Improvement? eh.

Before and After!

This is my last blog post and I think this has got to be my worst one in my opinion. I tried to draw on the spot because of the deadline and I was stressed but calm at the same time. Its definitely a strange feeling. Art does that to you in a way. It's a way to let out emotion and consciousness. You loose a sense of time and the world slowly recedes away from your mind. Sounds like drugs but it's not. Edwards says "Artists say that they feel alert and aware yet are relaxed and free from anxiety, experiencing a pleasurable almost mystical activation of the mind [Edwards 4]" Art has helped my anxiety. In fact, I draw something the night before a test. That way, I am relaxed and ready to focus. This time, I was stressed about my art and it caused a weird reverse effect. 

Today, I decided to redraw my first blog post picture. Looking back, it's a pretty boring picture. I followed the same exact steps I made two months ago along with some additional stuff that I learned along the way. 

I always forget to say this but the pencil should have a slanted tip. When you eat a candy cane, some people make it a shank. Do this with your pencil by pressing hard on the paper and create a little ombre. This somehow kinda mixes the colors a little more. This can also help you see "tones". Edwards says "Shading is based on perception of values. A complete value scale goes from pure white to pure black, with literally thousands of minute gradations. [Edwards 180]." Seeing where you pressed the hardest and where you pressed the least can help myself and yourself find which tone is best for the area of shading. 

Anyways, here are some of the pictures I took along the way and Josephine R taking the picture of me drawing. Thanks Jo. 

It's sideways for some reason. My bad. 

Thanks for putting up with all these blog posts! Thanks for reading! 

Question: Would you recreate another drawing you made to see if you improve? 

Tell me in the comments below :)

Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1979. Print.

Drawing eyes, nose and mouth

Eyes, Nose, Mouth

With every single drawing, I usually tell you to sketch that dumb oval with the sad guidelines and then draw some facial features to make it look actually kind of real. Well, I should have done this a while ago but oh well. 

Every facial feature includes specific looks. Take eyes for example. They could look droopy, pointy, tired, small, big, and other adjectives. It really all depends who you're drawing. One key thing is to be detailed and attentive to what you're drawing. Edwards says "When you see in the special way in which experienced artists see, then you can draw [Edwards 3]". Noticing the little things can help you become a better artist. But there are some other pointers people could have about facial features. Right now, we will focus on the eyes, nose, and mouth. 

Eyes

We will start with a curve above the horizontal guide line. Each curve is a little different so look at the picture when doing it. Add a curve underneath and you have a basic looking eye. Don't forget about proportions when drawing eyes. We draw what we believe so if we believe that both eyes are the same size, then we'll draw them the same size. But angles don't look that way. If someone's head is tilting toward the right, then the right eye would be smaller. Edwards puts it as "The parts that are important... we decide are larger we think should be larger than they actually are, and conversely for smaller parts [Edwards 134]." These proportions will determine if your drawing looks real or like an alien.   Look at where the waterline and that weird squishy part in the corner of the eye is. Draw what you see. Don't be afraid to erase. Now draw the pupil. Is the pupil under any eyelids? Is it just touching the waterline? How close is it from the center of the eye? Why am I doing this? These are all questions to ask when drawing eyes. These will be your guide lines for what the eye looks like. Noticed how not all eyes are pure, glowing white? It's because of shadows. There should be shading in the corners, under the top eyelid, and near the waterline. Fill in the pupil dark to medium dark (unless you're drawing colored eyes. Then you should get colored pencils. Regular pencils aren't "hazel"). There should also be a little spot for brightness. Add that. Boom. You're done. Move on. 

 Nose
I accidentally forgot to continue taking pictures and just kept drawing. I started a new picture and it looks weird, I know. And the oval around the nose is a guide line not the actual face. Anyways, start with two parallel lines and some nostrils. Isn't it weird that we pronounce nostrils like nostrols. I think it is. Add the skin around the nostrols. This really depends on the drawing so try your best. Everyone has little indents in their nose so draw that too. Those nose has two highlight point: The ball of the nose and that long part. You don't have to draw it but its good to know. Add your shading lines around the nose. Remember that darkness doesn't define the shape of the object. This is a life lesson Bob Ross probably brought up. Add shading to underneath the nose, around the corners of the nose and indents. I should also mention that natural things do not have true lines. It's all blended together. Remember the highlighted areas and keep that area some what free of shading. Darken the nostrils a little more and there. You have a nose now. Good job.

Mouth

So looking at these pictures now makes me mad because when I drew it it was pretty good but now it looks like dirt. That's nice. Mouths has a rule of thumb where its light, dark, light, dark. In the picture it should explain a little better. First I would draw the lip line. Not the outline of the lips, the mouth crease or whatever it's called. Then I would outline the mouth. All mouths are different and different angles can change the way you draw the mouth. The top lip is usually darker than the bottom and the corners should have more shading. The bottom lip should have more shading on the center of the lip. Under the lip is dark because lips aren't plastered onto your face. Add the shading and you did it. You drew a mouth probably successfully. 

This is the model you need to look 

 Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy drawing maybe a little more.

Question: when did you give up trying to draw?

Leave me a comment down below.




Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1979. Print.

Drawing Friends

Drawing Friends!

Some of you might be surprised about today's title. You might be thinking "Wow! This can't be true because Veronica doesn't have friends!" Well think again bucko! I have at least 1(one) friend! 

What's difficult about drawing friends is that you know how that person looks from a three dimensional point of view. You know all of their features and little things. Then you draw them and realize that the picture doesn't do ANY justice for what they actually look like. That is what exactly what happened when I drew Alivia Phok (said like poke) from KM. But don't fret! We all have these moments when drawing! Most people draw, erase, draw some more, erase, then get angry. Sometimes people get restless and frustrated. Then they say something like "I hate drawing anyways. I had no talent to begin with." This is normal. People usually abandon art because of this. Edwards says      
"[People] often blame the drawing for the causing the hurt, rather than blaming the careless critic.[Edwards 64]". I felt like this midway during this drawing. It's important to remember that drawing needs practice and patience. It may not turn out great but there is always room for improvement.

So what you need is 

• a picture of said friend
• pencil 
• paper 
• Kleenexes in case you loose all hope 
• maybe not so much this one, I have faith in you :)

So if you've been keeping up with what I do, we start with an oval/ellipse and two guide lines. 

 Sketch out little details such as eyes, nose, mouth. You should kinda sketch out the face. Side note! Keep in mind that lighting can alter your sight. Alivia has a lot of shadows near her eye making her face look closer to her eyes. This is very common and is called "missing skulls" Edwards says "The top half of the head apparently is considered less important than the features, and therefore is perceived as smaller" I have done this before with my first picture I used for my blog. I think it improved my drawing by making it look more realistic and human-like. Beware of this and notice these before you make your final picture. I decided to add hair too so she doesn't look exactly like an egg. 

Next you should add some shading areas. It helps when you actually do the shading and know what you're doing. I like doing it because it simplifies what a human can look like.
Next I added shading around the T-zone. The nose is the center of the face and I like to work around it. I recommend looking at the picture or look at your friend with loving eyes and draw the little details. Alivia has little details like no lines under her eyes. It's important to capture all the little things so it looks like your friend.

My phone ran out of storage mid way so I wasn't able to take pictures but Julia saved me by taking a screenshot of my picture via snapchat. Feel free to add her @julia-monkey. But i started working around the face and I noticed that her face looks a little off but I was too deep in the drawing that i couldn't do anything about it. The darker areas should be above the eyebrows, under the cheekbones, and under the mouth. She is also looking to the side a bit to there would be more shading. Contrast is also important because you see where the face is compared to the hair and neck. From the side of the neck to the furthest point of her cheek bones should be pretty dark and get slightly darker.

Hair is easy when its straight and you should just see the dark and light spots would be. Still make it darker than the face or else it'll look blended in.


Thanks for reading and have fun drawing!

Question: Would you give a framed drawing of your friend drawn by you? 

Tell me in the comments below!


Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1979. Print.

THROWING SHADE

Drawing Side Portraits

   "Throwing Shade"

Welcome back everyone!

I hope we all had a wonderful winter break :) 

Side portraits are different than regular portraits because you cannot do the regular oval and easy guide lines. Many facial features come out when looking to the side and its important to capture it all. This includes shadings such as the cheek bone, jaw line, nose, and probably some more. 

This is the reference Picture

When shading, its good to remember some things:

1. Shade in a tight spiral motion
• This will allow all the different shades to blend together and make one, nice, smooth finish.
2. Start shading light then get darker as you go
• Its difficult to start over when you shaded too dark. Plus, there will be less room for "happy accidents" if you shade lightly then go darker. 
3. please use a pencil
• pens don't work for beginners 

Personally, side portraits aren't my favorite type of portraits. You got to rely on the picture more often and there isn't a lot of guidelines to help with. Practice makes perfect so lets get started!

1. Make a crescent and draw two lines. One will be the jawline and the other will be the eye line. This is all the guidance we're going to have today.  

2. Start drawing in the nose, chin, mouth, and forehead. Look at the picture for reference and draw very lightly. If you draw to darkly, it will leave a mark when you erase it and your mistake will be there for everyone to see. 

3. My bad, I forgot to take pictures for all the steps :/  Draw in the eyes and nostrils. Add shading areas around the face. Give light, definite lines for where shading occurs. Look at the light and dark areas of the face. Beatty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, says "Curiously, though we use light/shadow to interpret and recognize objects, we pay almost no attention to the specific shapes of the lights and the shadows" (Edwards 180). Shapes define a face and can be manipulated to created a realistic 3D face.a This is my favorite part because it looks so futuristic and super cool. Next draw in the hair. It's important to see all the little details in the hair. It isn't one big block, it has lines and shapes in it. Draw in the neck and give it some shade

4. Shading! This is a fun part because now the drawing comes to life. The shading areas do not mean its one dark block but instead, tells you the boundaries of how dark a place can be (forgive me, I'm not good at words). Remember to use picture reference. 

5. Shading the hair is time consuming and i don't like it so i get sloppy. Many artist say that you should draw every individual hair but that makes me ultra depressed. I use shading to get by and it kind of works. Some good advice by Edwards is to "look for the major directional movements, the exact turn of a strand or wave" (Edwards 162) Again, look at the picture to see all the dark and lights of the hair. Look for patterns so you don't have to stare at the picture for hours. 

6. Congratulations! You got through it! I am 100% sure that your drawing looks spectacular. 

Can I just say sorry for the brownish looking pictures? My bedroom lighting isn't good at 1:13 AM I don't know why.

I also enjoy listening to music when drawing and I'd like to recommend some nice bops that I listen to :)

Doomsday by MF Doom 

I. The Worst Guys [feat. Chance the Rapper] by Childish Gambino 

Super Rich Kids by Frank Ocean 

These are just a few that I like :))  

Thank you for reading my blog. Please give me your thoughts and questions in the comment section down below. 

 QOTD: what do you think of Bob Ross?

Thank you and have a great day!

Edwards, Betty. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain: A Course in Enhancing Creativity and Artistic Confidence. Los Angeles: J.P. Tarcher, 1979. Print.
 

HOW TO DRAW IN 14 MINUTES😱😱! CLICK TO FIND OUT!

       ☞Creating Portraits☜  
November 28

By Veronica Ramsey