1 Easy Step to Drawing People More Accurately

Sphere: Related Content
It seems that artists sometimes get worried or nervous about drawing people and faces. There are many reasons why this may be. What if the proportions are wrong? What if I make uncle Jim 100 lbs heavier than he is? What if the model doesn't hold still? What if my drawing looks nothing like the person I am trying to sketch? These are common fears among artists. It even happens to artists who have been drawing for many years.

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

Sphere: Related Content
There are many artists who struggle with drawing a face and having it actually look like the person you are drawing. These tips should help you to achieve a more realistic outcome and have your drawings come to life.

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

Sphere: Related Content
Firstly, find some current pictures of Dragons - the older and more mythical..the better. The best type of dragons are those of a traditional scaly dragon, with wings. Inspiration can be found by doing a search for "Welsh Dragons" via Yahoo Images.

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