The Wonderful Words for today are,

“Best Creative Art Pracitce”

If there’s one thing that has grown me as a virtuoso (see this former post if you want to know why I use this word instead of ‘artist’ and get a freebie), it is this practice.  It is also the one practice I’ve been the most consistent in doing.

Ready for me to share it?  Here it is in three easy steps:

1. Take your own reference photos
2. Practice drawing from your photos
3. Choose a way to take it to the next level (add shading, paint it, etc.)

That’s it!  Oh, you need more details and maybe some pro tips?  Okay, here goes:

Take your own reference photos

The first step is to be in your ‘virtuoso’ shoes whenever and wherever you are.  The other day I was walking back to my house from my dad’s and this flower in his garden caught my eye.  I whipped out my cellphone and tried taking a photo of it from my current standpoint, however, it didn’t work as it was in a larger grouping of flowers and I just wanted this one.  So I dropped down on my haunches and took a photo looking up at this tallest flower of the bunch which put the blue sky in the background instead of a blur of foliage I didn’t want in my image.  And viola!  This image was exactly what I wanted!

Taking a photo for drawing purposes helps get what you want to capture into a 2D format.  It’s more challenging to draw it in its 3D form as it moves with the wind etc.  Besides, I like to draw at my table with a cuppa (or glass of wine, depending on time of day of course!).

Here are just a few of my most recent art inspiration reference photos I’ve snagged in my goings and comings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

• The 1st one is a Weeping Willow tree across the street and I love how the leaves hang on the branches.  I’ll be painting these in watercolor sometime soon!
• The 2nd one is a little patch of sunflowers on the edge of a cornfield that a friend and I noticed whilst driving.  We pulled over and captured a few pics!
• The 3rd one is a beautiful sunflower that was at the pumpkin patch my son and I went to last week.
• The 4th pic I took whilst kayaking on glass calm water.  This little leaf was floating along like a miniature boat and I loved the way it curved in and made a clear shadow on the water.
• The 5th one was taken during a little kayaking as well.  I loved how the mountains showed the gradient of color from close up to far away, not to mention the beautiful orange clouds coming off the mountains!
• Then we have the chair I found in Home Goods.  The texture looked like something fun to create with watercolor.  Also, I just might want to practice drawing a chair sometime!  The shadows show the depth so well in this image, I look forward to trying to capture this on paper.
• And lastly, the goat unicorn of course!  Why?  Well, because I couldn’t resist this guy!

Practice drawing from your photos

This one is pretty self explanatory!

start with a pencil and then go over the pencil with a pen.  My go to pens are black Micron Fine liners.  Once the fine liner pen goes down and has dried, you can erase all the exposed pencil marks.  Here’s the drawing of my yellow flower after fine liner:

The other day I was given this beautiful poppy.  I photographed it on my counter as I loved the way the leaves curled around the stem.  As a bonus, it made such a clear shadow that it took any guessing out of painting the shadow and making it pop off the page.  This particular day I chose to draw on an old book page, which happens to be one of my favorite places to sketch and paint.

Did you know you can just use an old book as a sketchbook?  It helps take away the scariness of the blank page and I just love the way art looks on print.

 

Pro tip:  You don’t have to draw every single detail.  As you can see above, I did not include all of the leaves as I thought it would muddle up my drawing.  So I chose just the few and it gives the idea.  Remember,  you have choices when drawing!

Choose a way to take it to the next level

I usually draw the outline of my subject lightly with a pencil and then go over my pencil lines with a permanent fine liner.  BUT, you can go straight to paint after the initial sketch, depending on what medium you chose to draw.

This requires a little thinking ahead.  If you know you want to watercolor, well, sketch it on a piece of watercolor paper that is the size that would fit into a standard size frame.  This is just in case you end up with an original masterpiece!

For acrylics, you’ll need to sketch it onto a canvas, or mixed media paper or something of the sort.

Just practicing?  Well then, fill up a sketchbook!  If you happen to create something you know you want to make a finished piece of art with, there are ways to transfer your image to your preferred substrate.  Perhaps I’ll write a BLOG with all the different ways I know to do this!

You can also just stick to the pencil and paper and then add in shadows etc. with different techniques.  Yet another idea for a BLOG post!

I chose to paint this happy little yellow flower with watercolor as I had sketched it in my watercolor sketchbook.

 

So, now it’s time to take action!  You probably already have several ready to go inspiration images on your phone, but if you don’t, get out and take a walk and collect some images.  Then, get to playing art!

Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, Signing off

For links to ‘all the things’ including shopping original art and upcoming classes, click below:

Play Art With Kim Links