Bonjour mes amies! C’est va?

First off, Alex and I apologize for being down for the time being. We forgot to update our publisher, so we were hacked. Alex contacted the wonderful support people at PowWeb for being amazingly awesome and rescuing the site. They truly are THE BEST! Thank you guys from the bottom of my heart! I say it again: YOU ARE THE BEST!

In other news, Sketching House is now on Facebook! Type in Sketching House in the search box, and become a fan!

It’s the wonderful and beautiful month of September! The color begins to fade from the trees, the air turns more crisp, children are back in school, and fall festivals are about to start! I can’t wait! With the fall festivals comes pumpkin roll, and with pumpkin roll comes a very happy Mari! I LOVE pumpkin roll! If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend that you do because you will NOT be disappointed!

Class started again today, and so far, I love the composition class. Tomorrow’s class I already know I will not like. *Yawn* But like you guys care, right?

In that case, how about a tutorial?

I just recently discovered how to create a wood texture in Photoshop, which is really neat and very simple too. So, if you want to create boxes and even trees, this is the tutorial for you. Click to read more …

Tags: Creating Texture in Photoshop, Layers in Photoshop, paint tutorial, Photoshop Filters, Photoshop Painting, Photoshop Shading, Photoshop textures, Photoshop Tutorials, Shading in Photoshop, Wood Texture in Photoshop

Good afternoon everyone! Oh my goodness, Alex and I apologize for our VERY LONG absence. As mentioned in a previous post, Alex and I had a summer class, and it involved A LOT of writing and research for our final paper. So again, we apologize. For those of our faithful viewers who stuck with us through our absence, thank you. Faithful viewers like you keep us alive. I’m sorry for sounding like a public access television station, but it’s true.

I’ve received emails from people asking how, when an image is colored, to shade white objects and clothing. One of the main complaints is how an object looks “dingy” or “dirty” when people shade using shades of grey. Well, shading white objects and clothes is something I learned a few years ago when I was still in high school. Grey does drag white down and often makes it look dingy. White is suppose to be crisp, clean, and fresh. I discovered that using shades of aqua help with the shading process. Why? Aqua plays off the white, making the white pop off the paper/screen and shout “CRISP!” Additionally, the white also makes the aqua pop creating the illusion of true shadows. Of course, in the non-drawing word, objects that are white often have grey shadows, but remember, when drawing, sometimes art doesn’t intimidate life. Let’s that a look, shall we? Click to read more …

Tags: Aquas, coloring techniques, coloring white, drawing tutorial, shading, shading techniques, shading white, white

Hopefully, these images aren’t as blurry as they appear.

Hello everyone! Mari here. Boy, have I been busy! Between cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning (as well as yard work), I haven’t had time to breathe, let alone post anything. However, the past two weeks, I have been working on the above two images in order to show you what effects you can achieve by using downloadable Photoshop brushes. The majority of the brushes used were found on My Photoshop Brushes, a site I mentioned in a previous post. As I mentioned before, I love unique brushes simply because the default brushes are dull and don’t have much leeway when it comes to creating awesome images. For instance, if you want flower petals floating around, there isn’t a default brush for that. For example, there’s a grass brush in the default brushes, but it faces one direction or comes out in a string of multi-colored clumps that look like confetti at a parade. By searching a brush database, you can find a grass brush that suits your needs if the default brushes don’t work for you when learning how to draw. Click to read more …

Tags: Default photoshop brushes, downloadable photoshop, downloadable photoshop brushes, Flower Petal Brushes, Obsidian Dawn Photoshop, Obsidian Down Brushes, Photoshop Brushes, Skin Brushes

Digital art is art created using a computer. Back when I was around 7 or so, I remember first learning how to draw using Microsoft Paint. The free program takes forever to draw anything and is extremely limited with its features. In contrast, programs like Photoshop CS4 can create nearly perfect lines, blend together pixels realistically, fade several images together and distort an image in thousands of different ways. However, programs like Photoshop CS4 come at a price that almost reaches four digits. You can also use less expensive programs like Corel Paint and Photoshop Elements, which are just as useful but lack many of the nice features found in Photoshop CS4. But luckily, some really nice programmers have taken it upon themselves to create free versions of the expensive Photoshop programs. Both these programs I used for years before I finally broke down and bought Photoshop. Also, these programs are 100% spyware free (as long as you download them from the links I provide).

Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, Art, artist, Artists, brush, brushes, computers, digital, digitally, draw, drawing, Drawings, edit, Expensive, features, gimp, image, lines, links, Love, Money, paint, Painting, Paintings, Photoshop, photoshopped, realistic, tools, Work

Good evening everyone! I’m back after a long absence. I’ve been busy lately, so I guess I should update you guys.

For one, I’m trying to post on here as often as possible, but I got bogged down with a lot of papers for class, but all is well with that spectrum of the universe now. I can finally catch up with all my articles for Demand Studios and for here. Another reason why I haven’t been posting so much is because I got a new job teaching a few Korean computer graphics professors English. They already know English, of course, but they want to learn it better so they can get teaching jobs in the States. I’m excited about this opportunity and it will help me get a job once I graduate with my Master’s degree. Today, I got to help one of my students practice for an interview she has with the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. I’m excited that I got to help with the interview and I wish her luck. To me, working with students is like raising children. You give them wings to fly and once they leave the nest… it’s so sad. One of my coworkers said I should be happy when the students leave because it means they gained confidence in their writing and speaking abilities, but for some reason, I don’t feel that way. A deep sense of sadness overcomes me. I don’t know if I’m suppose to feel that way, but I always do. Maybe someday, I will understand that feeling. Click to read more …

Tags: All My Children, Art Tutorial, Camera Angles, Chaucer, Comics, Crafts, Creative Writing, Geoffrey Chaucer, JoAnn Fabrics, Kodak Camera Tutorial, manga, Photography, Pilfering, Portraits, Professional Photography, Purdue University, Stark Tinkham, Stolen Goods, Tutorial, Writing

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*Sigh* Another day, another headache. I’ve come to the realization that I am my workplace’s little slave girl. I called off work yesterday due to ice and the fact that I just badly needed a day off. Alex and I went to breakfast and we didn’t really have anything planned (although I wished we did ), but I just love being with him and sometimes, I just need time alone and away from everything to clear my head. During the time I was with Alex (mind you, I CALLED OFF), my workplace called FOUR TIMES asking if I could come to work. FOUR TIMES AFTER I called off! I ended up going to work, killing any feelings or good karma the two of us had. Alex had work to do anyway, he posted a blog yesterday. The whole thing made me cry. When I get to work, they slam me with paperwork (”This isn’t for punishment, I promise”) and difficult students (spread the love around) because someone wanted to take off early, therefore, I was left with the mess. Furthermore, I was suppose to get off at 5:00– as I do EVERY THURSDAY– and I finished my 4:15 session and left. *RING RING* There’s my cellphone; “you have a 5:00 appointment, you need to come back!” WHAT!? I’m OFF AT FIVE! Well, without consulting me, they scheduled me until 6 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nice, huh? Better yet, the idiots are running the asylum, and I’m just a slave. To top it all off, they want me to miss class next week in order to hold a workshop. Say what? Um… no.

Now to shift gears.

How many of you have had trouble drawing clothes? I’ll be honest, clothes aren’t easy for me. For me, textures and folds are an issue and it’s something that I’m working on, however, I do know how to create a basic form for creating outfits. Today, I’m going to show you an extremely simple tutorial on creating basic clothes, which is better than having a naked figure. Artistic nudes are nice, but you can’t always have naked people in all your drawings. Moreover, there are simple ways to create texture in drawn clothes. Click to read more …

Tags: anime drawing, Art Tutorial, clothes drawing tutorial, Clothing Tutorial, creating creases in clothes, Digital Art Tutorial, drawing folds, drawing tutorial, French Art, Haute Couture, how to crosshatch, how to draw clothes, Jobs Woes, Photoshop, shading clothes, Traditional Art Tutorial, Work

Alex and I, I think, feel very lucky today. Yesterday, there was an apartment fire at the place we were going to live at. Unfortunately, someone lost their life–very tragic! God needed an angel by his side and unfortunately… however, the fire occurred at the apartments that Alex and I were originally going to live at! If we were there, we’d be dead or homeless right now. I’d say we are lucky. May God bless this girl’s family and I hope her family remembers recover from their injuries.

I’m suppose to be studying for a Linguistics quiz right now, but I’m very far behind on things. I have six articles I need to write for Demand Studios, two blogs for Divine Carol/Country Living, help Alex with some of his blogs (if he would ever sign online and let me know where he needs help at) and I need to come up with a ten page paper for my other job. Yes, for my tutoring job, we need to write papers to be reviewed. We also need community service. What is that? That place is ticking me off something horrible and I’m terribly close to quitting. If it wasn’t for the fact that I like working with the International students, I would leave. But, I guess I should be grateful for the fact that I have a job, that I’m not amongst the unemployed. But everything is looking desperate anymore. C’est la vie. However, yesterday, Alex and I developed a plan that would fix the economy for awhile… now if we could run for joint presidency…

On Valentine’s Day, the best possible thing happened. *Jumps around excitedly.* Pitchers and catchers reported for spring training! YES! The baseball season is right around the corner (Go Yankees! Go Cubs!)! Woohoo! And today is the Daytona 500! I hope my beloved Denny Hamlin wins! He’s my Sunday boyfriend, unless he races in the Nationwide Series on Saturday, then he’s my Saturday and Sunday boyfriend. All my boys of summer are back. Feel the speed, smell the green! Boogity, boogity, boogity! Let’s go racin’ boys! Play ball!

As mentioned, yesterday was Valentine’s Day. Alex and I went out to breakfast, went to the mall, took a long walk, had smoothies, went for dessert, went to Borders, and watched a movie called Towelhead (if you haven’t seen this movie or read the book, I recommend you do). It was a simple day, overall. I like simple, but I guess there’s a part of me that yearns for more romance. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic at heart: always hoping for more.  I guess the romantic side of me is the side that wishes for “the next step,” even though it scares me at the same time. I’m very afraid of that “next step” because of the drama it will cause. I’m tired of drama, fearful of monster in-laws, and all the meddling. Thinking of that “next step” makes me anxious–good and bad. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t want a whole big shabang, instead, eloping sounds nice. Think of the money we’d save! But, taking that step is just a distant and frightening thought. I’m not going to bother with it any longer. But, I’d give up my heart for him, since he already owns it.

So what kind of tutorial shall we do today? I’m not exactly sure what I have to offer today. Since I haven’t had time to draw in awhile, I’m going to have to use a tutorial I did over the summer for another website. Let me see… how about how to draw elf ears? I promised an ear tutorial a long time ago, so I guess this counts. Click to read more …

Tags: Angles, Art Tutorial, Baseball, Bewitched, Boogity boogity boogity Let's go racin' boys, Chicago Cubs, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Daytona 500, Denny Hamlin, Digital Art Tutorial, drawing, Drawing Ears, drawing tutorial, Ear Drawing Tutorial, Ear Tutorial, economy, Elf Ear Tutorial, Elf Ears, Face Tutorial, films, fires, How to Draw Elf Ears, how to draw faces, How To Shade, Jimmy Wayne, Major League Baseball Spring Training 2009, Matt Kenseth, MLB, Movie TOwelhead, Movies, New York Yankees, romance, Shading Tutorial, Sketching Lines, Sketching Tutorial, Towelhead, Towelhead movie, Tracing Tutorial, traditional Art, traditional drawing, Traditional Shading Tutorial, Tutorial, Valentine's Day

My boyfriend is very inconsiderate sometimes. He does not have Internet access (surprise, surprise), so I ask him to PLEASE call me when he gets home from school. Does he? Not at all. Do I know if he got home safely? Not at all. So I called him and left two messages. Does he answer or call back? NOPE! But no, someone on his end can pick up his cell phone and hang up on me. Nice! I call because I care about him and I get treated like garbage. Is it my fault he can’t take some responsibility and pink up a phone? Nope. That would be his. I just hope he knows that that is his ONE REALLY ANNOYING TRAIT THAT I WISH HE WOULD FIX! Stop being an airhead and pick up the phone! It isn’t that hard! Guys, let your girl know you care about them and call when you leave somewhere late at night, okay? They’ll really appreciate the gesture. It’s a very nice thing to do and prevents worry. Not to mention that it helps build trust. Remember that, sweeties. And girls, if your guy asks the same of you, return the favor; maybe your call will help him remember next time. Then again, that last part could be wishful thinking. Who knows.

So I’ve been busy with school work, tutoring and orientations, and freelance work. So far, so good on all fronts. I am able to keep up with everything, I just need to stop procrastinating so much. I have the ability to finish things on time, I seriously do, I just don’t. The other day, I finished 4 articles for one of my jobs in under 30 minutes. This week, it took me 5 days to write a one page paper for a class. Um… bad me!

Okay, now for the art stuff.

Tala asked me for some old drawings of mine, and I was surprised I still had them! Looking at some of those old drawings, I am amazed at how much I improved over the years! Right now, I feel like my drawing ability has been sub par, but overall, it’s improved immensely! My porportions have gotten better and my realism has improved. Let’s take a look, shall we? Click to read more …

Tags: anime drawing, anime how to, Art, art blog, artist sketches, artist's blog, Artists, characters, Digital Art, digitaL DRAWING, draw, drawing, drawing faces, Drawing Guidelines, drawing proportions, Drawings, facial features, features, frelance writing, how to draw hair, How to Draw, how to draw anime, how to draw clothes, how to draw faces, how to draw features, how to draw folds in clothes, how to draw fur, how to draw proportions, how to draw shoes, how to indicate light source, Improvements, original characters, Paintings, Photoshop, realism, realistic how to, sketches, sketching

I took a shot at drawing a character for a story I’ve been working on for awhile (months, years)? This isn’t really a tutorial but a record of the steps I took to draw her. This character is not done at all and she’s getting more folds and shading. I need to decide if I want to do cell shading again or try a harder type of shading.

I’m not even sure who this character will be but she’s temporarily named Angora. I might not even use her since I don’t hold on to characters unless they feel right. Maybe she needs some redesigning. Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, angle, artist, Artists, Blogs, blue, cartoon, cartooning, character, characters, clothes, clothing, Color, coloring, colors, dark, draw, drawing, drew, eye, Eyes, face, features, hair, lines, Lips, Love, manga, Marisol, Night, Nose, Noses, Plugs, proportion, proportions, real, Saw, school, shades, shading, side, sketch, sketching, Tutorial, Tutorials, Work, write, Writing

Oh my God, do I have a lot to say! Bear with me, folks, I’ll try to make this as brief as possible with a bonus tutorial! Yay!

First news on the docket: I am currently applying for a job in Japan. Yes, Japan! I’m currently applying for a job as an English language teacher, which goes along with what I plan on doing with my life. I want to teach ESL students, so teaching in Japan is MORE TRAINING than what I can get at my university. WOW! I am so thrilled about that! I would have a lot of perks, I would get to mingle with the people I LOVE SO MUCH, and leave the country for a year! Yes! Pray that I get this opportunity of a lifetime!

Second, Tala is officially a student at my university! YES! I’m so happy for her! Now if we can just raise money for her tuition…

Thirdly… I forgot what my third thing was.

And what is with men? Last night, I hinted to my boyfriend that he could come over to visit me today. I HINTED not so subtly! Apparently, not so subtle was way too subtle because I am currently boyfriendless and lonely. *Sigh.* Class starts in a few days and that means I will see him, but less so because of work and stress. Hopefully, our semester together doesn’t suck as much as last semester did. I’m tired of fights, coldness, and bitterness. *Sigh.* Hope for the best, I suppose.

See, I told you that was brief.

For today’s tutorial, I’m feeling a little lazy (I was sick–girl issues), so I’m going to use a tutorial I did for E-How over the summer. Today, I’m going to show you how to shade by stippling. Stippling is done by using a series of tiny dots to create the shading effect.Stippling may be time consuming, but it is fun and creates awesome effects. Lighter and largely spaced dots are for light shades; slightly darker and medium spaced dots are mid-tones; tightly packed and dark dots are for dark tones. So, do you have an image handy? Alright! Let’s go!
Click to read more …

Tags: Art Tutorial, Bottles, Complaints About Men, drawing tutorial, ESL Teaching, Japan, Kyoto, Men, Period, PMS, Purdue University, shading, Shading Effects, Stippling, teaching, Tones, University