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My latest face drawing book is on Amazons worldwide! If you're looking for female face drawing references or a great new drawing book for adults (young & old!) - this book is for YOU! In today's drawing book flip through, I'll show ya a sneak peek of what's behind the cover! Artists of all ages and stages will learn how to draw faces step by step + get ALL MY BEST face shading techniques!
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've been following me on my YouTube drawing channel for a while, you may remember we recently completed a 15 week face drawing series called Whimsical Women of the World!
This book features the projects from that face drawing series for people who prefer to learn how to draw using a drawing book instead of a video! 
Even though the faces in this series were quite challenging and fairly realistic, I call them whimsical - because I feel this one word helps take the pressure off having to be perfect!
Realism requires dilligent attention to detail and hyper focused observational skills! While sometimes I might enjoy a little of that challenge as an artist - most of the time, it takes the FUN out of things for me!! 
For me - having FUN is the whole reason I create art in the first place, and it's why most of my students are into art as well!
Over the years I've discovered that if something is fun - you'll want to do MORE of it, AND the more you do of something -the better you get at it! That's my goal for my students and for myself - FUN and growth for all of us as artists! 
As you'll see in the video, each step by step drawing portrait starts at the very beginning with no more than three simple steps on a page.
This approach helps the projects not feel overwhelming, and sets up artists of every stage and age for success!
The coloring process is also broken down step by step to help you learn how to shade a face. You'll learn my best face shading techniques for shading a face in color (no matter WHAT art supply you're using!).
I used alcohol markers and colored pencil for every project, but I specifically don't note the individual alcohol marker shades I used for each project because I know each artist is coming to these projects in her own context.
Maybe you only have 3 copic markers because they're SO expensive (trust me- I get it and built my collection over many years!!!). Maybe you have zero copics because you've never tried drawing in anything other than pencil, maybe you have the whole set, or maybe you're into ohuhus! To each their own!! I don't care what you use- I just hope YOU DRAW!! 
If you ARE interested in learning about which specific marker colors I'm using, you can sign up to join my Fun Fab Drawing Club or purchase the Whimsical Women of the World classroom where everything is in real time (no timelapsed video- even for the shading portions of each project). You'll also find the original face drawing reference for each project here as well.
If you'd just like a little more info on skin tone markers so you have an idea of where to start with these if you've never used them before- or find starting an alcohol marker collection overwhelming - I recently created a FREE cheatsheet ALL about this to help ya out!! I organized this by color family for skin tones that are light, medium, or dark and have marker swatches from 3 alcohol marker brands that will work well. This should REALLY save you some swatching and trial/error time! Click the button below and I'll send my Skin Tone Markers Guide straight to your inbox. 
There are 12 pages in my Skin Tone Markers Guide and will be your best friend if you're thinking about using alcohol markers to work on these fun projects!
In today's video, you'll also get a little preview of the beautiful student artwork I'm thrilled to be featuring in this book as well! There are four gorgeous student versions for each drawing!!
Here are four of my favorite student pieces for my Native American face drawing project (see below)! 
Artists will also learn how to create profile drawings, as well as side profile drawing in a 3/4 view in Whimsical Women of the World.
In addition, I made sure to focus on the most frequently requested lesson topics students always ask me for - like how to draw a smile with teeth and how to draw a head from different angles.
My Lovely, Laughing Italian (below right) covers these two for sure!!
I also get tons of requests to draw older, more mature women so I can teach how to draw wrinkles! My Burmese Beauty (below) is the perfect project to develop those skills and MORE!
Come check out the flip through video for Whimsical Women of the World. I can't wait to show you what's inside!!
Thanks for hanging out with me today!!
❤️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
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HOW to DRAW & SHADE a WHIMSICAL BABY'S Face in Copic Markers & Colored Pencil (Whimsical Women #15)25/1/2021 I LOVE teaching how to draw a whimsical face, and have enjoyed creating the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series SOOO much!! I can't believe this is the LAST ONE in this series!! Today's art reference photo features the challenge of drawing a baby face because this lesson has been requested AT LEAST a million times by my beloved students!! The proportions are totally different when drawing a baby - so watch closely, and don't worry - I'll talk you through ALL my tips & tricks!!  Believe it or not ... this is the FIRST time I've ever taught how to draw a baby's face!! We start this out in a similar way to the other whimsical faces in this series, but as you'll see when you watch the video... the proportions of a baby's face are very different from those of an adult. They are much rounder and wider. The face shape is also more of a circle than an oval. However, because this girlie has her mouth open, the circular face shape does end up morphing into more of an oval.  While I was measuring out some of the initial proportions, I noticed that this particular reference seems to follow almost the exact same dimensions as the wrinkled Burmese woman from last week! Isn't that crazy?! If at any point in today's free face drawing lesson, things feel too advanced, you're not alone and this is totally normal. THIS is an advanced drawing project, and really all of the lessons in the Whimsical Women series are. If you're just learning to draw or have never tried drawing a face with pencil before, check this series out for beginners. It's SUPER simple and only takes 5 minutes! Even better- I keep it light and FUN, because I truly believe that the more FUN you're having with your art, the more you're gonna want to do - and the more you do, the better you become!!  Back to drawing this baby.... Initially, while I was studying the reference photo, other observations I saw in her facial features were how large and open her cute little eyes were, and how short her nose is compared to the whimsical face drawing guidelines we typically follow when I'm teaching you how to draw a female face.  HOT TIP: When you're ready to start shading, make sure you erase all of your guidelines, and even pounce on the lines of your drawing that you DO love - just to remove a smidge of that graphite. I've found this helps to save my lighter skin tone markers from getting muddy, and it helps to keep my markers from dragging graphite around the page. It's pretty crazy how reactive the graphite is if your marker accidentally touches it!  Throughout this series, I've been shading all of my projects with alcohol markers, and teaching you along the way how to work through potential issues like blending, streaking, and whatever else might arise if you happen to be using copic markers like me! I recently created a Skin Tone Markers Guide that is basically a 12-page eBook just FULL of alcohol marker swatches from three different brands (of varying price points, because I KNOW full well how expensive copics are, and how LONG it's taken me to build my collection!!). In this free PDF, I walk you through some great examples of alcohol marker shades that go well together to shade light, medium, and dark complexions - across all THREE marker brands (Copic, Ohuhu, and Arteza), so you're sure to be set up for shading success! I feel like a really good copic marker alternative is Ohuhu, followed by Arteza and Parkoo (Parkoo markers aren't in my Skin Tone Markers Guide, but this brand is a SUPER cheap copic marker alternative worth checking out if you're on a tight budget. I did a review of these markers here). I love the Ohuhu brush markers because they have a brush nib like Copics. That nib makes me feel like I'm painting when I'm coloring! If you'd like a copy of my Skin Tone Markers Guide, simply click the button below, and I'll send that cheatsheet straight to your inbox to help you save some time AND money!!   Something I've found SUPER interesting throughout this series, is watching all the different art supplies people are choosing to do these projects in! Of course some are working with alcohol based markers and enjoying this medium along with me - but tons are doing the prompts in watercolor, pastels, acrylics, or mixed media - and I just love seeing everyone's individual style and creativity with their preferences! If you're not aware, I'm actually creating a book from the entire Whimsical Women of the World series, and I'll be featuring student artwork as well (4 drawings per prompt, to be exact)! If you've been drawing along with me and are interested in submitting your work for publication, please read through the submission requirements and send along photos of your interpretation of the projects. I can't wait to see them!! All submissions are due on January 31, 2021.  QUICK TIP for COLORING with COPIC MARKERS! If you're having trouble with the skin tones you're working with looking too yellow (like mine was getting in this particular drawing), all you have to do to even that out, is select a shade across from it on the color wheel. In my case, since I felt like the skin tone of my girlie was getting too yellow, I worked in some very light lilac to even things out. If you haven't played with this copic blending technique before, you might want to do it on a scrap piece of paper off to the side of your drawing until you come up with a look that you like. When you're happy, try it out on your drawing!  Today's little model is also presenting us with the drawing challenge of how to draw a tongue!! LOL! I actually spent quite a bit of time shading this little lady's tongue, and am happy with how it turned out- once my colored pencil layering was added. I feel like my own drawing skills, and really my COLORING SKILLS, have totally improved as a result of doing the proejcts in this series. So if you HAVEN'T been drawing along with me, and are looking for a good drawing challenge - the Whimsical Women Series is PACKED with juicy lessons to help you grow as an artist.  I encourage you to really take more time replicating the shadows and highlights you're seeing around the nose and mouth of this face, and ANY face you draw, because the nuances you observe here and render in your own drawing - bring that person to life, and add a realistic quality to your work - even if you're working in a whimsical style like me! I ended up adding more shading with my white colored pencil and sharpie, and I'm really happy with the results.  If you'd like to draw and shade along with me in "real time," I've got this lesson and each one from the series ready and waiting for you in the Whimsical Women of the World classroom over at Awesome Art School, where we take everything step by step -from drawing to shading and everything in-between!! Thanks for hanging out with me today. Enjoy the tutorial, and I'll see ya back here next week with something FUN & NEW!! If you need any new drawing supplies, here are links to all of my favorite supplies that were used in this project! 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!
👉Hammermill Cover Cardstock 100lb 8.5" x 11" (fave to use with markers and best value at 4-8 cents per sheet and 250 sheets!!) 👉This Arteza pencil set is a new find and a GOOD one!! 👉Pentel GraphGear Mechanical Pencil Set (only ones I use) 👉Ohuhu Markers 24 piece skin tone set (Around $1/marker and with the brush nib, the best alternative to Copics in my opinion!) 👉Copic Skin Tone Pack of 6 ($33) 👉Copic B Set (my fave which has the most skin tones) (72 Set for $330) 👉Arteza Everblend Skin Pack of 36 ($36 - insane value!!!) 👉Arteza EverBlend Alcohol Markers (60 Set for $112 - also insane value!!) ❤️ 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 Padaung Woman's Face with Wrinkles in Copics (Whimsical Women #15)18/1/2021 I LOVE teaching how to draw a whimsical face, and have been enjoying creating the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series SO much! Today's art reference photo features a request I get all the time- how to draw wrinkles. When I saw this beautiful Padaung woman and began to study her features, I felt a deep connection with her and knew she needed to be a part of this series. I hope you enjoy today's whimsical face drawing tutorial!  If you've been hanging out with me for the Whimsical Women of the World portrait drawing series on YouTube, you know how we start out each and every face we draw! No matter the ethnicity or gender - our human faces all follow the same basic face drawing guidelines. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, you NEED to download my Whimsical Face Drawing Guidelines for your art table! These guidelines are EVERYTHING, and will help your face drawings look more proportional! Click the button below and I'll send the cheatsheet directly to your inbox!  The woman in today's reference photo presents us with quite a few unique drawing challenges! If you're drawing along with me (AND I HOPE YOU ARE!!!!), you'll notice this woman's head is tilted slightly and her nose is actually quite short, so it will feel like her facial features are a bit off from our face drawing guidelines. It's ok! Sketch in your guidelines like we always do, then study the reference photo and adjust accordingly. As you'll see in the video, I had to do a lot of checking, rechecking and erasing to get things the way I wanted them. AND full transparency - I had ZERO idea how to draw the brass rings around her neck! So while I sketched in her facial features, I tried to do a little problem solving in my mind about how I would attack that area of the drawing, and later - how I might want to approach the coloring portion of the project. In case you're wondering where this particular model is from - she's from the Padaung tribe in Burma- where the cultural tradition for Padaung women of wearing brass rings around the neck is still practiced by some today. Some say this is rooted in religion, some say it was and still is a defense against tiger attacks (which apparantly happen at the throat). Others have said the rings ward off men from other tribes because it makes these women "unattractive" and less appealing to kidnap and turn into slaves. Girls typically begin wearing the rings around age five. These women have been called "giraffe women," because of their stretched necks, but their necks actually haven't been stretched at all. It's an illusion. The pressure and weight of the rings press down on their collarbones and actually shift the rib cage's position so this area of the body becomes deformed, giving the appearnace of an elongated neck. OUCH, that sounds painful!! I can't even imagine...  If this is drawing project is feeling too advanced for you - hang in there. She's tough. If you need something simpler, start at the beginning of the series and work up to this one. If you're completely new to face drawing- this short playlist will be more your speed and will teach you how to draw and shade a very simple whimsical face in pencil. One of the main facial features that attracted me to this reference photo is based on a drawing lesson request I get all the time - how to draw wrinkles, or an older mature face... The trick to drawing wrinkles is to just DRAW THEM! That's it. They're kind of like their own independent facial feature that you have to observe and try replicating on your paper. Study your reference photo to look for the extra lines, and draw what you see. What can make drawing wrinkles extra challenging, is that every wrinkle has a highlight AND a shadow that goes with it! So the tricky part is not only getting them drawn in - but shading them realistically as well! This is an excellent example of where drawing becomes an art of observation.  If you feel like you want a copy or the real time lesson for this or any of the projects in the Whimsical Women of the World series, the stand alone classroom is available at Awesome Art School. If you'd just like the reference photo and do not need the real time drawing lesson, you can find them in my YouTube & Cheatsheet Library. Feel free to use MY drawing here and in the video as your reference as well.  I know this project, and many of the drawing projects in this series feel much more realistic and not how I typically define my "whimsical style." But I kept the word in this series on purpose because it serves as a reminder that each and every drawing project doesn't have to be perfect! It removes some of the pressure that drawing realistically can impose on us. You don't have to be a perfectionist, you can approximate things and take artistic liberties if you call your piece "whimsical" versus "realistic." EMBRACE the freedom of NOT being perfect. Try your best to replicate what you see, but don't get into a tizzy if it doesn't work out. Do your best, HAVE FUN with it, and move on.  As I mentioned, every wrinkle has it's own highlight and shadow going on. If you're trying to add more realism to your shading, you really need to pay attention to where the shadows lie. Are they on the right or left side of the wrinkles you're observing? That's where your darker shading needs to go- in every intricate crease. These details will give your work more depth.  If you're new to shading with alcohol markers, I know there are SO many skin tones and SO many brands out there, it can really be overwhelming when you're first getting started, and/or have a limited budget to spend on art supplies. Personally, I love shading with copic markers because of their juicy, brush nib. It feels like a paintbrush to me! But at around $9/marker, they're totally out of reach for most of us. I've been collecting them little by little for a LONG TIME! A really great copic marker alternative brand is Ohuhu. Their markers are surprisingly juicy for the cost and have a brush nib very similar to the one I'm in love with from my Copics. If you'd like some tips about what skin tone markers go well together, I've recently created a HUGE cheatsheet to help you out!! I say "cheatsheet," but it's really a little book, because this PDF is 12 pages of detailed color swatching!!!  Click the button below and I'll sent that straight to your inbox! You'll find recommendations as to which skin tone markers work well for light, medium, and dark complexions across three different alcohol marker brands (Copic, Ohuhu, and Arteza). It's really quite comprehensive, so even if you're not a total newbie to working with alcohol markers - there are still some gems in here for you that you may not have thought of before!  As you'll see in the video, there are so many layers of shading happening in the face with my alcohol markers. For these projects, my shading is about 95% alcohol markers, with a bit of colored pencil and white paint pen on top to help bring each drawing to life. HOT TIP: I found a really sharp tip to be helpful for wrinkle definition when I got to the colored pencil portion of this project.  Make sure you watch the video to really get a feel for where both the shadows and highlights go to help the wrinkles pop. I don't know about you, but sometimes I can get inside my own head with a project too much. For this one, there were some shadow shapes that weren't making sense to me and I had to just tell myself to quiet these thoughts and JUST DRAW. It doesn't have to make sense. Just draw what you see and turn that critical side of your brain off for a bit. This can be a really powerful mindset shift, and it will show in your work.  Even when I started shading the brass rings, I still had no idea how I was going to capture them because I've never drawn anything like this in my whole life. I had no idea how the piece was all going to come together, but I just started shading, and kept pushing forward- trying to quiet the doubts in my mind while I tried a variety of techniques to help me replicate what I was seeing in the reference.  Don't think just because I'm a teacher, I always have a plan and know what I'm doing. I don't! I'm always learning, always trying new things, and doing a series like this pushes me to try even more! I hope it pushes you too!! If you need any new drawing supplies, here are links to all of my favorite supplies that were used in this project! 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!
👉Hammermill Cover Cardstock 100lb 8.5" x 11" (fave to use with markers and best value at 4-8 cents per sheet and 250 sheets!!) 👉This Arteza pencil set is a new find and a GOOD one!! 👉Pentel GraphGear Mechanical Pencil Set (only ones I use) 👉Ohuhu Markers 24 piece skin tone set (Around $1/marker and with the brush nib, the best alternative to Copics in my opinion!) 👉Copic Skin Tone Pack of 6 ($33) 👉Copic B Set (my fave which has the most skin tones) (72 Set for $330) 👉Arteza Everblend Skin Pack of 36 ($36 - insane value!!!) 👉Arteza EverBlend Alcohol Markers (60 Set for $112 - also insane value!!) ❤️ 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 Face WITHOUT Face Drawing GUIDELINES?! (Whimsical Women #13)11/1/2021 I LOVE teaching how to draw a whimsical face, and have been enjoying creating the whimsical face drawing tutorials in this series! Today's art reference photo features a three quarter view face AND a tricky new head tilt to give us some practice drawing faces at different angles! Because her head tilt is so unique- none of my cheatsheets will work to help you draw her from scratch...SO I'm teaching you how to create YOUR OWN FACE DRAWING GUIDELINES!!! I honestly don't know WHERE this gorgeous model is from, but for the sake of our Whimsical Women of the World portrait drawing series, I'm going to pretend she is from the Ukranie!  We've done two, three quarter portraits already in the Whimsical Women of the World series, and I've shown you two different ways to approach drawing faces from this angle here with an Asian model, and here with a Latina model. Because today's model has her head tilted, we can't use the face drawing guidelines from either of our previous lessons. That's actually one of the reasons I selected this photo- because it presents us with a new challenge to learn from! Most artists come up with ways to help themselves accurately replicate what they see in a reference on their own paper. Many will use a light table or some form of grid to at least get them started. If you've seen any of my videos before, you know I really like to draw from scratch as much as I can, because I want to continue developing my drawing skills, building muscle memory, etc. Today I want to teach you how to come up with YOUR OWN guidelines, so you can truly draw faces at any angle!  When I have to create my own guidelines from scratch - my trick is to lay a sheet of trace paper on top of my reference image to sketch in key angles and note specifically where the facial features features should be located in relation to one another. As you'll see in the video, I traced the outline of the model's face shape and laid my pencil across her face to help me determine the correct angle of her eyes, nose and mouth. This nose is especially tricky because it's upturned. I found the shape to be very much like a triangle, so sketched that in. Additionally I noted approximately how wide the eyes and lips were, as well as the basic hair shape.  When I finished tracing, I laid a sheet of drawing paper to the side of my trace paper and tried to replicate the guidelines I had created for myself on the trace paper. If at any point, this one feels too hard- try something simpler! I've got two playlists on my YouTube drawing channel for beginners: how to sketch and shade a simple face, and how to draw profiles - all in graphite! If that feels more like your pace- start there and pop back here when you're ready! We're not going anywhere :)  If you want to do this lesson or ANY of the drawing projects from my Whimsical Women of the World series in REAL TIME - with NO timelapses, you can find these projects in the Whimsical Women of the World Classroom over at AwesomeArtSchool.com. If you're already in my Fun Fab Drawing Club- you'll see the Whimsical Women classroom in your library of club courses!  If you haven't been to AwesomeArtSchool.com before, I highly suggest you check it out!!! I've got so much FUN stuff for you to explore whether you like to draw, paint, do mixed media art - it's all there, and there really is something for everyone!  Back to today's project! When you feel like your drawing is in good shape and you'd like to start shading, go ahead and erase all of your guidelines. If you are shading in copic markers (or ANY brand of alcohol markers!), be sure you've removed as much as you can of the graphite from your guidelines because the graphite really has a tendancy to smear and get carried away by these juicy markers. One of my little workarounds to make sure this doesn't happen when I'm using my light skin tone markers, is to use kind of a pouncing motion to lift some of the graphite from the facial features I've drawn, so there is less of a chance I'll drag it across my page with my marker.  If you're new to shading with alcohol markers, I know there are SO many skin tones and SO many brands out there, it can really be overwhelming when you're first getting started, and/or have a limited budget to spend on art supplies. If you'd like some tips about what skin tone markers go well together, I've recently created a HUGE cheatsheet to help you out!! I say "cheatsheet," but it's really a little book, because this PDF is 12 pages of detailed color swatching!!! Click the button below and I'll sent that straight to your inbox! You'll find recommendations as to which skin tone markers work well for light, medium, and dark complexions across three different alcohol marker brands (Copic, Ohuhu, and Arteza). It's really quite comprehensive, so even if you're not a total newbie to working with alcohol markers - there are still some gems in here for you that you may not have thought of before!  When I'm coloring with copic markers, I typically shade light to dark, laying down a foundational shade of the lightest skin tone I'll be using to shade the face. Then I slowly work in an additional 2-4 more skin tone markers to help me indicate the range of shadows I see in my reference photo. Every time I add in another layer of shading in a slightly darker shade, I ONLY shade in the areas where I see shadows on my reference model's face and simply keep darkening smaller sections of the areas I've already shaded. When I have a good four layers of shading down, I will take the lighter skin tones and color the entire face with it - shading in a DIFFERENT direction from my original strokes to try and blend any streaks, color transitions or mistakes. I feel like this particular step is TRULY MAGICAL!! It takes all my previous layers, re-wets them, and BLENDS them together. As you'll see in the video, I also use a combination of skin tone famlies. I started out in yellows and beiges, and eventually worked in some pale pink, which adds a layer of sophistication in the complexity of my shading. Don't be afraid to reach for a wide variety of colors, because it's the BLEND of all these tones that really takes your work to the next level!!  When you hit this point of your project, you're about half-way done. Her eyes aren't finished, she hasn't "come alive" yet, and you're in what I lovingly like to call "the ugly phase." Try to be patient and keep working your layers. I promise she WILL come out of it. My biggest advice is DON'T GIVE UP. If you do- the "ugly phase" wins - and you'll never know what your girl could've turned into, SO just KEEP GOING.  Hair can be daunting for a lot of us, but the COOL THING about alcohol markers, is you can really sweep your marker from root to tip fairly quickly to fill the space and create the illusion of volume in no time. I like to use three shades of color in the hair of my girls to break up the space and add depth.  I LOVE outlining my girls, but if you don't - do whatever works for you! This is just an artistic preference for me, and part of my whimsical /illustrative style. I use my fineliner for this job, and look at THAT... she's coming alive, and busting OUT of her ugly phase. LOVE IT!! I told you it would happen!!  Once you're happy with the shading you've done in marker (or whatever art supplies you're using!), it's time to add some colored pencil. If you need help with this part of the project, you can find it in real time over at AwesomeArtSchool.com in the Whimsical Women of the World classroom. I share tips and techniques like how I hold my pencil, and why, so I get the effects I'm after.  I suggest you don't add MORE alcohol marker layering on top of your colored pencil, because the colored pencil can really have a waxy finish to it, and can fight with your markers. If you haven't heard, I am writing a book about this series and would love to feature YOUR ARTWORK! Please read the submission requirements and upload your interpretation of this or ANY project from the Whimsical Women series, right here on my website. I hope you learn as much from this drawing project as I did! Please scroll down for supplies used to create this project, and leave a comment if you have any questions!! See ya back here next week!! If you need any new drawing supplies, here are links to all of my favorite supplies that were used in this project! 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! 👉Hammermill Cover Cardstock 100lb 8.5" x 11" (fave to use with markers and best value at 4-8 cents per sheet and 250 sheets!!) 👉This Arteza pencil set is a new find and a GOOD one!! 👉Pentel GraphGear Mechanical Pencil Set (only ones I use) 👉Ohuhu Markers 24 piece skin tone set (Around $1/marker and with the brush nib, the best alternative to Copics in my opinion!) 👉Copic Skin Tone Pack of 6 ($33) 👉Copic B Set (my fave which has the most skin tones) (72 Set for $330) 👉Arteza Everblend Skin Pack of 36 ($36 - insane value!!!) 👉Arteza EverBlend Alcohol Markers (60 Set for $112 - also insane value!!) ❤️ 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 African Face & Head Wrap in Copic Markers (Whimsical Women #11)21/12/2020 Teaching you how to draw a whimsical face is one of my FAVORITE things to do! I'm having SO much fun with the whimsical face drawing tutorials in the Whimsical Women of the World series! Not only does today's STUNNING model help us study profile drawing, we'll cover how to draw an African head wrap (including how to draw the fabric folds within it), how to draw a closed eye, and how to draw a face looking up! As always, the whimsical drawing portion of today's video is in real time so you can see exactly how I get it done!!  To get us started off on the right track, I'm doing a mini review of the value scale to help you understand how important this is whenever you're drawing and hoping to take your artwork to the next level. If you incorporate the lightest light ALLLLLL the way to the darkest dark, and everything inbetween... your art will be so much more sophisticated!! Real quick, before we go any further: 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!  I talked about how to shade skin tones in graphite (or black and white variations of the value scale), a lot in my How to Draw & Find Your Style book because it's easiest for beginners to learn about value scale drawing in black and white first. Graduating from shading in graphite / black and white to color can be tough and trip some artists up, but it's exactly the SAME concept as grayscale- you're just essentially working in browns! HOT TIP! Be sure to create a value scale of skin tones for yourself that looks something like this before you start shading. I recommend you also write the name of the marker color next to the shade so you know exactly which one to pick up when the time comes!  One of the reasons I have loved doing this Whimsical Women of the World portrait drawing series is because I could push myself to explore all the variations of skin tones represented in countries around the world. If you've watched me before, you know I LOVE dramatic highlights and shadows, which today's reference photo is FULL of!! If you'd like a copy of my reference photo, hop over to AwesomeArtSchool.com and click into either my YouTube & Cheatsheet Library, or the Whimsical Women of the World classroom to download the reference image from today's lesson, or any lesson from this series! If you are a member of the Fun Fab Drawing Club over at Awesome Art School, the Whimsical Women of the World classroom has already been made available to you within the club!! If you're not a member of the club, but are interested, please sign up for the waitlist, and you'll receive an email from me when the membership is open for enrollment again in the spring!  Today's portrait drawing tutorial is a profile. Instead of teaching you my "Fun Fab" approach for side profile drawing- I'm showing you a little more advanced method from my book. It's a bit more realistic. If you start watching today's tutorial and begin feeling like this is a little too advanced for you- don't worry!! The drawing projects in the Whimsical Women series ARE more advanced. But I work hard to break them down for you to keep things simple, so when you do feel ready, you can dive right in!!! If this looks fun for you but feels a little out of reach at the moment, I've got an awesome 6-part video profile drawing series on YouTube that teaches you my Fun Fab method for drawing whimsical profiles (it's more directed at beginners)!! If you'd rather start with a front facing face (most do!!) - here is the 5-part series for absolute beginners!  Profiles can feel extremely tricky to draw because of all the angle variations that make us who we are as individuals. For example, in the photo above - I've highlighted the angle of the nose to the chin to show you just how much this changes from face to face. Some faces have a pronounced angle here, some have a more subtle one, and others have barely any angle presentat all - as in the case of today's beautiful model. I find using a sheet of trace paper helps me to understand the spatial relationships on a face before I draw it. You might find this to be a helpful trick as well! It's kinda like a practice round to warm up my hand.  If you're not sure how to draw a closed eye, how to draw open lips, or how to draw fabric folds on a headscarf /african head wrap- be sure to click over and actually watch the portrait drawing tutorial so you can follow me in real time. For drawing fabric folds on our model's head scarf, I try to break the overall head scarf down into chunks / shapes that I can clearly see, then replicate on my paper. Since I'm doing a whimsical drawing, instead of a realistic drawing, I'm able to give myself a little grace here if things aren't perfect. Doesn't THAT feel good?! No need for perfection when you pull out your "whimsy" card!!  When everything is sketched in, go ahead and start erasing all your guidelines. My favorite eraser is the vanish eraser - which you can pick up for about $2 at Jerry's Artarama, or on Amazon for a bit more. If you're not using alcohol markers to color in your drawing like I am, just be sure you have a nice gradation of skin tone shades swatched out before you begin so you know what to reach for when you're ready to start incorporating each shade! We want the WHOLE value scale represented in your work, because this adds dimension and sophistication!!  You have two choices when you're shading- either shading from light to dark or from dark to light. I've chosen to shade light to dark today- hitting the highlighted areas of her nose and chin first.  As you'll see in my work, and in your own (if you're using copic markers or another brand of alcohol markers), these can be very streaky. To reduce the streaks, it helps to lay your color down quickly so the shades blend into one another a bit when the ink is wet. You can also choose one color to shade over transitional lines to attempt to soften these lines, or add colored pencil shading over the top of your marker layers. When you're blending copic markers, you can also try shading one solid color in strokes running the opposite direction from how you originally laid down color. I often use the lightest or a medium skin tone marker when doing this to my face drawings. Be sure to watch the tutorial because I demo this today and in many of the videos from this series.  When I selected marker shades for the headscarf, I used the exact same strategy as I did for choosing skin tone markers to work with for this project. You want to choose 3-5 shades that transition nicely and can blend into one another to represent various stages of the value scale from lightest to darkest. If you're intimidated by the head wrap or not sure how to draw folds in fabric- this really is easier than it looks! I find it to be similar to drawing hair. Follow me, and I'll break it down for you.  The farther I get into my project, the more layers I continue to build up on her face to eliminate some of the streakiness in my transitions. But I also discover, the model in my reference image really is much darker than I have portrayed, and I need to continue darkening the shadows and blending skin tones to do a better job replicating what I see. Be sure to take your time here. Start slowly, and gradually build up those values. Honestly, the more layers you have, the more realistsic the skin will look- because we're all made up of many colors!! So just keep working and blending until you feel like you're at a good place and happy with what you've got.  I used my pentel pocket brush for my outlining - including the detail work on her eyelashes, just as I have used it in the previous lessons. I actually had to recently change the ink cartridge on this pen and sadly, it hasn't been working the same for me as it used to!!  As I was working the finishing touches on today's drawing, I decided to add just a bit more shading in and around the ear, because something about it was just bothering me! I ended up adding some black and it made all the difference in the world!! Now there is really some deep, gorgeous contrast! If there is anything I've learned during this series it's you can't have too many layers!! This amazing Hammermill paper I work on can seriously take a beating with my alcohol markers and I love it!!! The paper you work on is EQUALLY important as any other art supply you invest in. I hope you enjoyed this portrait drawing lesson in copics!!! I learned a ton, and hope you did too!!! 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! 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!! 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!! 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. |
Karen CampbellFounder of Awesome Art School. Mixed Media Artist. Author of 19 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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