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Wanna practice drawing necks realistically in JUST 5 minutes?! LET'S DO IT!! In today's step by step drawing lesson, we're going to be drawing 5 female necks in real time, directly onto my FREE drawing worksheets. If you need help with how to draw necks, have always wanted to learn how to draw a face, are struggling with how to work drawing practice into your daily life, or need to add MORE FUN into your art practice, THIS SERIES IS FOR YOU!!
I'd love for you to draw right along with me! Simply click the button below to grab my FREE 5 in 5 Facial Features Drawing Packet, and I'll send it straight to your email inbox.
Today's video is a follow up to a facial features drawing series I did a couple of months ago because I'm getting a lot of requests for how to draw necks and eyebrows!
If you're just discovering this series on how to draw facial features, the whole point of this thing, is just to get us practicing our drawing skills. We're not making it our "life's work," it's just a little drawing exercise, and we're only going to spend about 5 minutes working with each neck drawing reference photo, then we're moving on.
You'll see a stop watch going in the bottom of my screen. It's not here to stress you out. It's just to remind ME not to spend more than 5 minutes with any one reference image. 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 we're working on these drawing worksheets, there are three things I encourage you to focus on one at a time, when looking at each neck drawing reference image:
1. Shape 2. Value 3. Details For my supplies today- I'm just using my favorite Blackwing pencil - it's like a soft 4B, and super smooth to work with. You're also gonna need a blending stump, an eraser (I love my vanish eraser and the tombow mono eraser).
In each neck drawing reference photo, I left in the jawline visible so we can look at how thick the neck is, and where it begins in relation to the head.
I started drawing the jawline on my first reference image with the chin, then added in the angles I saw in the model's face shape. 
Once the angles were penciled in, I took a minute to study the reference for any other lines that felt like they need to be drawn in (see below). Then I grabbed my blending stump to begin dragging some graphite around to help indicate the shadows I saw in the model's neck.
Make sure you download your 5 in 5 Drawing Packet so you can practice right on the drawing worksheets with me. Then click over to the video so we can do this quick drawing practice together in real time (no timelapse).
While doing this drawing practice, I realized necks are really WAY more about shading than drawing! 
If you're someone who's been afraid to try drawing a face realistically, or if you've been afraid to try adding a little bit of shading to your drawings - this is the PERFECT drawing exercise for you! Plus it's quick - something I always love!!
If you need to knock back any areas of your shading because they've gotten too dark, use your eraser to "pounce" and lift a little graphite off the page. Click over to the video to see this drawing technique. Keep checking your reference image to compare the lightest and darkest areas on the model's neck with your own drawing.
Our next reference image has a more rounded face shape than our first model, and a wider neck. 
My hope in today's free drawing lesson is that you can sharpen your observational skills, and let go of any fears you have about not having an anatomy background for drawing.
You don't need it for the kind of drawing we're doing! This is just some light practice, and the anatomy can be indicated with your shading. 
Our third reference image has some super dramatic shading for us to work on in the neck and collarbone. If you want to add in her braid- feel free, but don't stress about it. Today's practice is just about focusing on the neck.
Did you grab yourFREE 5 in 5 Drawing Practice packet and print it out yet? I hope so!!
As I always say, "You'll NEVER get worse with more practice." So print that sucker out, and let's get to work! If you're enjoying today's episode, make sure you check out the entire series on my YouTube drawing channel, because I teach you how to draw and shade eyes, eyebrows, noses, lips, hair, face shapes & more! Plus, each facial feature has 2 pages of black and white face drawing reference images to study and capture in your own drawing practice - right on the same pages. Our fourth neck drawing reference is SUPER subtle, and will help you sharpen your observational skills as we zero in on the highlights and shadows in this image together. 
Our last drawing reference (below) for today has a super unique shape and lots of beautiful values for us to concentrate on replicating in our own drawing.
Make sure you grab my 5 in 5 Practice Packet so YOU can sharpen your drawing skills right along with me.
Thanks for hanging out with me today! Interested in learning about how to create a mixed media portrait, but missed my Mixed Media Art Deco Workshop last week? Don't worry! You can STILL sign up and do this at your own pace - any time you want!! No art experience is needed for this super FUN online art class - I'll teach you everything you need to know, and we'll go step by step, together. 
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Ready to learn realistic eyebrow drawing in just 5 minutes?! LET'S DO IT!! In today's step by step lesson, we're going to be drawing 5 sets of eyebrows in real time, directly onto my FREE drawing worksheet. If you need help with how to draw eyebrows, have always wanted to learn how to draw a face, are struggling with how to work drawing practice into your daily life, or need to add MORE FUN into your art practice, THIS SERIES IS FOR YOU!!
I'd love for you to draw right along with me! Simply click the button below to grab my FREE 5 in 5 Facial Features Drawing Packet, and I'll send it straight to your email inbox.
Today's video is a follow up to a facial features drawing series I did a couple of months ago because I'm getting a lot of requests for how to draw eyebrows and how to draw necks!
If you're just discovering this series on how to draw facial features, the whole point of this thing is just to get us practicing our drawing skills. We're not making it our "life's work," it's just a little drawing exercise, and we're just going to spend about 5 minutes working with each reference photo, then we're moving on.
You'll see a stop watch going in the bottom of my screen. It's not here to stress anyone out. It's just to remind me not to spend more than 5 minutes with any one reference image. 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! 
There are three things I'd love for your to focus on one at a time, when looking at each eyebrow reference image:
1. Eyebrow Shape 2. Value 3. Details For my supplies today- I'm just using my favorite Blackwing pencil - it's like a soft 4B, and super smooth to work with. You're also gonna need a blending stump, an eraser (I love my vanish eraser and the tombow mono eraser). 
So with our first reference, as you can see- I draw in the general shape I'm seeing for the right eyebrow. The value I see is really pretty black, so I reach for my blending stump right away and then try to add in a few individual hairs even though I don't really see them in this particular photo - they're definitely there.
On the left eyebrow in this reference image, (above) you can definitely see a LOT more individual hairs, so I make sure to add those in where I see them, to make my drawing look more realistic.
or our second reference image, I'll show you how to draw bushy eyebrows - 2020 style. Lol! After these were drawn in with a little shading added, I carved out some highlights using my tombow eraser for detail.
The next face drawing reference has some really unique eyebrows for us to draw. They're much thinner than the last set, and are great practice if you're trying to learn how to draw curved eyebrows.
This style (above) is actually my favorite to draw on the mixed media portraits and whimsical drawings I love to create.
QUICK TIP: When you're ready to draw the individual hairs on the eyebrow, make sure your pencil tip is really sharp, or switch to a mechanical pencil. Doing drawing practice like this with drawing reference photos and cheatsheets can help you think of new ways to draw from your imagination later. 
Our fourth reference today has a very different shape and is a great face drawing reference photo if you've been looking for something to help you with how to draw a natural eyebrow.
QUICK TIP: You always draw things that grow (hair, grass, etc.) from the ROOT up to the tip.
I hope you find these eyebrow drawing references helpful for your own face drawing practice. Remember to grab my cheatsheet so you can do your drawing practice right on the drawing worksheet like me. This drawing worksheet is part of my 5 in 5 Facial Features Drawing Series on my YouTube drawing channel. In case you missed that- it's a super helpful 6-part video series on how to draw facial features with a worksheet of drawing references to go with each feature. We worked on how to draw realistic eyes, how to draw realistic noses, how to draw realistic lips, ears, how to draw different face shapes and how to draw fun female hairstyles in 5 minutes. I popped these new eyebrow drawing worksheets at the end of my drawing packet. You'll also see worksheets for how to draw necks - that's coming up on my YouTube channel soon, so stay tuned for that! Thanks for hanging out with me today!
Interested in learning how to create gorgeous mixed media portraits and learning how to draw art deco style? Join me for my upcoming 1-week, online art workshop starting September 27, 2021.
I'll teach you how to upcycle an old record jacket from the thrift shop into your very own mixed media canvas. Then we'll collage our hearts out, do a little mixed media drawing, and I'll show you ALL my tips and tricks to mixed media layering like a pro!
CLICK HERE to SIGN UP for the WORKSHOP and take advantage of my special 60% OFF Coupon Code before September 27th If you do plan to join me for this upcoming workshop, one of the mixed media art supplies I ALWAYS use is faber castell gelatos. I have heard from a number of my students that they can't get their hands on gelatos, so I just did a video on my mixed media YouTube channel about Faber Castell Gelatos Alternatives, and test a huge variety of gel crayons out for you so YOU don't have to! Make sure you check this out before the workshop starts on September 27th. See ya there!! ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM
Whether you already love toned paper drawing, drawing faces, or have never tried either, and are curious - TODAY's VIDEO is FOR YOU! Join me for a face drawing demo in my cute little toned paper sketchbook (that I recently designed) - complete with adorable little flowers in the background! I'll show you how I picked my face drawing reference, and will teach you why drawing on toned paper is actually QUICKER than drawing on white paper.
If you're new to toned paper drawing, I've got an awesome set of FREE cheatsheets for you to download and a Toned Paper Drawing three-part video series for you to help you get started over on my YouTube Drawing Channel.
Click the button below to grab those cheatsheets, and I'll send that straight to your inbox! 
This cheatsheet packet includes my face drawing guidelines, plus a drawing reference face photo to help us in video #3, so make sure ya click that button!!
Before we continue - super quick announcement! All product links below 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! 
For today's drawing tutorial, I'm working in my new toned paper sketchbook that I actually designed! It's got adorable little flowers in the background, which I love, because those flowers end up peeking through the cheeks of the faces I've been drawing.
The picture below shows a great closeup of how the background flowers look behind a drawing. SOOOOO cute!!!
It's perfect for doing some quick little face drawings in pencil with china markers and white posca pens!
Here is the link for the sketchbook over on Amazon in case you're interested! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!!
Click over to the video and I'll talk you through a few things I think about when I'm looking for faces for drawing reference. Mostly, I just keep it easy. Basically, I just think to my self - do I love this girl and think she's cute? Then I usually give it a try!
As you'll see in the video - I also will look at the face shading. In this particular image, it's really unusual! I felt she had some beautiful highlights on her eyes, nose and lips that I instantly could imagine doing in my white posca pens. Just one more feature that made this face drawing reference an instant YES for me, besides I'm obsessed with absolutely anything done by Loish. 
One of the most important things to remember when drawing on toned tan paper or gray toned paper vs drawing on white paper, is that "your job" is just to pop in the darkest darks and lightest lights when it's time to start shading faces.
That's why I think doing toned paper portraits and sketches are SO fast! Half your job has already been done for you because your "skin tone" is the tone of the paper. 
As you'll see, I did a lot of the face shading with my blending stump. Since the paper is already gray, I really didn't have to push down very hard to get some beautiful effects. Once I was happy with my shading, I just grabbed my pentel pocket brush to outline everything loosely with a light touch.
I LOVE the lashes in this reference so really enjoyed popping those in with my pentel pocket brush! If you've never used this before - you have to give it a try. Here's a video to help you on my drawing channel, and here's one to help ya on my mixed media channel (because it works amazingly well for mixed media faces too!).
I love using the china markers for highlights here because they sit beautifully on top of my graphite. These marks really add dimension to the drawing and pop those areas forward.
And of course, no whimsical face drawing of mine is complete without some dramatic highlights using my white posca pens!!
I hope you enjoy today's video! Thanks for hanging out with me!!
❤️MY ARTIST BESTIE, LUCY BRYDON & I created a NEW ART MEMBERSHIP together called The Celtic Collective! It's now open for enrollment! Join us before the price increases on August 7. 
In today's face sketching video, we're building on what you learned about toned paper drawing over the last 2 weeks, and putting it ALL together to create a QUICK female face drawing!
We'll use my face drawing guidelines and identify the values we see in our face drawing reference photo. Then I'll show you how to shade your drawing + quick ways for drawing shadows and highlights using china markers, a pencil, blending stump and sharpies on toned paper! BEGINNERS WELCOME!!
Grab your supplies & come practice face drawing with me! 
First things first, if you haven't grabbed my FREE Toned Paper Packet/cheatsheets- please do that and get them printed out. It's 5 helpful pages to set you up for toned paper drawing success!
You'll recieve my face drawing guidelines, along with a few reference photos for drawing a sphere (last week's exercise), a reference image for today & a list of my fav supplies if you need some!
Simpy click on this button and I'll send the cheatsheets STRAIGHT over to your inbox!
In Part 1 of this toned paper drawing series, we went over concepts and supplies for drawing on toned paper. Last week in Part 2 - we talked about how to draw and shade a sphere on toned paper, as well as the differencecs to keep in mind when working on toned tan paper or toned grey paper vs white paper.
I'm working on toned grey paper today because I think this is a bit easier for beginners who are getting used to value scale drawing. Before I start drawing, I scribbled some shading with a variety of pencils and marked which pencil helped me achieve which value on a scrap of toned paper, below. If you're new to toned paper drawing- I suggest you do this too so you have a reference for yourself that you can use while you draw. 
As we discussed last week, when you're drawing on toned paper- you're "responsible" for adding in ALL the brightest highlights and darkest shadows. The mid-tones are already represented for you by the tone of the paper.
Once you get your Toned Paper Packet downloaded and printed- grab your reference drawing photo for today (shown above), and we'll get started on your free drawing lesson.
The face I'll be drawing isn't going to be super realistic because I typically prefer a lighter style called whimsical drawing. If you're new to my YouTube drawing channel - my goal is to help you become a better artist by keeping things FUN so nothing feels stressful. That means we don't get too hung up on details. 
Make sure you click over to the video to do this face drawing lesson in REAL TIME with me because it makes SUCH a difference!! We're starting out with an oval and sketching in our face drawing guidelines - something I NEVER skip -even after all the hundreds of faces I've drawn!!
If you're somewhat familiar with drawing facecs and feel like you'd enjoy learning more about how to draw facial features more realistically, I have another FREE series you might enjoy (which also comes with free drawing worksheets). Make sure you check that out because it's awesome if you like drawing faces as much as I do!
After you get your face shape and guidelines drawn, it's time to lightly sketch in some squished ovals to serve as placeholders for the eyes, nose and mouth.
If you're just learning how to draw eyes, I LOVE using my circle template to draw the irises on my girls when I'm pressed for time, or not in the mood to draw perfect circles from scratch! If this little cheat helps you too - DO IT, and don't feel bad about it. Just move on and keep your drawing project FUN!
Make sure you click over to the video because I'm showng you exactly how to draw a face step by step, and will keeping things EASY for you if this is your first time drawing a face. The face drawing guidelines will help a TON! Trust me ;)
I also bring back my circle template/ stencil for adding pupils into the eyes. Make sure you pop those right into the center of your irises. I see pupils kinda all over the place, and this little tidbit will help make your faces look more sophisticated- especially if you're just learning how to draw eyes!
Once you've gotten all the facial features in position where they need to go - you can erase all of your guidelines.
Follow me in the video to start observing the values depicted in our reference photo. As you'll see in the FREE Toned Paper Packet I've provided- there are some versions of the reference image with polka dots of gray that I've laid down to help you decide which pencil to grab when shading various parts of her face. 
I love using my china markers (also called grease pencils) on toned paper because you can get really opaque coverage with them.
The only thing I don't love about my china markers is they don't blend - so just be aware of that as you head in to attack your shadows. If you haven't used a china marker before - here is another video for you. I demo how to sharpen a china marker in that video and in last week's YouTube drawing tutorial. For today's face shading, l'm starting with my white china marker to pop in the lightest white highlights first - which are really happening in the left side of her face. 
When you've finished with the whites- move on to your darkest darks with your black china marker (colored pencils are fine to use for this drawing exercise too).
Now when you take a step back to view your work a little from a distance, I don't want you to freak out if you're new to face drawing!
This girl is in what I lovingly refer to as "the ugly phase." It means she probably looks really unfinished and might have you second guessing if you should toss her into the trash because you feel like she is so ugly. DON'T DO IT. This is normal! EVERY face drawing has an ugly phase. Just accept it, know your project is about halfway done and KEEP GOING. Don't let the "ugly phase" win! Now that I've got a good base of my highlights and darkest shadows down, I'm going to work some graphite pencil in, and start moving some of the graphite around with my blending stump. 
Remember, china markers don't blend, but you can ease some of your shading transitions by adding some pencil and a little graphite blending with a blending stump.
I pulled out my sharpies and pentel pocket brush to add some hair and a few details into her face. She's starting to come to life and working her way out of the ugly phase. See?! I told you! You've just gotta keep going!! She'll snap out of it! A word of caution about the pentel pocket brush- it doesn't want to work that well over the china marker, but I'm doing it anyway because I LOVE it for drawing eyelashes. If eyelash drawing is a struggle for you, or you're just not sure how to draw eyelashes - download my cheatsheet with tips on how to draw eyelashes. I also have two videos on eyelash drawing - one on my YouTube drawing channel, and one on my mixed media YouTube channel. 
Once eyelashes are popped in, I step back a little to compare my drawing to my drawing reference. I'm not looking for perfection. Remember this is totally for fun and just a quick drawing lesson to help you get started with working on toned paper!
What do you see when you compare the two? Focus on lights and darks. Where can we add more drama to make her pop even more? Zero in on the lightest lights and darkest darks.
Get aggressive! Don't be afraid to dive in and make the black areas blacker. Do a second pass with your china marker, or pull out your pencil and darken what needs to be so you can move the graphite around with a blending stick to ease the shading transitions from light to dark. Remember, you can vary the amount of pressure you use when you're coloring with china markers. This is another way to soften shading transitions since you can't blend china markers with a blending stump. 
See how she's coming even more to life now that I've added additional shading? This extra layering makes ALL the difference.
Once I've finished with my darkest shadows, I pull out my white sharpie to help accentuate the brightest whites. Take a look at this!! 
Just adding ONE dot to each pupil for some eye shine takes the whole drawing to another level of fun and makes her look more sophisticated. We could actually call her done at this point! Those two dots did THAT much!
If you follow me, you KNOW I love some dramatic face shading on my girls so I'm not calling her done yet... adding white paint pen is my favorite part and hasn't been done yet! 
Because I'm doing a whimsical drawing, I look to my face drawing reference photo for inspiration about where to add my shadows and highlights. However, I absolutely feel comfortable stretching that a step further and adding a few marks where I know highlights naturally occur on the human face.
Watch the video to see that in action when I'm drawing highlights on the chin, cheekbones, eyebrow ridge etc. A really great trick for helping you understand where to pop in face shading is to pick up a foam head from your local craft store. Then just play with a light source - either a lamp, the flashlight on your phone - whatever! Shine the light directly on the foam head -forcing a variety of shadows and highlights you can follow. 
Alternatively, I've got a video taking a closer look at this concept to help you out.
Need that link again for the toned paper packet to get started on this entire tone paper drawing series on YouTube?
Click the button above, and I'll drop my toned paper packet straight to your email. (Includes my face drawing guidelines & today's face drawing reference image!)
Thanks for hanging out with me today!
❤️ Did you miss my Gnome Workshop with guest artist Sarah Turner of Tenderfoot Village? CLICK HERE to enroll for $27 at Awesome Art School (if you're in the Mixed Media Society - you got free access to this but NEED a coupon - if you don't see it in your email, please email me!) 
❤️Did you miss my Fun Fab Fairies Workshop? NO worries!! You can STILL sign up and enjoy each of these lessons on your own time at your own pace in this stand alone classroom at Awesome Art School! CLICK HERE to REGISTER.
❤️Did you know I've started a FUN new podcast with my Scottish, artsy bestie, Lucy, ALL ABOUT SCOTLAND & the mythical goodness I can't get enough of about this magical place?! YES - we talk about everything including ARE Fairies Real?! (You know I think they are!!)
The podcast is called 1 Scot, 1 Not! Check us out on YouTube and here's our podcast website! ❤️EVEN BETTER - LUCY & I are creating a NEW ART MEMBERSHIP together called The Celtic Collective!! Learn More & add your name to the waitlist here. 
❤️Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM Only have 5 minutes? Today's face shape drawing lesson is for YOU! In today's quick, step by step tutorial, we're going to be studying reference photos for drawing 5 face shapes in real time. If you've always wanted to learn how to draw a face, have been struggling with how to work drawing practice into your daily life, if the faces you draw ALL LOOK THE SAME, or ... if you need to add MORE FUN into your art practice, THIS SERIES IS FOR YOU!!l  We're in week six of the 5 in 5 Drawing Facial Features series on my YouTube Drawing Channel, and this week is focused on how to draw a face shape step by step!! If you're just discovering this series, we are working on drawing facial features and only spending about 5 minutes with each face drawing reference I've provided. This whole series on my YouTube drawing channel is a FUN way to help us establish a daily art practice that doesn't take forever, and will help increase your drawing skills as an artist - EVEN if you're a beginner, who just wants to finally learn how to draw a face!!!  If you don't have my 20 -page, 5 in 5 Practice Packet - you'll want to download that now. This has all the face drawing references you need for the entire series, and you can work directly on each practice worksheet. Best of all, it's yours, FREE. Simply click the button below, and I'll send it straight to your inbox!  Even though I'm on week six of the series, don't feel like you're behind if you are just discovering this. This drawing practice is for YOU to do on your own time, at your own pace. There is no schedule, just FUN!! All you need to do the drawing exercises is my 5 in 5 Practice Packet is basically a good eraser and a pencil. You totally don't have to get fancy. Before we continue, super quick announcement! All product links noted below 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 only reccommend products I actually use and love. Thank you for your support!  If you are interested in some fancier drawing tools - I'm using two of my favorites today: a Blackwing pencil, and my vanish eraser. Since today we're just going to draw face shape, there isn't any shading, so, no need for a blending stump. In fact, if all you have is a regular #2 school pencil- that's perfect! You never need fancy supplies when you're hanging out with me. Let's get started!!  Face shape drawing may not seem like it's all that important, but I feel like it's something that's typically overlooked, because it's so subtle. It's SUPER easy for artists who love whimsical face drawing to discover a "way" they like to draw face shape (mine is by drawing a zillion ovals, on the left above!!). Then before you know it, suddenly we find ourselves with a portfolio of faces that all look the same - even if they're beautiful!! One of the ways you can avoid what we call "same face syndrome" in art - is to use a face drawing references when you're drawing, because these images will inspire you to try new angles, facial feature positions, etc. Hop over to the video so I can SHOW YOU exactly what I mean ;)  When I'm trying to vary face shape, I pay close attention to bends and angles in the jaw, because this varies so much from human to human. As you'll see in the video, I can't even start this face without drawing a million ovals, LOL! That's just my thing!! From there, I note my face drawing guidelines, and start to refine, based on what I see in my reference photo. If you're not sure what I mean when I say "face drawing guidelines," you DEFINITELY need my cheatsheet to help you understand where the facial features should rest on every face you draw. Guidelines are THE KEY to making your face drawings proportional! Simply click the button below, and I'll send you my one-page Whimsical Face Drawing Guidelines. I printed and laminated this cheatsheet for myself because these guidelines are SO important. They will make every face you draw look proportional, no matter what ethnicity you're drawing. In general - we're surprisingly ALL the same as humans in this regard, even though we're all so unique! If you check out my Whimsical Women of the World face drawing series on YouTube, you'll see exactly what I mean!!  Sketching in my face drawing guidelines helps me zero in on each little section of the face, one at a time. This helps me pay closer attention to the angles and curves I need to replicate in my drawing, and helps the WHOLE face not feel so overwhelming. Remember I'm doing all of this in real time over on YouTube, so be sure to join me so I can teach you HOW to draw a face shape step by step!!  I spend the bulk of my time for each of these face drawing references observing, and trying to replicate what I see. There's no shading or extra detail to layer in like we had in previous weeks, so you will likely breeze through these exercises! Just because you might get through them quickly doesn't mean they're not worthwhile!! You're definitely sharpening your observational and drawing skills as you draw face shapes.  Our second reference image has more curves happening in her face shape. Again, it helps me to first sketch out an oval, mark my face drawing guidelines, and focus on drawing one small section at a time.  As I get to reference image 3, I notice she has a very different chin from the others. Looking at this makes me go back and take a second look at the previous chins to see if I caught the nuances there, or if I need to make adjustments. Remember, you can ALWAYS go back and do the same when something new like this catches your eye.  I specifically chose each of these face shape drawing references on purpose because I felt they were all so unique, and wanted to give you some good practice at drawing different face shapes! The one below felt like really great practice for round face shape drawing.  Her angles and curves are SO interesting, right?!  As you focus on basic face shape drawing with me today (and I HOPE you're doing this with me!!!), you'll notice that you don't need to make huge variations from face to face for each drawing to take on a life of its own!  If you haven't been using drawing reference images for your art in the past, I think they will help you sharpen your observational skills and make your drawings look SO much more sophisticated. Even if you want to draw in more of a whimsical or cartoon style vs realistic - taking characteristics from real life people will add more depth to your work.  I hope you enjoyed today's face shape drawing tutorial, and the whole 5 in 5 Drawing Series!
❤️Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK Want me to teach you how to draw lips realistically in just 5 minutes?! LET'S DO IT!! Over the next few weeks on my YouTube drawing channel, we're going to be drawing facial features and spending 5 minutes on each reference image. If you've always wanted to learn how to draw a face, have been struggling to work drawing practice into your daily life, or need to add MORE FUN into your art practice, THIS SERIES IS FOR YOU!!  Before we go any farther, you need to download today's FREE 5 in 5 Practice Packet so you can draw and shade along with me in this series. Simply click the button below and I'll send it straight to your email. TONS of people tell me about how they really struggle with not having enough time in their day to get a little art practice in. I get it!! Outside of my art - I'm a mom, I've gotta walk my Maggie a zillion times a day, figure out dinner every stupid day (LOL!). I'm with ya. We all have stuff!! But, if art is something YOU LOVE, and making the time to practice feels overwhelming because you feel like you need to dedicate a super long session of time to it - let's reframe that mindset. You don't need to have super long periods of time set aside to art. You can actually spend a few minutes a day on it if you want to, STILL have fun, and STILL grow as an artist! If you're hoping to get a more regular art practice started, one of my recommendations for that is to actually PUT IT IN YOUR CALENDAR. I know!! Sounds SO easy, right? But if you schedule some time for yourself - just as you would for something like a doctor's appointment - it's WAY more likely to happen. YOU'VE GOT THIS!! AND to help you have something TO DO for each of these little mini practice sessions, I've got a FREE surprise for ya!!  I've created a fun (and FREE!!!) Drawing Practice Packet for us to do together! We're gonna spend the next few weeks drawing and shading lips, noses, eyes, face shapes, hairstyles and last but not least...ears!! All in pencil!!! Each week we're gonna study 5 reference photos of the same facial feature. For each reference photo - we're going to ONLY spend 5 minutes or less drawing what we see right next to each facial feature we're studying. You can do all of your drawing practice right inside this packet!! Why only spend only 1 - 5 MINUTES per drawing prompt?! Because another thing a lot of my students struggle with is perfectionism!! YOU know who you are... LOL!  All you're gonna need to practice with me is a pencil with an eraser. If you're new to me or my YouTube drawing channel, I'm all about using what you have, and not buying stuff just to buy it (which your wallet is gonna LOVE). Don't get me wrong- my shelves are FULL of fun products to use. But if I share info about a fine art product I enjoy - please don't feel obligated to use it. On the other hand, if you're interested in taking your art to the next level - fine art supplies DO make a difference in your art, so I try to show you my favorite supplies as I discover them to save you both time and money. That way you don't keep collecting a variety of cheap to middle of the road products and overspending on stuff that isn't going to give you the quality you're hoping to find. With that being said -every single one of these drawing exercises can be done in a good old fashioned #2 school pencil if that's all ya got!! And if that's all you've got, you're STILL going to grow as an artist. PROMISE. Ready to download and print your own Practice Packet so we can get started? Simple click the button below and I'll have it sent STRAIGHT to your inbox!! Then meet me over on today's how to draw lips YouTube video and I'll teach you exactly how to draw lips realistically step by step!!  Before we continue, super quick announcement! All product links noted below 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 only reccommend products I actually use and love. Thank you for your support!  Ok! Let's get started... My favorite drawing pencils are by Blackwing. They're stupid expensive if you buy them individually, but are closer to $2/each if you buy them in a pack of 12. To me the splurge is worth it - they are silky smooth and draw like butter!!! They also have this cool eraser on the end of them that is a tiny rectangle (and replaceable!!), which makes it so easy to carve in little highights or to erase angluar mistakes!! If you're in the market for new erasers, I've got two favorites: the vanish eraser (takes care of the bigger mistakes / adjustments) and my Tombow Mono Eraser. THIS is the coolest. It's kind of like a mechanical pencil, but it's a mechanical eraser!! Here you can see the teensy tip of it (below, right) - it's amazing for carving out itty bitty highlights!  Additionally, you might want to have a blending stump or two to help you shade a little quicker, and a bit more delicately. Again, you don't have to have these at all - you can totally use your finger without spending a dime!! A q-tip works well for this too! Because we're doing these exercises in pencil, it helps tremendously if the face drawing reference photos are ALSO in black and white instead of color. That's why I chose black and white reference photos! It makes a big difference when you're focusing on face shading techniques or just learning how to shade a face. For each of the drawings we work on together in the Practice Packet, I want you to be thinking of three things:
 As you can see, I'm doing my sketching and shading directly in my Practice Packet, so no fancy paper is needed either! I hope you're drawing with me right now!! Make sure you click over to the video because this is all being done in REAL TIME, step by step over in my YouTube drawing tutorial so you can draw right along with me. These drawing exercises are SUPER EASY and beginners are totally welcome, so don't worry about it if you've never done this before. There's a first time for everything!! After I get through the first two lip drawing images, I discover I'm spending about 1 minute to get the lips outline drawing in place, then about 3-4 minutes putting some graphite down to shade and blend, plus adding a few more pencil lines or highlights for detail. I'm seriously trying not to care so much (which is HARD, I know)! Just keep telling yourself, this drawing exercise isn't about hyper realism - it's just about showing you how YOU CAN give yourself just a few minutes here or there each day to accomplish something, call it "good enough," and create a little drawing habit for yourself!  You can TOTALLY make time for this practice, and it doesn't have to be at home. If you've got a doctor's appointment coming up and you know you're gonna be stuck in the waiting room for a bit - throw this packet and a pencil in your purse and go. It will distract you while you're sitting there, and if drawing makes you happy, it will also help to decrease your stress level.  Just a little note for my Fun Fab Drawing Club members - if you're hanging out with me for this facial features drawing series, a lot of the face drawing reference photos I'm using for this series are in your 2021 UPDATED Membership Guide!!! So check the digital eBook version out right here in the classroom, or order yourself a copy over on Amazon if you prefer a physical copy! This guide has GROWN so much from last year and is now a fat 259 pages in its second edition!! NOT a Fun Fab Drawing Club member but interested in learning more? CLICK HERE. NOT a Fun Fab Drawing Club member but WANT to BE?! CLICK HERE to join the waitlist. (Membership enrollment opens twice a year- in the fall and in the spring). If you're interested in grabbing ALL my cheatsheets at once- go ahead and hop over to Awesome Art School, and you'll find them in my YouTube & Cheatsheet Library.  So for this last practice image, I did go a little over the "time limit," but that's ok. Go easy on yourself. There's no pressure here. The point of me trying to throw a timer into this exercise for myself, is just to remind me NOT to spend 45 minutes working on that one gorgeous mouth, and getting SO fussy about it that I'm trying to make it perfect. We're doing quick and dirty, and 6 minutes is still quick in my book!!  How adorable is this last mouth? The top lip totally has a heart shape to it!! I LOVE it and that's why this mouth made the practice packet! LOL! I'm gonna say it again...you BETTER be drawing with me, and you NEED to click over to this drawing video on YouTube so you can do this with me in real time. Did you download your Drawing Practice Packet yet??? Here's that button if you need it again... Now go check your inbox and come on over to YouTube so we can get started together!! I hope you LOVE doing this as much as I do!! Thanks SO much for hanging out with me for today's lip drawing tutorial!! I'll see you back here NEXT Monday for our next facial feature... Have a wonderful week!!! ❤️ Want FREE, immediate access to my Fun Fab Drawing Club and/or Mixed Media Society plus discounts on all my art books, sneak peek at YouTube videos and new book content, behind-the-scenes fun and MORE? Join me over on Patreon today and get HUGE PERKS in return for a small monthly donation. ❤️ CHECK OUT ALL my art books on AMAZON (available in both Kindle and Paperback) ❤️ SIGNED COPIES of my art books on ETSY ❤️ MY FAVORITE ART SUPPLIES on AMAZON ❤️ MY BELOVED FACEBOOK GROUP ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM ❤️ FOLLOW ME ON FACEBOOK HOW to DRAW & SHADE a Whimsical MALE Face with Asian Eyes in Copic Markers (Whimsical woMAN #12)3/1/2021 Today I want to show you how to draw a whimsical MALE face just to mix things up a bit with the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series- especially because I often get requests to draw guys, and I'm a boy mom of 3- so here ya go!! In today's face drawing lesson, I'll also cover how to draw Asian eyes (forward facing), and have an awesome new Skin Tone Marker cheatsheet just waiting FOR YOU if you didn't grab that last week!  To draw this cutie, we start with an oval like always, then we're gonna MAN-ify the facial features!  In general, keep in mind that men have more STRAIGHT lines when it comes to drawing. When you're ready to darken the face shape for this dude, start by straightening the lines on the sides of his face (like shown above). Then, as you work your way down toward a chin area, you can imagine we're attaching a triangle to the bottom of his face - just cutting off the pointy part and leaving a straight line. It's probably easier to see this in action, so check out the tutorial over on my YouTube drawing channel. The next main difference when drawing male faces (even whimsically), is to change the width of the neck. The male neck is MUCH wider than a female's.  Now it's time to sketch in our face drawing guidelines! I find this fact kind of amazing ... the face drawing guidelines for drawing men and women are identical! Crazy, right? No matter WHAT our ethnicity or gender are - we all start out with the same basical human face shape, and our faces naturally follow the same basic face drawing guidelines to make us look proportionally correct! 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 mine because drawing proportions of the face are SO important. 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 ;)  Back to our drawing!! The biggest difference when you're drawing asian eyes vs. any other ethnicity, is often the absense of a dramatic upper eyelid. That's it! Pretty simple adjustment, right? Watch the video to see how this looks in real time, step by step.  Male hair, like hair for women -also has volume that extends above and outside the face shape oval we've drawn in, so make sure you block in the general shape you see for hair. This will make it much easier later when it's time to shade.  If you're drawing along with me (and I HOPE you are, because you'll learn SO much MORE by doing this than just watching me!!), I think you'll find that drawing eyes on a male face is actually QUITE easier, because there is no makeup to worry about! If you'd like a copy of this reference, or any reference from this series, I've popped them into TWO convenient locations for you over at Awesome Art School! The stand alone, Whimsical Women of the World classroom - where everything (even the color shading part of each lesson) is in real time, step by step has references, as well as my YouTube Cheatsheet & Video Library. If you're a member of the Fun Fab Drawing Club or Mixed Media Society- you've already been given free access to the Whimsical Women of the World classroom.  As you'll see in today's whimsical portrait drawing tutorial, when you get to the lips, you have to be careful about not letting them get girly. Watch the shapes carefully here. Even if your model has very full lips, you don't want to draw the lines in super dark, because the more you define them and darken these lines, the girlier your dude will start to look! If you get to a point in this drawing (or ANY drawing!), and you feel like something looks a little off and needs to move - don't be too precious about what you've already drawn in. Go ahead and erase whatever is bugging you and draw it again! You drew it once, you can TOTALLY draw it again. And that adjustement might make your drawing look SO much better! I drew this guy's left eye THREE times before I was happy. Then when I pulled my markers out, I drew BOTH of them over again - I think TWICE!! Don't worry about it. Just do what feels right to YOU.  The lighting effect is the main reason I selected this particular image for today's free drawing lesson. I think you're gonna enjoy it when you're ready to shade because it's unique. You'll see the nose bridge is actually in SHADOW today (instead of highlighted as it typically is), because there are TWO light sources for this particular photo. One on either side of his face! Check out the video to see how I show this to you in action. It's super interesting, and if you've been drawing any of the projects from my Whimsical Women series, it's honestly the opposite from what we normally see in terms of light source. I've been using alcohol markers to do all the shading for my Whimsical Women of the World face drawing projects, but PLEASE use whatever art supply YOU LOVE best!! If you are using alcohol markers too - please don't worry if you don't have copic markers. I know they are SO expensive, and I've been collecting them over a long period of time. I totally love the Ohuhu brand as well and they are way cheaper. Arteza also has some good markers for even less. If you're new to shading with alcohol markers, or need some tips on which skin tone markers go nicely together for a variety of ethnicities, I recently created a FREE 12-Page cheatsheet ALL about this to help ya out!! I organized it by color family for skin tones that are light, medium, or dark, and have marker swatches from each brand (Copic, Ohuhu, Arteza) that will work well. This should REALLY save you some swatching and trial/error time! Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your inbox.  This was actually the first time I used my Skin Tone Marker Guide to help me shade a face in this series and I was thrilled with how easy it made things go! Usually I am swatching like a mad woman off to the side and fly by the seat of my pants, but this really organized my thoughts and totally saved me some time. I really hope it does the same for YOU!  Before we continue, super quick announcement: All prouct 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 interested in how to draw a male face, and are new to me and my channel, you'll find a few here and there, but I know my audience is most interested in drawing female faces, so that is primarily what you'll see. I do, however, have a book dedicated to drawing guys in a whimsical style called How to Draw Fun Fab Fellas that I created for my own boys when they were younger. It's available on Amazon if you're interested! It covers how to draw a male face from all the main angles- forward facing, profile and 3/4 view.  Full transparency here - I'm not in love with the way this project turned out - just being totally honest. I think the model is SUPER CUTE, but sometimes this just happens, and you've got to be honest with yourself. I want to make sure you know how I feel about my own work, so you can own your feelings, and not obsess over them for too long if something you were excited to do, didn't turn out how you'd envisioned. It's ok, and happens to ALL of us! Art is supposed to be FUN. If something doesn't go as planned, change what you can. If the project is done- move on and do something else! It's as SIMPLE as that. I've got 3 more whimsical face drawing projects coming up for you in this series, including a more mature woman with wrinkles and an up-turned face, so keep your eyes peeled for those!! I hope you have fun with this project if you choose to draw along with me!! See ya back here next Monday for more!! HOW to DRAW & SHADE a WHIMSICAL 3/4 View Latina Face in Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #10)13/12/2020 Teaching how to draw a whimsical face is one of my FAVORITE things to share on YouTube, and I'm having SO much fun with the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series! Today's reference image features a three quarter view - one of the trickiest to draw! As always, the whimsical drawing portion of today's video is in real time so you can see exactly how I get it done!! HOT TIP! Because the color version of my reference image is highly saturated, the lighting can make it tricky to see where my shading should go naturally. Whenever you have difficulties with images like this, and color is throwing you off - I HIGHLY recommend you simply print yourself a black and white copy of the image so you can clearly see what is in shadow and where the highlights are.  As a matter of fact, this is the WHOLE REASON I printed my book How to Draw and Find Your Style in black and white instead of color! It's so much easier on artists to replicate the values they see on paper, when working in grayscale - especially when they are just learning to draw faces. Once you master this skill- moving over to color is SO much easier!! Trust me!! Before we go any further, super quick announcement: All 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 consuner for doing so. I thank you for your support!  People ask me all the time about how to draw faces from different angles. The three quarter view is definitely one of the hardest to conquer! If you were watched episode 4 in this series, our Asian reference was also a three quarter face drawing prompt, and we used my 3/4 Face Drawing Guidelines Cheatsheet (click the link below to download yours for FREE if you haven't grabbed this yet).  Today, I'm using my other favorite method for drawing a 3/4 face. It's slightly different, and from my How to Draw and Find Your Style book. I sketch a rough triangle at the bottom of a circle and add some curved lines across the face to help me position facial features. Make sure you click over to see me do this in the video because watching it in motion REALLY helps!! In case you feel like you need them, the art reference photos for this whimsical face drawing tutorial, and ALL of the Whimsical Women of the World tutorials can be found in my YouTube & Cheatsheet Library over at Awesome Art School, as well as in my new Whimsical Women of the World classroom over at Awesome Art School.  Once you have the face shape sketched in, take some time to really study the angle of your reference image. Sometimes I actually draw right on top of my printouts (shown below), because it helps me understand the angles on the model's face.  This can sometimes make me feel a little more comfortable when I put my pencil to paper and try to replicate what I see. Don't worry if you get into your sketch and feel things need to move around or be adjusted - just make alterations as needed. That's what erasers are for!!  I LOVE the eyes on this model. They are SO huge and are going to look awesome when they are all colored in! When I'm ready to move on to the hair, I sketch in the main shapes that I see, in sections. When you're drawing hair, it extends UP and OVER the the oval of your face shape drawing because it has so much volume. Hair also has TONS to do with directionality - so look to your reference to copy what direction it's flowing from. Be sure to watch the video so you can see how this is done.  Remember to always take a step back from your drawing to pause and really look at it from a distance to reassess the spatial relationships in your drawing vs the art reference photo. It makes a huge difference!  When you're ready to begin shading with your alcohol markers, erase all of your face drawing guidelines and extraneous marks. I often "pounce" the graphite a bit with my vanish eraser as well, to life some of it off the page without fully erasing my lines because I don't want my lightest copic markers to smear the graphite, or pick that up as I'm dragging them across the page.  If you're new to coloring with copic markers, you need to move fairly quickly with them as you lay your color down because they can definitely get streaky. You only have a small window of time while the alcohol is wet, and the pigment from the color is suspended in the alcohol. This is the time when it's easiest to blend shades from multiple markers.  I love drawing hair with the copic markers brush tip because I feel like I can almost paint with it! A cheaper copic marker alternative that I've recently discovered and enjoy working with are my Ohuhu markers. They also have a brush nib, which makes them very easy to work with in a painterly way.  I use the chisel nib on my copics when I want to cover large areas on my paper, and find this can get the job done a little bit faster than the brush nib.  Another thing I LOVE about using my copic markers, is I feel like I can really achieve a lot of personality and variety with them - just by switching nibs or changing the amount of pressure I use when I press the marker to paper.  As you alreayd know if you've been watching this series - copic markers and colored pencils work amazingly together!! Colored pencils are awesome for adding detail, easing transitions between colors, and they create a pretty texture. As you'll see in today's face drawing tutorial, adding colored pencil on top of the coat (or blanket- or whatever she's wearing!!) helped to create the look of cloth that I couldn't achieve by using copics alone.  SUPER HOT TIP! The ingredients in your art supplies matter greatly. If you're experiencing smearing/bleeding where you've added some black outlines - make sure you're using a WATER BASED black marker/fineliner here, because the alcohol and water IGNORE one another! There is currently a 40% off coupon running - so be sure to check that out if you are interested in purchasing or gifting the Whimsical Women of the World classroom for the holidays!! Each lesson is about 90 minutes long, contains all the drawing reference photos, and the lessons are in real time (even the shading parts)! I hope you have fun with this lesson! See ya back here next week!! HOW to DRAW & SHADE a WHIMSICAL UK Face with Short Curly Hair in Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #9)7/12/2020 How to draw a whimsical face is one of my FAVORITE things to teach, and I'm having an absolute blast with the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series! Since I don't know where the GORGEOUS model in today's art reference photo is from - I've decided to call her "UK Cool chic" because of her funky, pink hair! We begin this whimsical drawing like we have each one in the Whimsical Women of the World portrait drawing series - by sketching in our guidelines!  The bone structure is super important on this girl because her hair isn't covering anything up! Speaking of hairstyle - I have no idea yet how I'm gonna pull this one off, but I'll get there... just gonna have to think on that a bit!!  Then it's time to sketch in our whimsical face drawing guidelines. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, I'm guessing you might need my 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. We all start out with a human oval for the face, so this is a reference I've ALWAYS got on my art table. Click the button below and I'll send it straight to your email.  The model for today's whimsical face drawing tutorial has got SUCH COOL EYES!! And her eye makeup is really awesome. There is some kind of hot pink going on in the wet line under her eyes that I already CAN'T WAIT to get in there with my markers and add!! Faces are kind of like vases, you know? If you draw one side, it's really hard to finish that and then hop over to the other side and get them to match! Am I right?! Over time, I've really learned to build both sides up at the same time - especially when it comes to the EYES. This way they are much more likely to end up symmetrical than if I completed the whole right half of a face, and then tried to replicate it symmetrically on the left! It just doesn't work that way for me, so this is my trick.  I see some lines under our model's eyes, so I'm just drawing them in. I always draw what I see. This is how you capture someone's likeness. And honestly, what makes lines on peoples' faces such a big deal anyway?! It just adds to their beauty! Be sure to watch the video because the drawing portion is all in REAL TIME so you don't have to keep pausing the video to keep up with me ;) Just copy what I do, and draw right along with me.  The eyebrows on this woman are just gorgeous - super sculpted and glamorous!!  I'm loving her gorgeous full lips too, and can't wait to start adding some color! Before we go any further, 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!  Students ALWAYS ask me about my eraser, and I'm in love with it. It does such an amazing job lifting the graphite off my page without ripping the paper. It's called the Vanish Eraser. You can grab them on Amazon. If you live near a Jerry's Artarama, they're only like $2 if you can get over there in person! Let's wrap her up and erase all those guidelines.  The first step with whatever art supplies you choose for coloring, is to lay down a foundational color. I either work light to dark, or dark to light with my copics - either way is totally fine. Be sure to pause the video as you're going along to catch where the shading is getting put in.  I love the way the light is hitting our model's face today. It's one of my absolute favorite shading patterns to replicate - in any medium! It's super symmetrical. Whatever you do on the right side- just replicate on the left. This is also one of the EASIEST lighting patterns to shade onto a face! So even if you're a beginner- YOU CAN DO THIS!  If you've seen my videos in the past, you know we all hit a point about half way into a project when the face we're working on is in what I LOVINGLY refer to as ....the ugly phase. When you're shading with copic markers (or any brand of alcohol markers), you tend to hang out in "the ugly phase" for quite a while because there is a lot of layering to get the shading right, etc. You've gotta just embrace it! Acknowledge the ugly phase when you arrive, and KEEP GOING. Typically whenever I've hit the ugly phase, I help my girl start working her way out of it by sweeping a light to medium shaded skin tone marker over the the entire face. The alcohol in that marker RE-WETS all the previous alcohol marker layers and it helps to blend them all together. COOL TRICK, right?!  As you're laying down darker shades of color throughout the coloring process, don't freak out if they feel like they're too dark. Alcohol markers go down kinda like watercolors and appear much darker when they first hit the page. They dry much lighter - so don't worry!!  While I'm adding some pink around her eyes, I decide to just go for it with her hair- even though I still have no idea how to do it! I study my reference and just start adding color. For me- I really feel like when you're shading in color, you really need at least three colors to produce a 3-dimensional look - a light, medium and dark. I select my three colors and go for it with some "kindergarten" squiggles!  If you've been watching the Whimsical Women of the World series, you'll know I've been using colored pencils to add some shading on top of my markers to add texture, fix my mistakes, or help blend the transitions between marker shades. In this video, I really relied on my colored pencils to help me achieve the look I'm seeing in the reference image in terms of makeup. For continuity among the other Whimsical Women in this series AND because I'm obsessed - I turn to my pentel pocket brush for detailing in the eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, and outlining throughout.  I finish the project with while highlights in posca pens - which I totally love, because they add SO much more dimension and sophistication to my pieces with pops of light in the eyes, lips, nose, and wherever I see sparkles throughout the features in my art reference photo.  I hope you DO NOT HOLD BACK when you're doing your own highlights in your own projects! I know this can be scary for some of my students, but they pack the biggest punch and can make such a difference in your work. My wishes for you ... be DARING with your shadows and BRAVE with your highlights! And above all, HAVE FUN!! Enjoy today's Whimsical Women of the World face drawing tutorial! Thanks for joining me! See ya back here next week! |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 15 Instructional Art Books!    
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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!"
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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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