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Seeing a painting or figure drawing progress from beginning to end allows the finished artwork to be understood as a series of discrete steps leading to a virtuosic whole. During a recent tour of the Grand Central Academy (GCA), in New York City, I observed instructor Joshua LaRock developing a drawing...
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Can you imagine figuring out how to draw a face—the same face—350 times or more, and making each portrait drawing different and as compositionally sound and interesting as if you had made only one? Quite a task, yet Italian designer, sculptor, and painter Piero Fornasetti did just that. Fornasetti...
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Drawing is a fundamental skill for artists, emphasis on "skill." That means there are basic drawing rules and approaches that work, including these six tips on how to draw anything accurately. Delmonico Building by Charles Sheeler, 1926, lithograph drawing. Adapted from an article by M. Stephen...
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I'm a people pleaser. I innately want to make those around me happy and satisfied. So when an Artist Daily reader came to me wanting to know more about how to draw flowers, I wanted to come back to them with a resource that could really get to the heart of the matter. Our latest free eBook, How to...
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I don't think the failure or success of a drawing has to do with the drawing ideas that the artist starts with. He or she could choose pretty much anything and make a go of it, don't you think? It also doesn't depend on whether the artist chooses to create easy drawings or ones that are more...
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I'll admit that in the past I have been guilty of thinking of colored pencil art as colorful and bright and not necessarily able to be coupled with serious subjects or moody narratives. But that was my own bias. As I've spent time looking at sketchbooks of draftsmen creating colored pencil art...
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With so much interest in plein air painting these days, it's easy to overlook how important drawing skills can be to the landscape painting artist. Fundamentally, drawing is both a way of seeing and a way of knowing a subject. If you can draw it, then you own it. It is in your visual library and...
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I was recently on the train with a friend who caught the attention of an artist sitting across from us. She started drawing my pal. We were thrilled! It was an exciting moment as we watched my friend's face appear on the paper in front of us. As the artist went about her work, I observed her in action...
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In figure drawing and painting, knowing the ins and outs of the human body is essential. There's no way around that fact, and honing our skills with anatomy drawing helps us understand and truly see the body more accurately than any other endeavor. Drawing by Stephen Schultz. I was flipping through...
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I'm an artistic omnivore to be sure, but there is really nothing I love more and respond to more than pencil drawings. I know, the humble pencil and paper seems so simple, so basic. But what some forego and forget as too elementary, I see as essential. Yes, starting with beginner pencil drawing lessons...
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I was doubly lucky last week because I had a thoughtful discussion with a great artist, Patricia Watwood, about how most notable representational art is "real" and about what happens to artists when they are faced with stepping outside that mold. For example, Watwood recently created a painting...
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For a drawing to be successful, you've got to start off choosing the right drawing surface. No matter how great the drawing ideas you have or the drawing art skills you bring to bear in the process, if you aren't pairing surface and implement well, you may run into trouble as you develop the...
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I've always been an ardent fan of the profile portrait drawing . It reminds me of antique cameos, the profiles of emperors stamped on Roman coins, and 18 th -century silhouettes. But learning how to draw a face in profile does come with its share of possible missteps, so here are a few portrait-drawing...
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Foreshortening! For me, it is truly the stuff of nightlights and pulling the covers over my head. I've struggled really hard to learn how to draw foreshortened objects and figures, because my mind constantly overrules my eye, saying, "That can't be what you are seeing, so let's add in...
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Okay, I'll admit that skull reading and phrenology sound a little silly to me. Trying to get a sense of a person from the hollows and grooves on their skull? Not buying it. But I do know that "reading" the skull as an artist is key when it comes to learning how to draw a human head for...