Drawing Comes First It Really Is The First Step Drawing comes first. Literally. Do you have dreams of being a digital artist or a painter? Then you must learn to draw. Many people have the misconception that they can skip this step. They’re under the impression that the medium will somehow give them the ability […]
Constructive Criticism versus BS Know When To Pay Attention Do you know the difference between constructive criticism and BS? It’s understandable why new artists hesitate to put their work out there for people to see. Social media is especially full of opinionated jackasses who have no business or basis for their comments. These are the […]
Drawing Basics Putting the Elements Into Practice So what are the drawing basics? Now that we’ve discussed all of the basic elements of art, let’s start getting into how they apply. We won’t be looking into all of them right away. Color, for example, won’t apply to what we’re doing right now, so we’ll put […]
Texture It Makes Life Interesting So, let’s briefly discuss our last basic art element, texture. In a nutshell, texture is the way things feel, or the way things look like they might feel if touched. Texture is all around us. The smooth polish of a granite countertop versus the smooth, soft surface of a leather […]
Tints, Shades, Tones Value – Part 2 Tints, shades, and tones. While we’re still on the subject of value, I’d like to very briefly cover a few words you may have heard and maybe even used in the past. You may have even used the words tints, shades, and tones interchangeably, but there is a […]
Value – Part 1 What’s the Big Deal? Value is an incredibly important element of art and with good reason. Simply put, it is the lightness or darkness of hues (colors). When dealing with black and white for example, white is the lightest value and black is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes […]
Shape, Form, and Space What’s the Difference? Shape is an enclosed two-dimensional geometric or organic shape that has height and width, but no depth. Form is a three-dimensional space that encloses volume, includes height, width, AND depth. Like shape, it can be geometric or organic. Space refers to the areas around, between, and within things […]
Line in Art It’s More Than You Might Think Line, by definition, is a dot that creates an identifiable path by moving in space. It is one, two, or three dimensional and can vary in width, direction, and length. They often define the edges of a form and can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal, curved or […]
Beginner Artist – Top 5 Mistakes How To Avoid Them So you’re a beginner artist and you want to draw. You pick up a new sketchbook and some pencils and you’re ready to go. You’re excited and enthusiastic. You sit down and start drawing and things don’t exactly turn out how you expected. You try […]
Our pets become part of the family. “Keo-boy”, my siamese, was just a month shy of 20 yrs old. It was very difficult when I had to put him down. It was so hard that I even had him cremated. Myra surprised me with a picture of him, which sits in my bedroom til this day. “Babe” followed “Keo” & if you know a bit about Maine Coons you know they have long beautiful hair with striking patterns. She surprised me one Xmas with a portrait of the big boy. I can’t believe it is done with only pencil. She captured every detail perfectly. I have known Myra all her life, as I am her auntie. She has always had a knack for drawing. At 4, she even placed her artwork on my white leather chair! I have seen her develop into a fantastic artist. I will treasure my works of art forever.
- E. Naito
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