Art Fun Cheap

By Remi Engels, guest blogger
Once you have hatched the primary value masses of your portrait it is time to blend and “remove” the lights with a kneaded eraser.
A stump is a cylindrical tool tapered at the ends and generally made of rolled paper. Stumping then is to smear or blend your hatchings with a stump. [...]

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Tone is generally thought of as shadow. Beginners generally first draw an outline of the shadow and then fill in the shadows little by little. They usually begin with an eye and then grow out the shadows. Inevitably, the outcome is a chaos of disconnected darks and lights.

Applying, or more correctly, constructing tone should be approached with a sculptural sensibility. That is, think of your sketch as a block of clay that is to be carved.

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The human eye can discriminate between many more values than the 12 we usually employ in a drawing. That means that the artist must “deceive” the eye into believing that it is seeing more than is actually on the drawing paper. To this end we must understand how light behaves and values are observed.

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By Artfang, guest blogger
A strange thing about drawing the profile view is that novices find it much easier than the other poses. Yet, the advanced draftsperson can find the profile quite challenging. For the advanced artist the challenge lies in the struggle to affect a 3-dimensional sculptured look.
Looking at the arabesque in the profile view [...]

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By Remi Engels, guest blogger
Rendering hair is dictated by several factors: the type of hair, its color, texture, amount, the arrangement and styling of the hair, the character and disposition of the sitter or the photograph, and the light effect upon the hair.
The contour of the hair is part of the overall arabesque. A correct [...]

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By Remi Engels, guest blogger
A smile is the result of happiness. It lifts and extends the bottom of the face and the uplifted cheeks will often crease the skin just below the eyes, creating the so-called “crow’s feet.”
To recognize the makings of a smile in its numerous manifestations we must first appreciate the underlying anatomy. Below [...]

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Capturing the delicate, fleeting gestures of individual emotions in portrait sketching is a test for any draftsperson. There are basically six principal emotions: surprise, happiness, sadness, anger, fear and disgust.
The gestures of these key feelings are instinctual, the muscle interactions and actions are involuntary. In general, the facial muscles are fragile, finely in step and [...]

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By Remi Engles, guest blogger
Most people have the fixed idea that the head is more or less formed like an oval. Actually, the head is much rectangular than we suppose. The oval ideas is one of those simplified preconceived symbols the mind uses as a means for quick identification.
Most beginning students will usually sketch [...]

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By Remi Engels, guest blogger
For untutored artists the problem with seeing lies in the conflict that exists between the concrete visual reality of an item and the way the mind attempts to represent our perception of this reality on the drawing paper. This attempt invariably involves the propensity to draw our symbolic preconception instead of the [...]

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By Remi Engels, guest blogger
Presuppose that we have a profile where the head, arm, and fingers are visible and are in contact. Very often, the starting artist will endeavor to sketch each of these elements independently. The approach will invariably lead to frustration and in the end often to failure.
Instead of drawing each element independently, [...]

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