Save Your Money on Paper

Thrift Thursday

Paper cheaper by the ream/bundle

Paper plays an important part of art, whether you are sketching or drawing. Quality paper is important but if you are just sketching or working out ideas, a ream of heavy weight copy paper is a good alternative to buying a sketchbook or art paper. It’s much cheaper per sheet than a sketchbook from an art store and it holds the drawing media just fine. Wet media does not work as well but you could still use markers, ballpoint pens or sharpies.

If you want to keep all of your sketches together or want a handy way to hold all of the paper while you are out and about sketching hole punch the copy paper. Put all of the loose sheets of paper in a cheap binder and you are all set.

Paper Basics:

• Paper weight - how thick the paper is.
  Heavier weight = thicker paper (example: 20lb. thin paper - 80lb. thick paper)\

• Paper brightness - how bright the paper is, brighter paper appears whiter.

• Paper surface - the finish or texture of the paper.
  Hot press = smooth surface
  Cold press = slightly bumpy, textured surface

color pencil on copy paper (two pieces taped together)

Thanks for stopping by, until next time keep drawing.

Learn Primitive Shapes to Draw Anything

Tutorial Tuesday

Shape Basics: Primitive & Primary Shapes

Get to know basic primitive shapes that you can use to build up a drawing. Primitive shapes are a great tool for breaking down complex forms into simplified shapes. It is much easier to visualize the simple shapes and arrange your ideas. Practice drawing shapes from all angles and perspective, squash and stretch them so when it comes time to draw you are already familiar with the shapes.

Start with circles and squares. Squash and stretch them into different sizes and shapes. Play around and have fun with it.

Combine the circles and squares to create more shapes. Don’t be afraid to try different combinations and fill a page of shapes.

Put the shapes together and draw something. Simple shapes can create fun images and you can combine the shapes to get more complex drawings.

Go ahead and try this, have fun and doodle. Let’s see what you can come up with.

Thanks for following along, see you next time.

Shape Basics For Beginners: Draw Through

Tutorial Tuesday

Shape Basics: Draw Through

Draw through objects as you draw. When placing an object behind another don’t just draw the parts the viewer would see, this can cause miss alignment and have a weird effect. Drawing through helps you line up and place the objects you are drawing properly.

Add more details using the shape structure lines as guides to add eyes, nose or other details.

Clean up your structure lines by removing the lines you don’t want to see in the final drawing.

There you go well done!

Best cheap pencils for beginning artist

Thursday Thrift

Graphite pencils are a great tool if you are just getting started with art, as a student, hobbyist or you just feel like sketching. You don’t have to get a ton of pencils with all the different levels of hardness or get the most expensive brand to get started. Start simple and buy a few different pencils with different levels of hardness and you are all set.

sketched with Ticonderoga number 2 pencil

You can go old school with a Ticonderoga Number 2 pencil like when you were in grade school or get a Bic mechanical pencil, they can be found anywhere no need to go find an art store. The sketch above was all done with a Ticonderoga number 2 pencil, the kind you may have used in grade school.

Grade school pencils

Pencil Basics:

The numbers and letters on the pencils correspond with the hardness of the graphite.

Pencil numbers with an “H” = harder pencils and make lighter lines
Pencil numbers with a “B” = softer pencils and make darker lines