Cheerful Fun

"When you focus on the good, the good gets better."  Cheerful and Fun at Sandarosa Studio today with my Merry Maidens. These are my live class watercolor and ink demos.

You can see the students' work here.

Day 42 ~ SE-42-25

Using Shapes to Aid in Drawing Testimonial

"Learning to draw is really a matter of learning how to see - to see correctly - and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye." ~ Kimon Nicolaides ~ The Natural Way To Draw

This 20 minute drawing is my first attempt at using my new shapes method that I posted Monday to draw Princess (our current sketching challenge). In the photo, her face is not straight on, so I had to improvise some. I think it is a useful aid and starting point though. Anyone else give it a try it yet? I'd appreciate your feedback on it.

Susan Bronsak writes; "You asked if your exercise helps?  It did for me!!  I found that to be very easy to follow and made it less intimidating to create the face (without all the fur that is).  Fur direction and not over doing it is a challenge area for me.  I appreciate you sharing these helpful exercises!!  I find them to be encouraging for people to at least give it a try.  Thank you for the time you devote to helping others.

Now…….If I could just learn to “see” the shapes in an object it would help, I’m sure.  I at times can’t get past all the detail….even squinting. Here’s my attempt……..think I’m off a little with my curve for the eyes but hopefully convincing enough." 

AND . . . I'll tell you folks, this woman is inspirational - Since I received this yesterday, Susan has also came up with her own shapes demo for drawing a deer portrait.  Way to go Susan!

Let Sketching Everyday 2 0 1 1 Begin!

Woo, I am psyched! I've got some new and exciting ideas for this year's summer sketching series. I hope a few of you artists will step up and share your input with me and our readers. Remember that in every aspect of our lives, we get back in direct proportion to what we give out. I guess that's one of the many reasons for my continuance of this daily drawing challenge over the years.

One of the changes I want to make to this blog is to really "K.I.S.S. IT!"   or, "Keep It Simple Stupid" or as I like to put it, "Keep It Sensationally Simple".  I went online to see what kind of drawing instruction is available. And wow, there's a lot of it and most of it is pretty darn good! So does the world really need another drawing mentor? Well, I don't know, I guess that's for you, my fellow artists and friends to answer. Please let me know how I'm doing from time to time.


To launch the season, I'm starting off with a simple drawing demo of a horse portrait in profile. I'm showing how the foundation starts off with three simple shapes; a long triangle, a circle and a square.

I add directional lines and divide the shapes in half. This gives me a point of reference for angles and location of the features.

I divide the top half of the circle and find the location for the eye. The mouth follows the directional line of the head as does the top and bottom outline. The crest of the neck is drawn and the slight S curve is added to it's underside. The outline of the nose is rounded some and the nostril is indicated with a semi-circle curve. The ears sit below the poll.

In finishing the sketch, I add some subtle curves, slightly indicate muscle and bone structure and add a mane and forelock.

With the pencil drawing complete, I quickly brush clear water to the edges and then "whack on" a light grey value *with a dry brush. Try not to go over the paper more than once and don't scrub. I am only using drawing paper in my sketchbook, not watercolor paper. This teaches you to work swiftly and then get out of there. " In watercolor, just like in golf, the least amount of strokes wins the game." ~ Tony Couch

Then lickety-split, while the area is still damp, I add darker values* and a few details. 

 and. . .  there you have it!

So, why not copy these steps and give it a try!?

If you are new to my blog, or just a little rusty, referring to my Sketching Everyday Lens on Squidoo will probably answer your *questions. You can also study my watercolor sketching techniques in greater detail on my drawing demo pages on DrawingEveryday.com.

A Nice Note And Drawing Everyday Update

I had a nice email this morning from Maurice Scheetz. He wrote;"Greetings Sandy Sandy, I am trying to return to the earlier joy of the "Artist Way" and perspective - to re-establish and re-order the "artist studio" that used to give me so much comfort. A birder/ walker/ friend that I met on wooded trail and I - have just begun to meet at my place - my excuse to re-new my art - to draw and paint together. So I found a copy of your Sensational Sketches in Six Simple Steps in a notebook of mine and that led me back to your web site and thus to this note. On our next meet-up, we plan to use this demo of yours as a jumping off point. Please subscribe me to more!"

Today's photo is of two of the senior students from my studio drawing classes that I did in Florida the week before last. We all did the Hummingbird Demo that Maurice is referring to. (And, I have been informed that the course was a huge hit with all the students.) :-D

You can print out your own copy of my step-by-step demo here. Only 5 weeks until Drawing Everyday starts up again folks!

2009 Sketching Demo Now On Line!

Learn Sandy's 6 Step Technique Here!

Red Tail Hawk Sketch And Demo

Today I did a Red Tail Hawk portrait from another photo I took this past weekend at Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge. I documented the process and will post a new demo of my " 6 Steps To Sensational Sketches" online soon.

Art Instruction Blog

Last week I was contacted by Ralph Serpe; artist, writer, musician and webmaster, about having my "Sensational Sketches In Six Simple Steps" featured on his blog. He writes; "I own and maintain a very popular blog on Art Instruction. My site receives over 20,000 unique visitors each month, and I have a subscriber base of nearly 9,000 artists, all hungry for fresh new content." I checked it out and saw it was of very high caliber. Of course I said YES!

Please visit: www.artinstructionblog.com and check it out!

Comments about my demo on artinstructionblog.com:

"Sandy's six steps are truly simple to follow, and inspirational to beginners like me." ~Nzo-Nguty Etahoben

"Great article, I'm printing it out and stuffing it into my sketchbook." ~ Cindy Davis

"Thanks for the tutorial. It is great and clear. I was looking for something like this for a long time." ~ Aramond

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I did this sketch today from the wildflower bouquet Jerry got for me on Sunday. The stand was closed, but when Jerry told the lady, Mrs. Knight, who I was, she remembered me from a hummingbird presentation I did at her garden club. When he told her I was painting them, she marched out into the garden and cut these for me. I wanted to sketch them again to go with my special announcement today. Like summer, I guess I don't want to let go of my "SketchingEveryday" just yet.