A Look At My Final Piece-(school art project)

Hello everyone! I'm sorry for not posting for so long; I've been very busy recently. A short while ago I had two weeks of mocks/PPEs and then more recently I've been going on lots of trips with school and on top of that I've had a few homework deadlines to meet. But I've been really wanting to share with you my final piece for my school art project called 'Stationery and Art Supplies'. So here I am today showing you just that, I hope you enjoy seeing the product of my project.

To the left, you can see a photo I took with a Parisian theme including lots of stationery and a few other bits and bobs (such as the fan and my glasses). I really enjoyed creating this layout with a clear theme and colour scheme in mind and as a result, this was my favourite photo of the project. So this is what I decided to base my final piece on-it seemed to show my art style (quite messy yet pretty) and sum up the theme of the project.

Here is the final piece. There are a few details missing (mainly the floral design on the fan) that I didn't complete because I wanted to start my new project (I'll probably share that with you at some point) but overall I'm quite pleased with this. If I was to draw the floral design, I would use oil pastels which I haven't yet used on this. The mediums I have used are: coloured pencils, watercolour paint, acrylic paint, black fineliner and coloured biros. I made the background by marbling 8 pieces of A5 lined notepaper, with blue and red marbling ink. I love how this ties in with the theme and how little bits of this design show through on some drawings. However, what I don't like about this final piece (as well as the fact that it is not quite finished), is that it doesn't have the depth of the actual photo. What I mean by this is that I haven't made some of the colours bright enough to stand out and in some areas the tone isn't up to scratch. I regret using project life cards (the rectangles with words on or macaroons on)  in the photo because they don't really have any noticeable tone to recreate, so they look very flat and dull on the final piece. Also, the shape of the glasses is completely wrong-I can never draw glasses right so I don't know why I included them in the photo! But for a first final piece I think I have done well to recreate the photo to a decent standard.

So that's my final piece! Hopefully I'll be back in 2 weeks like planned. 

Over to you...

What did you think of my final piece? Let me know in the comments. Also do you take art at school? What's it like? 

Starting a New Art Project-Part 3

Hello everyone! Today, I'm here with the final part of 'Starting A New Art Project'! This time, I'll be talking about the backgrounds that I create to start of the pages in my project. I enjoy creating backgrounds because it's fun to just let loose on a blank piece of paper and get creative with materials! Some people don't create backgrounds for their school art projects, so don't feel like you have to. I just enjoy doing it and think that it pulls together the project nicely. To get better marks in your GCSE Art project, it's probably best to focus on the quality of your own drawings and photos, rather than the backgrounds but I still like to make them. Anyway, I'll get on with showing you examples of my backgrounds!

 This background is the first one that I created for my 'Personal Collection' project. It's the background for my title page so I wanted it to be really special. I created it using a decoupage technique (ripping small squares out of paper and layering them with PVA glue) with newspaper. I chose this technique because I thought the words in the newspaper reflected the theme of stationery. Once the newspaper had dried, I used a sponge to put on the three primary colours:red,blue and yellow. I also added some whiet over the top of some areas to brighten it up. I like the textured look I have created.

This second background was created for the moodboard. You can see part of the title there that I created with glitter, it didn't exactly go to plan. However, I'm quite happy with the background. I used a water blotting technique with primary colours: red, blue and yellow. I have tried to do several backgrounds in the primary colours, to tie the project together. If you don't know 'water blotting' is where you first put water on your page, then you put paint over the top and it spreads out.

This background is for the own photos page. I created it with a sponge, acrylic paint in primary colours, white acrylic paint, alphabet stamps and black ink. I like the distressed look I have created with the black ink edging that I have created and the white paint that dulled down the colour. The letters tie in with the stationery theme again like the newspaper writing did.

This one was for an artist page about Andrea Joseph. This didn't tie in with the primary colour thing that I have mainly been using because the artist pages seem quite separate from the rest of the project, because the rest of the project is my own idea whereas these pages are someone else's ideas. I hope that made sense hehe! Anyway, the main background was lined paper but this is the border. I created it with map paper, bubble wrap and acrylic paint. The acrylic paint was put on the bubblewrap which acted like a stamp. I like using bubblewrap because it creates an interesting texture.

 This next background was for the artist response page, which is where you draw from your own photos but in the style of the artist you are studying (Andrea Joseph in this case). I went back to the primary colours since this is my own work this time. I used the lined paper to represent a notebook. which the artist seems to use a lot for her artwork. The border was created with bubble wrap and acrylic paint in the primary colours and white.

 This final background was for the artist response evaluation. I used scrapbook paper, a colouring book page and white acrylic paint. I ripped up the two papers and layered them on the paper with PVA glue. I then used a sponge with white acrylic paint to dull down the colours in the papers. I didn't want the black lines and pink pattern to stand out too much since this is just a background.

So that's it! The next time I post it will be a different topic since this was the final 'Starting a New Art Project' post. Once I've finished the project completely (24th April) I'll probably show you all of the pages in full. But for now, I'll be writing new content! I hope you're looking forward to the next time that I post, I've been keeping a list of blog post ideas that are either new topics or bringing back old ones!

PS: Do you like the new Spring background? I drew all of the elements this time: the tulips and the blossom. I put it together on PicMonkey.

Over to you...
Do you enjoy creating backgrounds for creative projects such as your sketchbook or creative journal? Or do you enjoy making collages? Also, what topics do you want to see on my blog in the upcoming months?

Starting a New Art Project-Part 2

Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting for such a long time! I've missed blogging so I thought i'd try to quickly write a a post. I'l try my best to keep regularly posting now but I tend to get quite busy at the moment! Anyway, I'm back with a second part to 'Starting a New Art Project'-it's not really new anymore but I'll stick with the title he-he! 

So, in this post I'll be showing you a few of my drawings that I've done in my 'Personal Collection-stationery and craft supplies' project so far. At this point in my project, I've now done a double page spread of observational drawings based on the photos I showed you last week. It took me a long time but I love looking back at my project at this stage to see the progress I've made!

 This first drawing is of some mini pencils that I createdwith my Prismacolor pencils. I wish that I'd just left a gap on the paper for the white stripe since it took a long time to create a white light strip after I'd coloured it in already! Oh well- I'm quite happy with this drawing since I like that the light as added a realistic look to the drawing rather than just cartoon-y.

 These next drawings are quite small so I found it quite difficult to add details. I used acrylic paint which I find quite hard to control sometimes (since I haven' had much experience with it). However, I don'y think these turned out as badly as I had expected them to. They're quite cute ad I like the texture on these.

This is one of my favourite drawings on the double page spread so that's why I decided to give it its own photo (I haven't zoomed in all of the drawings). I created this with black fineliner and it was a lot of fun to give ink another go! I haven't used ink since Inktober really (last October) so I was glad to see that I remembered how to control the pen! In real life, these eiffel tower scissors are a rose gold colour but I made it simpler for myself by keeping it black and white for this drawing. The lineart itself was very detailed so it took a long time but I love the overall effect!

These next photos are both the same drawing of a purse that I keep my mini pencils in, the purse was a gift from Japan. This is my favourite drawing (with the eiffel tower scissors being in a close second) and it's a good job that I love it since it took me hours! Actually, I wasn't really counting in hours, I was counting in TV programmes and films that I watched in the background whilst drawing it! But when I calculated the length of the programmes together, it seems that I took about 3 and a half hours on this! Oops! You can see that I created the texture of fabric on the purse in the photo on the right.

Here's the completed double page spread, the lighting in the photo is a little iffy but hopefully you can see all the drawings clearly! I wanted to create an interesting layout and add collage-like features such as sequins, stamps, buttons and pencil sharpenings. There are a few drawings that I'm not keen on such as the stamps and the panda sharpener but overall I'm proud of the results of this page.

That's all for this post! I hope you've enjoyed nosey-ing at my sketchbook, like I said in my last post I like to do that too! I think I'll only do one more of these 'Starting a New Art Project' since I don't want to be stuck in one blog series-I want to try new topics like bullet journalling and calligraphy and just experiment really this year.

Over to you...
What do you think of my observational drawings? Have you been doing an art project recently either at school or at home? Let me know in the comments!

Starting a New Art Project-Part 1

Hello everyone! This year I started my GCSE Art course and I've been loving getting creative! So, this week I decided to share with you my experience of starting a brand new art project. I'm one of those people who love nosy-ing at people's GCSE sketchbooks so I hope you're one of those people too! I think I'll do a few posts about my art project so make sure you come back to read the rest! This first post is about my own photos (AKA primary sources).

To start our project we were given a list of topics such as: stretched, personal collection, public transport, details, assembled, architecture and wrap. We could interpret these any way we would like to personalise our project. I knew straight away that I wanted to do 'personal collection' because my room is practically overflowing with stationery I've collected ha-ha! So my sub-theme was stationery and craft supplies. From this point we were given a list of tasks to do and since I only started this 1-2 weeks ago I've only made a start on the first few.

Here's where I get back to where I started...photography! Over the weekend I used my spare time to take photos for my project! I gathered up all of my prettiest stationery and prepared a few backgrounds then just got started!
                                                   

 Left:
I used a Johanna Basford colouring book page as the background for this because I wanted to create a soft look to the photo. Also, I continued this soft look in the editing stage by turning the temperature up to make it look cosy. I also used an effect that darkened the edges and brightened the centre which \I thought added to the cosy feel. By the way, I used PicMonkey to edit all of these photos and just used my smartphone's camera. Also, it took me AGES to link those papercliups together in the shape of 'hello' ha-ha!

Right:
This one fits more into the crafting supplies section of my project because I used sequins. I spelled out 'love' with sticky notes. I liked how this tied in with the upcoming Valentines Day celebrations.

Left: 
I decided to use hessian fabric as my background for this one to create added interest with some texture. It should be interesting to come up with a way to recreate that background in my sketchbook! I used my moleskine dotted notebook and some mini pencils for this because I thought these items were really cute! The purse is there because that's where I store the pencils and I think it will be good to get a break from drawing stationery. By the way this purse is from Japan.

Right:
This one doesn't have such an interesting layout as the others but I wanted to focus on the sequins. I chose to take photos of sequins because I think that it will be interesting to look at the colours on them and then try to recreate them with different mediums.

Left:
This one took me a very long time to arrange ha-ha! I started this early in the morning on Sunday so that it would be done by 12 o'clock when the lighting was just right! For some reason I love incorporating circles into my art projects, they just seem to look neat but not too harsh. Do you understand what I mean? Anyway, I like this layout.#

Right:
Well...this one didn't exactly go to plan. It was meant to look a little bit like the one on the left but less organised. I started by putting the ones that were in the middle (red) at the bottom of a toilet paper tube and then put the next layer above it and so on. Then when all of the buttons were in, I lifted up the tube and let the buttons spread out. As you can see, it's messier than I was hoping for! Anyway, I think that the contrast between the photos will be an interesting part of my project.

Left:
I took this photo in a slightly different way to the previous photos. All the others are flatlays (taken from above) but this one was taken in front of the items against a background. I like that this one has a mixture of plain white paper and hessian as the background because it ahs a nice balance of textures. I chose some really cute pieces of stationery here. In editing, I darkened the edges to bring attention to the items.

Right:
For this photo I chose the wooden table as the background because I wanted something warmer than plain white paper but I wanted to choose something different than hessian.I like that I chose the eiffel tower scissors with the eiffel tower writing paper because they work well together! I love this writing set by the way, it's so gorgeous! It's from Paperchase (but the sharpie, scissors and stamps aren't).

So that's all for this post! I hope that you've been inspired by my photos, I'll be taking a few more for the project but these are the ones that I wanted to share with you! I don't know how often I'll update you on my new art project but it may not be every time I post since sometimes I'll feel like posting something else.

Over to you...
Are you currently doing a GCSE art project or have you done in the past? Let me know in the comments. Also, what do you think about my photos?

Why I'm Doing Inktober!

 Hello everyone! Inktober is a month long drawing challenge where you draw one ink drawing for every day of October. Some people don't draw absolutely every day, but I try my best to draw every day (I think I've only missed one day so far). You can draw whatever you want as long as it's in ink! There are some prompts that you can find on social media but I just draw what I feel like each day! Most of the things I draw are Halloween or Autumn themed because this season is so inspiring-don't you think? Gorgeous colours, a gentle breeze and that fresh start feeling!

So, why am I doing Inktober? I am doing Inktober for many reasons. Firstly, it is an interesting challenge to post on social media! I recently got Instagram so doing Inktober is a great excuse to post every day ha-ha! I love creating new, creative content for my Instagram and this blog! Any excuse to draw every day is good enough for me! I feel like I am on a roll at the moment in terms of art, I just started my GCSE art course and it feels like I am drawing every spare minute! I'm loving it though! Taking my art sketchbook home is fun to develop my school work and then I draw my Inktober things to create a personal sketchbook! Unfortunately focusing on drawing means that I am doing less of other things such as: fashion design. Sorry that I haven't posted a fashion design post for a while but I will try in November once the challenge is over!



Another reason I am doing Inktober is to build up a 'stash' of drawings that I can then edit! An example of my edited ink drawings is on the right! Here's an edited version of the owl ink drawing I showed you above! I started by scanning it and then taking it to Photoshop where I cleaned up the lines, removed the white background and coloured it in. I then saved it as a png. I then went to PicMonkey (an editing website) on the design feature where I made a background and then added the owl as an overlay. I like to take my ink drawings into digital art because it progresses the simple drawings into professional-looking art. I then use these as Inktober posts (which is cheating but oh well)!xD

The main reason I am taking part in Inktober is to improve my inking skills. I don't think that 'inking' is my strength in art so doing Inktober has helped a lot. In my art course, you get higher marks for experimenting (using different mediums, techniques, etc) so using ink is a skill I need to be skilled at. I do think that doing Inktober has been an effective way of developing my skills with biros and fineliners. You can see that this drawing on the left is much more comlex and 'better' (I mean more detailed) than the owl drawing at the top. This is actually my favourite drawing so far. This was my first time experimenting with the cross-hatching technique and I think it worked well! It took me a long time (until I thought of putting this in the bin) but you have to put time in to see improvement! You can clearly see the development so I think this has been a useful challenge!

The last reason I am doing Inktober is so I can improve my blog! You will have seen my new Halloween background that will be here for October. This was actually made with the skull drawing I showed you above! I have decided to make all my blog backgrounds since the pineapple one I had last month, by myself! This will improve my blog by making it unique to me! Another way Inktober will improve my blog is because it has helped me get used to drawing often! This means that I will be able to produce art faster in the future so I can post my art more often on here (remember I am aiming to post every week)! I am enjoying improving my blog content, I wonder how it will have changed this time next year? It's these sorts of wonderings (this isn't a word is it) that make me look forward to the future!

I hope you enjoyed this post full of my Inktober art! I recommend that you do any daily art challenge (it doesn't have to be Inktober) because it gives you the results that you want and sparks your creativity!

Over to you...
Have you ever done an art challenge such as Inktober? How did it go? Let me know in the comments! If not, would you ever try it? 

What's in my Sketchbook 2

Hello everyone! Today I'll be sharing with you the contents of  my sketchbook (or to more accurate, my sketchbooks)! I previously wrote part one of this 'What's in my Sketchbook' as a guest post with 5starartists.blogspot.co.uk. See my first skecthbook post here. I think that my art has improved a lot since then so I thought I would share a part two this week! Enjoy!



My first drawing in this post is of a leaf. I drew this one a long time ago (last year) but I wanted to share it with you because I quite like it. I drew it in my old sketchbook so the quality is not the best. I used to use a watercolour sketchbook for drawing in which is not the right sort of paper. You can see that it smudged a lot and the lines aren't of the best quality, this is because of the paper type I used. However, I enjoyed drawing this seasonal art because it made me excited for Autumn. Now that it's Autumn again I am starting to draw seasonal artwork again, such as the Halloween lineart at the end of this post! Autumn and Winter are probably my favourite seasons because of all of the fun celebrations that take place in this half of the year. I love celebrating with my family and friends because of all the wonderful traditions and decorations that fill the house. Halloween is coming up next month and I'll be writing several spooky posts soon! 

This next piece of art is of a dancer. I was experimenting with drawing things in motion so I found a reference of a dancer on pinterest and started drawing! I don't, like how I've drawn the dancer's head and neck since it looks realistic but I quite like the rest of  the drawing! My favourite part of this is the fabric that is flowing behind her. It looked strange as I was drawing it but when I added tone, it started to look really interesting. I am interested in fashion design so I enjoyed practising drawing the folds in fabric. In the future, I would probably like to re-draw this art because it has an interesting subject but there are a few features that I think I could improve now with more experience. During drawing this, I learned how to draw legs. Although they're not perfect, I now know how to sort of make the curves look right. 

The third drawing I want to show you is this banana leaf. I drew this only a few weeks ago in my new sketchbook. I don't always use colour (which is strange since I love colouring books) so for this drawing I wanted to incorporate colour into it. I started by sketching out an outline in pencil which I later went over with black fineliner. I then added texture with a dark green watercolour paint. Once it dried, I went over with lighter shades of green and yellow to finish it off. I regretted adding the texture first, but now I think that actually it looks quite nice with a subtle texture. Believe it or not, I actually have a banana plant growing in my bathroom! xD That's what I used to draw this from after taking a quick photo on my phone. It's been growing for several years since I received some banana tree seeds in my stocking one Christmas! I never thought it would grow as huge as it has! Obviously it doesn't grow bananas on it since it is not warm enough in England to grow them but there are lots of vibrant, massive leaves on it!

The next drawing was a challenge that I completed. One of my penpals and I like to challenge each other to do something creative each time we write to each other. It's very fun and helps me to be creative! This particular challenge was to draw one thing in a medium that I'm not confident with and one drawing in a medium I am confident with. This one is drawn in biro which I'm not confident with and is a made-up flower drawing...



and here's the other drawing! this one is the challenge art that was drawn in a medium I am confident with! I chose to use my Prismacolour colouring pencils for this artwork. This is my favourite drawing in this post and one of my best drawings in quite a while. I absolutely loved drawing this and it was very calming to just blend away at this drawing!  This took me a long time to draw but it was worth it!

The last drawing in this post is a line drawing of a Halloween witch. Like I said earlier, I love celebrations such as Halloween, they just feel very magical and fun! That's why I decided to draw a witch recently. I enjoyed collecting lots of references of interesting witches on pinterest to inspire me. I was very engaged whilst coming up with an interesting witch outfit, so I had the idea that perhaps I could draw several witches all with different outfits, is that something you would like to see? This is an unfinished drawing because I want to draw a few more details and add colour. I think I might write a separate post about the finished drawing when it's done (it will probably be quite similar to this post I wrote last year). I'm looking forward to uploading Halloween themed posts this year; I've got several ideas and there will be more than last year, since I am now trying to write posts weekly! If you've got any Halloween post ideas please share them in the comments because I might write them! 




I hope that you all enjoyed seeing the contents of my sketchbook! I will be drawing more often in the upcoming months because I want to improve my skills and start experimenting to find my style so you might be seeing more art posts soon! I'm also working on a drawing collab with 5StarArtists, we're drawing disney princess fanart (anyone who wants to join in click on this link). We're both looking forward to sharing the finished art with you, so you'll see that art too! 

Over to you...
What Halloween post would you like me to write? Give your suggestions in the comments. Also, feel free to give me your feedback on my art! I'd love to hear your opinions!

How to Draw an Elf

This picture is a link to my tutorial on How to Draw an Elf on scratch! Click on it to see howto draw the picture above!I hope you enjoy this Christmas drawing tutorial! Check out my other projects on my scratch profile! Also, if you like this drawing tutorial, you should check out this studio of all my tutorials!

How To Create Zentangle Inspired Art

 Today I'll be showing you how to create zentangle inspired art. I call it zentangle inspired art because it isn't an actual zentangle but it includes similar elements such as intricate patterns (but only here and there). The drawing style zentangle was originally created as a meditating method to relax you. It's true that drawing detailed pictures can calm you down, however I do zentangles because I love the overall affect of this technique. In this post I'll be showing you my practice exercises that I do before starting this type of art. I hope I help!



To start off, I drew elements that I wanted to include in my drawing. This can really help because you can get used to drawing things you have never drawn before (this was my first time drawing bats, as you can tell :P). Also, this is your chance to adapt your drawing style. This really is the time to experiment! I had fun creating spooky faces on the pumpkins, skulls and ghosts! You can try different shapes and sizes to create a new look! My top tip is to put ticks and crosses next to your doodles. This doesn't necessarily mean you will include them in your final piece, it just says to you whether you like the way it looks or not. In one way, this practice page helped me to decide what I was actually able to draw in my last piece because I then knew that I didn't want to include ghosts as I couldn't get it right.



The next stage of the drawing process was another practice page, this time it didn't go into so much detail. It just had a few practices of each technique until I got them right. To create this practice page template, I just drew a few small boxes. From then on, I started drawing Halloween patterns in them and decided whether they were good or bad. To fill the space I did a quick practice of the main drawing, a little witch. I did a colour test on the doodle to see what worked best together.


It was then time to start the real thing! I kept looking back at my practice pages that proved to be very helpful! I used the elements from the first exercise to fill the spaces at either side and the pattern page to fill the little witch. There were some extra doodles on here that I didn't practice. If you are having trouble coming up with new ideas for your drawing, you can search keywords on google images such as Autumn, Halloween or spooky. Remember! You should only be inspired by other artist's work rather than copy them; you want to create a unique piece that you can be proud of! Now you can either leave your zentangle inspired art black and white (this is traditional) or you can continue onto the next stage like I did...




The final (optional) step is to add colour! This is where the colour test comes in. I looked back at my colour test and made a new colour scheme with different shades that I thought worked well together. This is a Halloween picture so I tried to include , orange, black, green, purple and metallic colours to give a spooky feel to the drawing. I made a gradient of dark purple to pale blue for the early evening sky. I scattered hundreds of little silver stars over the sky to make it look magical. I love the overall effect of this picture; I poured hours of my time into it and I feel it's worth it! I hope this has helped you to gain new skills and think about practicing in a different way. Let me know in the comments what you have created with my tips and what other drawing posts you would like to see on this blog!

PS: Don't forget to vote in my poll to tell me what type of post you want to see soon! If you voted for a seasonal post, (as well as this one) you'll see plenty in the next few weeks!

Back to the Future vs Reality

Today is the FUTURE! Well, according to the film Back to the Future 2. So be excited, by the end of today we should be seeing hover boards, flying cars and self-tying shoelaces everywhere. As a bit of fun I decided to draw a fashion design based around the fashions of this year that the movie predicted and the actual fashions of the year. I took about 2 hours on this design so I thought I would share it with you! 

    To see the labels then click on the picture and it will zoom in. I compared the 2 outfits by describing each element. I used one of the TopModel template books to start me off but I drew everything from clothes to hair. I don't often label designs but for this particular project, I thought it benefited the drawings.

The future may not be as the film intended, but I hope you have a great day anyway! Why don't you watch the Back to the Future films (there is 3) as a celebration? I know this was just a short post but I just wanted to make you aware of the special day and share my design with you! Tell me in the comments what your predictions for the future are-I'll enjoy seeing what you think! :D

My Terrific Ten Art Tips-Guest Post with 5 Star Artists

Hiya! I’m Kenza, author of 5 Star Writers and 5 Star Artists, an enthusiastic writer and artist who enjoys… you got it, writing and drawing! XD Today I’m hosting a guest post collab with Megan, which we’ve been really excited to share with you guys and hope you’ll enjoy!! :D For my part of the collab, I have decided to share ‘My Terrific Ten Art Tips’ . This is my first detailed art tutorial, put together especially for this collaboration, so I’ve done my best to choose art tips that would help all those artists out there willing to draw something awesome!

Be sure to check out Megan’s post, ‘What’s In My Sketchbook’ which is now featured on my art blog! You are guaranteed to like it!

If you’re interested in this post, please do check out my art blog, 5 Star Artists for more. I always do my best to share things that’ll interest my watchers. :)

Enjoy! :3

1) Start with the Eyes: When drawing characters (animated character fanart especially), I recommend you start drawing the eyes before anything else. (However, don’t of course go into detail until you’ve drawn everything else.) Not only does it help get the proportions right, it also helps you draw the eye in a more accurate way. Moreover, eyes are known to be what define a character’s appearance.

2) Play Music: This isn’t absolutely necessary, but I find that music makes drawing feel less time-consuming. When I draw, I’ll find a track that best fits the thing I’m drawing, say Let It Go when I’m drawing Elsa, Zen Ball Master when I’m drawing Po, I Can’t Wait To Be King when I’m drawing Simba, etc. … it doesn’t even have to have lyrics. Another interesting thing is that lots of artists out there are inspired by music to draw something. It’s cool!

3) Practise Drawing Hands: Hands are known to be one of the most complicated body parts to draw, according to most artists. They have a random form that is hard to copy. The best you can do is practise drawing them. Every so often, when I have the time, I’ll think, okay, I’m going to draw some hands again. I’ll get my spare art book (I totally recommend getting a spare one – it doesn’t even have to be heavyweight) and I’ll sketch some different hand shapes, either hands of animated characters (this is a good way to start) or of real hands. Try Elsa (Frozen) if you can – her hands always make interesting shapes and the good thing about it is that it gets you practising the easy way.

4) Draw Hairstyles: I personally find drawing hairstyles one of the most fun parts of drawing a character. Why? Because you can get really crazy and creative with them. I would also recommend practising them. When drawing hair, be sure to start at the parting. It helps a lot. Furthermore, if you draw a manga character, be sure to draw a hair line. This helps get the hair in an accurate position.

5) Use References: Almost all artists use references when they draw. References are there for everything… to inspire, to get things accurate, to help you develop your own style, and so on. Honestly, I don’t recall doing any good art pieces without using a reference. Bear in mind, there’s no restriction to how many references you can use. The more you use, the better!

6) Try Different Ranges Of Pencils: Okay, so this really does help when you draw, believe me. There are lots of artists out there who just use an HB pencil (I don’t blame you if you do, though, because of course a lot of people only have HBs as they’re also handy for writing. XD). You can get different ranges everywhere (good quality ones include Faber Castell, Royal & Langnickel and Derwent Academy). I recommend a set of 6B-5H if you can, but 3B-2H at least. Most people start their drawings with a 6B because it’s softer and easy to rub out. I, personally, then use a 2H (sometimes I even start with a 2H when doing fanart, haha) and a 5H for extra details. When you’re doing eyelashes, try a (sharpened!) 2B – it works better. Whatever you do, *SHARPEN YOUR PENCILS*. (Okay, I think I’d better stop my lecture on pencils now… XD)

7) Go Over In Ink Pens: I could go on forever about ink pens, but for now I tell you, not only do inks pens make your art stand out, they also preserve it for longer. If you don’t, you’ll soon find that the pencil lines smudge (Especially 6Bs. Most definitely.) When doing thin lines or eyes, I use a very fine tip, either an XS Calligraphy Pen or an ink pen of 0.05. When doing thicker lines, I use an S Calligraphy Pen or an ink pen of 0.1+.

8) Perfect Your Artwork: Once you’ve finished what you’re drawing, perfect it. Just try. Correct the proportions, add on more details, etc. Anything, anything at all that makes your picture look better. You’ll be glad you did it, because if you race ahead and colour, there’s a good chance you won’t be happy with the results in the end and it’ll be too late. Lesson learned (the easy way). (excuse the handwriting in this one)

9) Use A Manikin: If you’re drawing a person, and you aren’t copying something, then use a manikin. They help a ton, believe me. You can easily twist the wooden body parts into the shape you desire (jumping, sitting, waving, the splits, a pirouette, anything). Just copy it, draw the outfit on top and then rub out the manikin shapes. I know it sounds a bore, but it’s easier done than said! You can buy them in shops like The Works. I’ve got a small one and a big one (personally, I think the big one is better).

10) Compare Your Artwork: If you ask me, comparing artwork and looking back at your old pieces is an important thing for an artist. We all improve by learning from our mistakes and the only way to do that is facing our mistakes (even our worst fails). If you do fail an art piece, don’t rub it out. It’ll help you improve looking back at it in future. I don’t mean to be superior about my artwork, but I’ll admit I’ve improved a lot over the past year. (As for the old ones in this picture, I drew them over a year ago).

I also have some bonus tips to share with you guys!
1) Try reflecting your artwork (all you need to do is hold your artwork in front of a mirror and all the mistakes you haven’t noticed will show up – it’s a really cool life hack!)
2) Sharpen your pencils (yes, I’ve mentioned this in tip #6, but I just need to emphasise how much this helps when drawing)
3) Buy a heavyweight art book (they may be higher in price, but they’re absolutely, totally worth it… otherwise, get an art book over 139gsm… you see, if you don’t, it’s easy for pens/paints to sink through the paper or rip when you keep rubbing out – and we all know that’s totally annoying.)
4) Start with a rough sketch without pressing hard (otherwise, you might find later that you’ve made a mistake and can’t correct it easily)
5) Doodle (true fact: it gives you ideas and even helps you think, Zentangles especially)
6) Don’t be afraid to make mistakes (if you don’t make mistakes, then you won’t improve, so it’s perfectly fine if you do!)
7) And most importantly, KEEP PRACTISING! :D (whether you decide to follow any of these art tips or not, just keep practising… you want to draw a complicated mansion, a detailed dinosaur, a beautiful background? Just keep going at it and you’ll be a master of it in time to come.)

Thanks for reading! It’s been a pleasure to write for Megan’s blog and I hope you artists out there learned a thing or two from this! :D Keep drawing and keep your imagination racing!

Note from Me:

It was lots of fun writing with kenza and for her brilliant blog-so please check out 5 Star Artists to see what other amazing posts she has come up with! You can find my guest post 'What's in my Sketchbook' in her blog too! I hope you enjoyed this collab! Let me know in the comments what your favourite tip of hers was! Also, please check out the giveaway going on at the moment on my blog, by clicking here.

Some of My Best Art

Today I thought I would share some of the art that I have created which are my favourites. If you have any feedback for me please let me know in the comments.
                                                     


I created this first drawing with an ordinary writing pencil (probably HB) and some thick artists paper. It took me quite a long time to reach this standard. I was trying to practice tone when I drew this.








This ice-cream sundae was drawn on my computer using my BAMBOO wacom drawing tablet. I am most pleases with the shading on this piece because I find it hard to make the base of a glass look realistic.










If you read my water colour post then you'll have already seen this picture of a birdhouse that I drew then painted. I used black fineliners to sketch out the outline then I used water colour paints to colour it in. I like this painting because I think I blended the colours well to give the wood a worn look. Also, it is quite realistic (I drew out a birdhouse that i could see in my garden).







Today's post was short but I hope you liked it! Please leave me some feedback in the comments.

PS: I have done more pieces of art that are my favourites but I haven't got pictures of them all-let me know if you want to see them. :)