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An undeviating vertical line used as a reference when determining alignment. It is often used in drawing the human figure.

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  • Discover the Enduring Appeal of Sketching
    Human figure drawing, especially life drawing from a model, is one of the most rewarding ways of practicing art because it can enhance your abilities in ways that are both practical and inspirational. It's practical in that creating figure drawings develops skills that will serve you again and again
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  • Step by Step to a Virtuosic Figure Drawing
    Seeing a painting or 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 of Michelangelo's
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  • Dark Tidings
    Sounds mysterious and threatening, right? No worries! It's just that when Liz Haywood-Sullivan began to create pastel drawings, she was dismayed with the range of dark colors available. "Rich, dark pastels were hard to find," she says. "Most
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  • 350 Ways of Drawing Faces
    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
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  • 6 Tips on How to Draw Anything Accurately
    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
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  • Our Newest Free eBook on How to Draw a Rose & More!
    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
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  • No Two Shadows Are Alike
    I am usually heartened when I hear disagreements about matters of art and technique. Maybe I'm just combative that way, but more likely, I think I take such debates as a sign that there are more artists coming to the table, that the field is growing
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  • The Perfect Blend of Literal and Abstract
    When I say "the perfect blend," I feel a little bit like I am describing a gourmet coffee flavor, but there really is a perfect blend that exists in pastel painting. For me, the crème de la crème of pastel drawings combines a certain
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  • It Is Never a Matter of Bad Ideas
    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
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  • It's Easy With Our New Free eBook: Learn How to Draw
    Sometimes I can forget how good it feels just practicing drawing techniques. Simple things, like working on proportion and scale and line weight can feel so rewarding if you give yourself the time to really savor them when learning to draw. Mostly this
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  • They Can Be Moody, Too
    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
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  • It Was a Secret Love Affair...And the "Resolve to Save" Sale Continues!
    I love stumbling upon facts about artists that make me rediscover them and consider their process in a whole new light. That's the kind of moment I had when I discovered that Roy Lichtenstein, the king of Benday dots and comic-book narratives, loved
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  • Power to the Pencil
    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,
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  • Add Water and BAM!
    I recently had an Emeril Lagasse moment--and it happened when I mixed pastels with water for the first time. Three Sunflowers on Blue by Jimmy Wright, pastel painting, 30 x 41. A while back, I confided that I wanted to start an earnest study and exploration
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  • 4 Tips for Drawing People
    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
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  • The Foundation of Figurative Art Is...
    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
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  • And Don't You Ever Forget It
    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
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  • What About Angels?
    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
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  • Don't Start Off the Wrong Way
    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
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  • Avoid These 5 Mistakes When Drawing Faces
    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
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  • It Might Give You Nightmares
    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
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  • You Won’t Get Anywhere With Half Measures
    I've been told by more than one person that I try to see both sides of any issue. And my personal life aside, I can attest that I also do the same for art--I like to see it from all sides, materially speaking. That makes me a perfect match for mixed
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  • Santa, Here’s My Art Wish List
    My dad is a little manic about asking our family to get our holiday wish lists to him waaaaaaay before he has to fight the crowds and wait in long lines. As usual, I'm procrastinating, but if I were to give him my art wish list, I could have it ready
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  • Her Face Is Round--But in a Good Way!
    Figuring out how to draw people is often a matter of breaking the body down into geometric shapes. When it comes to drawing people--specifically faces--you have to think of the sphere and the ovoid. Now, I'm not really a fan of looking at drawings
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  • Bumps and Grooves That Mean I'm a Psycho Killer
    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
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  • Sketch I Will!!!!!!!
    I find that being an artist or art student is a bit like being a parent. The phrase: "Do what I say, not what I do" is too often applicable. For example, as I have expressed before, my goal is sketching something every day. The sketch drawings
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  • Do You Realize What Will Happen To You?
    It's strange how sketching and drawing are such old and established practices—pen and ink drawing has been around since ancient Egyptian times!—and yet no two draftsmen are ever really the same, and each one's pursuit can lead to very
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  • From the Simple to the Complex
    I recently took a life drawing class and showed my sketches to a friend, who's a super-skilled painter. I was reluctant to share them, but when she looked at my final sketch--in which the model had her hips contrapposto but twisted slightly away from
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  • The Erotic Frigidaire
    Did you just read that and think, "Wha-wha-what?" Well, when I first saw the phrase--which was originally applied to the sculptures of Antonio Canova--applied to the work of Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, I had the same reaction. But it is true-
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  • Seriously, All You Need Is Average Eye-Hand Coordination
    Hello there, I'll be doing some blogging for Artist Daily about human figure drawing . The plan is to do half of the blogging as written text and half as video episodes where it would be easier to demonstrate the concepts I would like to talk about
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  • Rembrandt Says Don’t Take It Slow
    Straight from the master's mouth, er, hand. Study Rembrandt's drawing techniques and you'll find short strokes and quick crosshatching that the artist used to get to the heart of every visual impression he wanted to depict. The Three Trees
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  • With Skill Comes Style
    I feel like every time I pick up a pencil to attempt portrait drawing, I am back in elementary school learning the basics of how to draw a face all over again. You know that art argument about whether you need natural talent to learn how to draw? Well
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  • Hunting the White Whale
    Art makes stories come alive. To me, it is as simple as that. And sometimes without art, there is no story-—or, at least, it's not quite as good. This was the case for the great American novel Moby-Dick . It is hard to imagine that Melville's
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  • TGIF! Our Free eBook on Learning How to Draw People Is Here!
    It's probably half-endearing (hopefully?) and half-annoying that I think there's no better way to start off the weekend than with art. But you know what I mean! As the fall season gets into full swing, I think we are all coming back around to
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  • It's Like Snooping in a Diary
    I've always thought of a painter's drawings or pencil sketches as his or her diary. A finished painting is the confident, public face shown to the world, but sketch drawings read like journal entries, where you can see an artist's preoccupations
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  • It’s Like a Snapshot Only Waaaaay Better
    There's something immediately nostalgic about Charles Kanwischer's graphite drawings. When I first saw them I immediately felt like I was looking at an old black and white snapshot. But in a way, his simple drawings are far better than snapshots
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  • What's So Hard About Sitting in a Chair?
    Plenty--especially if you are trying to figure out how to draw a person in that chair. Drawing people standing up is waaaaaay more straightforward than puzzling out how to proportion and position a figure sitting down. But to draw people this way opens
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  • It's Obvious She's Totally Twisted
    When I first saw the work of drawing artist Joan Wadleigh Curran I felt trapped...in a very good way. Curran takes as her subject matter from objects and places that most people would steer away from—dirty trash bags snagged on a chain link fence;
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  • Zero-Point Perspective—Ever Hear of It?
    There's no shame in your game if you haven't heard of this kind of perspective drawing ...or lack thereof. I kind of pride myself on knowing a good bit about how to draw perspective (although my actual execution of a perspective drawing is usually
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  • Drawing and Painting Together
    This is another complicated charcoal drawing, one done by an artist completing her first level of study at Studio Incamminati. I have shown it in three stages, ranging from the beginning of the drawing process to the end. The light is from the front right
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  • Soft Lines and No Tension
    I'm not a napping kind of person. When I'm up, I'm up and I want to be doing something or on the go. That's usually the kind of body drawing that I'm pulled to as well--muscles torqued, body indicating action, and an underlying sense
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  • Bringing the Dark to Light
    There are subject matters that are fairly easy to take in and those that need more time to understand and a willingness on the part of the viewer to move out of his or her comfort zone. Works that artistically represent intense events--like violence or
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  • Tiger in a Tropical Storm
    Henri Rousseau is best known for his exotic jungle scenes, but did you know that he never left France during his lifetime? All the imagery he painted was invented entirely in his mind and perhaps coupled with inspiration he got from listening to others
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  • The Long, Hot Summer
    The light of summer is a powerful and extreme thing. Getting effects of extreme darks and stark, searing lights is not something every painter can do. There's an acuteness of vision that must come into play to see the color that resides in the light
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  • You Could Use Some Color: New Free eBook on Colored Pencil Techniques
    I don't care what anyone says, color is king. It makes everything better--more appealing and lively. Oftentimes in an artist's drawing practice, a sense of color takes a backseat to the black, white, and gray of charcoal or graphite. But that
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  • Drawn to the Extraordinary
    Painters and draftsmen alike puzzle through perspective drawing issues. They almost have to if they want to establish any kind of sense of space in their work. Without linear perspective, all that remains is the flatness of the surface-and no artists
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  • He Makes Scribbling Seem Worthwhile
    Some artists, you love what they draw. But with every landscape drawing of Georges Seurat, it is the way that he draws that makes all the difference. Take any of his sketches and chances are it is fairly simple in composition. There are very few elements
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  • Get It While You Can: New Free eBook on Pen and Ink Drawing Techniques
    In its most elementary form, a pen and ink drawing is stark black marks against a white surface. No dilution of color, no shades of gray. But artists who've spent time inking their way across a page know that drawing with ink can actually be an incredibly
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  • Don’t Struggle with Perspective Drawings Like I Did
    Can you think back and remember what it was like to really struggle with a concept? I've got no pride. I've done this a ton of times--riding my bike, algebra, Avogadro's number...and perspective drawing . I thought once I got to college and
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  • Confessing All of Your Shady Ways
    One of my unhappiest memories of making art is drawing a really 70s-looking still life that my art teacher set up for us in the sixth grade. I remember being soooo bored and not interested at all in what we were doing until my teacher gave us a challenge
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  • Get Your Work Seen By 100 People a Day
    Yep, it is a pretty lofty goal. I know it. But there are so many incredible artists out there who are doing incredible work and deserve more visibility! Here are a few ways that you can elevate your artistic profile in the wider world. By no means are
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  • Why Do I Draw?
    Today was a day spent asking myself questions about my art. Two of the questions I have focused on are: "Why do I draw?", and "Why do I draw what I draw?" The copy of a Prud'hon drawing that I did in Natalie Italiano's drawing
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  • Bodies Come Crashing to the Ground
    Drawing human anatomy can be an adventure if you take it to the limits. Artist and draftsman Leah Yerpe certainly does. Her large- and small-scale drawings feature figures freefalling, tumbling, and twisting as they swoop across the page. Pleiades by
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  • The Agony and the Ecstasy
    A few weeks ago an artist friend of mine rotated his wrist and made a wincing face after he had finished working on a quick pencil drawing , and it made me realize that drawing isn't just fun and games. It can cause strain in the hand, wrist, elbow
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  • Taking Off the Straightjacket
    I am not a finicky person, so getting my hands dirty to get a job done is totally fine with me. But with painting, I can get so uptight and hesitant that the physical joy of it all goes right out the window. I'm trying to be better about what I'm
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  • Don’t Use That Tone With Me
    The appeal of tonal drawing is that it truly embodies visual subtlety. Instead of being the domain of line, the techniques that lead to a successful tonal drawing reside in value and shape. But learning how to draw tonality has been, for me, a hard road
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  • The Truth About Drawing Faces in One Free eBook!
    Woman with a Hat (detail) by Henri Matisse, 1905, oil on canvas. Archimedes (detail) by Jose de Ribera, 1630, oil painting. Self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh, 1888, oil painting. A few days ago I was hanging out with a mixed bag of artists. And by mixed
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  • The Lasting Influence of Illustration
    I love that my job allows me to learn something new every day—and the fact that the majority of those discoveries are art-related make them all the more inspiring. Lately I've been in art-historian mode, and I've have been trying to better
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  • Will This Work Even If I Hate Geometry?
    Cube figures allow me to focus on the basic shapes of the body. This can lead to a better understanding of the body's form and the creation of works that are incredibly natural, such as Lea Colie Wight's drawing, Kate , conte on paper, 17 x 23
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  • Lust for Line
    There are a few artists that I would like to watch step-by-step, drawing in their sketchbooks or painting in their studios. Okay, more than a few, but after seeing Van Gogh's drawings, he would definitely be at the top of my list. Cottage Garden by
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  • Drawing, Winter 2012
    In this issue, our Drawing Fundamentals series moves from looking at the historical roots of copying as an instructional practice to offering specific recommendations about how artists can copy master artwork in order to benefit the most from their efforts.
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  • Drawing Magazine Going Where It's Never Gone Before!
    Love to draw? Love to surf the internet? Then check out Drawing magazine's new Facebook page —featuring artists, tips on drawing basics, unique educational opportunities, and exclusive news about the magazine and the fast-paced world of drawing
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  • Make Your Mark, But Make It Different
    Recently, artist and our contributing blogger Daniel Maidman wrote a really insightful article about varying your mark making that I want to share because it seems like so many of us are refocusing our interest to drawing, and this is a great approach
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  • Do You Know All Your Lines?
    Two Women with Still Life by Willem de Kooning, pastel and charcoal on paper, 22 1/4 x 18 3/4 in., 1952. The artifice of line is one of the aspects of drawing that I am most in love with. The fact that we can take line—which doesn't exist in
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  • Skies Don’t Have Brushstrokes In Them
    Watercolor artist Thomas Schaller achieves convincing and dynamic effects in his skies ( Salisbury Cathedral , watercolor painting). I know it is a bias, but sometimes I can't help thinking that painting skies belongs to a particular realm of watercolor
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  • Art's Highest Achievement--Drawing the Portrait
    There are so many significant milestones that an artist can mark his or her career by, but the one that is most exciting for me is the possibility of drawing people and capturing their likeness, whether it is a certain gesture they have or just the interesting
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  • Drawing Basics: Working in Black and White
    A photo of the cast I am drawing. My drawing, in progress. You may remember that in the fall of this year, I discussed Darren Kingsley's class and his comment that we would be working for many weeks on our drawing of a facial feature in his class
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  • Drawing Basics: Grateful for Shades of Grey
    Figure drawing by Judith St. Ledger-Roty, charcoal drawing, 2011. I have been taking a figure drawing class that focuses on doing a comparatively long figure pose, working in charcoal. (We do one minute, five minute, and ten minute drawings, too, so 'long'
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  • How to Put On the Brakes
    Matthew Carr refused to use pure white in his drawings, treating his surface with charcoal before he began. ( Gordon , 2006, conté pencil on prepared charcoal paper, 56 1/2 x 44.) As you all might remember, charcoal drawing and I haven't always
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  • Drawing the Strength of Bones and Folds of Flesh
    Pastel drawing by Lea Colie Wight. At Studio Incamminati, it is not unusual for instructors or fellows who are not teaching a particular class to come in to draw or paint beside the students. This happened recently when Lea Colie Wight joined in a figure
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  • My Handmade Holiday
    This is a monotype print I just made of a winter scene. I went over it with pastel to get the motion of the swirling, whirling snow. It'll make a great card for some lucky friend this season! I've long been fascinated with holiday greeting cards
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  • Give a Dreamy Sigh for My Painting Hero
    Taking just a few minutes to survey a scene and sketch it can help work out any challenges you might come across with the orientation of objects, color, and more. Okay, it isn't a he or a she, but an 'it': composition! I know, not the handsome
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  • Colored Pencils and Exploding Heads: Welcome to the Fall Issue of Drawing
    Kinder Love by Jason Bard Yarmosky, 2011, pencil drawing, 18 x 24. Frontal Study of Naked Man by Leonardo, 1503- 09, pen and ink drawing, 9 1/4 x 5 3/4. Looking East by Kerry Brooks, colored pencil drawing. I'm excited to report that the fall issue
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  • Can a Caricature Help My Portrait Painting? Plus Our Self-Portrait Contest!
    The Grimaces by Louis-Leopold Boilly, 1823, lithograph, 13 1/8 x 10. A few weeks ago I was in the Met and saw "Infinite Jest," an exhibition of drawings and prints that explore satire and caricature from the Italian Renaissance to the present
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  • Drawing Basics: Varying Your Mark Making
    Last time we discussed the idea of switching up art practice techniques . The concept was that, while repetition builds skills, change keeps the mind sharp and the work lively. I've been thinking about ways I personally switch up techniques. The first
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  • A Stress-Free Drawing Master Class
    This is a blog about drawing people from one of my favorite co-workers, Cate, the online editor of Cloth Paper Scissors . Enjoy! Proportion is key to life drawing. When I was a kid growing up in Michigan, I was privileged to take classes at Cranbrook
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  • Like Seeing Myself in the Mirror
    Drawing by Edward Schmidt. When I was the one in charge of my infant cousin, I would always scramble frantically for ways to keep him entertained. Toys, sounds, and funny faces—I tried everything. But the most memorable way I kept him happy was
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  • My Artistic Love-Hate Relationship
    Untitled (#April 08) by Hilary Brace, charcoal on polyester film, 6 x 11.625. In the past, I have had a love-hate thing going with charcoal. Basically, I love it and it hates me. Seriously! I love what charcoal can do. The fact that you can use a stick
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  • Three Works of Art I Would Kill to Have
    It's not as if the wall space in my apartment is getting any bigger, but still, I'm always looking at works of art and murmuring, "I know just the place for you..." And for the past several years I've been particularly drawn to works
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  • From Me to You: Free Drawing eBook on Pencil Shading Techniques
    Drawing after the sculpture The Cylinder Man by Eliot Goldfinger by Jon deMartin, 2009, pencil drawing. Drawing for Epiphany by Michael Aviano, 2009, charcoal drawing, 39 x 32. Going from "the cylinder man" to a fully-realized figure is a matter
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  • Portrait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves - your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100 pages
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  • Summer 2011
    In this issue, Kenneth J. Procter discusses his work in the medium of powdered charcoal and looks at his own evolution as an artist. The issue also features a special section on portraiture, a subject with great expressive potential despite the restrictions portrait artists sometimes must work under
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  • Heading Back to School for More Drawing Basics & Beyond
    My early charcoal drawing. The charcoal drawing using the Studio's method. Once again, time for me to go back to school at Studio Incamminati . In preparing for classes, I have been reviewing my last year's drawings again. I am reminded of something
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  • How do I think? I sketch!
    Looking at Leonardo da Vinci's sketch of birds I imagine how the artist likely thought about more than just the birds themselves. He would have been caught up in ideas of flight and soaring in air. That's the power of a sketch. It can transport
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  • You Want a Free eBook on Making Color Work When Pastel Painting, Right?
    Manhattan Nocturne by Frank Federico, pastel painting, 20 x 24. I have a tried and true love affair going with color. I'm drawn to it across the spectrum, but I'm a late bloomer when it comes to pastel painting, which has to be some kind of crime
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  • Don’t Finish That Drawing—It’s Perfect Right Now
    Frank by Eileen Healy, pastel drawing. Artist Daily Member Spotlight: Eileen Healy I don't think any of you know how often I brag about you and the great work you show off in the Artist Daily Member Gallery. Recently I had several colleagues looking
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  • Painting Bridges, Alleys, and Avenues of My Favorite Cities
    I was born and raised in the suburbs, with rural farmland and city centers nearby so I have an unbiased appreciation for both. I'm attuned to the natural elements around me and I love to be outdoors, but I also get so energized by the sights and sounds
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  • Drawing Basics: Using the Egg to Draw Anatomy
    Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 1. Marjorie Forgues' figure drawing, day 2. Taking a painting or drawing class is always a learning experience, but often I find I learn a great deal from other artists in the class as well. This is especially
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  • 3 Paintings I'd Take in a Heartbeat
    Unknown Woman by Thomas Wilmer Dewing, 1890, pastel painting on paper. I love the effects and colors you can get with pastel paintings . . . at least I do now. It wasn't too long ago that I felt like I had some kind of weird complex where I could
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  • Life Drawing Gymnastics
    I combined not just artist and model (self-portraiture), but artist-model-athlete in my Life Drawing Gymnastics series. In my Life Drawing Gymnastics series, I attempted to do more than simply draw from life , but rather allowed life to be a large part
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Judge My Artistic Progress & Learning from Robert Liberace
    This is a long pose drawing that made it into my "evaluate" pile. Part of the artistic learning process for me is learning how to evaluate my work, not on a piece by piece basis, but collectively. This summer I am looking at my drawing art works
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  • Drawing Basics: Meet Your Master and Then Throw Him Away
    For this brush and ink drawing, I applied what I learned from da Vinci, but moved in my own direction. Sad is the disciple who does not advance his master. --Leonardo da Vinci Maybe you remember--in my earlier post when I recommended that you choose a
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  • Drawing Basics: Making Art According to Leonardo da Vinci's Motto
    Left: Kem , detail, 2004, 48 x 24, oil on canvas. Right: Hands #1 , 2011, 24 x 24, oil on canvas. I am not claiming either painting is better, but without my figure drawing practice between 2004 and 2011 I couldn't have painted the newer painting
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  • Drawing Basics: Costumes, Clothes or Nothing At All
    Julie Seated with Hands Clasped by Steven Assael, 2007, drawing, 22 x 15.5. We all know that drawing the nude figure is a, if not the, classical way of depicting the human body. But breaking the mold and adding clothing to your figure drawing art can
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  • Drawing Basics: Think Egg!
    Ethel Smyth by John Singer Sargent, chalk drawing, 1901. Adapted from an article by Dan Gheno Facial features can be used and contorted to tell us all kinds of things in a drawing . But you don't always have to think up dramatic scenarios for a drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Drawing Art Books
    Plate VIII, Study for a Picture , chalk and pastel drawing. From The Practice and Science of Drawing by Harold Speed. I was just telling a friend of mine that artists love books. That surprises some people, but it is totally true, especially if you love
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  • Drawing Basics: Measuring and Proportion in Life Figure Drawing
    Woman on a Treadmill by Kate Sikorski, figure drawing, 2009. I am a firm believer in starting a life drawing with the envelope—the shape you first draw before anything else. I've come to think of it as one of my drawing basics. This envelope
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  • Drawing Basics: Get In That Box!
    Head of 12-year-old Christ by Albrecht Dürer, drawing, 1506. Adapted from an article by Dan Gheno. As you know from my previous blog about needing a GPS to draw heads --because I get more lost in the eyes, ears, mouth, and nose than you'd think
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  • Sketch Away: Our Newest Free eBook of Pencil Drawing Lessons
    The drama of this charcoal and pencil drawing by Lilian Wescott Hale is in the bold contrast of value of the figure's skin, dress, and hair. I love all kinds of art: super complicated installations, amazing marble sculptures, and virtuosic canvases
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  • Drawing Basics: Look at John Singer Sargent's Swirls and Squiggles
    Sketch of a Man by John Singer Sargent, charcoal drawing. Adapted from an article by Mark G. Mitchell. Looking at a John Singer Sargent's drawings, I really can't mistake them for anything but the work of his hand. His line work is so thin, firm
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  • I Need a GPS for Drawing Faces
    Drawing a face is a little like reading a map. And no, not the cool Indiana Jones map where the red line draws itself to the destination and ‘X’ marks the spot. I wish! It is more that when learning how to draw people , there are a few “signposts” on the face and rules of thumb
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  • Drawing Basics: Mixed Bag of Anatomy Inspiration
    Peter Kelsey's cast drawing of the male torso. Hey fellow artists! Drawing anatomy seems overwhelming to me sometimes, but if I focus on strategies for HOW to learn it, it starts to seem doable. Here are a few tips I learned from a recent article
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Make Sense of All Those Bumps and Ridges
    As I was struggling to pull my drawings together, I realized that it didn't matter how good my line got, because I couldn't tell what I was looking at. The topic was the human body, and more specifically, the back. If you've gone through life drawing, perhaps you know the problem. You're
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  • Drawing Basics: How I Start My Pencil Drawings
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  • Fur, Feathers, Scales, and Tails
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  • Drawing Basics: Learning the Lesson of Line Drawing
    Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing, Head of an Angel , 1483. In my last post, I was telling you about how I decided to take Leonardo Da Vinci for my master when I was first studying art seriously. Choosing a master means taking a close look at great art
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  • Drawing Basics: Breaking Down the Head
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  • Video Lessons on Drawing from Susan Lyon and Scott Burdick
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  • Forget Everything You Know About Line
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  • Drawing Basics: On Midtone Paper by New Blogger Daniel Maidman
    My pencil drawing, Alley , was the result of a 40-minute pose that I did a few weeks ago. Hello, all, and thanks for having me as part of the Artist Daily community. I’m an artist working in New York, and I’ll be offering thoughts on the art
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  • Become a Master Draftsman With Our Free Drawing Basics eBook
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  • Portait & Figure Painting Highlights
    Reflect Your True Vision with Accurate Form Now you can paint the human form with the depth and detail it deserves – your artwork will come alive with this exciting special issue from American Artist: Portrait and Figure Painting Highlights Fall 2010. Improve the detail of your portraits with 100
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    When asked why painting the human figure was so important painter Scott Burdick was matter-of-fact. “Because we are human,” he said. “If an alien species were to come down today, they wouldn’t respond to the human form or face like we do. Just like pictures of lobsters don’t
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  • Drawing, Summer 2010
    On the Cover: Wet Hair (detail, reversed) by Jonathan J. Ahn, 2009, charcoal, 24 x 18. Collection the artist. FEATURES Choosing the Right Drawing Paper by Karen Meyer-Berthel The many differences between drawing papers can be so subtle that it is not
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  • Taking Advantage of Free Instruction
    I recently joined a gym in my neighborhood, with the hopes of working off some of those extra holiday pounds that seem to wear out their welcome around this time every year. My schedule is pretty busy, so I try to streamline my visits, making a beeline
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  • Drawing, Winter 2010
    On the Cover: Untitled (detail) by Mark Tennant, 2009, charcoal, 24 x 18. Collection the artist. DEPARTMENTS Editor's Note Contributors Sketchbook Where to Study Drawing: A Sponsored Guide to Some of the Best Educational Programs Learning From the
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  • 15 Beginner Drawing Tips on Learning How To Draw People the Classical Way
    Ramona by Tony Ryder, 1995, graphite, 24 x 18. Private collection. My father has been in the construction industry for nearly 40 years. When I was younger, one of my favorite things to do was visit him on the job site before a building was finished and
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  • Taking a Creative Gamble
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  • The Importance of Getting Youth Involved in Art
    Last week I had the opportunity to get together with a handful of art-materials retailers from around the United States and Canada to discuss concerns about reaching the art-making world and to share what artists are purchasing and what materials they
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  • Drawing, Fall 2009
    Check out what's featured in the Fall 2009 issue of Drawing magazine.
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  • Andrea J. Smith: Expand From a Limited Palette and Focus
    In the new atelier she opened in Rome, Andrea J. Smith teaches students to use a limited palette of colors when painting exactly what they see from a measured distance away from the subject and the easel.
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Is Memorization?
    When I first moved to New York City about a dozen years ago, I drew my father's face from memory quite a lot. It usually wasn't a good depiction at all, but occasionally it resulted in a decent drawing of a handsome man — which reminds me
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing People Using Perspective Lines
    While thumbing through Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Anatomy the other day, I came across an interesting section on foreshortening that I wanted to share ...
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    Last week we talked about sparsely marked drawings, so it only makes sense that today we consider drawings in which nearly every area is marked.
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  • Drawing Basics: In Praise of Sparseness When Drawing
    I caught the Whistler exhibition at The Frick last week and was initially concerned about its size — it hangs in that smallish room in between the place where you pay admission and the hallway to the restrooms — but I suppose at some point
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  • Drawing Basics: Draw It 2 Times
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  • Drawing Basics: Draw Why You Love Your Home
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Day Results
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  • Drawing Basics: The Drawing Day Project Wants People to "Drop Everything and Draw"
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  • Drawing Basics: Whistler's Etchings of Venice on View This Summer
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  • Drawing Basics: 10 Favorite Articles from Drawing Magazine's Archives
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Capture a Likeness When You Draw People
    What facial feature do you find to be the best indicator of a sitter's likeness?
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    We surf the web for interesting new drawings and random information on art so you don't have to. March 24 edition:
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  • Drawing Basics: Another Foreshortening Tip From Dan Gheno
    In this passage, which we had to cut from the print article in our Spring 2009 issue of Drawing for space reasons, artist-instructor Dan Gheno explains how visualizing the arc that body parts move through will help you place the joints in the right location, ensuring proper proportions.
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  • Drawing Basics: Where Did Your Love of Drawing Come From?
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  • Line drawing
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  • Drawing basics
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  • Drawing Basics: Use Bread as an Eraser?
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  • Drawing Basics: Electric Color Flies off the Pages of Fred Hatt's Drawings
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Proving Leonardo's Theories on Human Proportions
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Draftsman Drawing Magazine Can't Cover?
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  • Drawing Basics: Michael Graves' Traditional Roots
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  • Drawing Basics: Is Pastel a Drawing Medium?
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  • Drawing Basics: How Are YOU Using Negative Space?
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  • Drawing Basics: Depicting Mother and Child
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  • Drawing Basics: One Man's Sketchbook
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Sketchbook?
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  • Drawing Basics: Finding Time to Draw
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  • Drawing Basics: The Best Pencil?
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  • Drawing Basics: Two New Books Look Interesting
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  • Drawing Basics: Graphite and Charcoal in the Form of Oil Paint?
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  • Drawing Basics: Panzera and Leonardo's Vitruvian Man
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Leonardo Drawings from Biblioteca Reale in Turin
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  • Drawing Basics: The Cube
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  • Drawing Basics: A New Series of Articles by Jon deMartin
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  • Drawing Basics: Welcome, and What's New From the SCAD Show
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  • "Drawing" Magazine Cover Competition Winners
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  • Drawing Basics: Judith Carducci's Workshop and the Benefits of Drawing and Working From Life
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  • Kurt Long Wins Drawing BODIES Competition
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  • Drawing Basics: Looking at Antonio Lopez Garcia's "Portrait of Maria"
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  • Drawing Basics: Exploring Humor in Drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: Tiepolo Drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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  • Drawing Basics: Leonardo da Vinci’s "Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing to the Right"
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  • Drawing Basics: Kent Bellows' Figures With Backgrounds
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Cellini Revisted" by Sam Ivie
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  • Drawing Basics: Female Nude Figure Drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, "A Girl in Peasant Costume"
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "My Mother" by Katherine Sammons
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  • Drawing Basics: Kitty Teerling pencil portraits
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  • Drawing Basics: Peter Paul Rubens' "Hercules and Minerva Fighting Mars"
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Demonstrator" by Burton Silverman
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  • Oil Painting: Ron Hicks' "Noelle With a Black Dress"
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  • Drawing Basics: Michelangelo's "The Risen Christ" and "The Resurrection of Christ"
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Drawing Storyboards for the Coen Brothers Movies
    Ohio artist J. Todd Anderson took his talent for drawing to Hollywood and, as a storyboard artist, became part of the award-winning Coen Brothers movie-making team, creating the storyboards for such movies as Raising Arizona and No Country for Old Men
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding Anatomy by Drawing the Foot
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  • Drawing Basics: Arlene Steinberg on Colored Pencil
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  • Drawing Basics: Dee Overly's Colored Pencil and Graphite Drawings
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  • Beginner Drawing Logic: Getting Depth Into Your Drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Self-Portrait" by Kathe Kollwitz
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Male Nude" by Michelangelo
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Manuelita" by Nicolai Fechin
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  • "Watercolor" Magazine 2007 Cover Competition Finalists
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  • "Drawing" Magazine 2006 Cover Competition
    It was tough, but we chose 10 finalists who best showcase the skill level and imagination of our readers and named Noel A. Carmack the Drawing Magazine Cover Competition Winner for 2006. Noel A. Carmack Shannon by Noel A. Carmack, 2006, black colored
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  • Drawing Basics: Values Create Dramatic Drawings
    Careful use of darks and lights within and around the figure can give your drawings more power and dramatic force. by Dan Gheno Laocoön by Baccio Bandinelli, red and black chalk, 21 x 15¾. Collection the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. Some
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  • Drawing Basics: Arlene Steinberg on How Colored Pencil Techniques Relate to Painting
    Arlene Steinberg develops her detailed colored pencil drawings in much the same way as an oil painter would proceed. She carefully determines a composition, builds from dark shadows to bright highlights, and underpaints complementary colors to enrich
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Connie XXI" by Costa Vavagiakis
    David Jon Kassan discusses Costa Vavagiakis' Connie XXI . Connie XXI by Costa Vavagiakis, 2005, graphite and white chalk drawing on gray paper, 16½ x 11½. by David Jon Kassan This drawing by Costa Vavagiakis was done with graphite heightened
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan on "Study of the Head of an Old Man" by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
    David Jon Kassan discusses Jean-Baptist Greuze's Study of the Head of an Old Man. Study of the Head of an Old Man by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, ca. 1765, red chalk, 15? x 12?. Collection J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, California. Looking at Drawings
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  • Watercolor: Shanna Kunz: Tonalism and Contemporary Design in Watercolor
    An elegant combination of traditional tonalism and contemporary design allows Utah artist Shanna Kunz to speak to her viewers in a gently alluring voice. by Jennifer King Christmas Meadows 2003, watercolor, 20 x 24. Private collection. “All of your
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  • Drawing Basics: Student and Faculty Work from PAFA
    In the spring 2008 issue of Drawing magazine, we explored how the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts puts students on the path to become artists, teaching them drawing basics and then taking them beyond. In this online exclusive gallery, we offer more
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  • Drawing Basics: Janvier Rollande's Portraits of Self-Expression
    In the spring 2008 issue of Drawing magazine, we discussed how Maine artist Janvier Rollande found that a bit of herself always came through in her pencil drawings of others. We offer more of her graphite portraits in this online exclusive gallery. Tapestry
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  • Drawing Basics: A History of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
    In this online exclusive, read more about the history of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts as a supplement to the spring 2008 Drawing magazine feature article. by Tina Tammaro In 1791 artist Charles Willson Peale began to gather a group of prominent
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  • Drawing Basics: Colored Pencil Drawings of Natural Objects
    In this online exclusive gallery, we offer more colored pencil drawings by spring 2008 featured artist Dee Overly. Hiding 2006, colored pencil, 7 x 6. Collection Cathy Barry. Rain Beads 2007, colored pencil, 8½ x 7. Collection the artist. Peaches
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  • Drawing Basics: Looking at "A Stag at Sharkey's" by George Bellows
    David Jon Kassan comments on George Bellows' A Stag at Sharkey's. A Stag at Sharkey’s by George Bellows, 1917, lithograph, 18½ x 23. This lithograph drawing by George Bellows was based on an earlier painting of the same name done
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  • Oil Painting: Peter Fiore: Freely Interpreting Nature
    Because most of his Pennsylvania landscapes begin with his photographs, Peter Fiore considers his paintings reorchestrations of reality. “A painting is what I envision,” he says, “not necessarily what nature gave me.” by Linda
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  • Drawing Basics: The Neck
    A look at the anatomical structure of the neck, and some helpful figure drawing tips from Drawing magazine's Understanding Anatomy series. Read other features in the Understanding Anatomy series: Drawing the Leg Drawing the Ear Drawing the Arm by
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  • Oil Painting: Jimmy Sanders: The Structure Needed in Painting and in Life
    For almost 20 years, Jimmy Sanders has set specific goals for his art education, the types of paintings he creates, and the projects he undertakes. “Goals are dreams with deadlines,” he says. “They are important to realist painters who
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  • Drawing Basics: Arlene Steinberg's Colored Pencil Drawings
    In the May 2008 issue of American Artist, we explored how Arlene Steinberg developed her detailed colored pencil drawings in much the same way as an oil painter would proceed. We present more of her drawings in this online exclusive gallery. All Paired
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  • Drawing Basics: "Male Back" by John Singer Sargent
    David Jon Kassan discusses John Singer Sargent's Male Back . Male Back by John Singer Sargent, charcoal drawing. Drawn between 1890-1915. by David Jon Kassan While most artists will rely on how light describes form in their figure drawings , John
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  • Drawing Basics: Ports of Entry & Richard Morris Hunt's Architectural Drawings
    Twenty-five architectural drawings created by Richard Morris Hunt between 1847 and 1863 were on display at the National Academy Museum . Hunt, often referred to as "the dean of American architecture," was the first American to study architecture
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  • Drawing Basics: Edges
    An artist's handling of edges is one of the drawing basics and of great importance if a drawing is to be convincing. Tartar Huntsman by Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1616, black chalk heightened with white, 15 1/16 x 10 9/16. Collection The Fizwilliam Museum
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  • Drawing Basics: Philip Pearlstein's Prints and Army Drawings
    In this online exclusive gallery, view more examples of Philip Pearlstein's work that highlight the draftsmanship and drawing skills described in his winter 2008 Drawing feature. Jerusalem, Kidron Valley 1987-88, woodcut, 40 x 119. Collection the
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  • Drawing Basics: Looking at "Study for Mirror (I Against I)" by Dan Thompson
    David Jon Kassan comments on Dan Thompson's Study for Mirror (I against I) . Study for Mirror (I Against I) by Dan Thompson, graphite. Collection unknown. This served as a study for a self-portrait. Looking at Drawings: "Study for Mirror (I Against
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Philip Pearlstein's Unrelenting Gaze
    This New York artist discovers many of his breakthroughs through drawings, depicting strictly what he sees with little thought for accepted standards of draftsmanship. by John A. Parks Study for Eroded Cliff 1955, sepia wash on paper, 18¾ x 23
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  • Drawing Basics: Henry Casselli Draws from the Inside Out
    Throughout his long career, Henry Casselli has looked to drawings to clarify his impressions and better understand his subject. To read more features like this, subscribe to Drawing today! by Lynne Moss Perricelli Study for Sparring Partner 2005, graphite
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  • Drawing Basics: Anthony Mitri and Mary Reilly's Other Locales in Black and White
    In the winter 2008 issue of Drawing magazine, we discussed how Anthony Mitri and Mary Reilly, who work in charcoal and graphite respectively, mastered the drawing essentials to develop a personal vision and unique style through their drawings of New York
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  • Technique: Sherry Camhy: When Black Is White
    This New York artist uses the sheen of graphite to create the light highlights in her drawings on black paper. by Bob Bahr Study of a Roman Sculpture 2007, graphite on black paper, 50 x 33. Collection the artist. Twilight by Sherry Camhy, 2006, graphite
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  • Technique: Acrylic Washes Over Drawings
    by John Rutherford Exhausted Surgeon 2002, Conté and acrylic, 17 x 21. All artwork this article collection the artist. My approach to figure drawing allows me to work quickly in establishing both the linear outlines of the model’s form and
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  • Drawing Basics: Caran d'Ache's Pencil-Making Process
    The pencil manufacturer Caran d’Ache agreed to share their pencil-making process with Drawing readers through the following photographs, so that artists are informed about their materials and can use them when solidifying their mastery of all drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: David Jon Kassan's Favorite Drawing & Why
    For this new feature, we've asked artists to comment on some of their favorite drawings. In this first edition, David Jon Kassan comments on Head Study of a Young Girl by John H. VanderPoel. Head Study of a Young Girl by John H. VanderPoel, 1903,
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  • Oil Painting: Daniel Graves: Steward of Humanist Art
    Many of the great teachers who trained Daniel Graves were featured in American Artist in the 1970s, while he and his students have been profiled in more recent issues. As the magazine celebrates its 70th anniversary, we examine the academic art education
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  • Hudson River School for Landscape: Reviving an American Tradition
    This past summer, 30 outstanding young artists were invited to spend three weeks studying the landscape in upstate New York, where they applied their figure-drawing skills to rendering nature. The intention of the four instructors was to revive the approach
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  • Drawing Basics: Julia Randall's Colored Pencil Mouths
    In the winter 2008 issue of Drawing magazine, we discussed how New York City artist Julia Randall's colored pencil drawings incorporated depictions of her mouth. We present more of her voyeuristic, suggestive, slightly grotesque, and humorous drawings
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  • Drawing Basics: Ingres' Miraculous Lines
    This French master teaches us much about contours, portraiture, and how to draw people. by Mark G. Mitchell Portrait of Charles- François Mallet 1809, graphite, 10 9/16 x 8 5/16. Collection The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois. So that’s
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  • Technique: Watercolor Pencils: Bridging the Gap Between Painting and Drawing
    Water-soluble colored pencils offer the perfect solution for artists who want to create watercolor effects without the hassle of watercolor paints. by Stephanie Kaplan Plumeria 2006, watercolor pencil, 8 x 10. Watercolorist Kristy Ann Kutch owned a set
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  • Drawing Basics: Henry Casselli's Portrait Drawings
    In the winter 2008 issue of Drawing magazine, we explored how Henry Casselli has looked to drawings to clarify his impressions and better understand his subject throughout his long career. Here, we offer more of his portrait drawings in this online exclusive
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  • Long-Pose Drawing Basics: How to Keep It Energetic and Alive
    A more finished drawing is possible when a model poses for an extended amount of time, but this luxury comes with particular challenges. Identifying and preparing for the potential pitfalls will improve your figure drawing . To read more features like
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  • Drawing Basics: BACAA Recommended Books
    In the fall 2007 issue of Drawing magazine, we highlighted the Bay Area Classical Artist Atelier as one of the most regarded classical contemporary schools in the country, offering students traditional figure-drawing training from today’s top artist
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  • Drawing Basics: Exercise the Imagination of Line
    This web-based art program seeks to explore drawing basics as essential modes of education not only in the United Kingdom but all over the world. July 22, 2007, Sunset in Verona at Ponte by Victor Timofeev, 2007, pen-and-ink and graphite, 9½ x
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Evidence & Interpretation in Master Landscape Drawings
    Many great landscape drawings were created as preparatory studies, educational exercises, or informational journals and not as finished works of art. We can now study those freely made graphic images for evidence of the drawing essentials , ideas, and
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Mise en Page
    by Bob Bahr Head of the Virgin in Three-Quarter View Facing to the Right by Leonardo da Vinci, 1508–1512, black and red chalk on paper, 8 x 6?. Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York. Leonardo filled the sheet with the subject’s
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  • Drawing Basics: Preparing Your Surface
    In the June 2007 issue of American Artist, we discussed how the large charcoal drawings that Montana artist David C. Powers creates on toned pano Artistico hot-pressed watercolor paper are inspired by the feelings of danger, freedom, solitude, and the
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  • Drawing Basics: 70th Anniversary Competition Grand Prize Winner
    John P. Smolko won the Grand Prize—a new MetroShed, furnished by Blick Art Materials, for use as a stand-alone studio—for his imaginative colored pencil piece, Homage to Klimt (The Virgin). Read more about the artist, and view five online
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  • Drawing Basics: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the drawing category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Study for the Portrait of Autumn by Chusit Wijarnjoragij, 2007, brown and white colored pencil, 25 x 19. First Place: Chusit Wijarnjoragij For Thailand-born Chusit Wijarnjoragij
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  • Watercolor: 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the watercolor category. by Karen Stanger Johnston After the Harvest by Gail M. Wheaton, 2003, watercolor, 30 x 22. Collection Evan and Patricia Harter. First Place: Gail M. Wheaton Arizona artist Gail M. Wheaton completed
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  • Drawing Basics: Colored Pencil 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the colored pencil category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Ya Reckin by Rosemarie Rush, 2006, colored pencil, 16 x 20. First Place: Rosemarie Rush Like most of the images of Western life by California artist Rosemarie Rush
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  • Drawing Basics: Printmaking 70th Anniversary Competition Winners
    We present the semifinalists in the printmaking category. by Karen Stanger Johnston Eulogy for Kreischerville by Bill Murphy, 2006, etching, 11 x 21. Image courtesy The Old Print Shop, New York, New York. Collection Newark Public Library, Newark, New
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  • Masters: John Ruskin and His Influence on American Art
    During the second half of the 19th century a single writer held enormous sway over the hearts and minds of American artists, critics, and their public. by John A. Parks Devonport and Dockyard, Devonshire by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1825–1829
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  • Masters: Ingres’ Materials
    In the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine, we explored how Ingres taught us much about contours and portraiture. Here, we offer an excerpt from the feature about how the artist's use of graphite on smooth white paper was ahead of his time. by Mark
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  • Masters: Whistler's Mark
    This expatriate American turned away from realism to create an art of stylish and ethereal beauty, ably represented in his drawings. by John A. Parks Crouching Figure in The White Symphony: Three Girls 1869-1870, chalk on brown paper, 10 5/8 x 10¾
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  • Masters: Rembrandt's Shorthand Drawing Style
    The greatest of Dutch masters used a rapid, abbreviated technique in drawing to record visual impressions from the world around him and his own cornucopian imagination, foreshadowing developments in modern art more than two centuries later. by Joseph
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  • Drawing Basics: Classical Art in the Modern World
    Chicago’s School of Representational Art offers a classical art education in a modern world. by Mark G. Mitchell Tartan by Steve Ohlrich, 1999, charcoal and pastel on white paper, 25 x 19. On the top floor of an old factory warehouse in the arts
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  • Beginner Drawing Logic: Draw What You Don't See
    Faintly draw construction lines to remind yourself of the parts of the form you don't see. by Bob Bahr Contour of a Woman Relaxing by Alex Zwarenstein, 2002, graphite, 20 x 30. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding the Anatomy of the Ear
    A look at the anatomical structure of the ear, and some helpful tips on how to draw people . by Ephraim Rubenstein Maddie 2005, pastel on sanded board, 19 x 15. In this portrait of my daughter, Madeleine, her ear is lit very dramatically from behind.
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  • Beyond Drawing Basics: Ashcan Drawings
    The artists of the Ashcan School, known for their raw depictions of urban life, shared a background in newspaper and magazine illustration that shaped their drawing and painting styles. by Edith Zimmerman Far From the Fresh Air Farm by William Glackens
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  • Beginner: Drawing Materials, the Basics
    by Bob Bahr Here are the basic art materials drawing. Drawing Graphite pencils A graphite pencil usually consists of a long, thin cylinder of graphite enclosed in a hexagonal wooden sleeve--the standard pencil. But solid graphite is also available in
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  • Drawing Basics: Hard Edges, Bold Colors
    Screenprints can have subtle colors and edges, but the most stimulating examples are bold and crisp, as a selection from the Print Research Foundation, in Stamford, Connecticut, shows. by Bob Bahr The Hitchhiker by Robert Gwathmey, 1937–1943, screenprint
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  • Drawing Basics: Chat With Dan Gheno
    Read the transcript from our online chat with top artist-instructor Dan Gheno. If you have more thoughts to share, chat with your peers on Artists' Forum , and check back for more online chats with featured artists. This chat was brought to you by
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  • Museums Offer a Wealth of Educational Resources
    Teachers of all grade levels and subjects can use museum resources to enhance their curriculum. by Erica Yonks African Mask 2006, 10th grade, charcoal and pencil. During a unit on the art and history of West Africa, students drew from figure sculptures
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  • LESSON PLAN: Looking at Impressionist Landscapes
    This valuable lesson plan explains how to teach high-school students to draw landscapes. by Erica Yonks Green Trees 9th grade student, 2006, colored pencil. Grade Level: 9 Duration: three days Objectives • To depict landscapes with the illusion of
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  • Beginner Drawing: Shadows and Light: The Basics
    An object is almost never in simply light and shade. Rather, it is usually in an environment in which light is bouncing around in several directions. For this reason it is important for beginners to understand the nature of shadows. by Bob Bahr Diagram
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  • Drawing Basics: Brian Bomeisler's Global Skills of Drawing
    We offered words of advice about drawing basics from Brian Bomeisler in the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine. Here, we present his five global skills of realistic drawing. Bomeisler helped a student correct and adjust the proportions of his self
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  • Drawing Basics: Painterly Effects With Colored Pencil
    California artist Alyona Nickelsen uses odorless mineral spirits to dissolve some of the pigment in her colored pencil drawings, eliminating the pencil strokes and creating rich, luminous color. by Lynne Moss Perricelli Sincerely Yours 2006, colored pencil
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  • Drawing Basics: Chat With Colored Pencil Artist Alyona Nickelsen
    Read the transcript from our online chat with colored pencil artist Alyona Nickelsen. This chat was brought to you by Legion Paper . 2007-03-08 11:00:27.0 Administrator: You have joined a chat with Alyona Nickelsen, a colored pencil artist featured in
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Without Symbols on the Right Side of the Brain
    As a supplement to our feature in the winter 2007 issue of Drawing magazine, we offer a more in depth look at Brian Bomeisler's drawing workshop with an extended version of the article, additional images of student work, and more photographs of the
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  • Drawing Basics: The Benefits of Sight-Size Drawing
    Cast Study—Laocoon 2005, charcoal and white chalk, 26 x 19. Collection the artist. Students attending contemporary art schools modeled after 19th-century academies often spend their first months on the drawing basics and making sight-size copies
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Put the Human Form Together
    In past issues, we explained how to analyze and correctly draw different areas of the body. In this tutorial overview of the figure, we bring it all together. by Dan Gheno Weighted Stasis by Dan Gheno, 2006, colored pencil and white charcoal on toned
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  • Beginners Drawing: Making Better Lines, Making Lines Better
    Line has been around for a long time. Ever since the prehistoric era, when that first artist picked up a lump of wood ash from a spent campfire and outlined a hand on the cave wall, lines have described forms of all types--human, animal, and landscape
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  • Drawing Basics: Understanding Anatomy of the Arm
    If you know the anatomy of arms, you can use them to express much. by Ephraim Rubenstein Study of Arms 2006, red chalk, 26 x 19. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise indicated. This study shows the major masses of the arm in
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  • Drawing Basics: Woodcut Prints or Oil Paintings?
    In the March 2007 issue of American Artist , Utah artist Brad Teare used a number of techniques to give his woodcut prints a fluid, organic quality that brings them closer in appearance to his plein air oil paintings . Here, we offer more the prints he
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  • Technique: Cartooning: Spotlight on Christopher Hart
    by Edith Zimmerman From Hart’s Cartooning series (Watson-Guptill Publications, New York, New York). Anyone interested in the techniques of cartooning has probably heard of Christopher Hart . His instructional books have been read and reread by millions
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  • Drawing Basics: How to Draw Dynamic Heads
    Depicting features is only the beginning. Putting life into a head drawing requires assimilating it with the rest of the body, capturing an attitude—and much more. by Dan Gheno Study for the Angel in Madonna of the Rocks by Leonardo, silverpoint
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  • Drawing Basics: From a Roman Fountain to a South Bend Studio
    In this excerpt from the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , David Mayernik discusses how copying the work of Old Masters trains his taste so he can draw and paint original work with the classical beauty he reveres. by Bob Bahr For David Mayernik , who has gone
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  • Drawing Basics: A Foreshortening Exercise
    This helpful drawing exercise for drawing faces appeared in the fall 2006 issue of Drawing . If you have trouble seeing and drawing the nose close to the eye when you are drawing a head, be sure to try this exercise. by Dan Gheno Skull From Above by Dan
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  • Drawing Basics: Modeling a Face With Light
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored the art of drawing realistic heads. Here, we present an excerpt from the article about drawing with light and shadows. by Dan Gheno Study of a Boy With His Hand to His Mouth by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
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  • Drawing Basics: Put Your Head in a Box
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored the sometimes daunting task of drawing accurate heads. Here, we suggest one technique from the article that will help you use perspective to better gauge the tilt of the head. by Dan Gheno Stereometric Man
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  • Drawing Basics: Sargent in Black and White
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored John Singer Sargent's brilliant drawings. Here, we offer an excerpt from the article that discusses Sargent's use of light and dark values. by Mark G. Mitchell ”I think the chief characteristic
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  • Drawing Basics: Preserving the Landscape in Colored Pencil
    Ohio artist Linda Wesner depicts American scenes that are quickly disappearing because she feels it is important that the viewer recognize the universal theme of change. by Bob Bahr Light Along the Hudson 2006, colored pencil, 25 x 12¾. All artwork
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  • Drawing Basics: Linda Wesner's Colored Pencil Landscapes
    In the January 2007 issue of American Artist , Ohio artist Linda Wesner depicted American scenes that were quickly disappearing because she felt it was important that the viewer recognized the universal theme of change. We offer 16 more of her colored
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  • Drawing Basics: Measuring Facial Features
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explained how to draw dynamic heads. We present an excerpt from the article about measuring facial features. by Dan Gheno In my “Portrait Painting” article in the February 1993 issue of American Artist
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  • Drawing Basics: Drawing Lessons from John Singer Sargent
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored how the best lessons in value, light, and form are clearly visible in John Singer Sargent's drawings. We present a excerpt from the article that discusses how he taught drawing classes. by Mark G. Mitchell
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  • Drawing Basics: Christopher Hart's Cartoons from Drawing Faeries
    We recently spotlighted Christopher Hart and his cartooning techniques. Here, we present more images from Hart's Drawing Faeries series (Watson-Guptill, New York, New York).
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  • Drawing Basics: Sigmund Abeles' Five-Minute Drawings
    In the fall 2006 issue of Drawing , we explored how Sigmund Abeles has shown several generations of artists the drawing basics : how to draw with organic lines, logical compositions, and lots of empathy. Here, we present an exerpt from the article about
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  • Drawing Basics: Lisa Dinhofer's Playful Oil Paintings
    In the summer 2006 issue of Drawing , New York artist Lisa Dinhofer drew convincing objects in imaginary spaces, finding meaning in both the items and their presentation. In contrast, we offer nine of her playful oil paintings in this online exclusive
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  • Drawing Basics: Between Drawing and Painting
    Chicago artist Tim Lowly communicates compassion and acceptance in his depictions of vulnerable humans. by Joseph C. Skrapits Portrait of K 2006, charcoal on toned museum board, 19 x 141/2. All artwork this article collection the artist unless otherwise
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  • Drawing Basics: Just Imagine--Drawings by Lisa Dinhofer
    This New York artist draws convincing objects in imaginary spaces, finding meaning in both the items and their presentation. by Lynne Moss Perricelli Into the Light: Yellow 2004, colored pencil and collage, 19 x 22. Collection the artist. New York artist
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  • Drawing Basics: The Emergence of Tonal Drawing
    Tonal drawing--the juxtaposition of relative values, the notion of seeing masses rather than outlines--more closely replicates the way humans see than do lines. This emotional way of depicting the world has been explored since Leonardo; modern artists
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  • Drawing Basics: Jon DeMartin's Drawing Workshops to Improve Paintings
    “One of the biggest reasons painters get into trouble is because their pictures don’t have a solid foundation of accurate and expressive drawings,” says New York artist Jon DeMartin. That’s why his drawing workshops are so helpful
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  • Drawing Basics: Inside the Atelier: Learning How to Draw on the Right Side of the Brain
    As the son of Betty Edwards, the author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain , Brian Bomeisler helps students access the right side of their brains to improve their drawings. The following describes the first day of Bomeisler’s five day drawing
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  • Drawing Basics: When It Hurts to Draw
    Drawing can cause a repetitive strain injury (RSI), but with a few precautions and the right equipment, this risk can be minimized. by Edith Zimmerman Drawing is not usually thought of as a high-risk occupation. Calluses, dirty fingernails, stained clothes
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