Drawing From Life

Many people believe strongly that there is an elite population of people that have some sort of uncontrollable skill. They believe that these people can do things that they themselves cannot do, and are able to do those things because of raw talent that they were born with.

The people who think this, cannot draw. Are you one of those people? Or can you draw, but for some reason think that it is raw talent?

I am here to tell you, that it is not.

People can draw or can’t draw, because of one thing. Practice. Those who can draw like da Vinci, or replicate a pile of grapes and a wine bottle on to a canvas to an inch of the said grapes life, can do so because they have practiced doing so from a young age.

Think of that person in school. Who you have dim memories of them, sitting quietly in the corner of the library and drawing her lunch hour away.

Or that cool guy that doodled in his books instead of listening.

Or the girl who always had a ‘How to draw this’ or ‘How to draw that’ in her desk. And sometimes she let you borrow them, but you always felt that she was better.

She probably was better. But not because artistic ability runs in her family since the early 18th century.

The reason these ‘talented’ artists can do what they do, is because of practice. I can draw because I spend so much time drawing.

You can read fast, because you spend so much time reading. Or you are a amazing rock climber, because ever spare moment will find you at the gym climbing the toughest wall.

The old saying goes, practice makes perfect. It is true.

So now you are probably thinking, if all it takes is practice, then why can’t I learn? My answer to that is that you probably can. However because it takes practice, you have to be committed.

There is one style of drawing that you could possibly learn with out to much practice. It does take a significant shift in the way you see things, though.

That is drawing from life. Most of you will have probably tried this at one point or another in your life. Whether it was in art class in primary school or a recent attempt because one of your children said, “Draw me!”

Either way, if you are unpracticed in drawing then the result was probably the same. A childish looking picture and a further blow to your drawing ego.

But look at one of those pictures. Really look at it objectively, and try to see what the problem is. It should be obvious as soon as I tell you.

Your drawing is of what you think you should be seeing, and not what you were actually seeing.

So in other words, if you drew a hand, you would have drawn all five fingers at their true lengths. But in reality you might not have been able to see all five fingers. And some of the fingers you could see may have been foreshortened.

To Draw from life you must be able to draw what you see, and not what you think is there. A good way to think of this is drawing a train.

The train you are drawing is coming towards you. The train has 18 carriages. You know this, but in reality the only carriages you can see are the first two. Because the rest are hidden behind these ones, at least from your point of view.

That brings up another point. You don’t need to tell everyone that will look at your art, about all 18 carriages by drawing them. If you really need to tell them, do it verbally, but I doubt they will be interested.

This is because art is about your own point of view. You are telling everyone about what you could see of this train. You are not teaching someone how to make the train. Lets leave that to engineers drawings.

Art is about drawing life. Draw from your point of view to tell about your life. Draw from life. And most important of all…  Enjoy drawing all your life.

To view some of the authors artwork visit http://www.fishgirl1992.deviantart.com

What can you plant in your landscape that will bloom beautifully from spring
through fall? Hands down, the longest blooming period goes to the Knockout
Roses! Here in zone 7, they start blooming around early April and
continue on to late fall. This past fall, my double reds continued with
blooms until Thanksgiving which was many weeks beyond hard frosts and
remained in leaf through early December.

Plant these gorgeous specimens in well drained, fertile soil in full sun.

With little attention, they will put on a spectacular show for months on
end. The Knockout Roses are smaller shrub plants maturing around 4 feet tall
with about a 3 foot width. They are easily maintained as an even smaller
size with regular shearing.

Space the roses 3 to 4 feet apart for a dramatic hedge. To keep maintenanceto a minimum, prune them back anywhere from 6 to 12 inches above ground in late winter or early spring while dormant making certain to prune out any broken or damaged branches.

Mulch with organic matter such as aged compost or aged manure mix. Spread the mulch at least 3 inches deep around the plant leaving a welled area at the immediate base of the plant of around 3 to 4 inches wide so the mulch doesn’t touch the bark of the plant. Apply an organic fertilizer designed for roses as directed on the label.

As with other roses and plants with thorns, deer are not really drawn to the
Knockout Roses, so they do make dazzling color in areas where deer may be a
problem. The Knockout Rose Family has shown great resistance to the most
common problems of other roses such as black spot, mildew and rust.

With their extra long blooming period and practically no health problems, the Knockout Roses can be the best answer for many landscaping spaces.

Egyptian Mummies are great to try and draw and to start off with you can sketch them like you would with any undead figure drawing, the skinnier, the better so that you can show off the bones and the skull like features together with the rotten bandages of the mummifying process used to preserve the bodies of the kings or who ever has been mummifyed. In the following collection of video drawing tutorials you can learn how to put together a possible Mummy drawing or design from initialdraft sketch to the complete inked drawing.

Draft drawing a Egyptian Mummy - This is the first video in which the rough draft sketch of a possible Mummy drawing could be created and as stated in previous drawing tutorials, the sketching process is as important for coming up with the whole layout of your intended artworks so that the art can be built upon and developed as you go along. Watch the first video Draft Sketching The Egyptian Mummy

Inking The Mummy Pencil Drawing – Inking the original pencil drawing is always about advancing the drawing or design and making your design permanent with solid ink line art that can be easily colored later on with paints, pens or pastels or even colored digitally using computer art software. You can use all sorts of ink pens available like Sharpies, fine line ink pens or cheap gel ink pens or even black biros are good to use and not ruling out brushes for inking. Watch the second video Inking Egyptian Mummy Drawing

For a more closer look at drawing a Mummy head I created two more videos on drawing a quite detailed head and inking it too. You can see that both the drawing videos expand upon the idea of drawing a Mummies head by adding in Vampire teeth and extra details such as rotten wrinkly skin. Watch video one – Drawing A Mummy Head and video two – Inking A Mummy Head

Learn to draw fantasy art on Wayne Tully’s website – How To Draw Fantasy Art

KidsClick! Worlds of Web Searching is a project of the Ramapo Catskill Library System, serving public libraries in Orange, Rockland, Sullivan, and S. Ulster Counties, New York. Luckily, for the rest of us, KidsClick! Worlds of Web Searching is available world wide. This super resource offers a series of Internet search lessons for elementary kids (and grown-up kids) who need to develop searching skills. Worlds of Web Searching helps youngsters start building their skills in fun ways.

Along with Worlds of Web Searching, the Ramapo System offers additional cool tools.

Kid’s Tools for Searching – Combined Form and KidsClick! Web Guide for Kid are outstanding resources to use in the classroom and at home.

Rating: Superb tools for searching and using Internet/WWW resources.

Grace Smith, Ph.D.

Copyright 2000

http://www.worldsofsearching.org/

OurTimeLines.com is a free-to-use site that generates personalized timelines based on the year of one’s birth. Each timeline shows how your life or the life of anyone you choose fits into history. Users can insert up to ten, custom, color-coded personal time segments such as marriage, birth, schooling, etc., into a time line. The Peers and Near-Peers feature allows users to enter a birthdate and receive a list of people who live(d) around that date. A third feature is the birthday database. By entering a birth date, users can see who else has the same birthday. OurTimeLines.com is a fascinating tool to help children and adults understand the range of events that occurred in their lifetime or in another relative’s lifetime. Rating: A fun way to personalize history. Grace Smith, Ph.D. Copyright 2000

http://www.ourtimelines.com