Fifth, see the whites of the eyes as shapes that you must draw accurately. Yes, easier said than done, I understand. Take some time to study the shapes of the whites of the eyes. This will help you capture the model’s likeness.

I want to thank Arjun for uploading his work to Drawing Tutorials Online‘s member critique gallery on a regular basis. His hard work is really paying off.

Check out Arjun’s instagram @aktracer.

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.

Christine’s Sketchbook – Dancer’s Delight

by Matthew | Aug 10, 2019 | Sketchbook Videos, The Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a sketchbook video. Christine is the last student to represent the class last semester’s class.

I really enjoyed having Christine as a student in the class. Christine really came into her own as the year progressed. I really thought that her linework looked great. Her gestures drawings also improved.

I wish Christine lots of success in her second year at the School Of Visual Arts. I hope she visits from time to time to share her ongoing progress.

We both have one thing in common, we both love to draw dancers. Dancers offer so much while posing on the modeling stand. They offer movement, action, physique, as well as storytelling.

I hope you enjoyed browsing through Christine’s sketchbook. I wish her all the best moving forward!

Emily love your work, thanks so much for sharing!! Come back and visit on day.