I happened to watch the Drawing Academy video on why drawing from a photo is treacherous and was quite impressed with it. This led me into this drawing course and now I am a very happy and keen learner. Thank you for such a wonderful course!
Hi Vladimir,
In the shortest amount of time possible, I want to learn how to be an excellent artist. I realize this is the wish of almost every artist.
However, I think my drawing skills have not changed and I am still not satisfied with my artworks.
I like the Drawing Academy course; I learned a lot. I now know much more about drawing materials, how to hold a pencil, and how to render tonal values. I am still learning about perspective and anatomy…
Artwork by Yasmeen Kanan, Drawing Academy student Hello! After viewing one of your critiques given to another student, and after viewing the drawings that you have uploaded to improve our pencil strokes, I decided to take you advice and do a study. First, I made a copy of a drawing (as mentioned above) and created a drawing of a real life model using the hatching technique-pencil strokes. I must admit, copying an existing drawing is easier than drawing a real life subject. I wish I could upload two photos at once, but I will upload the real life drawing later. I would like to hear your critique for my “Gamut of pencil strokes.” Commenting on this study, an artist claimed that the difference in the strokes between the background and the subject has ruined the drawing. I oppose this view…
Hello,
I took your previous advice on how to shade with chalk pencil. I had to expose quite a bit of the chalk to sharpen it into a lasting point.
I decided not to smudge the marks.
The drawing I included is a copy of Masaccio’s St Paul…
Dear Drawing Academy tutors,
I have some troubles with drawing a human head. It is OK when I copy a drawing, but when it comes to draw portraits from memory or imagination, I’m lost.
Can you please advise what to do? …
Hello there! Just to tell you a little about myself, although I have been drawing a long time ago, but it is recently that I have started academic drawing… and I usually have a problem with being afraid of mistakes in drawing, whether it is in watercolor, pen, pencil, chalk, etc… so I try to get rid of this fear via the continuous practice, but I must make sure before graduating as a Visual Artist, that my basics are well established. That is why I have joined this Drawing Academy. The sketch I uploaded is daily practice, but I want to add character into my sketches and artworks. I love to portray mood and emotion even if it is just an academical sketch. I tried with chalk to increase the darkness although the in reality the…
Dear Drawing Academy Tutors,
I’m having a difficult time rendering shapes tonally. I believe I am still much too dependent on hard lines to describe forms. This is why I think my drawing here appears two dimensional.
This drawing was done from a live model in charcoal. To me, it looks flat, and the shading is not very precise.
How do I improve my rendering skills so that my drawings look more three dimensional? …
Vladimir,
I was attempting practice shading and gamut of pencil strokes. Here’s Sarah’s portrait. I feel that I may have overdone this drawing.
I feel I need to work on my hatching skills either I am impatient or I just hatch in a controlled chaos type of way.
I will be going to local studio on Wednesdays soon for life model drawing and I am a bit nervous about this as I am not the fastest drawer, but we shall see how this works out! …
Dear tutors,
I recently enrolled in the Drawing Academy course. I like it very much and look forward for every email you send me. Your advices are very helpful, thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Can you please check my sketches and advise what is the best way to improve my drawing skills?
Thank you very much,
Svetlana
Dear Steven,
I like your drawings! You are doing a great job drawing from life and copying classical busts. It is very good to study from classical sculptures.
I understand that you don’t have access to traditional galleries and museums with classical art. Nevertheless, making self-portraits and drawing your family members and friends is a great way to draw from life. I would also suggest that you ask the people around you if they would be willing to have their portraits done free of charge, so you will have free models and they will receive something in exchange.
In regard to the portrait of the hero Meleager, it is very good; however, there some points you may want to consider: …