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Question from Cedric

Dear Mr. Vladimir London, I write to you to introduce myself and to ask a question about the Drawing Academy Course. First off, let me start by saying how impressed I am with the approach you have towards drawing. I think, in any skill, there is no better way to learn than from the masters; the proven and tested ways.

My name is Cedric. I am from South Africa, I have no formal training in art. I see myself as an absolute beginner in drawing. I did have technical drawing at school, though, and enjoyed that very much. I feel a need to have an artistic outlet, which, combined with the technicality of drawing, seems very appealing to me. I find drawing very relaxing and a mentally healing exercise. I literally woke up on the morning of…

Questions from David, Drawing Academy student

“I’ve been enrolled in the Drawing Academy for some time now and I’ve watched your lessons over and over to refresh my knowledge of how to draw certain things. I’ve improved so much. Now, because of that improvement, I tend to rush my portrait drawings. Its not out of boredom either, I just get excited and want to see the end results. That said, when I do this I tend to make mistakes. How can I manage my pencil strokes? And will painting help me train my hand patience and to do small find details? …

Question from Carol, Drawing Academy visitor

“How to lay down features in the right place?”…

Questions from David, Drawing Academy student

I finally learned how to draw eyes equally, thanks to you videos and hours of practicing. I still need to look at a reference though which in time I’m learning to draw what I know. I want to thank you for you feedback to all my questions, it has really helped me. Now my question is how do I draw hair? Long hair that is flowing. When I don’t know how to draw something I tend to sometimes stop drawing it and move on because I would be afraid to mess up the drawing or I forget the process of how to do it at times. I’m learning not to fear my mistakes when I’m drawing so I make sure to avoid them in future drawings. And how can learn to draw small but detailed. Can redrawing a image from my imagination repeatedly help me see it clearly?

I’m trying color most of my character creations and do colored portraits. What colored pencils do you recommend for that? And I love practicing drawing but I hear a lot of other students like myself say practicing drawing is painful. Painful as in they can’t see to get an eye exactly right, proportions is off or they feel like they’re not improving and so they get discouraged. I sometimes feel that way but what keeps me going, is that I tell myself I will get better and the other thing is that I love expressing my creativity. So I can’t give up. The only option I have is to practice and get better. But if I do get to that where I feel that I will never be able to improve, what should I do? …

I am currently doing pencil portraits for Gold Star Mothers of their loved ones killed in action in the military. All of my work is done from photos exclusively. I am self taught and have used the 5 pencil method as a learning base. As you have said, this just makes me a copy machine. I really want to put some soul into my drawings, but don’t know how to do this working from a picture. My question is, will you be able to help me achieve this goal by working through your course? …

Questions from Łukasz

– How to reduce time of drawing? I think my pictures are never finished.
– How to learn to use right pencils in right way?
– I tend to press too much while I’m drawing and end up with pictures that don’t look natural.
– And the most important question is, how to train my eye to draw exactly what I see?…

Questions from Iuliana

“How to overcome mental blocks holding me back from actually getting in the “stream” of drawing… the fear of not being good enough?”

Questions from Patrícia

Which are the most important guidelines, within the creative process, to achieve a meaningful, emotional original artwork?

Your website is really good. Do you have a “social media network” where people (art lovers) could share ideas, doubts, knowings about art and drawing? Also would be interesting to have a bit about history of art…

Question from Slater Smith

For the past month, I have been in something of an artistic rut. I cannot call it a creative block, because I get ideas all the time. I just don’t have the technical ability to execute them.

So my question is, how exactly should I study drawing? Maybe focus on one for say a month, then move on to the next area? Or should I study two subjects that are closely related, like architectural drawing and perspective?…