I just discovered the power of youtube and desktop recording software

I love to write more than anything else in the world. But there are some things that you can’t really show with text and pictures. Also, some people just learn better with video. So to be helpful in that way, we’re going to be posting videos in some of our tutorials on how to draw and create other forms of art. Please comment and let us know what you think.

These tutorials were done using Photoshop CS2. Don’t worry, we’re getting a digital camera soon so that we can post video tutorials on how to draw traditionally.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Tags: Art Tutorial, Digital Art, Photoshop, realistic, shading, Tutorial, Tutorials

Good afternoon! Marisol here with a Photoshop tutorial. Hooray!

Since summer vacation began, I’ve had the opportunity to draw more and experiment with new Photoshop brushes. Previously, I shared some of the drawings I did using some of these new brushes, but those images were on a smaller scale, so it may have been difficult to see the effects. As mentioned before, one of my favorite brushes is the downloadable skin texture brush, simply because the brushes make skin appear more porous, eliminating the smooth airbrushed look that Photoshopped skin usually has. Here’s how to draw textured skin using skin texture brushes. Click to read more …

Tags: Art Tutorial, How to Draw Skin, Photoshop Brushes, Photoshop Tutorial, Photoshopping Skin, Skin Texture Photoshop

Hi everybody; Marisol here. I’m sick today, so I didn’t prepare a real tutorial. I haven’t posted in a while because I bought a Nintendo DS (yay!) with my tax return, and I’ve been sick. I think I have a cold or the flu, but I rebound quickly. Let me update you on a few things, though.

This has been quite the interesting week for Alex and me. Monday, our linguistics class was cancelled, so we went and sold some movies and got a Super Nintendo! Yay! Too bad there was no AV plug.

Finally, today, Alex and I were about to get attacked by some angry guy in a purple Ford Ranger. It was my and Alex’s turn at the stop sign, so it was our turn to go. Well, Mr. Purple Truck decided to pull out in front of us as we were going through the stop sign. He honked at us even though it wasn’t his turn to go; Alex honked at him. The guy in the purple truck pulled over, swung his door open, and was rushing up to our car ready to fight! Alex drove off and we thought the guy was gunna follow us to fight! People… sheesh! Crazy, crazy people.

Okay, so our week wasn’t that eventful. Oh well. Good stuff, anyway. Tala should tell you guys about HER week!

Okay, so someone recently asked me about shading techniques and how to not make drawings seem so sketchy. Well, I have some tips to offer. Ready to begin? Awesome! Click to read more …

Tags: Art Tutorial, Blending, blending tutorial, crosshatch shading, how to blend colors, How To Shade, shading, Shading Tutorial, traditional Art

Hi everyone. Mari here and I’m very sleepy! It’s 2:17am in my neck of the woods and I’m ready to collapse. Before I go to bed, I thought I would update you guys on some things I’m working on.

UPCOMING TUTORIALS:

I just finished the drawings for the cel shading tutorial. Learning cell shading is really important, especially when learning how to draw with limited colors. Look for that to be posted within the next week.

I did a tutorial on angles in photography. That will be coming up soon.

Finally, I have some origami videos that I plan on posting, once I have my videos updated on Youtube (on Youtube, I am Kit Aisuru).

UPCOMING ART GALLERY ADDITIONS:

I am currently working on my drawing for the song “Vanity.” If you’ve yet to listen to the song, please visit this blog post to hear the song. So far, here’s what I have so far.

It’s a bit of a mess right now, but I promise, it will be cleaned up. So far, I’m happy with it. Thank you Cafir for the reference image. There’s a lot of changes and a lot more to be made. Wish me luck! This is a HUGE project I’m working on, and I want it to be great!

There are my updates. See you all again soon!

Mari

Tags: Art Tutorial, Cafir, Cafir Deviant Art, Deviant Art, Deviant Art Altura-Tears, Digital Art, Photography, Photography Tutorial, Photoshop, photoshop elements, Vanity, Yuki Kajiura

Good afternoon everyone! How are you today? I’m a little chilly. The other day, it was 75 degrees and wonderful outside, so I spent much of my time out on my deck. Today, it’s sunny and 39 degrees and very cold! Normally, 39 degrees isn’t bad, but since it was 75 the other day, it feels much colder than need be. I hate it! Where’s the warm? Of course, the temperatures are suppose to be in the 60s and 70s next week when I go back to class. My campus annoys the heck out of me simply because we ALWAYS have spring break in winter. Why? To torment us poor souls who can’t fly to warmer locations due to lacking money. Nyah! I want to go to Disney World!

So, for the past few months (since December), I’ve had a picture working on my featuring Kitana and Ikura and their love, yet, I can’t seem to figure out how to draw it. The picture is to be based on Yuki Kajiura’s song “Vanity,” a song I’m totally in love with!

My idea for this image was to place Kit and Ikura in water, floating next to each a la Yuna and Tidus from Final Fantasy X. However, I can’t seem to execute this idea as well as I like and my drawing looks like boogers on stick–ew! Click to read more …

Tags: "You'll be there by my side/ you may never know my devotion", Art Tutorial, artist help line, Artist's Block, Disney World, drawing tutorial, Final Fantasy X, Kalafina, weddings, Yuki Kajiura

Every now and again, I like to take some time away from tutorial posting and talk about life. Today is one of those days. For those of you who have been following Sketching House since its birth in October 2008, you know that I like to do this. Now I know that there are screams and moans going on amongst the ranks saying “NOOO! Mari, why!? We want to learn about art!” but sometimes, there are things that need to be said and things that need to be done in order to preserve my sanity. However, I do love you, oh mysterious viewers. Besides, Alex posted two tutorials today. =^_^=

First order of business, please give a warm welcome to SushiGal, our newest member to the Sketching House family. She comes to us from a far off mysterious land, so please be nice. I know what it’s like to have people be mean to you unnecessarily, so please don’t do so.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Alex and I ditched Chaucer to go have some fun. For one, I had a splitting headache, but from what I gathered, we missed a good class in the beginning, but then it fizzled in the end. Anywho, so Alex asked if I wanted to go to dinner with him and I said sure. We went to a place called Anthony’s Creative Cuisine, which is right next door to our favorite restaurant, Niko’s. This was our first time trying this restaurant, so we thought it would be fun. First, we couldn’t figure out where to go in at because there was three doors; we found the right door on our first try. When we walked in, a cheerful, but fancily dressed hostess greeted us and took us to our table. First, Anthony’s is deceptively large and we ended up sitting in the terrace room. For one, it shoulda tipped me and Alex off that this was not our type of place by the décor. Everything was purple and white with grapes and grape leaves hanging all over the place. Secondly, there was a terrace room. Non-fancy restaurants do not have terrace rooms! Third, the menu was small, snooty, purple, and padded. In all my English classes, we learned that purple was the color of royalty, so uh-oh. Furthermore, the fact that this place proudly announced that they accept credit cards shoulda been another sign. Oh noes! Click to read more …

Tags: All My Children, Anthony's Creative Cuisine, Art Tutorial, Embalmer, Embalming, Expensive, Life, Money, Niko's, Purdue University, school, SoapNet

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

Hello everyone, Marisol and Alex here! How is everyone doing today? I think Alex and I are doing alright, we’ve just been really busy. Now, I’m sure you guys are reading this saying “huh? Alex and Marisol?” Yep, we’re both posting under the same blog today. Why, you may ask? Well, I will tell you.
A few weeks ago (it may have been a few months ago, I’m no longer sure), Alex and I devised a plan about how we can create a joint post. I came up with an analysis post where he and I look at one picture and we each come up with our own interpretations of the image. This is a bit of an experiment on the male and female perspectives of art, if there is such a thing, that is. Today, Alex and I will be analyzing  “Unrequited Love” by Deviant Art’s Elfdaughter (Averil White, who is also a new contributor to Sketching House, so please give her a warm welcome. Ms. White comes to us from the United Kingdom). So, without further ado, let the analysis begin! Click to read more …

Tags: Art Tutorial, artist, Averil White, blind art, blindness, color analysis, creating textures in art, darkness, Deviant Art Altura-Tears, Deviant Art Artists, Deviant Art Culturalrider, Deviant Art ElfDaughter, Disney, Disney's Cinderella, drawing textures, drawing tutorial, Dreams, Elfdaughter, emotive portraits, How to Analyze a Portrait, Perspective, Photo Analysis, princess crowns, royalty, Strathmore Drawing paper, tutorial for art, unrequited love, weddings, whiteness

Some days, I wonder why I even bother to wake up; today is one of those days. The coffee pot died, the washer is dying, and the basement toilet is getting worse thanks in part to Alex for flushing the toilet paper holder thingy. To top everything off, I have a load of homework and articles to do, and my beloved best friend hasn’t spoken to me in four days and I don’t understand why. Alex and I have yet to receive an explanation. I texted her and called, but she won’t answer her phone at all, let alone kindly acknowledge the fact that I text messaged even though it costs me a huge sum of money. So, another weekend and more money out the window.

Once upon a time, when I was little girl in old country…

I don’t know where that came from. There’s way too much noise here today and I can’t think straight. My parents are fighting and I’m sitting right in the middle of it all. Why? I have nowhere else to go currently. My computer desk in my room is all cluttered with a lot of stuff that doesn’t even belong to me (spring cleaning, so my room is a storage depot), it’s freezing in my basement (the heater is on the fritz, too. Burning hair anyone?), and my niece is in her room. Sometimes, I just wish I could b*tchslap them all, scream “shut up,” and go on my merry way. I want a car BADLY, then I can escape.

How about a tutorial, guys? I think a tutorial would work; I need to keep my mind off things. Alex did an arm tutorial yesterday, which I was going to do today, but I will shelve that for awhile. How about we work on the lower half of the anatomy and create legs? Legs are fairly easy to draw, so this will be a simple tutorial. We’re just going to draw straight legs today, no bends or movement yet. Ready to begin? Since I’m short on time and have a lot of things to do, I’m going to use an art tutorial I created for another website last summer.

Click to read more …

Tags: Anatomy Drawing, Art Tutorial, Broken Appliances, Chewbacca, Digital Art, drawing tutorial, How to Draw Legs, Leg Definition Drawing, Leg Drawing, Leg Drawing Tutorial, Leg Sketching, Patron Saint of Appliances, Pencil Drawing, Photoshop, Scanner, Simple Leg Tutorial, Sketching Tutorial, Star Wars, traditional Art, Traditional Art Tutorial

Property of CNN

*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