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HOW to DRAW & SHADE a SMILE with TEETH on a WHIMSICAL Italian Face in Copics (Whimsical Women #9)30/11/2020 Students often ask me how to draw a smile with teeth on a whimsical face! This totally cracks me up because drawing and shading teeth is actually super detailed! BUT, I aim to please, and love breaking things down so drawing feels EASY, so let's do this! Grab a sheet of card stock or a paper you love using for copic marker drawings, a pencil, and let's get ready for another Whimsical Women of the World drawing project!! As you can see in the art reference photo for today's portrait drawing tutorial, the model also has her head tilted at an angle, creating some interesting smile lines and skin folds in her face and neck. I did that on purpose! These are two other things people have been requesting in my Facebook group quite a bit - if we could work on drawing faces at different angles and how to draw wrinkles. Needless to say... week 8 of my Whimsical Women of the World series is JAM PACKED with learning opportunities!! It's not for the faint of heart though... and really not for beginners, so if you've landed here and want something easier- I've got you!! To start at the beginning of the series, CLICK HERE. If you're a total beginner and want to learn how to draw a whimsical face that's SUPER EASY, click here. Everybody else - especially if you are one of the lovely FB peeps who requested all these crazy things.... I love you, but YOU better be drawing WITH ME! You're not gonna learn a thing just by watching 😘 We are beginning this lesson just like we have for ALL of the Whimsical Women of the World drawing projects in my series! Sketch your face shape in, followed by your whimsical face drawing guidelines. Not sure what I'm talking about? It sounds like you need to download my FREE Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet to help you out! I printed and laminated this because drawing proportions of the face are SO important. They also really are the same no matter what ethnicity you are drawing. I've always got this drawing reference on my art table. Click the button below, and I'll send a copy straight to your email! If this angle of the model's head is driving you nuts, one of the easiest ways to get started with how to draw a face at an angle, like this one, is to actually tilt your paper sideways so it's sitting at the same angle as your art reference photo - just like if you were reading a map! Easy fix, right?! After your paper is tilted, go ahead and sketch in your face drawing guidelines. While I sketch in my main guidelines, I also rough in what I'm seeing in my art reference photo for the shape of the model's hair, and how it extends up and OVER the head, and does or doesn't touch the sides of the face and ears. If you've been drawing with me lately, you know we are definitely straying from my whimsical face drawing guidelines today with the huge smile on this model! Be sure to draw along with me so I can walk you through drawing facial features for this girl. I'm not gonna lie - she's a little tricky! If you feel like you want a copy of my art reference photo for this drawing project, or any of the whimsical women in this series, head on over to Awesome Art School and join my YouTube Collection and Cheatsheet Library. When you're ready to move on to sketching in her nose and eyes - these facial features are also quite different as a result of the model's smile. There are a lot of laugh lines around both her mouth and her eyes, so watch carefully as you're getting those roughed in. When you're drawing expressions like the one in today's art reference photo, you really have to pay attention to all the extra wrinkles, skin folds, and angles because these are what create the expression you're trying to replicate, so all these lines have to be in your drawing. Things get especially busy on the right hand side of her face with the folds in her neck - so this is another area to really watch me carefully on. Again, the entire drawing portion of this video is in real time so you can draw along with me, just like all of the videos in this series. I don't time lapse the project until it's time to shade because I know a lot of us are shading with a wide variety of art supplies. Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law, there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! When you are ready to start drawing the teeth in for this lovely model's smile, make sure you have a really great eraser by your side. If you need a new drawing eraser, I LOVE mine. It's called the Vanish Eraser. It, ever so lightly, removes my graphite from the page without ripping it. I also love it because sometimes I don't want to erase an entire line of graphite- I just want to pick up some of the graphite because of how I'm shading. This eraser is A-MAZ-ING at that! You can get one for about $2 in person at Jerry's Artarama. When you're drawing teeth, or anything detailed and small, it can also be helpful to also have a teeny eraser. I often use the eraser on the end of my blackwing pencils if I'm drawing with those (they have a refillable erasers!). I also love the tombow mono eraser. It's the bomb at getting into teeny corners, or removing bits of shading to create highlights in pencil drawings. It's also helpful to use a pencil with a very thin lead if you want to draw a smiling mouth with teeth. I love using mechanical pencils for stuff like this. My favorite is the Pentel Graph Gear Mechanical Pencil Set. For this project I'm using a 0.3 lead because these teeth lines need to be really light. Before we start drawing teeth in on this girl's smile, it's important to sketch in her gum line so we get the proportions correct, and know exactly where her teeth need to go. When you're ready, just go one by one, tooth by tooth- drawing what ya see until you're done. This part of today's tutorial takes about twenty minutes. When everything's penciled in, and your drawing guidelines are erased, it's time for the FUN PART!! Coloring!! I've been doing all of the #WhimsicalWomen in this series in my alcohol markers, but please feel free to use whatever art supply YOU love best! I've seen a ton of gorgeous girls flying around in my Facebook group in watercolor, colored pencil, straight up grayscale pencil - so use whatever supplies you have and love best! Regardless of what art supply you are using, be sure you swatch your colors so you have a game plan before diving in. I don't know how many times I have reached for a marker based on the cap, only to find it was totally NOT what I expected when I started to shade. Like I typically do with a lighter skinned art reference photo, I shaded from light to dark with my alcohol markers. As you can see in the above photo, I began by covering the entire face in my lightest skin tone marker. Little by little I took the shading one step darker wherever I saw shadows in my reference. As you can see in the photo below, the teeth are the white of my paper. In reality, that's not how we look - even if we have SUPER white teeth! Some of our teeth are behind others, or positioned further back in the mouth, so there are shadows all over the place. Before I begin shading her teeth, I work on the gums with some very light pinky/peach tones. Little by little, I added very pale shades of ivory, and even gray to replicate the shadows I am seeing in my art reference photo. I used a teeny, black copic multiliner to indicate the darkest areas of her smile, behind the teeth. To shade her hair, I used the same hair drawing technique from last week's episode for my Sweet Scandinavian. Simply drag your marker from root to tip for some of the strands. Wherever you'd like to indicate highlights, drag your marker from the root to a half-way point. Taper your pressure here, and leave some white space. Then pick your marker up and drag your marker up from the tip of that imaginary hair strand to the half-way point. Taper your pressure again, and deliberately leave some white space. This looks SO cool when you get additional layers of color added!! Definitely check out the video to see how this technique is done! As with the other lovely ladies in this copic marker drawings series, I added a layer of colored pencil on top to indicate texture, and to help soften the transition lines between marker shades as needed. I used my favorite pentel pocket brush for the eyelashes, and to do a little doodling throughout. I grabbed my white sharpie (a white posca pen works beautifully too here) to add in some highlights wherever I see them in my art reference photo. There's always some gorgeous eyeshine, a little sparkle on the lips, and I totally added some highlights to the teeth in the middle, front - where they were gleaming most in the model's smile! I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial and learned a TON!!! I know I sure did (even though I whined!! LOL!!) NOW YOU KNOW why I tend to always draw my whimsical faces with a closed lip smile!! Haha!! Because I just wanna have fun... and I actually also really love doing drawing projects and mixed media projects that don't take a long time to complete ;) Stay with me till the end of the video because I give you a sneak peek at my baby girl, Maggie dog!! Thanks for watching!! Have so much fun with this lesson! I can't wait to see your work!!
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How to DRAW & SHADE Bangs on a WHIMSICAL Scandinavian Face with Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #7)23/11/2020 I haven't covered how to draw bangs on a whimsical face yet in this series, so today's the day! Scandinavian is my best guess at her ethnicity for now, but most importantly- she is giving us a reason to add a bangs drawing to our international mix of beauties. Whether you are intimidated with how to draw hair, or love drawing hair- today's drawing tutorial is FOR YOU! Grab a sheet of card stock or a paper you love using for copic marker art, a pencil, and let's sketch in our face drawing guidelines together! Isn't our model for today gorgeous? They all have been, haven't they?! We start this beauty out the same way we start every face - with some loose ovals to draw the head shape, followed by our whimsical face drawing guidelines. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you HAVE to download my FREE Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet to help you out! I printed and laminated this because drawing proportions of the face are SO important. They also really are the same no matter what ethnicity you are drawing. It's a reference I've ALWAYS got on my art table. Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your email! This is such a great project because it can show us the VOLUME hair can have. Every hairstyle goes UP and OVER the top of the head. At this stage, I'm just roughing in the shapes I see with the bangs and the waves hanging down. As I sketch in the lines I'm seeing from the hair along the sides of her face, I make the face a bit more narrow as I go. When I get to the eyes and start fine tuning those, I notice her tear ducts are "barely there." Typically I see a long, lean tear duct, so this is an interesting difference. There's something new about every single face we have been drawing in this series! Another unusual observation about the angle of this photo is our model barely has any nostrils showing. She also has a nose ring though - which I kinda love! Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! At this point I start erasing all my crazy guidelines with my favorite vanish eraser (because it NEVER eats up my paper). As I was erasing, I decided I wasn't happy with the position of her left eye, so I just started over there. Easy fix, right? NOT today!! So many of my students ask me how to draw the other eye after the first one has already been drawn. It's actually really hard to make them match when you draw them one at a time. I have SUCH an easier time teaching how to draw symmetrical eyes when I build them up at the same time! Oh well! It's good for you to SEE ME STRUGGLE because it shows you just how you can troubleshoot your way out of a pickle too, if you find yourself in one!! I'm a student myself, EVERY TIME I do one of these new drawings from scratch, and I honestly do learn something new each time I draw! HOT TIP: Because this particular model is so fair- you need to really go easy on the graphite while you're sketching because you can smear the graphite with your markers when you start shading. If you got a little heavy handed with your pencil and have darker lines at this point- the easy fix is to just work your eraser over your drawing lines lightly to pick some of that graphite up, without losing your lines completely. See below... The model in our art reference photo is wearing a turtleneck sweater, so I sketch that in as well, and drop my circle template in place to give me a hand with the irises. I add just a few more waves in for the outer shapes of her hair so I've got a little more to work with before I start coloring with my copic markers. Just as I've talked about in each of our Whimsical Women of the World drawing projects, it's SUPER important to have a game plan with your colors so you know where you're going when you start to shade. As you can see, I was scribbling some possibilities off to the side earlier! Remember, I don't care at ALL about what art supplies you use to do this project! I just hope you do it and have fun with the process. Use your watercolors, colored pencils- whatever you have! DO NOT feel the need to run out and try to collect the stash I've got. I don't care what art supplies you have. All I care about is what you can DO with your art supplies! Regardless of what art supply you're using, you want to step up your skin tones one shade at a time. Typically when I'm shading a Caucasian girl, I start my layering from the lightest shade and work my way darker. With other ethnicities that have darker skin, I often start dark and work my way lighter. I've discovered a great way for blending copic markers is to use the lightest shade (or even one shade lighter than your lightest skin tone) to shade in the opposite stroke direction from what you used initially. You can also use the "colorless blender" to achieve the same effect. When it's time to layering in the next shade of hair color, (I'm using the shade I used on the eyebrows), and just add half strokes from the root down, and also from the tip up. Leaving that "white space" exposed in the middle will give you a super cool highlighted look when we're done. This is one of my FAVORITE hair drawing techniques. If you haven't tried this before- you should! I think you'll love it. Be sure to watch the video so you see this technique in motion! Here's another closeup view of that hair drawing technique... As you'll see me demo in today's copic markers tutorial, I tend to use a sweeping motion while I shade because the brush nib on a copic marker really feel a LOT like a paintbrush. This is one of the big reasons I've invested in so many gorgeous shades of these alcohol markers! I couldn't afford copics for YEARS, so do not feel bad if these are out of your price range. There are a ton of copic marker alternatives out there that cost MUCH less. I love the skin tone markers set by Ohuhu. Those are great to try (and the 24 pack is MORE than enough!). I also have a lot of Spectrum Noir markers, and have tried ParKoo (these are totally the cheapest and really pretty juicy!!) No matter how you mix and match your alcohol markers - they will ALL play nicely together. You can mix your cheapies with a couple of expensive ones if you want. Just pick your poison and draw!! And MOST importantly...have FUN while you're doing it!! While you're working on the sweater for today's chick, just make sure you're paying attention to the directionality of the lines in the ribbing of her fabric. I added some white highlights and a few marks in blue colored pencil after I finished this section to provide a bit more depth. Colored pencil is a great way to add texture when you're shading with alcohol markers. I switch over to my pentel pocket brush to work on her eyelashes and dramatic eye makeup. I'm also an outliner- I LOVE the look of black outlines throughout to unify a piece. I used my thin, copic multiliner to add a few lines to the more delicate areas of her face in the lips, nose, and eyes. Then of course I have to pull out my white sharpie and white posca paint pens to add some beautiful highlights - like the eyeshine, and glossy lower lip. I used the same technique for her nose ring stud. You'll notice as I deepen the shading on her face, I never go to new areas in her face. I just rework tinier subsections of the areas that have already been shaded. I added a little more depth to her neck and back sections of her hair with one of my darker gray copics. I liked where this was going and continued adding a few shadow lines around the outer edges of her face and bangs. And after a few finishing touches with the pentel pocket brush and my white sharpie... She's done! I hope you love doing this as much as I did! PLEASE remember to post your work on social with the hashtag #WhimsicalWomen and remember I'm taking submissions for my upcoming book if you'd like to enter your interpretation of any of the Whimsical Women from my portrait drawing series, just head over to GET PUBLISHED, read through the submission requirements and go! Did you grab your whimsical face drawing guidelines cheatsheet? Here's that link again in case you need it to get started on today's free drawing lesson... Thanks for watching! I'll see ya back here next week!! Mixed media collage backgrounds with tissue paper are EASY to create and can add gorgeous texture to your mixed media art journal. Today’s video is a 45 minute, FULL LENGTH mixed media project, so if you love collage mixed media art & mixed media tutorials - this is for YOU! I know what you’re thinking about collaging art journal backgrounds with tissue paper ... those WRINKLES, those BUBBLES, or worse yet - the rips!! Don’t worry - I've got collage techniques that will make your thin tissue paper BEHAVE so the texture of your collage background can PEEK through your mixed media portrait, without taking over your whole art journal page! To get some inspiration flowing for this project, I flipped back through one of my favorite art journals of all time. I discovered every single page had started with collage! I don't think I even knew that before!! For me, collage is something I naturally gravitate to - to start a project. It's like a mindless art warmup. It sets the color scheme for my project, gives me a second to breathe and takes me to my creative happy place!! Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! Like I often do, today, I'm working in my Strathmore Watercolor Journal because every single page of this sucker can really take a beating! This is my 4th one THIS YEAR!! I use them for drawing, watercolor, ink, juicy mixed media layering- this paper can take ALL of it. I found this little scrap pack pictured above, and decided to use these cute little tissue paper squares to get going on today's art journal page background. Shockingly, I chose to line them up a bit methodically. If you've been hanging out with me for a while, you know this is SO NOT ME, and I can see you laughing right now at how much this challenges me! When I do collage - no matter what material I'm working with- I spread out my pieces fairly evenly and "take turns" alternating colors and patterns, to spread the love! Tissue paper is REALLY porous, so it's fantastic for collage because the adhesive really soaks in. I'm using matte medium for my adhesive- for SO many reasons. I know I can sound like a broken record here - but it's so awesome for mixed media collage -especially if you plan to paint with acrylics on top, or even think you might go that route. If you're a mod podge fan (like me!), don't worry - I have plenty of times I reach for that as well, just not usually for my first layer. If you haven't seen my video about how to know when to use Mod Podge vs Matte Medium - it's super helpful! Now...onto today's mixed media background with tissue paper! If you've done tissue paper collage and had any issues in the past, I HEAR YOU! It's super easy to get not only WRINKLES, but bubbles. You definitely don't want bubbles because those can pop and leave a hole in your piece. If you've experienced tissue paper ripping in the past while you're collaging art backgrounds in your art journals or on mixed media canvases - I've got some tricks up my sleeve for YOU! My BIGGEST SECRET is actually so simple... Use a TON of adhesive. That's it! Seriously!! I've got so many students and artsty friends who use their products sparingly. This is one you DON'T want to be precious with ;) If you want to make an AWESOME mixed media collage background (and that's what we want, or why are we doing this?!), you need to use a TON of product. In this case- matte medium- both under AND over your collage chunks! If you're new to mixed media - you'll soon find out, it's equally as much about creative problem solving as it is about planning and execution. I'm ALWAYS running into issue I need to solve, and today is no exception. Take a look at this.... I know the pic is a little fuzzy, but you can TOTALLY see there are fibers from my tissue paper scraps hanging off the edge of my foam brush. EWWWW! I had NO idea that was gonna happen. But I was already in it to win it. I kept going and tried to use this time to think about how I could intentionally work WITH the fibers or bury them! I know things always have a way of working out, so didn't stress. When these happen to you (AND THEY WILL!) just keep your confidence up, learn to pivot, and go with the flow! A solution will present itself to you. While I was thinking about these crazy tissue paper fibers, I started thinking about the other types of tissue paper I could've used including my favorite Tim Holtz collage tissue paper. Suddenly, I had a solution. I tried a few different sheets of tissue paper from my Tim Holtz stash and ended up using my absolute favorite style that I have from him with the music notes and butterflies. I actually like to glue this down as one whole sheet. There is a little bit of an art to this- so be sure you watch the video if this is something you want to try with your own tissue paper art. My secret? The same as before. Use MORE matte medium. Underneath AND on top. In this case - more is better! Seriously... check out how much matte medium I'm glopping onto my art journal page right now for my BOTTOM layer! You want it to be SOAKING wet. If you're getting wrinkles, and bubble especially - you're not using enough product. It's kind of like wallpaper. Once you work your sheet down, it's time for a massage. Work out the bubbles that appear from your bottom layer of matte medium, and become one with your art piece for a few minutes! Use your fingers to spread out each bubble - and work your way across the page until they're gone. I put SO much adhesive down that while I'm massaging my bubbles down, the glue is rising up through my paper. That's a good thing! You have a little window of time to do the smoothing out. Once it's drying - you just can't move it anymore. It will rip. I had a student ask me the other day how long she needs to wait for her matte medium to dry before moving on to the next layer. My answer to that is - I never wait!! LOL. I just grab my hair dryer and let it blow until my collage feels dry when I touch it. I use a hair dryer instead of a heat gun because I feel like the air flow makes the drying process go faster. Sometimes heat from a heat gun can be too intense, and can even be damaging to certain products. So for me - I'm all about the hair dryer- it's fast, safe, and effective. I decided to use my face template that I made ages ago to draw a face over my fun new background! The easiest way to use the template is to grab a sheet of graphite transfer paper, lay it dark side down, and put the face on top. Then just trace over my lines of the face I drew for you with your pencil. The drawing will show up on your collage background. Awesome right?! If you're new to drawing or don't love drawing faces, but want to try playing around with one in your own art journal? Please feel free to download my face shape template! I decided to lay down a little gesso in the face shape area before doing the full transfer of the facial features in my template because I had a lot going on in my collage and it was too hard to see my transfer lines. I love using gesso INSTEAD of white acrylic paint for something like this because there is a level of transparency with gesso, and I will still be able to see the collage peeking through the face I create. Once my gesso was dry, I grabbed my all time favorite -stabilo all pencil and started drawing! If you're new to using a stabilo - be forewarned that these are SUPER reactive! I love that effect, but it tends to freak out many of my students. It WILL react to water, gesso, matte medium, mod podge, paint- whatever you throw at it. Since I'm using matte medium to activate today- it actually "freezes" whatever I do here in place. I drew in a quick bun and drug a little matte medium through this area, then worked some of the leftover gray on my paintbrush into the face as shading. I thought about leaving her black and white, but decided to smudge some gelatos in to add a bit of color. Remember each time you add a color - you want to repeat it somewhere. You should also always look to the colors in your background for inspiration. These become your color palette. Each time you repeat your background colors- you unify your piece. Take a look at how she pops when I add a touch of blue to her eyes... After I sealed this layer with more matte medium, I pulled out my pentel pocket brush to doodle some details like eyelashes, etc. Then I decided her lips needed to be redder, so pulled out some acrylics. I loved the way that looked so kept going - adding a touch of blue to her eyes, and a bit of yellow to the butterfly at her neck. Cute, right?! I hope you enjoyed today's tutorial!! I sure did!! Super easy, and a FUN, artistic release!! See ya on Monday for the next Whimsical Women of the World drawing tutorial over on my Drawing Channel!! How to DRAW & SHADE a WHIMSICAL Middle Eastern Face with Hijab in Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #6)14/11/2020 I love teaching how to draw a whimsical face, and am having an absolute blast with the portrait drawing tutorials in my Whimsical Women of the World series! Today's art reference photo is of a GORGEOUS Middle Eastern woman wearing a hijab. My reference photo for this project didn't have any information attached to her, so unfortunately, I don't know the model's actual ethnicity. I'm guessing she is from somewhere in the Middle East, or at least has roots there. I called a friend of mine who has helped Syrian refugees for years to see if she could provide a little insight. She thought possibly Syrian or Turkish? At the moment, that is our best guess. If YOU have any opinions to share here, I need your help on this one! I'm super curious and would love to identify her background. I'd also love for YOU to draw along with me, so grab a sheet of cardstock or whatever your favorite paper is for doing alcohol marker art / copic marker art, and let's sketch in our face drawing guidelines. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you HAVE to download my FREE Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet to help you out! I printed and laminated this for myself because drawing proportions of the face are so important. They also really are the same no matter what ethnicity you are drawing. It's a reference I've ALWAYS got on my art table. Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your email ;) Ok back to our gorgeous girl for THIS week!! She has stunning cheekbones so I really study my art reference photo to try and capture them! As I sketch in the placeholders for drawing facial features later - I also rough in the shapes I'm seeing close to her face that are formed by her headscarf. Slowly, I begin to darken the facial features as I gain a bit more confidence in their placement. If you're struggling with this - make sure you click over to the video so I can demonstrate for you step by step!! If the idea of how to draw a hijab, how to draw a headscarf, or how to draw fabric folds stresses you out, I HEAR YOU!! I was totally intimidated at first, but like anything - you just gotta dive in. Honestly, it ended up being a LOT like drawing hair! Drawing a hijab may EVEN be easier!! Now let's get our copic markers out to start shading!! Remember, if you don't have copics, any alcohol markers will do! I know copics are super expensive, so I'm constantly looking for alternatives for my students to try. Over the weekend I posted in my Facebook Group about the skin tone pack from Ohuhu. These are actually SUPER juicy and totally worth a try at around $1/marker. Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links, but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! If you're in the market for new skin tone markers, or just love trying new art supplies, click here to grab some on Amazon. I totally think the 24 pack is sufficient for ANY face drawing project you have in mind!! If you're new to me - you'll soon find out I'm a HUGE FAN of using WHATEVER you have on hand for any and all art projects! For me - art is just about creating and having fun!! You can do both with ANYTHING you already have. As a teacher, students are always asking me my advice on art supplies, so I'm constantly testing things out. This way you don't have to buy all the things! I'll tell ya what's worth trying whenever I find something good. That way, I can help you save a little of your money so you can spend it on the supplies YOU LOVE!! There are two ways to shade a face with copic markers. Either start with the lightest shade and work dark, or start dark and work light. I find it's a bit less scary to start light and work dark. It feels WAY less intimidating! I do my best to "map out" the shadows on her face as we go. As you can see- I'm incorporating gray and even using some purple grays to get my shadows in. This helps to tone down all the peach and pinky "heat" from the warmer skin tones. It evens it all out and makes her look a little more neutral. Right now you're probably thinking EWWW!!! LOL. We've just entered what I lovingly refer to as "The Ugly Phase." Unfortunately, we're stuck in the "ugly phase" for quite a long time when we're working with alcohol markers because we do a lot of layering! When you hit this phase, you've just gotta embrace it! Acknowledge it and KEEP GOING! Every time I introduce a new color in my shading, I try to pop a little of that color throughout the entire piece. I've found this helps me to unify each piece of art and really stick to a color scheme. This week I tried a new technique for shading eyebrows. First I used a skin tone color, then I drew individual hairs in a darker brown. I like the way it turned out! This might be a fun technique for you to try, too. She's starting to look a little more human, isn't she? LOL. We're slowly working our way out of the ugly phase! After I've got some good layering going on with my alcohol markers, it's time to pull the transitions together with my colored pencils. I find this helps A TON with copic marker blending and really minimizes the streaks that are bound to happen. There's a lot of magic that happens when the colored pencils come out!! As you'll see in today's whimsical portrait drawing tutorial, I alternate quite a bit between my copics and my colored pencils. Go ahead and keep doing this until you get what you're looking for in terms of skin tones and blending. Next, I pull out my "secret weapon" for drawing eyelashes! I am obsessed with my pentel pocket brush and use it for drawing eyelashes on all of my girls- no matter what medium I'm doing. If you struggle with how to draw eyelashes, you have to check out this video, because I did a whole tutorial on it. I've also got a cheatsheet for that!! This is another awesome reference to keep on your art table. As you'll see - directionality of your lines are SUPER important when it comes to eyelash drawing. Now she's coming alive, right?! As soon as those pupils get popped in, and the eyelashes are added - she really starts looking human AND beautiful, doesn't she?! It's only gonna get better from here! Now it's time for the eyeshine...one of my favorite parts!! I add the eyeshine wherever I see it in my reference photo. I either use a white sharpie or my white posca pen for this. Wherever you add the eyeshine to the first eye, add the same style mark to the second eye, so both eyes match. Then I continue with my white paint pen highlights -adding a little to her nose and to her lips. My reference photo for today has a TON of gorgeous shine on her lower lip. Excited to get that in! Always take a step back and look at your work from a distance. What do you see? What can be improved? I decide to add a few more shadows to the outer corners of her forehead - right near where the edges of her hijab are resting. Remember, when you want to add more drama to your shading, always darken a small subsection of an area you've already shaded. Watch the video to see exactly what I mean! I could seriously keep layering over her gorgeous face ALL DAY!! But I'm sure you're ready to move on... Just a quick reminder - there is a WHOLE BOOK coming out of this fun Whimsical Women of the World portrait drawing series!! I'd love to feature YOUR interpretation of these drawing projects in my book! Simply hop over to GET PUBLISHED, read through the submission requirements, and send in a photo of your work. I can't wait to see!! Now, onto shading her headscarf... I started out by coloring the entire hijab in one shade of green. I'm using copics here, and my shade is called Acid Green. GORGEOUS!!! If you move quickly with your alcohol marker shading, it helps to reduce the streaking. Next, I begin layering some shadows with a darker shade called Moss. I simply study my art reference photo and try to replicate exactly what I see. My second shadow layer is in a dark gray, Copic N7. This is to hit the darkest areas of depth, and the underside areas of her scarf. As you'll notice, these darkest shadows all occur along the edges of the face. SOOO pretty!!! Hijab drawing is really similar to drawing hair, and could even be a little easier! With hair, the strands closest to the face are darkest. I'm seeing the same pattern happening in the folds of fabric closest to her face. These are the darkest darks. Once they are shaded, they REALLY make her face pop forward. I finished up my hijab girl drawing by adding a few more details with my pentel pocket brush (what I used for drawing her eyelashes!), and she's done! I hope you enjoy today's FREE 30 minute portrait drawing tutorial, Whimsical Women of the World #6. Thanks for watching!! See ya Friday. I LOVE creating mixed media collage backgrounds using vintage book pages! They're EASY to create, and SUPER CHEAP because you can upcycle old books from your local thrift shop for next to nothing. Today’s video is another FULL LENGTH project, so if you love collage mixed media art & mixed media tutorials - this is for YOU! What inspires you with creative ideas for your art projects? I'm often inspired by objects in my environment! Today's project all got started with a glance at my 1950s record player that hangs out in the corner next to my studio. See it there to the right over my shoulder? Before we continue, super quick announcement: All product links are Affiliate. I may earn a small commission if you choose to order through these links but by law there is never any additional cost to the consumer for doing so. I thank you for your support! From the record player, my thoughts wandered to my collection of vintage books reserved for collaging mixed media backgrounds! I totally LOVE thrift store shopping and digging around in used book stores in search of vintage dictionaries, old ledgers, magazines, books of sheet music, and books written in different languages! I find these pages look AMAZING in the background of my mixed media art - just peeking through whatever I paint or draw on top!! When you're looking through this stuff for your own collage art - just bring home the ones that have pages with a super matte finish. These are the BEST for collage. The pages in these old books are super fragile and easy to rip. They're also really porous, which means they're gonna soak up whatever adhesive you want to throw at them! Some people might be horrified by me tearing up old book pages, but I don't feel bad because I'm breathing NEW LIFE into them by collaging art backgrounds! Plus, I only upcycle books and magazines that are in really bad shape- without a cover, with missing pages- stuff that is mostly garbage to other people. Your supplies for today's mixed media project are all pictured above. I'm working on wood canvas because I LOVE a hard surface when I'm doing collage art. A regular canvas has some "spring" to it, and that's not what I need here - I need a stable, sturdy surface that I don't have to be precious with. I've also got my liquitex matte medium, my distress stains, stamps, a vintage magazine to upcycle as my collage paper, and my How to Draw Art Deco Style books out because I need a little more inspiration and direction regarding where I want this project to go! I'm feeling the need for something sparkly, but don't know what it is yet, so plan to flip through the section on sketching jewelry. Before I do that, I rip some chunks out of my vintage magazine. I feel like the sections with images are going to be too distracting, so steer clear of those parts. I also love using the CORNERS of these pages because then I have some nice hard lines to line up along the edges of my wood canvas. Make sure you're using tons of matte medium under and on top of the chunks you're gluing down. If you don't use an "uncomfortable amount of product," this is how bubbles and wrinkles appear in your collage. Sometimes that effect is fun, and it's a personal preference too. Some people love that look, others don't. Using lots of adhesive under and over the collage paper is just one of MY TRICKS to keep the background as smooth and wrinkle free as possible while still showing a bit of texture. Wondering WHY I'm using matte medium instead of mod podge? TONS of students ask me this all the time, so if you're new to me be sure to check this reference out!! If I don't have a clear plan as to where a project is going (which I totally don't right now!!), I reach for matte medium as my adhesive because it's strong and specifically formulated to work with acrylic paint. Since I often paint with acrylics over my collage backgrounds, matte medium is my go to. As I continue getting my collage layer together, I begin thinking I might like doing some painting with fountain pen inks on top. Since these perform much like watercolor, I decide to pull out my absorbent ground to add a thin coat of this in the center of my collage. Absorbent ground preps any surface that isn't watercolor paper to accept watercolor or fountain pen inks. It's SO magical!! If you're not in the mood for watercolor or inks [SPOILER - OR if you watched the video already and saw I didn't actually end up using watercolor OR inks!!] - skip the absorbent ground and grab your gesso instead. All we want to do is add a thin layer of white to the center of our collage so we kick all those words into the background. We still want to be able to see them, so if you're following along, keep your layer transparent. You just want to be able to work ON TOP of the words and bring whatever becomes your subject into the foreground. Once I'm finished adding a thin layer of absorbent ground to my wood canvas, I use my hair dryer to get the area completely dry. Next, I move on to the stamp portion of the project because I'm in the mood to add a quote!! While I'm thinking about sparkle, I suddenly get the idea to add ACTUAL BLING to my project, and feel as if I'm 5 years old again. LOL! I taught kids FOREVER and have a TON of leftover supplies like these craft gems, pictured below. Some of them have adhesive backs. The big ones need a glue gun. I have THE BEST TIME sifting through the gems and working out a color scheme in my mind. In no time, I'm on a roll, and moving on... By the way, if you haven't thought of this already, this is THE PERFECT ART PROJECT to do with a daughter or GRANDDAUGHTER!! Can't you just see her eyes lighting up as she hunts for the perfect gem for her canvas?! I LOVE IT!! After I stamp out the bulk of my text, I play around positioning my main gem, then start drawing in a winding chain so it looks like the necklace is casually lying on my wood canvas. Then I pencil in the main word from my quote... SPARKLE, and add even more tiny craft gems along my chain for added interest. You can use whatever you want to add detail in the chain and to the words of your quote. Paint pens and pitt pens would be great! I end up falling in love with the look of a gold paint pen and keep that up throughout my piece for chain detail and to highlight the main word of my quote. How CUTE is that?! I used my distress ink stamp pads along the edges and borders to give the piece a bit more of a vintage-y feel and think it adds a fun frame. My finishing touch is to run my blending stump under the chain line of the necklace to give it a little shadow and depth. So love it, and so know exactly who I'm giving this to!! I hope you have as much fun doing this project as I did!! Be sure to share your work in our Facebook Group. I'd LOVE to see what you created!! Thanks for watching!! See ya next week!!!
Last updated 5/31/24
Let's kick this week off with another fun FREE art lesson!!
In today's video, I'm going to teach you how to draw dreadlocks on a whimsical African American face, using copic markers and colored pencil. If drawing dreads or copic marker blending have been tricky for you in the past, today's face drawing tutorial is for YOU! As you can see, today's beauty has lots of exciting challenges in store for our face drawing practice from how to draw dreads to shading with a variety of skin tone markers. If you're not sure how to blend copic markers - you're in luck, because I demo 3 different ideas to help you conquer the streaks that are SUPER common with copics / alcohol markers! If you've struggled with how to draw curly hair, or if you're feeling intimidated by drawing dreads, don't worry- I was too at first, but it didn't take me long to come up with an EASY drawing / shading technique I liked. I can't wait to show it to you!! Ok!! Go grab some art supplies and meet me back here for the tutorial.
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I'm working on hammermill cover cardstock because I've found it to be the best value at 4-8 cents per sheet when I get a box of 250 sheets on Amazon. The paper is perfect for working with alcohol markers!
To get this project going, I'm sketching in my whimsical face drawing guidelines, just like I always do. Remember to NEVER skip this part because it makes such a difference when you're trying to get drawing proportions of the face right! While I sketch in some placeholders for the facial features, I also block in the main shapes I'm seeing in my art reference photo for this model's hair. Hair is a HUGE part of our lesson today ;) The model in our reference photo today has gorgeous, HUGE eyes. If you're just learning how to draw faces, and struggle with getting your eyes to match - especially after you've got one you like and then don't know how to draw the other eye... I've got you!! Here's my trick: If you "build" your eyes up at the same time while you're drawing, this can really help to make them even. I start with the tear duct lines and for whatever reason pencil that in on the right side, then do the same on the left. Then I go back to the right to draw in another line and do the same to the left side, until I've got two eyes staring back at me ready for more detail! Not bad right? They're not a perfect match, but they're close enough for me because I'm just having fun, keeping things light and into teaching you how to draw and shade a WHIMSICAL face! Once you've got your features all sketched in, go ahead and start erasing all of the guidelines. If you need a new eraser, or have been looking for one that does a super job but doesn't kill your paper, I LOVE my vanish eraser. I have NO SHAME in using a circle template to draw in the irises and pupils, and neither should you!! Make something a little easier on yourself. We're just having fun :) Isn't she looking pretty already?! I LOVE her cat eye makeup and feel like it just needs to be penciled in asap! I usually do this near the end, but I just can't wait :) Once all your guidelines are erased, it's time to swatch your skin tone colors and start shading. I know you may feel tempted to skip this step, but don't! It's super important and will save you! I don't know how many times I've reached for a marker or paint tube based on the cap / packaging - only to find out it looks COMPLETELY different on paper! So do yourself a favor and take the time to make yourself a little cheatsheet of the colors you have on hand for whatever supply you're using! Mine totally isn't fancy and was super quick to do, as you can see in the bottom left.
Selecting skin tone markers can feel really overwhelming. If you feel like you need help picking out alcohol marker combinations for skin tones, I created a book to help you called Skin Tone Secrets. It's available on Amazons worldwide and gives you MY FAVORITE three marker shades (using Ohuhu skin tone markers) in a light, medium, and dark for each ethnicity.
Ok! Back to today's cutie... I started with my lightest skin tone today and used that almost everywhere, then slowly started building up my layers going through a variety of colors to catch the medium and eventually darkest of darks that I was seeing in my art reference photo. Now!! If you have been following this series at all- you know I've been specifically calling out "the ugly phase" every single time it kicks in for me because you HAVE to know how common this is!! If you look at the pic above- my girl IS IN IT big time!! The ugly phase starts to kick in when you are about HALF way done. And while it can feel frustrating because she looks SO unfinished and it may feel like you're never gonna pull it all together, you have to be patient. KEEP GOING. If you give up on your art when you hit this phase, the ugly phase will "win." Just IGNORE it and keep chuggin' full steam ahead!! If blending your marker streaks is bugging you at this point in your project - remember you can totally use colored pencils on top at the end to help you out. This is going to get better as well - just keep layering. Watch the video and do what I do. Pause as much as you like!
Not sure how to blend copic markers?
When it's time to blend, I choose to work with one shade lighter than the lightest color I've used. Using this lighter marker, I'll lay down both a horizontal and vertical layer to "erase" the streaky marks in the transitional areas. If it's still not blending the way I want it to, I'll take the lightest shade marker I used, or go a shade up to a medium color to cover the entire face, both horizontally and vertically. For this particular project, I decided to try something new and incorporated one of my favorite products I love for my mixed media portraits when I'm blending the shading and skin tones- my faber castell gelatos! Even thought these are considered a "craft" product, I LOVE what they do in terms of blending. They're SUPER buttery and honestly did the job quicker and better than my colored pencils for larger face areas. They're super simple to blend with your finger and leave a smooth effect. Check out the upper right corner of the pic below... You'll notice I also worked some light gray (alcohol marker) into the whites of my girl's eyes, and used a pale peach colored pencil on top of her eyelids to drop in some highlights. Looking good!!! Remember to always take a step back to hold your drawing from a distance. Your eye will typically see something you want to adjust, and you'll probably also be more than a little amazed at what YOU have just accomplished!! I feel like my girl's left eyebrow needs a little love, so I quick take care of that, then move on to some white highlights - like the eyeshine (which I think TOTALLY makes my girls "come alive!"). I also add a few taps to her lips and the white highlight down the center of her nose. Now it's time for HAIR, but I have no idea how to draw dreadlocks!! LOL. Not a problem! We've got this!! I decided to get my pencil back out to sketch in the shapes I'm seeing in my reference photo. While I was sketching, I decided to try diving in with my marker using a circular movement, and I ended up LOVING the effect! It gave me just what I was hoping for. Be sure you watch the video to see how this goes! To give the appearance of texture, I experimenting with using a lighter colored pencil and did squiggly circles on top. This is what it looks like up close... When I pull the camera back, I kinda love the effect and feel like this technique for drawing dreads really helps to indicate the texture I see in the model's hair from my reference photo. Not bad, right?! If you're not sure how to draw dreads, be sure to watch the video because I'm really happy with the simple technique I made up. I switched up my markers a bit as well and incorporated some black to indicate depth, as you can see below... I can't wait to see how you do with this week's project!! Please share your work with us in the Facebook Group with the hashtag #karensyoutube for a chance to win one of my monthly giveaways that take place on the first of every month :)
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Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 19 Instructional Art Books! Whose work has appeared in...Archives
September 2024
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"Karen is flipping hilarious and she's very real...I like the way she teaches in a way that really gives you confidence, whether you're a beginner or advanced there's always something new to learn!"
- Elizabeth W. |
What Fans Are SayingKaren, you are absolutely fabulous! You make me feel like I can draw anything. I have recently retired and finally have the time to do some of the art that I have loved since I was in school. I am really at the beginning of my art journey and I hope to learn as much as I can. Thank you for all you do. |
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