For many artists (myself included) drawing hands can be the most challenging aspect of figure drawing. The hand is an extremely complex area and drawing it is a subject of study all by itself. There are many great books devoted to this topic and I highly recommend that you explore them.
I”ve gathered what I have learned over the years, and narrowed it down to 5 Critical tips to keep in mind to produce a more realistic hand. The items in this list are actually quite simple (and they were meant to be) but many beginners still miss them. If you just keep these details in mind while you work, your sketches will show immediate improvement.
Here we go:
1) Hands are NOT made up of straight lines”fingers are NOT parallel to each other, knuckles DON”T line up in a row, and the edges of the hand are NOT straight and parallel. Instead the finger tips and the knuckles form an arch across the hand. Also the figures bend slightly toward the space between the Middle Finger and the Ring Finger. This subtle detail will add life to your drawing.
2) The palm of the hand consists of 3 meaty parts: 1) One is at the base of the thumb, 2) the other lies at the base of the pinky. 3) And the third takes the shape of a row and sits just underneath the knuckle
3) The skin web between the fingers should be a “U” shape instead of a “V” shape or a flat line.
4) Even when the hand is relaxed, the fingers are never in a straight line, they always curve slightly towards the palm no matter how gravity is pulling on them. This is how the hand naturally behaves; be sure to capture this in your drawings.
5) When drawing the back side of the hand, always remember to include these 3 things:
“the knuckles
“the veins
“the wrinkles at the joints of the finger
I”ve done my best in this article to outline in words the things that you should pay attention to when drawing hands. But the truth is, drawing hands (or anything for that matter) is a visual exercise. You have to see examples after examples in order for this to really sink in. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Month: June 2018
Ways To Use Newsprint Drawing Paper
Newsprint drawing paper has multiple uses. This paper is made from recycled newsprint, making it a very durable choice. Both professional artists and art students benefit from using this hardy paper. Newsprint paper is usually sold in both rough and smooth varieties. Stores like Dick Blick Art Materials and Michaels sell newsprint drawing paper in a variety of brands. Here are four ways to use this type of paper:
1. Create Sketches on Durable Paper
Artists who create frequent sketches, including pen and ink, often want to preserve their work for as long as possible. One way to do this is by using durable drawing paper. You’ll be able to keep sketches you’ve created for much longer.
2. Paintings
Newsprint paper is a good option for painting. It provides a good quality surface that will allow your colors to stand out. Using this paper is a good option for beginners who haven’t started working with canvas yet.
3. Pastels
If you like to use pastels, it’s worth considering using newsprint paper. Newsprint paper stands up very well to the rubbing that needs to be done to get the color coverage that you need. The paper also resists smearing better than lighter-weight grades of paper do.
4.Calligraphy
Newsprint paper can be a very good choice for calligraphy projects. You can easily do your lettering without poking holes through the paper. Textured newsprint paper also gives your project an old-fashioned look.
Tips for drawing pencil sketches fast!
Some people a bit ‘bored and frustrated when they spend there time struggling to add lines to improve their work, so if you need a simple but powerful, it’s time to pre-between, you’ll need to learn the proper technique, which helps you to capture the vital elements.
Firstly you should forget the rules. You are about to learn how to draw a different way and just go on the final result. Assuming you are happy with the pencil drawing end, it matters little whether you have used techniques to get there?
Remember that often (depending on the subject or the Committee) does not accurately reproduce the drawing. You can add your own elements to make it more personal.
Now I will suggest you that don’t try to be too fixed in style. Do experiment and try out different techniques, you may be pleasantly surprised that you like. Although painting and drawing is a very visual process, so try to add the emotions and feelings too in your pencil sketches, because it will add new expressions in your work, if you can feel the object, then it will be useful to others, to see their work.
When you are going to draw something, firstly you should work with all the basic functionality of the drawing. If you can catch the details soon, so you can add other details later.
To improve this technique is to do a little practice and permit to draw a minute or less to complete. If you do this regularly, you will soon realize how the speed and accuracy improvement.
In your pencil drawing art and painting should have fun and feature certainly captures this element, beyond this, you will also train your brain to react when you feel you must spend time together with your work of art. This way, you can spend less time procrastinating and helps you get more.
Everyone has some hobby, if your hobby is pencil drawing, then you must need some hard work to improve your drawing capability. Here is some pencil sketch gallery. Here is variety of sketches.
Drawing And Moving Energy
During various exercises we’ll be drawing energy in through our chakras, into our organs and even through the entire area of our skin. Drawing energy into yourself is fairly easy to do and simply requires a heightened sense of self-awareness to feel.
To begin drawing energy just take a moment and focus on your breathing. Feel your breath as it flows in through your nostrils and down to your Dan Tien, the area two finger-widths below your belly button. Feel the chi as it flows in with your breath down to your Dan Tien. Take a few breaths and let the energy build up and spread through your body.
Now, as silly as it sounds, imagine a nose or an opening that covers your heart chakra, just over your sternum. Remember what it feels like when you draw the chi in through your nostrils? As you inhale let the nose over your heart chakra inhale chi directly into your heart. It may take awhile to really feel this, so don’t be worried if it doesn’t seem to come easily. As you exhale let any stress or unhappiness in your heart chakra flow down through your legs and deep into the earth.
Take some time and practice inhaling energy this way. As you get comfortable with it you’ll be able to draw chi into yourself in many different ways. Below are some sample exercises that you can experiment with. You’ll probably come up with some others on your own as the possibilities here are literally endless.
Chakra Breathing
We’ll get deeper into this in the Chakra Chapters, but you can draw energy into any of your chakras at any time just like we did for the heart chakra.
Energizing your organs
This can be a lot of fun and really help strengthen your immune system and improve your overall health. It’s also an exercise in using intention to send energy where you want it to go.
Take a moment and relax as we did above. On your inhale draw chi into your liver. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly where your liver is, you don’t have to. Just intend for relaxing, healing energy to flow into your liver as you inhale, and then draw it in. On your exhale let the stresses and built up energies flow out of your liver and down into the earth. Can you feel the lightness and relaxation? The liver is related to anger and aggression. The next time you find yourself becoming angry do this exercise and see if it doesn’t help to shed some of those feelings.
You can run chi into any of your organs exactly the same way. The infusion of energy will help cleanse your organs and release bound stresses and memories, so you may find yourself having some unexpected emotional releases as that energy has to go somewhere once it’s released.
Relaxing Stress Knots out of your muscles
Whenever you feel a stress knot building up in your muscles just draw energy directly into the knot on the inhale and let the stress flow down into the earth on your exhale. As an exercise in awareness you can take some time and just choose a body part at random and draw energy into it.
Improve your eyesight and hearing
I’ve personally experienced some radical healing in both my eyesight and hearing just by drawing more chi into my eyes and ears. At an age when my eyes should be getting worse I actually have gotten to the point where I only wear my glasses when I’m working on the computer or watching a movie.
Drawing energy from trees, rocks and plants
Sit with your back to a tree or better yet face it and wrap your arms around it. Relax and spend a few moments practicing feeling your own energy. Expand your awareness to the tree. Can you feel the rough bark against your skin and hear the rustle of wind in the leaves and branches. Can you smell it? Can you feel the energy from it? Create a circuit with the tree. As you inhale feel the energy from the tree flow into you. As you exhale let your energy flow into the tree. Let your friends who haven’t experienced this laugh at you for being a tree hugger. Experiment with this with other plants as well as rocks and crystals. Do they all feel the same? Can you tell the difference between tree species based on the feel of their energy? Can you differentiate between different crystals based on their energy? You could keep yourself occupied indefinitely in the backyard with this exercise.
Drawing energy is something that you can do at any time, any place. As you get better at drawing energy and more comfortable with it you’ll also be able to develop more control over your emotions and your physical responses by using variations on the exercises above. Don’t be afraid to play with this exercise and experiment with the healing energies as this is all about building up your personal catalog of feelings and experiences.
Learn Drawing Trees
If you desire to study how to sketch a tree, begin your drawing with a basic sketch consisting of branches, trunks (inside structure), and leaves (peripheral structure).
While sketching trees, the single most significant aspect is lighting. Study the direction of the light and quality of shadows in the tree you are drawing and initiate a balanced pattern while shading the leafy areas.
When illustrating, areas with shadow will be darker and will require heavier lines; partly shaded areas require a slightly lighter hand; and regions left white portray highlighted leaves.
Remember to use negative space (the sections between branches where there are no leaves) to assist highlight the leafy zones. Gradually deepen the shadowed areas and change shading to effect the impression of individual leaves and the lifelike quality of the tree.
By means of the flat side of a pencil to create broader strokes of different darkness is another technique used to create trees and leaves. This process results a less definite leaf design.
Emphasize areas by using an eraser to create areas of light. You may also select to use a haphazard scribble procedure, drawing squiggly lines of diverse thicknesses to construct a less defined tree.
Keep in mind that all of these techniques rely on using shadows and light to expose the idea of clusters of leaves. How to draw full woodland of trees
Sketching a complete woodland of trees is a little bit more complex, as you don’t want to draw each tree individually, but too much consistency will also be not good for the drawing.
The difficulty: We may distinguish trees of similar type as more or less matching but this is not the situation. While alike, they are all unique and should be viewed and drawn in a way that shows this.
Reading the direction and quality of the light and how it provides character to each tree is the number one point. Even in a crowded forest, single trees can be distinguished. This is the aspect that you must render into your drawing.
The easiest way to expose single trees is to apply texture. Consider that each assortment of trees has diverse kinds of leaves as well as assorted ways that the leaves fill the tree ( in clusters or in sets). As you pencil in, use diverse pencil strokes for each group of tree/leaf cluster to give it a distinct look.
Moreover, do not fail to keep in mind to take your light supply into consideration and shade appropriately. Think about the placement of the trees in your final landscape. Trees in the forefront should have more details than those in the middle or background as they can be detected more by the viewer.
These directions should guide you to draw trees – be it whole forests or particular trees.
Important: knowing these tips and techniques alone won’t help very much. Equally important is: regular practice! Get your pencils and paper, go out and begin to draw trees and landscapes. You’ll recognize: every picture, every drawing of a tree will bring you one step further. Soon you’ll be able to recognize and acknowledge the different forms of different trees. And your drawings will look great!
Want to have fun again and learn how to draw trees? Visit us, to find more articles and even a free ebook to learn to draw