Pencil Portrait Drawing Tips on Supplies
What do you need to draw pencil portraits? The bare minimum is a pencil and a piece of paper. Needing hardly any equipment is an advantage but also a disadvantage. Drawing is to the arts what boxing is to sports. The fewer tools you have the more skilled you need to be to stand out. Therefore, as a pencil artist, it is particularly important that you use the right tools of the right quality.
Below, I present just about every piece of drawing equipment you will ever need. Study the list and then pick and choose depending on your style and ambitions:
* Pencils. Drawing pencils, in general, come in degrees of softness and hardness:
9H, 8H, ..., 2H, H, F, HB, B, 2B, 3B, ..., 8B, 9B
where 9H is the hardest and 9B is the softest. The F pencil is the odd duck in the line. It yields fairly fine and soft lines and is often used to draw hair. The HB pencil separates the hard H pencils from the softer B pencils.
To start, you may want to try the 2H (hard), HB, 2B, 4B, and 6B (soft) pencils. Later, with some experience, you can always reevaluate your choice.
* Paper. Try out a number of differently textured papers. For portraits, I prefer a 2-ply Bristol, acid-free, heavyweight, smooth surface. But your choice should be dictated by your own style or just by whether or not you enjoy a particular paper surface.
* Drawing Board. A 1/4 inch tempered Masonite or Plexiglas board of at least 16 x 20 inches will do.
* Clips or Masking Tape
. You use these to fix the paper on your drawing board and come in handy in all sorts of other situations. I use a lot of them.
* Maulstick. This stick is used to steady your hand and to avoid smudging of your work.
* Broom. A desk broom is used to occasionally brush debris off your work. This also avoids smudges and save time because you have to erase less.
* Sheet of Bond Paper. You put this sheet under your drawing hand, again to avoid smudging your drawing while you are working.
* Pencil Sharpener. You will need a sturdy small one for the road and an industrial strength electric one for your studio.
* Workable Fixative. This is a spray used to fix the finished portrait. This protects the drawing and makes it safe for future smudging.
* Erasers. You need two types: 1. A vinyl one and; 2. a kneaded one. A vinyl eraser is the usual hard rectangular kind. A kneaded eraser is the gray kind that acts like putty.
* Ruler. A regular 12 inch metal ruler will do. Make sure you can easily read the divisions on the ruler.
* Blending Tortillons. These are spiral-wound cones of paper used to blend a darker region into a lighter one.
* Paper Tissue. You use tissue paper as another blending tool.
That's about it. As you practice (yes, practice), you should try out some of the above tools and see if they fit with your mode of drawing. Be flexible but try to work towards a final style of pencil portrait drawing that feels comfortable to you and involves a subset of the above mentioned tools used in a practiced and almost unconscious manner.
Remi Engels, Ph.D., is a pencil portrait artist and oil painter. He is also the author of a popular Pencil Portrait Drawing Course. Get Your Free copy here: Remi's Pencil Portrait Drawing Course while supplies last.
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Top 20 Drawing Tips for Beginners
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....
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Drawing Lips
Lower you can see how the lips are shaded, practice your shading and the lips will come out perfect. Enjoy!
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-draw-lips
1 Easy Step to Drawing People More Accurately
Sometimes it's not the person that's hard to capture, it's their likeness that's hard to capture. Likeness when drawing people is all important. The principle of seeing things accurately and disposing of icons is very important when capturing a likeness to the person you are drawing.
Consider the drawing of an eye. Often, an artist will draw the eyes of the model or subject they are drawing like two footballs or almonds. Somewhere the artist has been taught that the eyeball looks like a football and he draws it this way every time. Ridding your mind of these icons will help you draw a closer likeness of the person almost immediately.
Any artist can draw a generic person who doesn't look like anybody but it's capturing the essence of your subject that can bring new life to your drawings. The icons you used when you were younger must be tossed aside and you need to start seeing accurately to draw accurately.
Learning to draw is almost like learning a new language in that you need to set aside what you already know and look at things differently. Learning that eyes can be many different shapes and that each one is unique is a little different than our understanding of they all look like footballs. When a model is posing, the artist then processes this information and draws this, he doesn't draw what he sees, he draws what he thinks he sees. That's why a big key to drawing is observing accurately.
If you pay attention more to what you are seeing, then your drawings will become more accurate and you will achieve a closer likeness to those you are drawing. Anyone can learn to draw. It starts with passion, determination, and practice. As you learn the correct techniques of observing and doing studies, you will see your drawings take on life and you will grow as an artist.
Article Source: http://articlekarma.com
Todd Harris is a master artist who is currently working as a concept art director for a multi-billion dollar corporation. He is trained in the Florence Academy Method. Learning2draw.com is a resource based website devoted to aspiring artists wishing to master figure drawing. Visit www.learning2draw.com to get tips, tricks, and techniques to master the human form.
Quick Tips On How to Draw a Realistic Face
The first tip is probably the most important. When you are drawing, draw from a good source or reference. For instance make sure that your photo is a really high quality. Make sure that the photo is big and clear, and not a lot of different lighting sources. Choose a subject that is interesting to you. If you want, a good idea is to draw something of one of the masters, like Beugereau. If what you are drawing doesn't hold an interest for you, you won't do as good a job on it, you'll have less patience, lose interest and never finish. But again, make sure that your reference is high quality because if it's not, you'll end up with garbage.
Next, begin your drawing with your outline. Different artists use different methods for this. Also, time is a consideration, so whether you use a grid method or do it by eye, make sure you are accurate. Of course, the grid is going to be more accurate but time or environment may not allow for this method. Also, as you gain more experience you may go by the eye more often as well. Block in and remember that you don't want to add in the fine details yet. Don't get caught up in working on an eye and all of the lighting and shapes of the eye at this point. Avoid finer detail till later.
Then you can start to divide the light from the shadows, hitting the core shadow outline hard making a distinct value difference between light and shadow.
Then go over it with a towel or cotton balls. Never let your skin come in contact with the paper because your sin is made of oil and it will cause great ugliness to appear on your drawing! Instead use a piece of paper under your drawing hand to help you avoid this. Some artists use gloves made for drawing as well. Try and hit the shadow hard and then after you have gone over with a towel erase out some highlights and make the core shadow darker.
You can start darkening shadows make sure that you are using your referenc to figure out where these are exactly. You may have to do this several times till you establish the value you are after.
Not all of the shadows are going to be dark. Never forget where your light sources are coming from. This is extremely important. Look for where the shadows are falling in direct relation to where the light source is coming from.
Start adding the finer details to your drawing.
Blend in light spots and identify the highlights in your subjects hair. A very beginner mistake is to draw each and every strand of hair. Hair needs to be treated as a mass. Remember this and your hair will turn out more realistic than ever before.
Once you feel you are done, you are almost done. What? Well when you are working with graphite, it can be extremely messy and you may need to do some major clean up of smudges. Use a kneaded eraser to lift these.
Take your time with your drawings and you will begin to see that these techniques can be really beneficial. Anyone can learn to draw, it takes some patience and willingness.
Article Source: http://articlekarma.com
Todd Harris is a master artist who is currently working as a concept art director for a multi-billion dollar corporation. He is trained in the Florence Academy Method. Learning2draw.com is a resource based website devoted to aspiring artists wishing to master figure drawing. Visit www.learning2draw.com to get tips, tricks, and techniques to master the human form.
Dragon Sketches - Learn to Draw
For the first Dragon Sketch, roughly place the head, body and legs. The flow of the spine and wings are important but basically just figure out the composition first.
Develop the dragon by adding a "lizard look", change the head to a more reptilian style and remember the eye shape is very important.
Refine the drawing by adding muscles in the joints and limbs and linking the anatomy. At this point its useful to go back and reference your Dragon Sources.
Shading and cross-hatching are important in adding depth to a sketch. It's easy to over-work a drawing, but if detail such as claws and scales are added it will improve the Dragon.
At some point in time you may want to colour your Dragon. The usual colour is muddy greens, but I like to experiment with reds or dark brown where the Dragon could have been scorched by it's own flames!
Author Resource:- Try your hand at sketching on a tiny canvas with your mouse. Since Sketchplanet launched on October 2005 and it has over 25,000 sketches online.
Article From ArticlesRFree.com
How to Draw Some Tips for Young Artists
So what does it take?
It actually takes less magic than most people think.
I don't know who started the myth that only a few especially talented people can learn how to draw. There are even some art teachers out there who believe that.
But if you learned how to draw the alphabet, and are able to write a sentence that other people can read, you can learn how to draw. It just takes lots of practice, and some guidance from people who have learned a few tricks.
In a way it's a lot like learning to play baseball - you need to train your eye to see better than you ever have before, and you need to train your fingers and hands to move the way you want them to.
The first time you took a swing at a baseball, you probably missed. So don't expect to become a professional artist overnight.
Now, does that mean that everyone who has the patience and the willingness to learn will become a famous artist?
No, not necessarily. It means that if you are willing to practice and to make mistakes, you will very soon be drawing far better than just about anyone you know, and your friends and family and teachers will be amazed.
People may even ask you for copies of your drawings, beg you to make special ones just for them, and request that you make drawings for the school newsletter or your club's brochure.
So even if you don't become world famous, you can still get a huge amount of personal satisfaction from your drawings. You can also give wonderful, thoughtful gifts to people you care about, without spending hardly any money.
Soon, your drawings, (after you have practiced just a little), will seem almost magical to the people who see them.
Materials
It doesn't cost hardly anything to learn to draw and create wonderful works of art. To start out, all you need is some cheap paper without lines (copy paper is fine) and some pencils. The #2 pencils that are used in schools are perfectly OK - you don't need to go to the art store and buy special ones.
You should find a good eraser, though, because the ones that come with your pencils are not big enough, and soon wear out.
That's it! That's all the materials you need to draw.
What's the first thing you need to do? Find something that you would enjoy drawing. It should be something fairly simple, like a cup or a book.
Sit and look at this object very closely, and notice things you usually don't see - things like where the shadows are, and how the shapes look different from different angles. Learning how to see is probably the most important skill for any artist.
Then start putting on paper the things you see.
When you have one drawing finished, draw another one. Keep practicing, just like you would if you were going to try out for the school baseball team.
You can't expect to create a masterpiece on your first try - after all, even Michelangelo had to practice before he was good enough to paint the Sistine Chapel.
If you keep at it for at least 30 minutes every day, you'll probably find that you want some help. Your local school or city library should have some beginning drawing books.
Avoid books that teach you how to copy someone's cartoon. Even if you want to become a cartoonist someday, you still need to be able to create your own.
Choose a book that shows you how to see shadows, and how to know where to put the parts of a face, and how to make a drawing look 'alive.' These are the lessons that will make you a true artist someday.
Another way to learn how to draw better pictures is to search the Internet for websites that show artist's drawings. Pay attention to how different artists show shapes and shadows and expressions. Then see if you can make your own pictures feel that way.
And be sure to show your drawings to your friends and family. Showing off your creative spirit is what it's all about, isn't it?
BlueWaterArticles.com: - How to Draw Some Tips for Young Artists
About the Author
You can learn how to draw the mythical, magical animals from the world of Harry Potter at Jonni's website, http://www.drawfluffy.com
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How to Draw Cars
There are many varieties of cars you can draw. Learning how to draw cars can be fun and challenging for every level of artist. You start with a few basic shapes and color with crayon or pencil. What you want to do is to create the most detailed and accurate model-specific rendering of the car, and have it actually looking like a car. It is important hat you remember to use pencil on paper, and have an eraser handy to remove extra lines or marks later.
When learning you need to have a picture for reference. You can choose how to draw a car with different photographs but it certainly helps to have a point of reference, as imagination or memory will only help you so far. Use different pictures of cars and try to copy them. Do it again and again until you're happy, and start on another one.
To start out you only need to have a basic understanding of geometric shapes. With this little bit of knowledge and understanding you can easily learn how to draw a car of any make or model. Perhaps you want to draw a car that is shaped like a sedan. A sedan is a four-door passenger car that seats five people and features a nice, roomy trunk so learning to draw a car shaped like a sedan is typical. It is one of the easiest cars to draw when you are first starting out.
To learn how to draw cars like this you need to begin with a simple, long rectangle. Next, learn to draw a smaller rectangle on top of the long one for the car. Now, to learn to draw a car you can combine the two shapes by adding a long curving line over the rectangles using them as your guide. You have just learned to draw the top of the car. To learn how to draw cards of different styles or models of cars, you can adapt this line.
You might find it helpful to draw squares and lines to help you keep everything in the right dimension. For older cars a lesson is that these will be squares and rectangles with sharper edges. For newer cars the lesson is the shapes will be curved, rounded and angled more. Don't worry over perfect-looking lines at this point, the goal is to get the basic shape and proportion.
Once you have the basic sketch down you'll want to erase the helping lines, and get more into detail. Repeat these steps over and over to get better and better.
BlueWaterArticles.com: - How to Draw Cars
About the Author
David is a huge fan of drawing, and he maintains a site about how to draw cars.
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Tips to Instantly Improve Your Figure Drawings
Now, that is big! When you are drawing, there are so many different things to think about. The techniques of block-in, contour, shading, and bringing the figure to life, isn't just about the paper and the pencil. It's about your awareness, observation and communication of the awareness through the paper and pencil. I will keep saying this over and over through this article that careful observation can make or brake any figure drawing. As artists, we need to be able to think of many different things while drawing but keep our focus on observation.
Are you remembering to consider gesture while hatching? Are you considering where your light source is coming from while you are shading or shaping your light? Remembering all the little things while drawing figures can be difficult.
Drawing, good drawing, comes down to increasing our observation and attention to our drawing, and of course, practicing.
Drawing the human form comes down to these principles. First, you need to have passion in you and desire to express life and beauty. This is non-negotiable, without it you won't be a great artist. Next you actually have to do it. Next is practice. Practice drawing anyone, everywhere. Draw the people on the bus as you go to work. Draw kids at the playground, draw people in your community or church, or anywhere. Wherever you are there are plenty of drawing opportunities. Take a sketchbook with you everywhere.
Practice drawing quick sketches, gestures, studies, anything you can think of. Have a particular feature of the human form that you tend to struggle with? Are hands tough for you? Maybe a mouth? Draw several studies of the feature you struggle with till you are confident in your strokes and anatomy of that feature. Do as many studies as it takes.
It's wonderful to see your figures take shape and come to life through your pencil. These tips on awareness and study should help. Passion and practice will bring about good skill. Remember that with good observation and careful awareness the door opens for making good art and bringing the figure to life.
Article Source: http://www.articlenorth.com
Todd Harris is a master artist who is currently working as a concept art director for a multi-billion dollar corporation. He is trained in the Florence Academy Method. Learning2draw.com is a resource based website devoted to aspiring artists wishing to master figure drawing. Visit www.learning2draw.com to get tips, tricks, and techniques to master the human form.
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Diving Into Drawing
| Drawing has been around for centuries. In fact, wonderfully vital drawings and paintings by primitive peoples have been discovered, which proves that many thousands of years ago the art of drawing was there, innate, in mankind. Everyone can draw, for it is an inherent human trait far more natural than writing. Unfortunately most people lose this power as they grow older, or rather it is overlaid by more complicated mental processes. It needs only the desire to reawaken it and the courage to proceed and rapidly the power to express what one sees, in drawing and in paint, comes back again. So take courage and go ahead. The first thing to get is a sketchbook: not too big a one but a handy pocket size that you can carry about at all times. You can of course buy a children's drawing book for a few cents, but this has a flimsy cover and has to be folded or rolled to carry, and that spoils the page, so a sketchbook with thinnish cartridge paper and a good stout cover is the best investment in the end. See that the paper is not too thick or too rough in surface. Nothing harder than a 3B pencil is much use. Get a black Conte crayon or black chalk pencil with the wood round it, for this is the kind of pencil that will give you most satisfaction in sketching. Of course you will need a razor blade or sharp penknife because the breaking of points is a very frequent occurrence. Do not sharpen the pencil to a fine point - just a blunted point. Now you have your sketchbook and your pencil, what are you going to look for? What are you going to start on? Don't start straightaway on a landscape. Just focus your attention on a few simple things that are before you in the room you are in. Something the shape of which attracts your interest, say a decanter, or a wine glass, or a vase of flowers. Draw a definite shape on the blank page of the sketchbook with a firm, thick line - say a rough oblong. Count this as your picture space: into this defined shape you are going to put your drawing. Then begin with the part of the selected object that interests you most. Perhaps it is the bulge of the decanter - boldly draw the curve of the right-hand side and then look across and draw the corresponding curve of the other side; then go upward to the lip and the stopper, drawing first one side and then the other; then look at the base, the dark curve where the decanter rests upon the sideboard. You now have the shape of the object - then relate this to the glass that is near it; notice the size of the glass in relation to the decanter and repeat the process, taking into account where the two objects are placed in your oblong space. Continuing to practice these techniques will help you get a grasp for the way drawing should feel and ultimately look. |
| Author Resource:- Our Free Online Oil Painting Class Will Have You Turning Out Masterpieces Like Michael Angelo Himself Click here for FREE online ebook! http://www.oilpaintingclass.net/ |
| Article From New Ezine Articles |
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Trust Your Own Eyes When Painting And Drawing Perspectives
For an artist they are a valuable guide to help an artist gain the skills of realistic looking drawings and paintings. Using horizon lines, vanishing points and view points you are helped to master your perspective awareness.
Better still, an artist gains the knowledge of recreating 3-dimensional physical form in 2 dimensions. With full knowledge of perspective drawing a good artist can create a painting that will look lifelike...
* Even if your picture has been created on a flat surface, it looks as if it has depth
* Mood and atmosphere is captured by your pencil drawing
* Your portrait painting looks as if the subject could leap from the canvas to shake your hand
Yet, for an art beginner, perspective drawing can seem to be a mystery.
Even top professional artists are guilty of relying upon perspective rules too much. The best of illustrators can find that the paintings they produce look artificial...
* Objects look distorted
* Extreme flatness is the overall effect
Recognizing your own unique artistic viewpoint is the key to getting the best from perspectives.
You see the world differently from the person standing next to you. Here are some of the reasons why...
* You could be taller or shorter
* Each person has different eyesight... You could be long-sighted while the person standing beside you could be short-sighted
* Everyone sees colors differently... You could have perfect color vision... Other people's color vision could be impaired
Your emotional response to the art subject also affects the resulting drawing and painting. If you have a passion for the subject your interest levels will be high. The finished picture will be better.
The great advantage of knowing that everyone sees the world around them differently is that you can justify your art. Whatever art critics might say about your painting and drawing, you will know your art is your own view of reality...
Enjoy your painting and drawing... "Your Art is your own perspective on life!"
Article Source: http://www.articlenorth.com
Using simple and relaxed first steps Michael Dale helps to develop your painting and drawing expertise with your free drawing lesson and learn to paint watercolors plan.
By: Michael Dale
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Learn to Draw and Paint at a High Level
Everyone, at some time in their life, wants to learn to draw and paint. Really watch children and you'll soon see that this skill set attracts and entices them during their developmental years. However, not everyone desires to draw well or become a good artist. Not everyone takes their own artwork seriously. And, as adulthood draws nearer, even fewer follow the call of the pencil and paper. Even so, should you wish to develop any innate artistic skills, it's very achievable. Here are a few of the basics that you must know in order to succeed:
Drawing vs Painting
An important element, one that people don't always understand is that drawing and painting are not the same. Thus, should you desire to learn how to draw and paint, you'll be required to learn and develop two separate skill sets. Drawing is more often than not characterized as rendering a subject by the use of lines. Then again, painting constitutes the art of covering any surface with paint (oil, water, or acrylic) for artistic and/or functional intentions.
Therefore, the medium you use plus the process itself will become the main difference. Even so, these two disciplines are all the same associated and very often combine to make a work of art ... work. Much of the time, though not always, drawing is a prerequisite to painting.
Drawing Basics
In order to expand on any inherent drawing skills, one needs to constantly exercise the hands and eyes. This can be accomplished by sketching for a set amount of time each day. Sketching in perpetuity comprises the best way, maybe the only way, for you to accelerate the "learn how to draw" process in a more artistic and professional manner.
Recall that drawing skill develops via ceaseless practice using both your hands and your eyes, your ability to observe. Such a skill does not improve by merely reading a book or acquiring a plethora of available book-based knowledge. Thus, practice your hand to draw and practice your eyes to see. Be ever attentive to your surroundings. Try sketching inanimate objects or people during any idle time. Taking this approach can turn a worthwhile hobby into a well-paying job in the future.
Copying, replicating someone else's work, is an important stepping stone in the drawing process. Acquire a model or small mannequin and copy it using pencil and paper. It's quite all right to make mistakes and eraser marks. It's exactly what erasers were invented for in the first place. Likewise, eliminate the opinion that you need professional materials only in order for your work to look professional. Hogwash! A simple sketch pad plus a number two pencil with an eraser will work just fine.
Painting Basics
To the contrary, painting does entail making use of professional-grade materials so your finished work is of a high quality. A painting project requires a couple of different sized brushes. Such a task also requires a variety of colored acrylic paints, and, most importantly, you'll need your primary colors, black and white, in tubes larger than any of the other colors. However, should you not want to buy a black tube, you can simply create your own by combining all the primary colors. For all intents and purposes, investing in a large tube of acrylic black paint, if you can afford it, will be the easist solution.
Starting with Acrylic paints is the best option because, being water-based, they are the easiest with which to work. That said, the pervasive stages of painting development are mastering acrylics first before aspiring to acquire the necessary skills for either oils or water colors. Also, this kind of paint mixes easily with water. All that's necessary is a glass of water used for thinning the paint and cleaning the brush. Water can also be utilized to moisten your paints while working on your project since acryllic paints have a tendency to dry up rather quickly. Also, a pallet on which to mix your paints is also quite handy. Should you not have one, you can easily improvise using a paper plate covered with aluminum foil.
Before you begin painting, you must first sketch an outline of your proposed work on a piece of canvas. Lightly sketch your subject and other particulars of the pictures’ surroundings. Following this, start adding color using your paints. Practice blending Keep on practicing by choosing different subjects. Also, try to experiment with the colors you’ve got.
Make full use of your pallet to mix paints creating various color shades. Continue sketching and painting on a regular basis and your skills will develop quickly.
About the Author: An artist at a young age, Eric Weeks always emphasized the importance of practice if he hoped to learn to draw and draw well. Though Eric no longer draws, his brother Lee is a Marvel comics artist who knows how to draw cartoon people and popular action heroes. Lee learned his craft via constant, ongoing practice and hard work. Study this article to discover what you must do to improve your drawing ability.
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Learning to Draw? You're going to need a Pencil
If you're going to be doing any pencil drawing you're going to need a pencil. I know, I know, thank you captain obvious.... But, in this article I want to talk about some of the different options available.
Here are some of the options:
Mechanical Pencils, Lead Holders, Woodless Graphite, And ofcourse traditional wooden pencils
Mechanical Pencils: You're probably familiar with these. They're the ones that hold the lead (graphite actually) inside and when you push on the eraser more lead comes out. What you may not know is that, like traditional wooden pencils, the leads are available in various degrees of hardness which can be used to achieve lighter or darker tones as needed. We'll talk more about that later.
Lead Holders: These are somewhat similar to mechanical pencils in that you can use various leads with them. But rather than push a button to release more lead, these pencils actually have sort of a claw that grabs onto and holds the lead. Hence the term "lead holder".
Woodless Graphite: These pencils are basically a piece of graphite in the shape of a pencil. There are also some woodless graphite pencils that are encased in a laquer coating rather than wood.
Wooden Pencils: Okay. We all know what a wooden pencil is. It's the yellow one with a pink eraser on top and a number 2 on it. You know, the ones we used to fill in the little circles on our multiple choice tests in school.
Well yes, those are pencils, but a set of good quality drawing pencils comes with a lot more variety than that. All of the pencil types mentioned above come in varying degrees of hardness and are labled with a number and the letter H or B. The pencils labled H are on the hard side and the ones labled with a B are the soft ones. I don't know where the "B" comes from but that's the way it is.
Pencils range from 9H (the hardest) to 9B (the softest).
The number 2 pencils we're so familiar with are right in the middle in terms of hardness. They're equivalent to an HB pencil. If you're just starting out drawing or you're just doing some doodling or sketching an HB or #2 will work just fine for you. But, if you want to get a much more interesting drawing you'll have to have some contrast between lights and darks. If all you've ever drawn with before is a number 2 pencil, the way you achieve your darker tones is simply to press down harder.
But there is a better way. That's where the softer pencils come in. After #2 in terms of softness comes B then 2B, 3B ect. all the way up to 9B. Although many artists never use anything softer than a 6B. With a 6B you can get some very dark tones and it's not going to be as soft and thus crumbly as a 9B.
For the harder pencils, I rarely use anything harder than a 2H and that's usually just for the initial line drawing before any shading takes place. Doing the initial line drawing very lightly allows you to erase any mistakes you might have made. Once your line drawing is acurate, it's time to get the softer pencils out and start shading.
So to wrap this up, if you're planning on getting a little more serious with your drawing you'll want to get a set of pencils. There are some sets out there that have just 4 pencils in them. So if you're strapped for cash this is an option. Pencils are also available individually so you can pick and choose whichever number / letter combo you need.
I prefer traditional wooden pencils for my drawings and my brand of choice is Derwent. They make sets of 12 pencils that range from 4H to 6B or from H all the way up to 9B. And, you can get a set of 12 pencils for about $12 - $15 so it's not terribly expensive to get into drawing.
So now go out, get yourself some good pencils, and start drawing....
About the Author: Adam Valentine is a professional artist specializing in realistic graphite pencil drawing. His work can be seen online at http://www.adamvalentine.com He also has instructional DVDs available for anyone that wants to learn to draw.
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Drawing Hands Made Simple, Great Tips to Help You Master Hands
Start with blocking in the hand. Artists do this differently, do it the way you feel comfortable. A quick block-in might look a little like a fisted hand outline, with fingers outstretched.
When you are drawing the hand, you do not have to worry about all of the detail, this will come later. You always want to start with the overall shape and then work the finer details last. Break down the hand with simple shapes.
Then form the fingers. Notice the shape of them and the space between them. Make sure your proportions are correct. Once you have everything in the right position, then and only then, can you begin to refine the hand. Make sure the thumb is in the right position relative to the other fingers. You can use the thumb and pencil method to check these proportions.
Once your block-in or lay in is complete, you can finish with some shading and refining. Draw the main visible wrinkles, shadows, nails and then refine the lines.
Add some rough shading to bring the form out. Then refine with more subtle shading while observing the fine lines of the hands. It's good to know where your light source is coming from so you know where the shadows will fall on each finger.
There are some tips that you can consider when drawing hands that are helpful. First, draw your own hands. Set your hands in various poses and look for how the light falls on them. Next, know what's underneath the hand. Have a good understanding of the structure of the hand from an anatomical view point. This should give you a good understanding and help you with how the shading should be handled.
Start with easier poses and then work on more complex poses as you become more familiar.
Get critiques of your drawings. Feedback is very important when learning to draw anything. Get new perspective from others comments and don't be afraid to try them out.
Lastly, drawing takes a lot of practice. Don't get discouraged if your first few hands don't turn out. You'll get it, with persistence and practice, you'll be mastering hands in no time.
About The Author
Todd Harris is a master artist who is working as a concept art director for a multi-billion dollar company. He is trained in the Florence Academy Method and loves art. Learning2draw.com is a resource web site devoted to aspiring artists wishing to explode their figure drawings to new heights. For more information on how to draw people and faces visit http://www.learning2draw.com. You can also sign up for a free newsletter with hundreds of tips, tricks and techniques of the masters.
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3 Rules For Sketching Outstanding Realistic Drawings
For novices it is even more difficult, they have to exercise hard to climb a steep learning curve. It's long-familiar that good drawing skills are the result of hard exercising. Instead learning the three most crucial rules of third-dimensional drawing will make things easier for you. They will be a shortcut to better drawing skills and help even experienced artists to pinpoint elements that need a makeover.
So what makes a picture look naturalistic and three-dimensional? There are three rules that contribute to the realistic outlook of your pictures. Each of them has to be understood thoroughly. Collectively they guarantee outstanding outcomes:
* Composition
* Perspective
* Lighting and Darknesses
Composition
Does composition actually contribute to the three-dimensional appearing of your drawings? Naturally! The three-dimensional outlook of any picture is strongly influenced by the relation between the different objects within the picture. You can produce an image consisting of objects that all follow the laws of perspective and have perfect lighting and shadows. But a bad composition will spoil most of the three-dimensional appearance.
There is just one crucial composition rule: let your picture's objects intersect! Frequently I see beginners averting to let elements in their pictures intersect , because they're afraid to mess it up.
Indisputable - if your picture has lots of overlapping parts it is more difficult to depict. There are more shadows and also perspective and proportions of the objects must be much more exact.
That is demanding indeed. Tightly arranged elements in your picture will relentlessly uncover all weak points. On the other side when you manage to get the perspective, lighting and shades right, a closer composition will beef up the three-dimensional appearance.
So have bravery to arrange your picture's elements nearer together. Let them intersect and demonstrate how good you are able to draw them following the rules of three-dimensional pictures.
Perspective
Creating a drawing employing correct perspective is the moment where a bit bit maths comes into play. No need to worry - no complicated know-how, simply drawing some additional lines.
When producing a picture keeping the laws of perspective in mind you ensure that:
* your drawing's elements have the proper proportions and size
* your drawing's elements have the proper deformation according to the distance of the viewer
* your drawing's elements are correlating properly to each other
All this is accomplished by employing one simple rule:
" Objects and parts of them get smaller the further they are away."
This rule cannot be emphasized too much. Once you fail to apply it properly, your drawings will appear warped and awkwardly. So drawing some additional lines will help you to apply this rule properly.
Light and Shadow
The proper lighting and shading is the 3rd vital law for realistic appearing three-dimensional scenes. It's because of the lights in your drawings that shades emerge. And shades are necessary for a realistic appearing drawing - except you depict "gray rainy day" scenes only.
To craft realistic shades there are some rules you have to consider:
* you must recognize where exactly the illumination originates from
* this enables you to find the right size of the shadow
* the right bearing and direction for the shadow
* and the proper silhouette of the shadow
Unluckily realistic dark shades aren't that comfortable to create. But there are some helpful tricks. Just in this moment I'm writing on a tutorial revealing these methods stepwise. It will follow here soon.
About The Author
This is just a draft of my conceptions on how to learn drawing.
You find updates, a comment area and perspective drawing tutorials on my Website.
http://drawingsecrets.com
You find updates, a comment area and perspective drawing tutorials on my Website.
http://drawingsecrets.com
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How to Draw Graffiti Names
Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com for free online drawing lessons.
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Graffiti Writing: Learn to Draw Graffiti Letters
By Kashmira Lad
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Drawing Graffiti Letters
Graffiti follows along the same line of self-expression, in that the creativity and expression of art is personally evolving and color, design and complexity developing. The Italian word from which the word graffiti was derived, coming from Greek graphein meaning "to write," was first applied to writing on walls in Roman times. Modern graffiti artists have applied their own self-expression on a lot of walls and buildings, following the ancient Romans, as witnessed by many today. It can however, be done in a way that does not vandalize or violate the law.
Over the years, distinctive styles have evolved that can be instantly recognized as graffiti, even when the writing is on a piece of paper. As with any art, there is no right way to draw graffiti, and you need to develop your own style. There are beginning points and ways to develop learning how to draw graffiti letters.
The subject of Graffiti is limitless; it has taken on many forms and styles. Each of these forms and styles is different from the other and appeals to many different individuals. The creativity of individuals leads to different tastes, likes and dislikes, it is not surprising to find so many different people drawn to a certain art form with limitless boundaries.
Of all the art forms created, none has met with such considerable resistance from a lot of individuals as graffiti. Graffiti is heavily criticized as vandalism and as a contributor to visual pollution. So great is the resistance for this art form that governments in certain countries around the world created laws or policies in the hopes of controlling, if not eradicating it. Certain laws were made and passed that stipulates the capture and imprisonment of the individual in the process of doing the art form. These are just examples of what critiques of this art form did, and of how much length they would go just to drive it into extinction.
Most serious graffiti artists start by developing a unique signature. They start by choosing a style for their name, of which bubble letters are especially popular in graffiti, because it seems to be easier to draw, but there are other styles, too. Once the letters and signature have been selected you need to add color, to fill in your drawing. You can use colored pencils, marker or crayon. Again, it's a good idea to look at examples before doing this, but really you can do anything you want.
A very simple graffito (a single work of graffiti) can have only one color. You can also easily do each letter in a different color or make the added details a different color than the letters. Graffiti artists traditionally had to work secretly for fear of getting caught--many still do--and so they could carry only one or two different colors of spray paint at a time--a lot of very good graffiti is just one color.
Graffiti today has gone way beyond simple letters, transforming to various styles such as the Tag Style, Throw-up, Blockbuster, and WildStyle. There is even the use of polka dots, checkers, crosshatches and the like, to add color and depth and size to the graffiti art.
About the Author
draw alphabet graffiti letters
www.howtograffitiletters.com
TJ has spent most of his life studying the techniques of drawing, graffiti, custom painting, airbrush, and chalk. He's drawn in street festivals and has taught kids and adults alike.
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Children'S Portraits
Let me try to help move some of those stumbling blocks out of your way so you can enjoy and profit from the business of painting children's portraits in watercolor.
1. GET TO KNOW YOUR SUBJECT. The most successful portraits are always those that capture the personality of the child. They show a certain tilt of the head, a smile, or a gesture that's characteristic of the individual. Discovering these special qualities can be accomplished in a very short period of time if you know how to handle yourself during the first meeting with the child. I always make a point of going to the client's home, whether it's down the street or on a buffalo ranch in Wyoming, rather than asking them to come to my studio. While my studio is certainly better equipped and more comfortable for me than the client's home, I need to see the children in their own surroundings: It gives me a more accurate sense of their character and the opportunity to select more meaningful props and background material.
I also prefer going to clients' homes because it makes them feel more at ease. When children are relaxed and comfortable, their expressions aren't strained. It's important for everyone to be cheerful and optimistic during this first encounter, so I talk to the children and reassure them that what I'll be doing will be easy and fun for them. I need to help them get over the fears any person might have--whether young or old--about being painted.
Before I begin making sketches or taking photographs, I walk around the house with the children, asking them to show me their bedroom, favorite toys, and pets. I take mental notes about any repeated expressions or gestures, and I evaluate the possibility of using objects and decorations in the home as props or background material for the painting. No matter where I'll be working, I make it plain I don't want any other family members in the room with me. The "helpful" participation of parents can be an annoying distraction to both me and the children.
Most importantly, I focus on the children and watch what happens. I don't go into portrait sessions with preconceived notions about the poses or props. Children have a wonderful ability to be free and open about the way they present themselves. If I ask them to sit the same way they do while watching television, they're only too happy to oblige. Or when I ask children to show me their favorite "lookout spot" up in a tree, they'll climb up faster than a cat and, without prodding, show me how they can hang upside down. (Just try getting a corporate executive to do that!)
2. MAKE CHARACTERISTIC DRAWINGS. When I travel to a client's home, I carry a hardbound 11"-X-14" sketchbook, a variety of drawing pencils ranging from 2H to 5B, a small pencil sharpener, and a kneaded eraser. The sketchbook is durable and easy to carry, and after it's filled it becomes a record of the many people I've had the good fortune to meet.
When drawing children's portraits, I keep in mind their overall body proportions (as illustrated in Figure 1) and the ways in which they differ from the proportions of an adult. (Figure 1 omitted) For example, the head of a child is bigger in relation to the child's body, and the features of the face dominate the lower haft of the skull. While adult hands and feet are comparable in size to the face, a child's hands and feet are smaller when similarly compared.
I ask my subjects to pose in a well-lit area, and I try to have the natural light coming in from one side of the body to make the shapes and contours of the face more discernible. I need to be at eye level with the children, so if they're more comfortable on the floor with a toy, I sit on the floor with them.
I keep my sketches quick and open-ended, and I like to work on two or three at once. It's unfair to ask children to sit perfectly still, and if they freeze up I run the risk of missing their spontaneous and animated expressions. I draw them from whatever angle is comfortable for them. If one happens to be a real wiggler, there's nothing like a television program or videotaped movie to settle the child down. I often have a couple of videotapes of children's movies in my tote bag for just such an occasion. I used to carry a cast-iron frog named Fred with me, and he almost always guaranteed me twenty minutes of drawing time. As I draw, I add written notes about my client in the margins of the notebook. These notations about personality and special features become invaluable to me later.
There's no way to compensate for a lack of drawing ability--especially when dealing with children's portraits. A quick pencil sketch of posture, hand position, or shading can be the most valuable reference an artist can have when painting. That's why I encourage all my students to enroll in a life-drawing class and attend regularly. The skills you learn will be quickly put to good use when you try to draw a five-year-old who moves even faster than his golden retriever. And when the child's mother asks you to put the retriever in the painting, you'll be especially glad you learned how to draw quickly and accurately!
3. TAKE LOTS OF PHOTOGRAPHS. Even the best-natured children become weary, restless, or downright cranky after posing for a couple of hours. That's why the camera has become an essential tool for almost every artist who paints portraits of children.
There are several common mistakes artists make when taking pictures of children. One is taking the picture with the children too far away from the camera, and the second is taking it from a position too far above them. In the first case, the resulting photographs don't offer enough useful information about the subject, and in the second the figure is totally distorted by the radical angle of the shot.
A third common mistake artist make when taking photographs is not posing children in proper lighting. These pictures turn out either too dark or too light, or there are strange shadows cast by the nose and chin. Using a flash can result in lifeless photographs and, ultimately, lifeless portraits. A flash aimed straight at a child's face will flatten all the features and burn out any delicate color changes. Working from photographs taken by a professional studio photographer can be equally disappointing because the lighting used during the shoot is meant to soften contours and remove color "imperfections," leaving little for the artist to work with.
The best lighting for natural skin color and descriptive contours is soft or diffused daylight; a hazy, slightly overcast day produces soft shadows and is therefore ideal. The light available during either the morning or late afternoon is preferable for outdoor photography since too much sunlight can yield severe shadows and squinting eyes. If I have no choice but to work in the middle of a sunny day, I pose the children in a shady area under trees or a porch roof.
It's important to keep the photo session casual and fun. If I can get the children to play with me while I'm taking photographs, the results will be much more satisfying. I use a 35mm Nikon camera with a standard 50mm lens and Kodacolor 100 film. When I'm working away from my studio, I take along a small Olympus camera just in case something goes wrong with the Nikon. Using both cameras, I take between 70 and 100 photographs, being careful to include profiles, close-ups, and hands. If there's a family pet or a specific background that has to be included in the painting, I take ample shots of that as well. In short, I take more photographs than I think I could possibly use. Nothing is worse than beginning a painting and discovering I don't have enough information to work with.
Occasionally, a client will request a portrait painted from an existing photograph that the family is especially fond of. Frankly, I see little merit in copying someone else's work. I let my clients know I prefer the intimacy and originality that comes from using my own photographs and sketches.
4. KEEP THE COLORS CHILDLIKE. Watercolor has always seemed the perfect medium for children's portraits because of its pristine colors. I organize mine in the compartments of a John Pike palette so I have a choice between a warm and a cool version of each. Here are the tube colors I use most often:
Reds
Warm: scarlet lake or cadmiumred medium
Cool: alizarin crimson or permanent rose
Yellows
Warm: cadmium yellow medium
Cool: cadmium lemon
Blues
Warm: cerulean blue
Cool: phthalocyanine or Winsor blue
Browns
Warm: burnt sienna
Cool: raw umber
In addition, I use lots of raw sienna and yellow ochre for the flesh tones, and I make my darkest values by adding Payne's gray to other colors. There are many suitable colors, but I find the transparent colors best for skin tones since too much opaque color can make skin look chalky and dull.
One frequent mistake made in painting children's skin is using too much blue or gray. The liveliest sense of color is achieved when a harmony of warm and cool colors are used. Remember, however, that blue skin tones become more pronounced when placed next to warmer, rosier tones.
I avoid using dark gray in recessed areas like nostrils, inside the ear, and in the folds of the skin around a smiling mouth. Although these areas appear darker, they're warm tones that are generally not as dark in value as you might think. I paint all the shadow areas of the skin with subtle veils of color, and I consciously avoid the tendency to make them too dark and heavy when working from photographs.
Choosing a suitable background color for the painting can be confusing. When selecting any color for a painting, I consider the focal point and the overall look of the picture and ask myself whether a color would reinforce or detract from that focal point. I often use color swatches I pick up at paint and hardware stores to help me make better choices. I can hold the chips up against the painting to better judge both the color and the value.
5. KEEP THE BRUSHWORK LIVELY. When working on children's portraits, the key is to keep the colors and brushwork as lively, fresh, and spontaneous as the personality you're trying to present. For this, there's no better medium than watercolor. However, fresh and lively colors become dulled and muddied when too many corrections are made. To avoid the common problems of dull and muddy color combinations, overworked brushstrokes, and harsh edges, you have to learn the best way of handling the medium and you have to plan ahead. Let me describe the procedures I've developed during many years of practice.
After meeting with my client, I take my photographs and sketches back to my studio and do some compositional studies of how I might arrange the figure, props, and background in the painting. Regardless of the medium you're using, I recommend making a thumbnail sketch before beginning the finished painting to indicate general masses and values. You may have a good idea about the character of the features, but how much of the figure will you show? What about the hands? What color is the background, and what additional items will be included in the painting? All of these questions (and more) should be considered before the brush touches the paper.
After I've made my thumbnail sketch and settled on a plan, I draw those elements lightly in pencil on a sheet of watercolor paper that I've previously soaked, stretched, and allowed to dry. I produce a fairly detailed drawing on the watercolor paper, putting down all the shapes I see, from the shape of the small highlight on the nose to the shapes in the background. I never work from just one photograph but from several photographs and sketches.
I never project my photographs directly onto the paper, but I often put a sheet of gridded tracing paper over my best photograph of a child's face, draw a corresponding grid pattern on my watercolor paper, and then carefully transfer the lines indicating the outlines of the facial features. This procedure helps me get a better likeness of the child and avoid drawing too many pencil lines on the paper.
I almost always work with the painting surface tilted in an upright position because I find that the pigment settles more cleanly and easily when it's pulled by the force of gravity. I also like being able to step back from the painting and see how it's progressing. Since the finished picture will be viewed from about eight feet away, I make a point of looking at it from that distance as I work.
For portraits I recommend using a paper that can take scrubbing and erasing. Even the best-laid plans sometimes require change. My favorite paper for watercolor portraits is Arches 140-lb cold-pressed paper because of its workable, textured surface and the slightly warm white hue that complements skin tones. Generally, I paint with a one-inch flat and a No. 10 round sable brush. The collection of brushes I use includes some Pro Arte brushes and one Utrecht Giant round.
I begin by painting pale washes of the skin tone and then apply light washes to indicate the clothes, props, and background. If I'm unhappy with the color combinations or placement of elements, I can adjust them at this early stage.
The next three hours of the painting process are the most critical as I move from painting soft wet-in-wet shapes to more sharply defined facial features. Rewetting the paper so my brushstrokes have soft edges and easy transitions between colors, I bring up the values in the face from light to dark. If I paint a feature and it looks too hard and lifeless, I paint over it with a brushload of clear water to soften and blend the edges.
I continue working on the clothing, props, and background--everything in the picture except the person's eyes. I leave the eyes for last since they're the smallest and most crucial details of the portrait. By the time the portrait is finished, I've usually worked for a total of 12 hours over two or three days.
On average, one out of every three or four portraits turns out to be a failure, and I have to tear up what I've done and start over again. I don't hesitate to do that if I have any serious doubts about a painting.
DEMONSTRATION: CHRISSY
Step 1. Here are the photographs and sketches I made while visiting one of my clients. In all of them, I was trying to capture the child's natural gestures and posture while she sat in sunlight outdoors.
Step 2. After photographing and sketching Chrissy, I soaked and stretched a piece of 140-lb Arches paper and, once it was dry, made a light drawing of the figure with a No. 2 pencil. I then painted light washes of color over the entire picture. By keeping the skin tones light at the beginning of the painting process, I can easily make corrections later without sacrificing the freshness of the watercolors.
Step 3. Keeping the paper damp so the shapes I painted would have soft edges, I put down all the lights and middle tones. I made a point of keeping the brushstrokes quick and broad to give the portrait all the vitality of an active young girl.
Step 4. I always save the detailed work of rendering eyes until the last stage of the painting process. I rarely use masking fluid because I prefer to paint around light areas such as whiskers and loose strands of hair.
The completed painting: Chrissy, 1992, water-color, 20 X 17. Private collection.
FIVE TIPS ON BUSINESS PRACTICES
1. CONFIRM YOUR APPOINTMENTS. A few weeks in advance, confirm the portrait sitting in writing and make note of the date and time, the price, medium, and approximate size of the painting, and the deposit required. On the day before or the morning of the sitting, call again to reconfirm the appointment.
2. BE ON TIME. Frazzled nerves created by being late for a portrait sitting can interfere with concentration--both yours and the client's. Timeliness is also important in meeting a delivery deadline. If the family wants the painting completed within a time frame that doesn't work with your schedule, be up-front and tell them you can't meet the deadline. Then tell them when you will have it ready. If the painting is to be given as a gift on a date you can't meet, make up a gift certificate the client can present instead, stating that the portrait will be ready on a specific date.
3. BE FLEXIBLE BUT NOT SUBSERVIENT. Clients have every right to be pleased with the finished product, but don't compromise your integrity. If they ask for something you feel you can't or won't do, offer recommendations of other artists who may be better able to meet their requests.
4. BE OPEN TO CRITICISM. After the painting is completed, listen to any suggestions or criticism offered, even from the child. Clients may not be artists, but they'll pick up on a drawing error or missed judgment call. Many of these points can easily be corrected and then mentally filed for future reference. With every suggestion or criticism made, see the opportunity for growth.
5. LOOSEN UP! Many artists say that accepting commissioned work inhibits their spontaneity. It needn't. If the painting is going badly or the client is unhappy, loosen up and start over. Very often, all that's needed is to schedule another portrait sitting. Few clients remember the inconveniences of portrait sittings when faced with the finished painting of someone they love.
Mary Whyte graduated from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She has earned a national reputation as both a landscape and portrait painter in watercolor and oils, and her paintings have been included in juried shows organized by the American Watercolor Society, Allied Artists of America, and The Greenwich Workshop in Southport, Connecticut. She teaches portrait- and figure-painting workshops throughout the United States and maintains a studio on Seabrook Island, South Carolina.
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