Learn How to Draw - Top 20 Drawing Tips for Beginners
Learning any new form of art is always a challenge, and as a beginner, I am certain you have many questions about drawing. We all need a helping hand when just starting out, so I put together this list of handy tips to help you on your way to becoming a better artist.. I hope you enjoy!
1 - If at all possible, always draw from life and not photographs.
2 - When drawing, less is sometimes better. Do not attempt to draw every line and detail that you see or you will give your viewer too much information to absorb.
3 - Do not try and get all of the information in your drawing completed at one sitting. Drawing is a process. Layout the general idea of your drawing and then slowly add in your details.
4 - Do not be overly judgmental about your drawing before it is completed. This may cause you to become discouraged and give up.
5 - Do not take on subjects that are too complicated at first. This will certainly cause you to become discouraged if the drawing isn't as good as you expected it to be. Start with simple subjects that you know you can complete and then progress to more complicated ones.
6 - Forget everything you already know about a particular subject before you start drawing it. Draw what you see in front of you and not what you know already about that subject.
7 - Make sure you have excellent lighting. Nothing is more frustrating to an artist than poor lighting. If you can't see you can't draw. If you do not have a well lit room with natural sunlight to work in, then check your local art supply store or search online for full spectrum lighting products that mimic natural sunlight.
8 - Get yourself a pad of newsprint paper. Its very cheap and great for practice and doing preliminary sketches.
9 - Keep your pencils sharp. There are drawing techniques that require a blunt pencil point , but for the most part, you should keep your pencil points sharpened.
10 - Vary the weight of your lines. Use a variety of different lines in your drawing by pressing harder or by lifting your pencil. This may seem like an obvious thing, but when an artist becomes deeply focused in a drawing, they can sometimes forget to use this simple technique.
11- Keep a sketchbook with you wherever you go. Whenever you have a free moment, practice your drawing. It doesn't matter if the subject is a light post, an insect or a garbage pail. The more often you draw, the more observant you will become.
12 - Do not over use smudging and blending techniques to achieve values in your drawings.
13 - Never throw out any of your drawings. Keep a neat portfolio of everything you draw. This is an excellent way to see your progress over time.
14 - Avoid looking at your drawing too often. Make sure you are constantly focusing on the subject and only glancing at your drawing. By doing so, you won't constantly judge your drawing, or think something is wrong or out of place. Focus on the subject and draw what you see.
15 - How to hold your drawing instrument - Hold your pencil in a way that is most comfortable for you. Some hold the pencil just as you would hold a pen or pencil if you were writing. Others hold a pencil with the pencil between the thumb and index finger, with the rest of the pencil resting under the palm of your hand. Whichever method you use for holding your pencil, make certain that you do not hold the pencil too tightly.
16 - Practice the contour drawing technique - This very basic technique is simply drawing the outline of your subject without any shading to indicate form.
17 - Practice the hatching technique - This drawing technique uses a series of parallel lines drawn close together, in the same direction, which gives the appearance of value.
18 - Practice tonal or value drawing - In this approach to drawing we are indicating the various changes of light and shade in our picture without the use of strong edges and lines.
19 - Practice the blind contour drawing technique - Similar to contour drawing, only you do not look at the paper. The point of this exercise is to force you to better observe what it is you are drawing. You should have no concern over the outcome of your drawing so it is important not to peek.
20 - Practice the upside down drawing technique - Drawing upside down is a wonderful exercise to awaken the right side of your brain. When you turn an image upside down, you are making it somewhat abstract and unrecognizable. This forces you to draw what you see as opposed to relying on your memory to draw something.
Ralph Serpe is an artist and webmaster of two fantastic websites for beginner artists. Follow the links that follow for more information: Follow this link now to learn how to improve your drawing with free lessons and tips at CreativeSpotlite.Com... Follow this link now to learn how to draw online at the Creative Spotlite Art Instruction Blog....
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/visual-art-articles/learn-how-to-draw-top-20-drawing-tips-for-beginners-511752.html
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Cartoon Drawing Tips For Kids
If the thought of creating beautiful cartoon characters gives you high, read on, here you will find some tips that you can readily use to improve your skills and reduce the time taken to create beautiful cartoon characters.
There are certain things that are same for every style of drawing, be it realistic drawing or cartoony, now we will go quickly through the basics before getting specific to cartoony style.
1. Select your tools wisely. Clean your hands before starting your drawing. The paper you use for your work should be of good quality. Low grade, off colored paper will make your drawing look pale. Your first sketch should be made with light lines and for finalizing you should use deep-colored and prominent lines --so choose your pencils carefully.
2. Many times beginners find drawing a smooth line difficult. Remember drawing smooth lines will be easier if you do not support your hand on your wrist like we are used to do while writing. Doodling and drawing some circular shapes just before you start will also help you to draw smoothly.
3. Learn to draw facial features and hand carefully. Hands are more difficult. Experts often judge a person's drawing ability from how well he can draw human hands. So practice drawing hands with care.
4. Study about basic forms and proportions of human body. Learn about basics of human anatomy and various ratios of human figures.
As a cartoon creator you will have certain liberties, you do not need to bind yourself with strict body proportions rules. You can draw four fingered (Thumb + Three) hand that makes your work a bit easier.
But one challenge you will face while drawing cartoons --cartoon characters needs to be more expressive and certainly you have to create this expressiveness with some lines drawn with your pencil.
Keep in mind that three areas of human face that play major role to express emotions are
1. Eyelids (wide open, half closed, almost fully closed etc.),
2. Eyebrows (raised, normal, crooked etc.) and
3. Lips (forming downward bow, upward bow etc.).
Other than these you can also use, hair (properly combed or ruffled), garments (well kept or torn) to create characters that tells a story.
Hope you find this tips useful. Coupled with some practice these tips will help you to take your cartoon drawing skills to a new level. Enjoy the fun of drawing beautiful and expressive cartoon characters.
Article Source:http://www.articles321.com
If you are interested to start drawing beautiful cartoons like experts visit http://pwrinfo.com/cartoon-drawing-course/
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How to Draw Pokemon
How it Started!
Learning how to draw Pokemon is very simple and works off of basic geometric shapes. Pokemon hit the television airwaves in the 90s and with the interesting characters that were developed, many people began to want to learn how to draw Pokemon.
Keep it Simple for Poliwag!
Poliwag is one of the simplest Pokemon characters to draw. Begin with a large, egg-like shape that will be the basis of his body. You want this circle to be large enough that will allow you to add in all of the detail without a problem.
Draw another circle slightly to the bottom of the circle. This will allow you enough space to draw the face. These two circles should be similar to an egg with a yolk in the middle. Now you will want to add eyes and nose at the top of the second circle. The eyes should be half ovals that drop down for the top of the large circle. Now you can simply add a tail, feet and the spiral on the body. Add lips to the little nose circle and you have a Poliwag to color how you wish.
Popular Pikachu!
Pikachu is one of the most popular Pokemon characters and to learn how to draw Pokemon Pikachu is very simple. It takes less than ten steps to draw this character. Begin by drawing a basic outline for the head. Make one arched line for the top of the head and then two disjointed lines for the side of the head. The ears will be drawn where you have left spaces. Next, draw two long lines down from the two side headlines. Arch these lines out slightly to form the body.
Give Pikachu Feet!
Add the feet to Pikachu by making simple jagged toes and then connect the feet with a curved line that arches upwards slightly. Next, draw two long and pointed ears with a small line near the points of the ears. Draw two simple cartoon eyes with pupils, a small upside down triangle nose and a mouth. Add two arms to the front of the body with several pointed fingers. Finally draw a zig-zagged tail with a small zig-zag near the base of the tail, and add in the two semi-circles on his cheeks.
As you can see, learning how to draw Pokemon is very simple and the characters are very basic.
Karen MacLean is a consultant and writer for online and offline businesses. Karen resides in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. http://www.how-to-draw-now.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_MacLean
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How to Draw Naruto
Naruto is a popular manga by Masash Kishimoto and many artists are aspiring to learn how to draw Naruto. The character of Naruto can be described as a loud and hyperactive adolescent ninja. He is constantly searching for approval and recognition of his skills. In order to learn how to draw Naruto an understanding of the character will help, because the character itself is very important in all Japanese cartoons.
The Basic Outline!
To draw Naruto you want to start with a basic outline of a face with a circle, cheekbones and chin.
Give Naruto Some Lip and Get Away With it!
The bottom lip should jut out slightly and there should be a small mark between the chin and lip. Now you can begin adding his bandana, collar, eyes with pupils and thickened eyelashes and eyebrows. Naruto’s hair is very clumpy and random, as is most hair in the anime style. The hair droops down behind his head and comes out of the bandana. Finally, draw on the whiskers and his "Leave Village" symbol.
Now you can expand from Naruto!
There are several different characters that you can learn how to draw from Naruto. They will all have a similar basis and you can begin to draw them the same way you would any face of a person or cartoon character. Practice makes perfect and as you perfect the head of the character you can begin to practice on the body as well.
Karen MacLean is a consultant and writer for online and offline businesses. Karen resides in the province of New Brunswick, Canada. http://www.how-to-draw-now.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Karen_MacLeana
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Learn To Draw Eyes
Just like with all other features of a human face, it’s important that you don’t draw preconceived ideas that you may have regarding eyes. Since eyes are said to be the windows to the soul of a person, it reflects a lot regarding the personality and emotionality of the subject. Thus, it’s very important that you draw it just the way it is.
There are a lot of things that you can know about the various parts of the human eye. However, here are some of the basic guidelines that would allow you to learn to draw eyes correctly.
Complexity And Parts
Just like ears, the eyes are complex too in regard to form. Thus, you have to be patient when drawing it. Take necessary time to finish it and try to make it realistic as you can. Take note of the important portions of the eye. Here are some of them:
- eyebrows
- eyeball
- eyelids
- eyelashes
- pupil
- iris
- surrounding bone structure
Bone Structure
For the gross structure of the eye, make sure that the eyeball is sitting deep inside of the eye socket. Also, make sure that the eye socket would have a protruding rim on its top. This is where the eyebrow would be placed. You could simply trace your finger around the socket to get a good idea of what shape it should be. It’s within the perimeters of this some what rectangular shape where you would be drawing the main eye.
Eyeball
You should give the eyeball a spherical and large appearance. At its front would be an egg shaped protruding bulge. This is where the lens would be located. Atop the eyeball, you can find the eyelids. It is stretched over the top potion of the eyeball.
In drawing, the most important part of the eyeball would be the white portion of the eye. In reality, these do not really have a pure white color. They also have shadows in them. So, remember that the shape you are aiming for would be a sphere. So, try to make a sphere that has some shading for it to become a realistic eyeball.
Eyelids
For the eyelids, it was said that it is stretched above the eyeball. Thus, the eyeball curvature would be the one to give the lids their shape. You should understand and memorize this factor. It is also vital that you exactly capture the eyelid line shape. Observe that they generally follow the eyeball curvature. Take note that every time eyelids are retracted, they have a clearly visible crease that should be accurately rendered.
Lastly, see the odd little shape situated on the inside corner of your eye where the lower and upper eyelids join. Make sure that you draw this shape as how you have had seen it with your subject.
Eyelashes
Make sure that eyelashes are sprouting out from the eyelids and not anywhere else from the eye. These usually grow in clumps. Thus, draw them that way. Spend some time how they grow and the direction they are going. Take note that there is a difference in size for eyelashes at the bottom lid compared to the upper lid. The ones on the upper lid are larger. Since they come from a clump, they are also usually entangled.
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Learn To Draw Cars
Cars could be a really cool subject to draw, especially if you love racing and other sports related to it. Nevertheless, may you be a car fan or not, cars are definitely one good subject to draw. This is because they can be seen anywhere and they could stand still for days and not even move giving you more time to draw its main essence. Here are the essentials if you want to learn to draw cars.
Be Familiarized
To start you should first get some exposure to different kinds of cars. Try to look at different pictures of cool cars. Study their shapes along with the shape of their spoilers. Other than shape take note of their colors and graphics. Try to study how extras features work, like butterfly doors and spoilers. Doing this can greatly help you visualize the way and orientation of how you should draw them on different positions.
Get A Model
You should get a model. You can get a book with car pictures, have a real car to draw or even get a toy car. It all depends on your preference. Although it is tempting to have a number of cars to draw in one picture, it is best to start out with just one at the moment.
Keep It Simple
Start making a sketch of a normal shape of a car. Remember to keep it simple. You can do this by using basic shapes. Create an oval to mark as its windshield, have a trapezoid for its hood, sides, and the passenger area. Lastly, add simple circles as its the wheels.
Add Some Emphasis
Next, start emphasizing your car by adding some pressure on some of your sketch lines. Try employing progressively darker lines. This can thresh out the shapes you’ve just drawn in the previous step. Cool cars have dynamic shapes. They usually have flowing hoods or sharp angular hoods. In most cases they also have pretty small passenger seats. For instance, a corvette usually has large flares on its front wheels. However, if you look closely, you’ll see that these flares are just simple arcs which flow to the hood and up to the passenger area.
Get Cool And Accessorize!
If you want to have a really cool car, then it is a must that you pimp it up by adding graphics and cool accessories. One example would be a spoiler, which looks something like a fishtail. It comes right off your car’s back portion. You can draw this in whatever way you want it to be. However, once you start drawing it, try your best to imagine that the car is moving and the wind is flowing through the spoiler. Draw your spoiler in a way that it looks natural and has the ability to cut through air.
It could also look like a fishtail that is turned on its side to look like as if it was created to push air which forces the car’s nose into the ground. Draw this right from the back. It has to be an angular line which transforms into a quite shallow arc. After this, cup a shape under it that would connect it back into the angular line which attaches to your car.
Draw Some Car Art
If you’ll be drawing racing cars, for sure there are many graphics on it. If so, remember to draw the graphics directly right on your car. This is so that they would wrap around its body. This gives a much natural look.
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Learn To Draw A Bunny
Drawing A Bunny With Its Back On You
One of the easiest forms of bunnies would be the one that has its back on you. This is ideal for very young kids. To start, use a pencil to draw two circles on top of each other. This would be the head and the body of your rabbit. Thus, make the one on the bottom twice the size of the one on top. They should also overlap with each other for about 1/3 of the top circle.
Erase the bottom part of the head so that they would look like solid circles on top of each other. Add a small circle on the lower part of the body. This is the tail. Then add up two oblongs on top of the head. Now you have the ears and the drawing is complete. You can add color if you want. For kids to practice, they can draw many bunnies together.
Drawing A Bad Rabbit
Most bunnies are depicted as cute and cuddly. However, this time around you’ll be drawing a bad bunny rabbit, to make things more interesting.
First, create the face. This would include rounded cheeks, a pair of eyes, and one cute little button nose. To give your character an evil and grungy look, you need to do some alterations with the facial features. This can be achieved by drawing menacing and slanted eyeballs. You can also make the teeth a bit pointed, so to make it a little bit scarier than the usual bucktooth rabbit.
Add the ears and other body parts. The ears should be long cylindrical things, which come out from his head’s top. They could be sticking up straight in the air or could be nicely bent at haphazard angles. The body must be rounded since they are usually plump.
Finish the body. Do this by drawing a rounded, fat line that would become his jumping hind leg. Also, make 2 thinner legs and place it in front of the chest. Lastly, do not forget the puffy tail to be placed at the rear end portion of his body.
Furnish your work by adding finer details. Add a few lines on his tail and beneath his ears to make it look like your character has some fur. Do not forget to add whiskers. You can make these straight and alert or crooked for a grungy look. Then, add the buck teeth. Since your rabbit is an evil kind of hare, you can give him fangs instead of placing round shaped teeth. Then you’re done!
Drawing A Cute Rabbit
For you to draw a traditional cute version, just follow the same steps as drawing a bad rabbit. However, this time, you should make sure that the features are cute and not scary looking. Do away with the fangs or crooked teeth. Round is the best way to go.
Other features like the eyes and ears should have a cute appeal too. Don’t slant the eyes, but instead make them round. Add some glare by placing white spots on the black portion of the eyes. For the ears, try to make them curvaceous rather than angular. Add a carrot and a bow to his neck or ears for added cuteness.
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Learn To Draw Sailor Moon
Materials
There are a couple of materials that you’d need before you can start drawing. First, you have to get some Sailor Moon manga issues. Get one from Anime bookstores or even your local bookstore’s children sections. Get some pencils. Also, it would be better if you have inking pens. Best, if you have different colors. Lastly, you should have paper.
Get Acquainted: Meet Sailor Moon
If you’re not a fan, the very first thing you should do is become acquainted with Sailor Moon. Go and browse through different issues of the Mange. Do this so that you can have an idea of what your subject character looks like even before you get to draw her. If you can’t get a hard copy of an issue or book, try searching the Internet. For sure you can find something online. After browsing, try to pick just one scene that you want to concentrate on and draw.
Start Drawing
Draw a girl that has a face with a slightly heart-shape. She should also have large and round blue eyes. It is pretty normal for you to encounter the heart motif throughout the manga. This is because she is described to be someone who has a very kind heart.
Her eyes should be big and inviting. Closely observe the manga and you’ll see that her eyes have a reflective manner. You can achieve this effect by putting a lot of white spots in her eyes. However, there are proper positions for these spots and they also depend on the direction that your character is looking. So, go back to your picture and observe properly.
Drawing The Hair
Once you’ve figured out the way you want her eyes to look, you can now add her hair. Sailor Moon’s hair is her trademark. This also applies with the different characters in the manga. Thus, drawing her with a different haircut or hairstyle would not make her Sailor Moon anymore.
If you will observe carefully, you’ll see that her whole head is heart shaped, including her hair. Sailor Moon has a very long hair that is always kept in pigtails. So, add some long hair and a big puff of bangs that forms a heart on your character’s forehead. Also, put 2 small puffs, one on the right and one on the left side of her head.
These look a bit like animal ears. However, they are not. Those two puffs are actually her hair accessories. The hairstyle she is sporting is called "odango" hairstyle, which is based on the Japanes word for meaning rice dumplings. Her pigtails should sprout out from the two puffs. Color her hair yellow when if it’s already time to put some color in your drawing.
The Body And Clothes
Sailor Moons’ body is quite slender. Her clothes are also another trademark. She wears a uniform, which is basically a sailor dress that is colored white. The short skirt is also white, but has some blue accents. She has a big red bow with a heart pendant on the middle of her chest. Her legs are slender and long with red boots.
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Learn To Corel Draw
What Can You Do With The Program?
What most people do not know is that you can do a lot of things in Corel Draw. In fact, once you learn it, you’ll be on your way to mastering a lot of techniques that involve pictures in general.
Illustrations
When you learn this program, you can now have the skill to draw digitally. The computer would now be your playground in creating original images. It may take some time for you to adjust, especially if you are used to drawing by your hand. However, there is no need to worry. In fact, you should be excited and happy since this program actually has a lot of features and allows you to have a lot of other opportunities to have for your image.
The program has the ability to deliver perceptive vector illustration tools which meet today’s demands of different design professionals along with aspiring graphic artists. With this, you can get fast results. Whether you are just making a company logo or industriously working on a big project that has a very demanding production schedule. You can create logos; create your own digital painting and many more!
If you are not comfortable with the idea of drawing by the use of pre-fixed shaping tools, you can always get a pen-tablet. In this way, you could still feel as if you are drawing using normal pencil on a piece of paper. This would also give you more control, especially if you want your image to have a really unique rendering that literally has your personal touch.
Photo Editing
If you are an aspiring photographer or simply someone who loves taking precious moments with his/her camera, you are going to love the photo editing feature of this program. Yes, if you get to learn Corel, you can have the ability to edit your photos in the most professional manner. You can create new images with your existing photos. You can even make a digital album, if you want to.
If you want to do minor image enhancements such as balance, contrast, hue, saturation and levels adjustments, you can do so. Resizing of pictures is also possible with Corel. You can also convert your images from one file format to another just by using the program.
These are just some of the things that you can do with Corel Draw.
Where To Learn
Using the program is quite easy. It is user friendly and provides adequate help, if ever you have a question. However, you can only be exposed to the basics if you decide to keep on forever relying to the ‘Help’ function. This is why you also have all the creative freedom to learn techniques and tips from digital imaging masters that provide Corel Draw workshops.
If you do not have the money or time to attend different workshops, do not lose hope. You can still learn more about the program via the Internet. There are a lot of Web sites out there that provide free tutorials. All you have to do is search.
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Learn To Draw And Paint
Drawing Versus Painting
One important factor that people do not understand is that drawing is different from painting. Thus, if you want to learn how to draw and paint, this means you have to develop two different skills. Drawing is generally defined as depicting a subject by the use of lines. On the other hand, painting is the art of coating surfaces with paint for artistic or utilitarian purposes.
Thus, the medium you’d be using would be the main difference along with the process itself. Nevertheless, these two disciplines are still related and most often combined to make an art work. Most of the time, drawing becomes a prerequisite of painting; although this is not always the case.
Drawing Basics
For you to start having drawing skills, you should constantly practice your hands and eyes. Do this by sketching. Constantly sketching is the best way for you to learn how to draw more artistically and professionally.
Remember that drawing is developed by constant practice of your hands. This is not improved by merely reading or acquiring whatever book based knowledge that is available. Thus, practice your hand to draw. Be very observant with your surroundings. Try to sketch things or people during your idle time. Doing this is really one worthwhile hobby that could pay off in the future.
Copying is your stepping stone in drawing. Get a model and copy it. It is all right to make mistakes. This is exactly what erasers are for any way. Also, do away with the notion that you need to have professional materials for your work to look good. A simple sketch book and basic drawing pencil and eraser would do.
Painting Basics
On the contrary, painting would entail appropriate materials so that your work would end up nicely done. You would need a couple of brushes that come in different sizes. You also need acrylic paint of various colors, but most importantly, you should have the primary colors, a bigger tube of white and black. However, if you do not want to buy a black tube, you could simply create your own. Do this by combining all the primary colors.
It is best to start with Acrylic paints because these are the easiest to work with. Thus, the general painting developmental stages would be mastering acrylics first before aiming to learn oils or water color. Also, this kind of paint is easily mixed with water. All you’ll need would be a glass or a bucket in which you would put the water in for cleaning purposes. You also use this water to keep your paint moist, it dries up quickly. A pallet is needed too. If you don’t have one, you can improvise by using paper plate that has Aluminum foil covering.
To start painting, you have to draw on your canvas first. Draw your subject and other details of the pictures’ environment. After this, add on the color using your paint. Keep on practicing by choosing different subjects. Also, try to experiment with the colors you’ve got.
Make full use of your pallet and create various shades of colors. Continue on sketching and painting like this and for sure your skill would start to develop in no time.
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Learn To Draw Caricatures
Getting Started
These are basically portraits that distort or exaggerate a person or thing’s essence. This is done to create a very easy and identifiable visual likeness or description of a subject by the use of exaggeration and oversimplification of various characteristics. These could be complimentary, insulting or both. It can also have an intense political purpose or simply be drawn for mere entertainment. Having said the general definition of caricatures, one thing is evident here: it is a very personalized form of art.
A Higher Sense Of Observation
Since it is personalized to a very high extent, you should first observe closely the subject you would be drawing. If it’s a person then, find out what are his/her features that are very recognizable. Go for the obvious. The observation part in drawing a caricature is the key to making the whole work successful. You cannot rely on a pattern for drawing a caricature. People have varying characteristics, which is why applying a template for all your subjects is not advisable.
For instance, maybe your dad has a big nose; noses are quite popular features that are used in exaggeration. Pick out the features that would make your subject very recognizable.
Don’t Mistake It For A Portrait
One thing that you should be cautious of is mixing up a portrait and a caricature. Remember, these two are different. Caricatures are generally cartoon renditions of the subjects being drawn. However, a portrait is a much realistic view of a subject. As soon as you begin learning how these are drawn, you would want to practice with people that you personally know or are close to. You should also have sufficient understanding of the human face’s basic layout. You can make use of various techniques too, like foreshortening and proportion. Different techniques in drawing are still applicable in this style.
Seeing Your Subject
You should see your subject in a 360 degree. This means see him/her at different angles and situations. This is considered to be the best way for you to have his/her whole sense of personality. You should also find features that you can minimize, rather than exaggerate. Not all characteristics are exaggerated by making them big. There are times that you just have to make them extra small to attain exaggeration. For instance, if you’ll be drawing someone that has a small mouth, you can exaggerate by making his/her mouth even smaller than usual. Doing this is something like reverse exaggeration.
Find Features To Dumb Down!
Dumbing down some features is another technique for your drawing to look more cartoonish. For instance, hair is usually “dumbed down” since you wouldn’t really want to draw each strand of it in a caricature. This minimizes the portrait look of your picture.
The Right Way To Exaggerate
Last but not the least, exaggerate However, do not overdo it. Do not exaggerate features which are not that recognizable in real life. For instance, if your subject does not have a big nose, then do not draw him/her with a big nose. Try to focus on features which could be exaggerated without making your subject unrecognizable.
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Learn To Draw Cartoons
Choose Your Medium: Still Or Moving?
The medium that you would be using is very important. This would have an effect on the overall impact and look of your work. What is it that you want to do? Do you want to go for single cartoons or cartoon strips like the ones you get to see on the comic page of your newspaper or do you want to have a full scale movie? Picking one would affect how you start. However, for beginners, it would be best to save the movie later!
Who’s Your Main Character?
Pick out a main character. Is it a male or female? Is it human or an animal, or maybe a vegetable perhaps? What are its main features? Usually, cartoons have exaggerated features and roughly ignore other ones.
Start Off By Sketching
If you have seen a movie storyboard, you'll know that it’s just a rough outline and overview of what would be happening on a certain scene. It doesn’t have full blown details on it. If you want to draw a strip, it would be better for you to plan out what would be happening in each of your frames. Get the summary of what you want your final cartoon to look like.
Develop Your Main Character
Doing this would take some time. It's way better to at least draw something than be agonized over the exact placement of each line. Try to see early Mickey Mouse cartoons or even early episodes of the Simpsons. Try to compare these to the present and you’ll see that the characters have evolved over the years.
Add Some Drama: Use Emotions!
Don’t forget to add emotions to your main character. May it be a cheeky grin or raised eyebrows, whatever variation you put on his/her features can help in giving him/her more character, life and personality. Unless you intend your main character to be totally expressionless and still, it’s rewarding to give it emotions. If they are scared or angry, you could emphasize this using the next step.
Add Some Life: Use Color!
Assuming that you would be displaying strip on your Web site or you would be printing it off from your colored printer, it is best that you add color to your work. This would give people variety to look at. It also helps give more life to your cartoon. Remember, since cartoons are not always depicting reality, having a non-realistic colored character is all right, take the Pink Panther for instance.
Add Some Depth: Use Shading
Adding a few strokes of shading would go a long way for cartoons. Your readers’ minds would fill out the blanks. Thus, you do not really have to draw each strand of hair, if your character has a hairy leg. Just place enough strands and some hints. Their imagination would do its job and join the dots. In fact, this is extremely effective and would allow your readers to develop their imaginations.
Add Environment: Use A Background
Like shading, this doesn't require too much detail. Placing a pyramid shaped outline if your character is in Egypt would do fine. You do not have to draw the Sphinx, unless your storyline requires it.
Let Them Speak: Add Some Caption
The final touch in giving your character life is by letting is speak. It doesn’t matter if it’s an animal or human. They do speak. Decide whether you are going to put the lines on a speech bubble or simply below the cartoon box.
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Learn To Draw Comics
Comics used to be the number one form of entertainment, back when TV did not exist yet. Reading comics is like having your own printed out movie. If you have a unique kind of sense of humor, and you like drawing, why not learn to draw comics? This would be very easy and fun at the same time!
Here are some of the things you should consider if you want to start your own comic strip.
What’s The Theme Of Your Comic Strip?
Before you go on drawing in little boxes, determine first the type of comic strip that you want. Do you want a satiric comic? What’s the main theme? Is it about teenage life? Is it about married life? How about school life? Who are your intended readers? Is it about a super hero? Factors like these are important.
Go ahead and brainstorm. If you are having a hard time on picking out a theme, get some inspiration with your surroundings. Observe people that you encounter daily or randomly. Try to come up with something new, fresh, interesting yet everyone could relate to. This would be a good basis of your whole comic strip.
Have Some Characters
You should also be equipped with a character line up. Have a main character and a couple of supporting characters. Map out the personality of each. Create their profiles, so that they could be unique from each other, yet you have had determined a working relationship for all of them. You do not really have to create a long list of characters. Just be ready with your main and a couple of staple characters. You can always add a new character to the gang in the future once you have a new idea for it.
Now, practice drawing your characters. Draw them in different kinds of facial expressions and actions.
Find A Setting
You should also decide on a specific setting. Would it be during the Jurassic age ala Flintstones? Would you want it to be in a high school, just like Archie? Do you want to have your own imaginary city like Gotham city in the Batman comics? It all depends on your imagination. Once you have all these things settled out, that is the only time that you can start drawing.
Draw Your Panel
The panel refers to the number of boxes you are going to have in one strip. You can have three or four boxes for short strips that usually showcase only one scene or you can have hundreds that cover many pages that usually showcase a whole storyline.
You can start out with short ones, just like the ones you see on your newspaper’s comic page. Have a plot for the scenes along with the dialogues you have in mind. Start plotting how you are going to fit your characters in the boxes, and then draw them. Put dialogue bubbles or boxes and write down their lines or thoughts.
Once you are content with your drawing, put it into ink and erase sketch marks. Add some color if you want to, and you’re done!
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Learn To Draw Disney Characters
The best thing about these characters is that they are easy to draw. In fact, even children could draw them. From the world famous Mouse to the inter-galactic famous Stitch, name it and you can draw it! Although by watching them on television, you may think that they are complicated to draw, do not be discouraged. If you really want to learn to draw Disney characters, a little practice and love for your character is all you need! Who knows, maybe you’ll be one of their animators someday?
Materials
You would need a couple of materials before you start. Get a pencil, eraser and a set of coloring materials. It depends on your preference on whether you would want to use markers, crayons or colored pencils. Pick out a character and have a picture of him or her ready with you too. It is possible for you to learn all the characters. However, it is best that you concentrate first with just one, since you are still at the beginning stage. Once you’ve found a picture that is not too small and not too big to work with, then you can start drawing.
Plan And Map
First, you should plan and map the features of your character. Based on the picture you have, try to locate the basic shapes of your character’s body features. Start by drawing ovals which are relative the basic shape and size of its body, head, and limbs. It highly depends on what you character would be doing. Based on this, position the ovals to where you want the body parts of your character to be. It’s advised that you start out with the head.
Starting With The Facial Features
Start placing outlines of the different facial features. Make sure they are in the correct proportion. Generally, Disney characters have almond- or oval-shaped eyes. Make sure that you get the right shape of the basic features, since these are the most important. This would include: eyes, nose and mouth. Try not to put too much detail yet.
Shape The Body
Start drawing the body. Make sure that you use rounded lines. Generally, if your character is female, you should draw the upper chest and hips larger and rounder compared to the waist. If it’s a male, the shoulders are the most prominent. So, draw them to be the largest.
Add On Limbs And Hands
For the arms and legs, draw them by creating oval shapes. Do this for both upper and lower extremities. For the knee, draw a circle in between the ovals of the upper and lower leg. Connect all these simple shapes using rounded lines.
Draw the hands. Create a rounded square that has three ovals on top, with 2 connected ovals at the side to stand as the thumb. Draw the feet by creating a basic shape for a shoe. You can also be creative and make him/her barefooted. Connect all the ovals by the use of rounded lines. Smoothen the outline and erase unnecessary parts.
Color It!
Use your coloring materials and color your drawing. Look at the picture for color reference.
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Learn To Draw Faces
Map And Plan
Although it may seem complex, drawing faces is quite simple. Just as with any kind of art, there are some basic guidelines that you can follow and use. One of these would be mapping. For you to have a realistic output, you should be able to map the face correctly. This is imperative, before you even add on finer details.
You should not just out rightly copy the face of your model as if it were some outline on a kid’s coloring book. Certain preliminary steps are needed if you want your drawing to have form, structure, depth and a convincing aura.
The Egg
You can start mapping out by using the egg technique. Do this by drawing an oval that has the shape of an egg. Try to find its center and draw a line downwards to it. Take note of this line. It would be a very important landmark for you throughout your drawing process. It would serve as your midpoint so that you can measure nose width, eye separation, eyebrow separation, etc. Since this is a sketch, try do draw lightly with your pencil.
After vertically separating the upper half of the egg into two, separate it again so that you would have 3 equal parts. Do this by placing 2 horizontal lines on your egg’s body. These three areas would demarcate important aspects of the face. Try your best to make them evenly proportioned.
The top part of your egg would become the top portion of your subject’s hairline. The lowest portion of that area would also become your subject’s eyebrows. Next, the middle portion would be the part of the face starting from the eyebrows down to the most bottom part of the nose. Lastly, the third area is allotted for the nose bottom, lips and edge of the chin.
Notes On Measurement
There are also some basic guidelines for measurement and facial feature proportions. For instance, 2 of the said egg segments turned sideways would give you the sideway measurement starting from one cheek to another. You should also take into consideration the measurement of the eyes. Make sure that the size of one eye would be equal to the space in between both eyes. You should also check and see if your drawing’s nose wings are lined up with each eye’s corner.
Now, focus on the bottom segment of your egg. If you divide this into half, by the use of a horizontal line, you would get the line that serves to be the bottom of your subject’s bottom lip. If you have drawn the lips already, take a look at its corners. Make sure they are aligned with each eye’s pupil.
As for the ears, they should also be visible even if it’s a front view image you are drawing. This is because they aren’t simply sitting flat on your head’s side. As a guide, you can simply look for the midline of the middle segment of your egg.
However, be careful that you do not overdo the size of the ears. They should only stick out approximately as far as the egg’s main center line up to the nose wing.
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Learn To Draw Flowers
There are different flowers all over the world and you can choose to draw all of them, if you please. However, you should understand that all of them are unique. Thus, you should approach drawing them differently. However, there are still some principles in drawing that are applicable for whatever kind it is you may be drawing. So, here are the basics for you to learn to draw flowers.
Don’t Get Too Excited, Learn To Observe!
Upon seeing a flower, your eyes are definitely drawn to its center. Hence, it is really tempting for you to start drawing coming from the center also. However, what most beginning artists do not understand is that starting out from the center is very complicated. It is tricky, since you would have to judge the overlapped forms and small distances in the center. If you do not figure it out right, one thing’s for sure. You get a misshapen bloom.
To avoid this, start from the flower’s outside features. This is so that you can look at its overall proportions. You can also use negative space to aid you in drawing the outer petals.
Be Sensitive With Your Lines
Progressively work in by following the line that you can see for each petal. Remember to go only as far as it goes. Do not shorten or lengthen just yet. Draw these edges quite firmly, but lightly on portions where the middle part curves out from you. Also, be prepared in trailing off a line. This means, lifting your pencil and starting a new line whenever you see an overlapping petal.
Sketch It Out
Pen and pencil drawings of flowers usually work well especially when drawn cleanly and smoothly. However, they also work pretty well when they are drawn in a much relaxed manner. Try to exaggerate the weight of the lines you would be using. Do not be afraid to lighten the pressure or make it heavier. You can add loose or even scribbled marks. This would suggest foliage and overlapping petals.
Draw Something In Between
If you’ll be sketching with line, it’s good to try drawing shadows underneath your petals, instead of outlining each petal precisely. You can place short, stippled marks. These can suggest stamens placed at the bloom’s center. If you’ll be observing different drawings, you’ll see that petal length and sizes vary greatly. This is very evident especially if the flower has a certain angle to its viewer.
Get A Light Source
You should also have one light source for your drawing. This is important so that you can determine the shadows and the lighter portions of your picture. This gives your drawing depth and a much realistic look to it.
Improve With Variety
If you want to improve with your drawing skills, you can do so through variety. Try to vary the position of your subject or model. Try sketching it at different angles. You should also try different light sources. Doing this would definitely improve your skill.
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Learn To Draw Graffiti Letters
Get To Know The Art
It is important that you familiarize yourself with the different graffiti styles. It doesn’t matter where you come from or live, for sure there is some graffiti nearby. However, if there aren’t any, you can try visiting another city. If you can’t go on hunting for the real thing, then you could resort to the Internet. Try browsing for different pictures of graffiti art work from different places in the world. This could get you exposed with the different styles.
Write Down A Name
Get a sheet of paper and write down a name. It is best if you use your name to start out with. Most serious graffiti artists started out by simply writing their names in a unique manner. For starters, it’s easiest to have the letters printed in all capital forms. Use a pencil. Try to draw as light as you can so it would be easy to erase details you don't like. You should leave enough space between your letters. Remember that you'll be expanding the letters and this space would be filled in later. Make your writing big enough so that it would be easy to work with, but not too big that it’d take you forever to finish your work.
Choose A Style
Next, you should choose a style that you'd want to use for your name. One of the most famous styles would be bubble letters. However, there still a lot of other styles out there. Don’t be afraid to explore. You can use rounded or sharp edges, same sized letters or have some big and others small, etc. It would be easier for you to emulate a given style. Once you get to learn the basics, it’s easier for you to naturally develop your own.
Outline
Once you’ve chosen a style, outline the letters of your name. Try to approximate it with the style you've chosen. Use a pencil and make sure you write lightly. If you make mistakes, which for sure you’ll do for a number of times, use your eraser. Remember to make use original letters as your guide and not your prison. Also, do not be afraid to change your letters past all recognition.
Line Thickness
One good way to vary your letters is by varying its line thickness. This is good if you want your letters to have a 3-D effect. Try to make lines thicker and thinner at different points. This also gives a perception of space and depth.
Add Details
To give your work a personal touch, add more details to your letters. For instance, a lightning bolt for your i’s dot would be good, or a pair of eyes peering out of your B’s hole. If you want, you can also put a bubble around the whole word, just like in comic books. It all depends on your preference and imagination. Try to explore and don’t be afraid to mix colors.
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Learn To Draw People
Learn Proportion
One of the most common mistakes when drawing people would be the proportion. You should take note of this when drawing. The ideal proportion would be 7 heads tall for a man figure. Here are some of the other important proportions to take note of, all of them are 2 heads long:
1. From the kneecap’s middle to the foot’s bottom
2. The femur’s head to the whole kneecap
3. The elbow’s size to the extended fingers’ tips
4. The collarbone down to the belly button
5. The chest width from each shoulder’s end.
Observation
Other than mastering the skill of proportioning, you should also learn how to observe. You can have a perfect drawing if you learn how to closely observe faces and people. Being able to observe and view correctly could be helpful in your artistic improvement in the long run.
Ask yourself questions such as: Were you able to see the correct outline of your model's eye? What is the thickness of the outline? How about the eyebrows? Is the chin’s positioning at the right place? Did draw the neckline curvier than it should be? Take a look at your drawing. Is it a real representation of what your model looks like? Did you miss something? Take a look again.
Precise observation is needed if you really want to draw people. For you to do this, take some caution when observing.
Express Emotions
For your work to be appealing, it should also express emotions just like real people do. Remember to give extra effort with your figure’s eye brows, eyes, and mouth. These are the 3 areas that you’ll be utilizing to express your character’s emotions.
For instance, if you’ll be drawing eyes, remember that the eye surface is moist and that it reflects light. To achieve this kind of effect, try to add little white dots on the black part of the eyes. Doing this would make your character more appealing and lively.
Start Out Big
The trick to drawing precise figures is that you should start out big. Try to draw the gross parts of the body first. In this way, proportion could be secured. After you’ve drawn the bigger portions of the body, this would be the good time to add the details. So, eyes and other intricate features are to be added on the later part of your work.
Be Environmental
You should also take good note of the environment that your character is in. For instance, if your figure would be beside the window, then you should take note of how light falls upon the body. The lighting would definitely make a difference, especially on the shadings of your drawing.
You should also be able to establish the environment. Is it an indoor or outdoor scene? If it’s indoor, then add some indoor furniture or accessories. If it’s outdoor then place a figure that resembles the outside world, like trees or lamp posts.
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Learn To Draw The Human Figure
Materials
What you’ll need would be paper, pencil, a good eraser, ruler, and one good dose of imagination! Once you have all these, you are ready to start drawing.
Start With The Head
One of the easiest portion to start with would be the head. Draw the head. Create an oval for the head. This is because most heads are said to be oval in shape. Place this oval at the top portion of your paper. Try not to put too much pressure with your pencil stroke just yet. Draw lightly, and consider this to be a sketch.
Get The Body Size
Use your ruler to determine the body size. Get the measurement of the rest of your subject’s body. The ideal measurement can be taken from the principle that the human head’s size is approximately 1/7 of the total body height. So, measure the height of the oval that you just drew. Compute for the height of six more oval heads, and you would get the height of your body. It is best that you put marks on your paper so that it would be easy for you to see the measurement marks.
Start Having Some Figure
Once you’ve determined the height, you can now start giving your drawing some figure. Start by drawing the hips. Generally, you can find the widest portion of the hips located halfway down of the body. Draw a basic trapezoid shape. Put the widest or the base line of your trapezoid approximately at the position where the hips and waist should be, according to your measurements. The normal space starting from the hips up to the waist would be approximately 2/3 of the head’s length.
Add The Lower Extremities And The Upper Extremities
Add more form by drawing the knees and feet. Your figure’s knees should be halfway in between the feet and hips. Obviously, the feet would be the bottom part of the body. Create 2 small circles for the knees, place 2 small ellipses for the feet.
Now draw the upper extremities of the body by adding the shoulders, arms, elbows, and hands. Generally, the elbows should fall at waist level. The shoulders should be just right below the bottom of the head on both sides. Just like with knees, you can draw small circles for the elbows. To put the shoulders, draw two more heads lightly. Place 1 on each side of the head. You can draw circles to for the shoulders below each imaginary head. For the hands, they usually fall halfway down your figure’s thighs. Create small ellipsis for the hands.
Get Connected!
Now, it’s time for you to connect the different body parts that you drew. Use ellipses so that you can connect the body part. As soon as this is done, you could start adding some shading and details. Add some clothing and some other essentials. Do not forget to get a light source so that you’d know where the shadows should be placed.
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Learn To Draw Tinkerbell
Get Tink’s Picture
To start drawing, you should have a couple of her pictures. Go and refer to your favorite Tinkerbell images from children’s books. You can also find some pictures of her on the Internet. Do this so that you can have a very good visual idea of how you would want your Tinkerbell version to look like.
Do not feel restricted by your references. Have the liberty to exercise your creative freedom. Go on and think of your Tink version instead of copying an existing one. A lot of versions have been created as time passed by in both plays and books. Thus, there is really no reason why you couldn’t make your own and give her a new look.
Be Ready With Your Materials
Get a piece of paper, notebook, sketch pad or whatever paper that you want to place your drawing in. Be ready with coloring materials such as crayons, colored pencils or markers so that you can add some color after you have finished your drawing. Take note of the traditional drawings of Tinkerbell. These include colors such as green, silver, pink and yellow. Sometimes, there are also other colors that are similar with her skin tone. However, you can still opt to modify these if you want to.
Get Your Pencil And Draw
Start off by drawing Tink, using a pencil. Do not add color jus yet. Coloring should be done when you have finalized your drawing. Draw lightly at first, so that you can easily erase if ever you have some mistakes. Make the best out of your pencil by using it for shading various portions of your drawing so that you can achieve more visual depth.
Take a look at your images and try to see the basic shapes that Tink has. Sketch these basic shapes that comprise her face, body, head, wings, legs and feet. Try imagining each portion to be a distinct circle, line or curve. Do this so that it would be easier to break her down and draw her piece per piece. It's recommended that you start out with her head. This is because it would be your drawing’s focal point.
Think of the activity that she would be doing on your drawing. Would she be flying around? Is she standing still? Are her arms on her side or are they up since she would be sprinkling her fairy dust? Consider these things before you set out on drawing the details of her body.
Once you are happy with the way she looks like, get your coloring materials and color her. Use a crayon or marker for darkening the lines and outlining her. Also, clean up your drawing by erasing all the extra lines that you’ve drawn during your sketching period.
If a line does not really add anything to your image, erase it. Last but not the least, color her with your chosen media.
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