Hello Everyone, This week I wanted to talk about drawing the head, the human head to be specific. In the last post I wrote about going back to basics and drawing the head is a continuance of this.  Drawing faces has fascinated me since I was young sitting in my bedroom drawing.  I used to copy the posters on my walls. Since discovering The Loomis Method I have been using this principle to draw faces.  It has worked really well for me.  ...

Hello Everyone, Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since my last blog, I have been tending to a wrist injury and trying to heal it, which has also bought me to today’s topic of going back to basics. As I had to limit use of my hand which just happened to be the one I draw with !!! I had to stop drawing for a few days, I made it for the minimal time possible as I have built up ...

Hello Everyone, This week I wanted to talk about talent in art. This is a big one as when someone sees a piece of great art they usually say ‘you are so talented’ usually followed by ‘I wish I could draw like that’. There is this assumption that if you are good at art you were magically born with ‘talent’. What Actually Is Talent Talent to me signifies the result of proficient learning and practice. In other words you cultivate it and grow ...

Hello Everyone, I hope you have had a good week?  Today I wanted to write about watercolour, what I have learn’t so far.  I have been playing around with them on and off and for adding colour and paint mediums they are the most efficient for me.  I think it’s because of the ‘impressionistic’ feel they have. I have read and watched tutorials on watercolours to get some tips however the best thing I have found is to experiment with them and ...

Hello Everyone, This week I wanted to discuss how to challenge your art skills, specifically with the ABC challenge.  This is where each day you take a letter of the alphabet and draw something that starts with that letter. Experimentation What I have discovered already and today is the day for the letter J is that it has led me to further my experimentation.  I have used watercolours, pencil, ink pen and markers so far in the last 10 days!  This experimentation if ...

Hello Everyone, It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote a blog post and I took a much needed break. I used the time to re-charge my batteries and to re-assess what I wanted to do with my art for this coming year. What to do when you have lots of art ideas? This was the question that popped into my head. Although I have improved my drawing skills a lot since March 2020 when I decided to start doing ...

Hello Everyone, Still exploring and drawing faces this week.  I was not sure what I was going to write about this week as not much has happened since last week other than I have been focusing on faces again. References I have been diving into reference images on Pinterest and using them to really focus on how I use them and to understand further the places and angles of the face. I wanted to push beyond the full on, three quarter and side ...

Hello Everyone, Well I did my first pencil coloured drawing in over 20 years this week!!! I decided to use an image I found on Pinterest to draw of some pink hair as I just wanted to work out myself how to build it up. Selecting my own colours following the light and shade areas and then once I had mapped it out I just went with the flow. What I Learnt What was interesting was how many times I changed the colours ...

Hello Everyone, I am dedicating this week (and maybe beyond) to playing with coloured pencils.  I dabbled with some water based tinted graphite pencils the other week and was really pleased with the effects.                         In my art stash I found an unused tin of WH Smiths (British book/stationery shop) of water based coloured pencils.  I have had them for years and totally unused and I mint condition!!!! Check Your Old Art Stash I ...

Hello Everyone, I have a question for you, ‘how do you know when your sketch is complete’?  This is the question that I have been asking myself this week. Some of my latest sketches have taken me 2-3 days to complete and I have been building and layering them up using just one coloured pencil.  I wanted to create a monochrome look with them and have selected a different colour per sketch. Layer And Build As I have progressed with each one I have ...

Hello Everyone, I hope your week has been good.  I wanted to share this week an update on using references in art.  I practiced doing some different things this week using references to draw different objects and what I found was that unconsciously I was rushing the sketch.                         Slow Down I had to consciously tell myself to slow down when I realised and then I started to put in the little details ...

Hello Everyone, This week I wanted to let you know it’s ok to have a rest.  I thought I would follow on from a previous blog it’s ok to take a break or time for a change.  I have been feeling rather overwhelmed this last week and I think it has been building for a while so I wanted to share this important message. Human Being Not Human Doing You are a human being first not a human doing.  We can get so ...

Hello Everyone, This last week I have been playing with different media to create different effects.  I have been using the same sketch which I used a reference for on Pinterest and applied colour both digitally and with watercolour. Experimentation - Watercolour I wanted to use the same sketch to see how different it looked if I applied colour with different mediums.  I started with watercolour paints as I cracked open my new pallet :-). I started with applying a light wash of ...

Hello Everyone, I just wanted to say that it’s ok to have an off sketch day. This happened to me this week, two days in a row really which frustrated me at the time but it taught me another important lesson, well two really. I thought I would try something a bit different and do a male face rather than a female one for a change.  I did a really nice sketch in a green pencil for a change.           ...

Hello Everyone, I hope your week has gone well.  This week I want to share my watercolour tips for beginners from what I have learnt this week. Last weekend I had some young family members over and this led me to delving out all my art supplies old and new.  I found some watercolour palettes from my college/uni days and they were barely used! And they were over 20 years old!! I pulled them out and decided to see if they were still ...

Hello Everyone, Following on from last week about artists tools I wanted to write about how to use references for art specifically as that is what I have been using this week. Faces I have focused on faces again this week, not for any specific reason and I have also been using pencil again as I felt a bit out of practice with it after using the iPad for a while.  I used Pinterest for the references and focused on ‘female face drawings for ...

Hello Everyone, This week I wanted to talk about art tools for learning.  Not the traditional pencils, pens, paints and paper etc.  But the other tools, the ones that help you learn. Purpose Their purpose is to help you to better understand certain aspects of art, wether it be the human form, how light and shadow work or constructing scenes.  There is a big misconception people have about art in that when they see someone start a drawing they assume it was done ...

Hello Everyone, I wanted to write about how to have patience with your art. This is something I have had to grasp this week doing my full head of hair project that I set myself.  Patience Is A Mindset Whenever I start a drawing or piece of art I have this expectation that I should and can do it all in one go and every piece should be like that.  In my mind I knew this is not very realistic but the silent ...

Hello Everyone, Drawing hair, that seems to be what has happened over the last week! A combination of keeping digital in order to learn more about digital are I seem to have focused in on hair.  How to draw it, colour it and texture it. Techniques I have found several techniques and methods of doing it and still evaluating as I think they have different places of use depending on the overall look you want to achieve.  Technique 1 I have used the soft airbrush ...