5 Reasons Why You Can’t Draw

People make all kinds of excuses of why they can’t draw. Trust me, I’ve heard just about all them. The truth is, I believe that anyone can draw. It simply takes overcoming a few misconceptions about drawing and dispelling a few myths. Here are some common reasons that people struggle with drawing and how you can overcome them. Reason 1 - You Need More Practice - This is probably the most common reason why people struggle with drawing. They simply need more practice to get better. Drawing Read more [...]

How to See Like an Artist

Artists see objects that they draw and paint in a very unique and specific way. Learning how to see like an artist is a crucial step to improving artwork and becoming a successful artist. Drawing and painting subjects in a representational manner is, after all, about “seeing”. So how can we learn to see like an artist? Is this even a skill that can be learned, or is it an innate ability that some of us have and some of us don’t? Well, the good news is that it is a skill that can Read more [...]

Create an Environment That is Best For Teaching and Learning Art

Combating Student Frustration When Learning How to Draw Art students of any age and ability can be incredibly hard on themselves when they are learning how to draw. This is applies to student artists in the classroom, community art school, or with the self-taught artist. Self doubt can be constantly present within the student. Unfortunately, self doubt wins out with many students and the satisfaction of the creation process quickly transforms into frustration. The struggle that many Read more [...]

The Difference Between Sketching and Drawing

What’s the real difference between drawing and sketching? To answer to this conundrum, let’s first establish that sketching is a form of drawing, and drawing is the method we produce marks in a sketch. Drawing can simply be defined as making marks on a surface. The two descriptions are often used interchangeably. It’s really no surprise that there is some confusion out there as to the differences between the two and I’m not really sure that a perfect answer exists, but I’ll Read more [...]

More Than a Portrait

Sometimes the little gestures in life are the ones that leave life long impressions. Probably for many of us, when we think of impactful art, we envision great works that have been viewed by thousands or even millions of people. We think of masterpieces that line the pages of our art history textbooks. Our maybe we think of artworks that have influenced art itself, leaving impressions on the aspiring artists that would follow, changing the course of art history. Of course, works Read more [...]

Charcoal Animation

Charcoal is one of the most versatile mediums for drawing.  It's ability to be spread easily over surfaces and erased with ease makes it a medium of choice for many artists.  Charcoal also has the ability to produce deep backs, allowing the artist to create a full range of value in drawings.  Charcoal is such a traditional drawing medium, that you might find it surprising that animation can be produced with it.   When most of us think of animation, our minds go to cartoons.  After Read more [...]

Artistic Inspiration

Finding inspiration for artworks comes easily for some. But for most of us, it doesn’t. In fact, finding inspiration for artworks can be downright frustrating. Much like “writer’s block”, the absence of ideas or much worse-motivation, can be almost a disease that eats away at our artistic souls. It may be a little comforting to know that all of us have felt this frustration before. The yearning to be creative is there, but the inspiration isn’t. The search for ideas Read more [...]

Turn a Photo into a Painting for Free

A friend of mine recommended that I check out this new website that allows you to turn a photo into a painting. Best of all this site is free. (You can't really beat free things.) I procrastinated visiting the site, since my work load is so heavy already, but I'm really glad I did. There's more to it then just creating a quick painting. The name of the website is PyskoPaint.com. It is the creation of Pyskosoft (psykosoft.net), a mighty cool-looking place to work. (By the way, they Read more [...]