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How to draw a lake monster How to draw a lake monster from Silly monsters ABC!

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Step 6. The finishing touches. My most favourite bit. Details, a bit of extra hatching and a splash of red. In this drawing the final finishing touch was to outline the shoe with a bolder line, using a ballpoint that has a bigger nib.

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Amongst all the other illustration work I do, I also co-run Dr Sketchy Sheffield and, so, being the sketching half of the team (my co-running partner is from the performance arts), I create the poster artwork. It's one of my favourite things to illustrate. Because it makes me feel closer to the poster artists, from days gone by, who's work I adore. I wish there were more call for poster artists. These days it's all done digitally so I like to buck that trend with purely illustrated posters (and I wouldn't have a clue how to do it digitally).

Now once we've set our theme for our Dr Sketchy event the idea for the poster image pretty much comes to me straight away. Sometimes without even having to think about it. Really, it's just there. I see it - the whole poster - fully formed. I then just need to put it onto paper.

Our next event (next Saturday, at the Greystones, Sheffield!) will be a celebration of dance. We have performers from different genres of dance modelling and, erm, dancing for us. We have a belly dancer, a breakdancer, a bhangra dancer amongst others. So, already I knew I had to get that info into the drawing. The first and original thought was of the kind of drawing in the image above. I think it's important to go with that initial idea if it has presented itself to you. I love those 'consequences' drawings. I've heard them called other things and somebody once told me that they were known as 'exquisite cadaver' drawings. I think that's such a great name, which conjures up all sorts of weird and wonderful images, so I'll be sticking with that.

I made a few exquisite cadaver sketches, like the one above, to try it out. To see if it worked. I'll be honest with you, I think the trial run above is still my favourite. I guess that's because it was the most spontaneous. Then when I'd got one that I felt would work as a poster image I sketched it out onto a 'proper' bit of paper. I always add the image first, leaving room for the text. Sometimes I will play around with where I want to place the image. I did with this one - I tried her on both sides of the page and central before settling on this composition.

For the text I always quickly research (Google) posters or fonts until I find something that fits. For example, I'll Google 'Bollywood poster fonts' or some such thing. This one was a combination of various fonts because of the variety of dance genres. When I find a font I like I loosely copy it. I don't measure out the letters, nothing technical happens, I just copy it by eye (is that even a saying? It looks odd now it's typed out). I don't want it to look exactly like the fonts I find. I want it to be my own version of them.

Anyway, that's a little (ish) explanation of how I create my posters. Now anyone want a poster illustration? I'm for hire. I'm always for hire.

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Over the last few years I’ve created a few posts on using or working with watercolor.  They each focus on something different but can all help you with creating watercolor illustrations. I’ve also added some of my favorite go to watercolor videos.

 How to Paint Glow

Is a quick watercolor tutorial showing how you can make an object look like it’s glowing. There is also info on creating glow using other mediums.

  4 Tips for Painting Dragons With Watercolor

This video shows how you can use watercolors to create fun dragon effects. It goes through some watercolor basics and then shows how to use them to paint a dragon.

  Watercolor Sketching With My Pocket Set

This watercolor tutorial shows how I use my pocket watercolor set and waterbrush to sketch with watercolors on the go.

  Creating A Ghost-y Illustration

This post doesn’t show painting  but it goes into detail about my planning process for getting an illustration ready to paint.

  How to use Colored Pencils With Watercolor

This tutorial along with the next one show things you can do on top of your watercolor. This demo shows one way you can use colored pencils on top of a watercolor painting.

  Try New Things: An Illustration Experiment

This post shows how I used photoshop to create a similar effect to the colored pencil technique I showed above.

  Line Quality in your Drawings

B for bonus. This post doesn’t actually talk about watercolors much but it does talk about line quality and show an example of how you can use ink line with watercolor

These next two youtube videos are from a show called Put Some Colour In  your Life. I watch them over and over and learn new stuff about watercolor every time.

The first is a demo by Joseph Zbukvic

 

This second is a demo by Alvaro Castagnet

Do you have any favorite go to watercolor youtube videos? Comment below and let me know what they are. I’d love to see them.

Learn how you can support the artist by clicking here. 

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Manelle Oliphant Illustration - Illustrator and Writer

My latest short story Midnight Ghost (it’s being released Oct 24th) required me to draw a glowing ghost. This is something you can struggle with if you don’t know the rules but once you do, drawing and painting glow is very easy.

It’s all about values

Values are the lightness or darkness of a color. I wrote a whole post about them so if you want to understand a little better check it out by clicking here. 

It’s impossible to get anything lighter than the paper or white paint you are using, so how to make something look like its lit up? The secret is in the contrast. If you want something to look like light you need to put dark around it. The contrast between light and dark is what makes it look like it’s glowing.

Here is the image I did of the Ghost in my new story. She needed to look like she was glowing so I added the dark area to the background and ta-daa! Glowing ghost. This image was all done with pencil. Since there is no color you can see the contrast in values easier, but it works with color too.

Here’s video of me doing the same thing with watercolor so you can see it in action.

Color can blind us. Sometimes we try to make something look like light by adding yellow, after all, the sun is yellow so it should work right? Nope. Next time approach the problem as something that needs to be lighter or darker rather than a different color. I bet you’ll be pleased with the results.

Have fun painting glow-y things!

The post How to Paint Glow appeared first on Manelle Oliphant Illustration.

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I’m thrilled to welcome Steve Barr today with an idea that will touch the hearts of many…

As a professional cartoonist and the author of 13 “How to Draw” books, I’ve spent my entire life trying to make other people laugh and smile. While this has been an extremely satisfying endeavor over the years, it’s not exactly a get-rich-quick scheme! My path along the way has had many ups and downs, triumphs and failures. But the rewards—those smiles on other people’s faces—have always made me feel like the roller-coaster ride we know as freelancing was worth it.

However, lately I’ve found myself longing to do something with a much more profound, longer-lasting impact. I’ve begun to feel drawn (no pun intended!) to begin working with pediatric patients and their families. Art activities, as well as music therapy, has been shown to substantially reduce stress in young children who are battling really difficult diseases. Drawing and painting has even been proven to have fairly long-lasting effects involving pain reduction.

Find that hard to believe? Check out the results of this study that was released by the National Institute of Health!

I can’t think of a better type of art therapy than teaching children to draw cartoons! It’s easy to do, entertaining and distracting. When kids are in the hospital, they have very little control over anything in their life. They’re expected to follow orders, and do whatever they are told. But when they’re drawing cartoons, there are NO RULES! Cartooning is one of the only art forms I know of where someone’s art is not expected to look exactly like someone else’s. Every successful cartoonist I know has a very distinct style that is easily recognizable as their own.

That’s why I’ll be teaching the children to experiment, to try different techniques, explore options and just have fun with their creations. Their drawings will begin with simple lines and shapes, and we’ll build on that to come up with characters that they can bring to life! The lessons are so easy to follow, I’ve had five year-olds grasp them immediately and amaze me with their natural talent.

Once the patients and their families feel comfortable with the cartoons they’ve drawn, they’ll be encouraged to experiment by making slight alterations to their creation to change them into other characters. That will let them have hours of fun on their own after I’ve left.

I want to provide these services completely free of charge to the hospitals, patients, their families and the art therapy groups that serve the facilities where they’re being treated. I’m dreaming of also sharing them with the surrounding communities and bringing more attention to the lingering benefits these classes will have.

But I can’t do this alone. I need help. I’ve begun researching grant opportunities and funding possibilities, but those can be very difficult for individuals to qualify for. With that in mind, I decided to set up a “Go Fund Me” page and seek funding from other people who would like to help me make this happen. If you’d like to take a peek at that campaign, here’s a link: http://www.gofundme.com/e9oahg

When children are hospitalized and fighting diseases like cancer, they often have a difficult time expressing how they are feeling. Art therapy can often help them open up and share their emotions. When they’re drawing cartoons, they can do that simply and easily with just a few shapes and lines. This can help both the medical staff and their therapists determine where the kids are in the process, and address any problems they’re having in dealing with their treatments.

I am hoping that this idea will continue to grow. If it really takes off, I would love to involve other cartoonists and illustrators in the effort. It has already become quite a time-consuming process, but I know the rewards will be fantastic.

If you’d like to help, but can’t contribute, please feel free to share the link with your friends: http://www.gofundme.com/e9oahg. Any exposure will be helpful, and together we can put smiles on lots of little faces and laughter in their hearts.

I honestly cannot think of a better way to spend the next few years of my life. And perhaps even longer than that!

Note: Please feel free to use the drawing lessons I’ve included in this blog if you are an Art Therapist, Child Life Specialist, Teacher or Nurse who works with children. Parents and guardians are also welcome to share the lessons with their kids. It’s not to be republished commercially without permission, but I’d be quite happy if it was shared personally with kids who would enjoy it.

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This is a little cartooning tutorial I wrote a few years back about creating an illustration using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. You’ll notice I begin my drawing in pencil, then move to illustrator for line work and finally Photoshop for color. Although the tutorial is a little old and the programs have advanced since then it’s still pretty useful and works just as well now as when I wrote it (assuming the you’re familiar with the basic functions of both programs). For more advanced students you may want to try adding actions to speed things up a bit.

If this tutorial is beyond your skill level take heart I’m working on a new series that will delve a little deeper focusing on individual tools, how they work and more importantly how to get them to work for you. Many of my first time students are tentative about using these programs to their full potential because they sometimes feel overwhelmed. My advice is always the same. Don’t let your inexperience dictate the scope of your project. Try things that are slightly out of reach and a little ABOVE your skill level. Step outside of your comfort zone and allow yourself to learn some of the tools you’ve been avoiding. If you get stuck don’t panic there are tons of resources available everywhere. The best places I’ve found for quick easy answers (in no particular order) are:

Using the help button built into the program
Posting a question on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn
YouTube
Google
Adobe website
Lynda.com (if you have an account)

On the other hand if you’re just not the adventurous type and you really want to learn the program once and for all consider taking a course. It will cut your learning time in half. There are few substitutes for having a knowledgable instructor to help you gain a clear understanding and get you through those areas you don’t understand.

Bob Ostrom is a children’s book illustrator and instructor of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop at Wake Tech Community College and the State Personnel Development Center in Raleigh NC.

The post Cartooning Tutorial – Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. appeared first on Illustration.

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Working on sketches for a new project. I like this stage of a project, when it is all still unknown.

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I just finished my latest video shoot and will have a bunch of new free videos coming out very soon. I can’t wait to share them with you. In the meantime here’s a little video tutorial I did a while back about drawing a dog. Have fun. When you are done with your drawing and would like to see it on the fan art page just send me a copy.

For this lesson you will need:

• Some paper
• A marker or a pencil
• Optional- markers, crayons, or paint to color in you dog.

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It takes restraint not to re-post everything Jillian writes on her blog over here. But take a moment to check out her advice on drawing animals in this post – “There is no formula to trick to drawing animals, or anything else for that matter. Only observation (ideally from life) and practice will give you a fundamental understanding of structure and form.”

Check Jillian’s illustration gallery here to see how uses animals in her illustrations regularly to evoke motion and emotion to great effect.

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Posted by Matt Forsythe on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: advice, animals, drawing tips, how to draw, How-To, Jillian Tamaki, tricks

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This was a video I shot last summer at Burning Oak Studios. I posted a link to it earlier but I don’t think I ever actually posted the video itself…. so in case you missed it here you go. Have fun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you draw along with me please email me a copy of your drawing so I can post it on my fan art page. Have fun happy cartooning.

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You’re probably thinking… Hey, what’s this guy know about hair, he has less hair then a naked mole rat . Well that may be true but you don’t have to have great hair to draw great hair. In this lesson I’ll show you some simple ways to make the hair on your cartoon really shine…. okay enough bad hair puns for one article. Here’s another free art lesson from Bob Ostrom Studio, Burning Oaks Studio and Jerry’s Artarama.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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