Now that it’s summer, I’m happy to say that I can draw daily. I’m in my element once again; woohoo! I haven’t done a lot of traditional art recently simply because I haven’t found my groove with that yet (I lost it over the LONG semester). However, digital art hasn’t been much of an issue, especially since the image is literally right in front of me instead of flat on a table. For those who don’t use a Wacom tablet, believe me, there is a world of difference. Especially when learning how to draw. Sometimes, stores like Best Buy offer a “Try Before You Buy” deal if you ask the sales associate (the hardware is hooked up to one of the in-store computers); if you’re curious, try this.

Anywho, but most of us use programs like Paint.net, GIMP, or Photoshop to create digital art. However, a lot of the default brushes, I find, are not as helpful as one may hope. Personally, I do like the airbrushes because of the soft colors and the softened look to the images, but sometimes, I need a little more than default brushes. Now, occassionally, I use Paint.net and GIMP, but I haven’t in awhile. So today, I’m going to focus mainly on Photoshop. So, Photoshop users, are you tired of default brushes? I am; so I’m going to show you some of the best places to find brushes for Photoshop. Here are my top three. Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Free Gimp Brushes, Free Photoshop Brushes, Gimp Brushes, Photoshop, Photoshop Brushes, Tutorials

Hi guys!!!

Alex, Tala, and I have not died or disappeared. We’re still alive and kicking and working on exciting projects for the Sketching House community. But I must tell you, the three of us have been completely bogged down. With our semester coming to a close, the three of us are overloaded with projects, final exams, and papers. However, please don’t worry; our semester ends in two weeks, so we’ll be back and better than ever! We’re still planning on improving the site to make it more user friendly, and we haven’t forgotten about the tutorial requests we’ve received. Furthermore, Tala has a very special project that she will be unveiling very soon. I must say, her project is very elaborate and wonderful, so please check back to see when it’s posted– you WILL NOT be disappointed, I promise!

So please bear with us! The three of us will be back very soon.:)

This is Marisol signing out and going to take care of her first sunburn of the year!

Love always!

Tags: Art, drawing tutorial, Updates

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

Arms can be some of the most pain-in-the butt parts that you can ever learn how to draw. The way the arm flexes, twists, stretches and raises can really drive an artist crazy. There are so many ways that an arm can position itself that I’d be insane to try to cover all arm positions in one tutorial. So in this drawing tutorial, I’m hitting arms that are mostly straight and downwards. Whew, here goes. Click to read more …

Tags: Alex, Art, artist, Artists, character, characters, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, face, figure, lines, side, Travel, Tutorial, Tutorials, view, Work, write, Writing

Ears can be wildly complicated to draw, since the ear is a bunch of folds that seem kinda asymmetrical. Luckily, you don’t have to always draw every aspect of the ear when you’re doing cartoon drawing. However, if you want to learn how to draw people realistically, you’ll have your work cut out for you. Hopefully this drawing tutorial will help.

Click to read more …

Tags: Art, cartoon, cartooning, character, characters, circles, do, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, Father, hair, lines, picture, realistic, side, strands, tips, tools, Travel, Tutorial, Tutorials

During the course of the semester, I’ve had the pleasure of working with a bright and articulate student, Houen Zhou. Our first meeting involved reading over a photo analysis paper where he wrote about Zhongli Luo’s painting, “Father.” Something about Houen’s analysis and ability to notice details prompted me to ask if he would like to be a part of the Sketching House family. To my delight, he said yes! So today, Alex, Tala, and I are stepping aside to give the spotlight to Houen Zhou.

Thanks everyone!

Mari

Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Art Analysis, Art History, China, Chinese, Chinese History, Father, Guest Bloggers, Luo Zhongli, Mao, Oil Paintings, Painting Analysis, Painting Description, Picture Analysis, Sketching House, Zhongli Luo

When you finally learn to draw arms, a large part of your quest to learn how to draw body art is a quarter of the way through. Whether you draw manga or fine art, arms are often the most dynamic parts of the body because they can be moved in all sorts of directions and action poses. Arms can be easy or hard to draw depending on how detailed and muscular you want your character’s arms to look.

Start off by drawing a head. Theoretically, you could just draw the arm. But arms are hard to draw if you aren’t seeing them in proportion to the rest of the body and you might as well get more practice with figure drawing. So draw a circle. Click to read more …

Tags: Art, cartoon, circles, draw, lines, manga, proportion, realistic, Tutorial

I’m back

Where was I? Working, school and being lazy. I’m sorry! I know, it’s been awhile. Marisol and I were trying to get an apartment but we ended up working so hard that everything started to suffer. From now on I’m going to stick with contributing to our tutorial art gallery.

Anyway, here’s another art drawing tutorial on nothing specific in particular. This tutorial focuses on drawing face art, rather than body art, giving explanations on how to draw out each part. I added advanced sections, even though they’re not really that much more advanced. They’re really just extra things you can look out for when you’re trying to go the extra mile with your art lessons. Click to read more …

Tags: anime, Art, artist, Artists, bangs, cartoon, cartooning, coloring, colors, draw, drawing, Drawings, drew, emotions, eye, Eyes, face, hair, personality, tablet, Tutorial, Tutorials

Hello everybody! Marisol here (again) with another tutorial. I apologize once more for the fact that we’ve all been busy with work and school. As it seems, I’m the only poster left on Sketching House, so until someone returns, you’re stuff with me. Alex doesn’t have Internet access at his house still, which I still think is purposeful, but that’s my opinion. Tala is still floating somewhere in the great beyond… Tala! Come back to you!

Today (well, technically yesterday now) was an obnoxious day. My mom kept talking my head off which resulted in a major headache, Alex got rear-ended coming to pick me up, I almost got hit by a car (and I used very colorful language), Tala was about to pass out at work, and Dunkin Donuts screwed up my coffee order! Now, if you want to me a happy girl, you don’t screw up my coffee order! When Marisol wants a gosh-darn HOT caramel latte, you just better darn-well give it to her! Did she get hot coffee? NO! She got iced. Marisol was unhappy and is now finished referring to herself in third person.

Hmph.

Due to our busy-ness, Alex, Tala, and I have to use tutorials we created for our other jobs. Today, I’m going to begin some jewelry-making tutorials; how does that sound? Today, I’m going to show you how to create a multi-strand lasso necklace. This is super easy, so this will go by quickly. Unfortunately, due to my lack of time, I don’t have any definitive pictures, but I hope to take some this weekend. Click to read more …

Tags: Art, Art Tutorials, Homemade Art Tutorial, Homemade Gift Tutorial, Homemade Gifts, Jewelry Gifts, Jewelry How-To, Jewelry Making, Jewelry Tutorial, Lasso Necklace, Multi-strand Necklace Creation

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