TheVirtualInstructor Blog

Teaching harmony and unity in art can be a little challenging.  Helping students to understand the need for harmony in art is easy, but having them understand how to implement it into their own artwork is the hard part.  Harmony and unity are principles of art.  They deal with the way the the elements of art are arranged in an artwork.  Harmony deals with similarities and unity deals with the quality of “oneness” that is created by these similarities.  Both are important to successful art creation.

Harmony and unity are created by three methods…
1. Repetition- By repeating elements such as shapes, colors, or motifs, harmony and unity can be achieved in an artwork.
2. Simplicity- By simplifying elements, such as colors (color scheme), or shapes, forms, etc. you can create unity.
3. Proximity- Proximity, in this case, refers to limiting the amount of negative space within the picture plane of an artwork.  By limiting the negative space, you can create unity.

So how can you make teaching students these principles fun and memorable?  Play a game.

Each student should begin with a clean, fresh, sheet of drawing paper.  Each student should also have the same medium in hand.  Have the students begin by putting their name on the back of the paper. (You may decide to laugh as they all turn their blank sheets of paper over to put their name on the “back”.)  Tell them that they have 3 minutes to draw whatever they want. Time the drawing.  Then, the students should turn their paper over so that their name is showing.  Have them pass their paper to another student.  Tell the students to add their name under the previous student’s name.  Then tell the students that when they turn the paper over, they must add an new element to the image.  You can choose the element.  (For example, you may say that they need to add aliens to the scene.)  The catch here, is that they must make it look harmonious and unified.  In other words, it must look like the same artist created the image.  Remind them that they can achieve this by using repetition, simplicity, and proximity.  Repeat this process several times with new creative elements of your choosing, timing the drawing part to 3 minutes.  Finally, have the students return the drawing to the original student.  The original student now needs to pull the image together with the final 3 minutes of timed drawing.

This game will provide a memorable experience for students to help enhance their learning of harmony and unity in the creation of artworks.

So many people get frustrated when it comes to drawing the human figure.  Sure, it is one of the most difficult subjects that can be drawn.  But this fact should never be a reason to get discouraged.  It takes years of practice to really master figure drawing.  That’s why most traditional college art programs require so much figure drawing in their curricula.  Figure drawing not only helps you draw the figure itself, but it also increases your overall drawing skills.  You must pay attention to the position the figure is in, the light , the shadows, the form, and proportion.  In other words, you must look at the subject.  And looking is one of the most important factors in drawing well.  Remember, drawing is at least 50% observation.  So by practicing figure drawing, you get better at drawing anything.

Drawing the figure quickly is a skill known as “gesture drawing”.  Gesture drawings are drawings of the figure that are meant to capture the proportions and general information about the figure.  They are done relatively quickly and not much attention is given to the detail of the subject.  Practicing gesture drawing can really improve your speed in drawing as well as your observation skills.  Practice gesture drawing whenever you get a chance-sitting on a park bench, at the mall, watching a sporting event, or from images in magazines.  You will get better at figure drawing and drawing in general.

To learn more about gesture drawing and to see a video demonstration click here-> Gesture Drawing

Often times the need arises to create many copies of the same shape, image, or text.  You could select what you want copied and then paste carbon copies to edit but why waste all of that time?  Instead you could quickly create a custom brush to save you lots of time.  Or maybe none of the brushes in Photoshop suit your fancy, well-just create a new one.  It’s incredibly easy to create custom brushes in Photoshop.  Best of all, the brushes that you create are completely editable, just like all of the brushes already included in Photoshop.  You can get really creative with custom brushes.  Here’s how easy it is..

First, select your image, shape, or text that you would like to make into a brush.  The go to “edit”->”define brush preset”.  Name your brush and you’re done.  All of the brush attributes can now be applied to your custom brush.  And, until you delete it, your brush stays in your brush menu.  Have fun and be creative.

To see the video demonstration of How to Create a Custom Brush in Photoshop click here-> How to Create Custom Brushes in Photoshop

It is quite easy to create a slide show in Adobe Flash.  However,  it is more complex than just throwing a transition between images in a standard video editing program.  Slide shows created in Flash can be used to showcase artwork through the creation of a portfolio.  A slide show created in Flash can also be a nice welcome to visitors to a website.  The process of creating a slide show in Flash can seem tedious, but the level of control you get over the transitions is well worth it.  In this free art lesson, I demonstrate how to make a simple slide show using a fade in/ fade out effect.  You will also learn how to center your images and make them match the size of the stage with just a couple of simple clicks.

To see the video art lesson click here-> How to Create a Simple Slide Show in Adobe Flash

Using selective color to enhance a photograph artistically is a popular Photoshop technique.  There are a variety of ways that this can be achieved.  I believe that the easiest way is using a layer mask to choose which areas are to be colored.  This is how it works.  First select the image that you would like to enhance using selective color.  Pick an image that has good contrasting colors.  Think about color theory when are choosing your image.  You will be highlighting the colors, so color theory should be very important. Open your image in Photoshop and duplicate your background layer.  Go to “Image”->”Adjustments”->”Desaturate” to take the color out of your duplicate layer.  Next, choose to “add layer mask” from your layer palette. Then you will use a soft brush with the opacity lowered a bit to paint black in the areas that you want colored. Remember, you are on a layer mask, so you aren’t really painting black.  Instead, you are removing the mask to reveal the color underneath on your original background layer.  If you make a mistake, simply paint with white to desaturate the area again.

To see the video demonstration of this Photohop lesson click here-> Selective Color in Photoshop

It is possible and even advisable to use an eraser when you draw.  In fact, it is possible to create a drawing almost entirely from erasing.  I refer to this type of art-making as “rendering”.  Although the word rendering can actually refer to any type of drawing.  In this free art lesson, I demonstrate how to create a rendering or an eraser drawing using vine charcoal, a kneaded eraser, and a tool called an erasil.  You can pick up all of these supplies at your local art store.  Erasils may be harder to find.  An erasil is shaped like a pencil and even sharpens like a pencil, but the material inside of the wooden shaft is eraser, not graphite.  This tool is great for getting details with an eraser.

In this demonstration, I cover the entire surface of the paper with charcoal first.  Then I proceed to erase the highlights and tints away with the erasers.  Lastly, I add darker values with the charcoal to increase the range of value in the drawing.

To see the video drawing lesson click here-> Eraser Drawing

Drawing is defined as the action of making marks on any surface with any mark-making material.  Anyone can make marks on a surface.  Therefore, anyone can draw.  Can you write your name? If the answer is yes, then you can draw.  Okay, okay some of us can draw better than others.  Why is that?  Is it because of some magical thing called talent?  No way!  Becoming skilled at drawing demands just a few steps and some things coming together. Anyone that wants to draw well needs to have desire, pick up a little instruction, spend TIME in practice,  and then more time in practice.  I decided to put together a list of quick tips on drawing so that you can see results in your drawing immediately.  This list of tips is not everything you need to know about drawing.  this list is purely just some tips that I have picked up along the way that have helped me in my drawing.

To see the list click here-> 10 Quick Drawing Tips