Lessons

Using a Tortillon

Using a tortillon is a pencil drawing technique for lightly shading or blending different portions of your picture. Tortillons are tightly-wound sticks of paper, pointed on one end much like a pencil. These are used for blending graphite, charcoal, pastel, or colored pencils. Their small tips enable the artist to blend areas too small to

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Using Colored Pencils

Colored pencils are a fun medium for any age. Economical and portable, the effects achieved with these pencils range from very soft, muted artwork to vibrant, colorful designs. Some of my favorites are made by Prismacolor. Once you start drawing with them, you won’t want to go back to the regular student brands again. The

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Measuring for Proportion

In this lesson, you’ll learn how measuring a reference image or object can help you draw using the correct proportions. Before you begin, remember: drawing is seeing. This point is discussed at length by Carrie Stuart Parks in her instructional book Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces. Because our brains have established patterns of how things look, it’s

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Acrylic Paints

There are many types of acrylic paints available for the crafter and artist. As with all art supplies, the more expensive the paint, the better the quality. It can be difficult to get the results you want with cheaper paint, so try to purchase the best you can afford. You can find these types of paints

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