Shading and 5 Elements of Shading

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Elements of shading

Shading is used in drawing for depicting different levels of darkness. Applying more densely with a darker shade for darker areas and less densely with a lighter shade for lighter areas is the basic idea.

However, there are some details that you should know. For instance, Shading has five elements. The five elements of shading are:

Cast shadow: It is the darkest part of your drawing because in this part light is completely blocked. Draw this area as black as possible.

Shadow edge: This shading is also known as turning shadow. This area corresponds to a dark grey tone.

Halftone: This is the true color of your object. This area of a drawing is not affected by light. 

Reflected light: This shading element is lighter compared to other shadows. But this will still be seen on the darker side of the object. The reflected light is always seen on the edges, rims, or lip of an object.

Full light: This is the area that receives the most light and the tones fade gently into the white of the paper.

Why should you start drawing?

Alina Nibu MathewLeave a comment

Drawing can be explained as the resurrection of the visuals on a platform placed before an individual’s eyes. But the beauty lies in the way the artist- regardless of how inexperienced they may be, tries to reconstruct it. A piece of drawing reveals a lot about the artist, how they view the world, how they convey their rights. It is a true form of experiencing oneself. 

Why is drawing an important form of art? Let’s just say that if given paint and a canvas almost half of the population would stare at it blankly for a minute before any sort of creativity strikes them.

There is an artist deep inside everyone that stays dormant until they are pulled out by practice. People with artistic talent tend to find creativity in everything they touch. This, in turn, helps in broadening their perspective.

Children should be encouraged to learn drawing and find peace through it. Training your drawing skills is almost as good as enhancing your inner creativity. Creativity tends to boost a person’s analytical and logical senses when in a crisis. These reasons alone would make drawing worth your time. 

Drawing or art, in general, is often downgraded by few. Needless to say, a potential artist with a whole different world in their eyes are forced to blindfold and suppress themselves. It is therefore essential and advantageous to enhance one’s drawing skills and polish their creativity.

What makes ‘The Scream’ so expensive?

Alina Nibu MathewLeave a comment

‘The Scream’ is the popular name given to a composition created by Edvard Munch. The original title to this work was ‘Der Schrei der Natur’, which means ‘The Scream of Nature’ in German and the Norwegian title is Skrik (Shriek). The Norwegian is translated as the scream and so the painting is known as ‘The Scream’ or ‘The Cry’.

Edvard Munch is a recognized forerunner of expressionism, he is renowned for his representation of emotions. The painting was not intended to be a representation of an individual scream.

It symbolizes the anxiety of human condition along with the worry of nature. It is noted that the reddish sky in the background is the artist’s memory of the effects of the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, which deeply tinted the sunset sky red during the 18th century. The imagery of The Scream has been compared to that which an individual suffering from depersonalization disorder experiences, a feeling of distortion of the environment and one’s self.

However, Munch describes his inspiration for the image in his diary as, “One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.“

The Scream’s powerful expression has proliferated into everyday life. It is one among the handful of artworks to be turned into emoji. It has also been made into Pop Art culture. ‘The Scream’ is not a single work of art, there are two paintings, 2 pastels and an unspecific number of prints. One of them was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2012 and was sold for £74 million, making it one of the most expensive pieces of art ever sold.

Cartoon Drawing: Tips And Techniques

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Cartoon drawing

Cartoon drawings are fun to draw and see. Cartoon characters are made of various components. Knowing how to draw different parts of a character helps you draw more efficiently. Some tips and techniques for cartoon drawing are:

Start with the head: Draw an oval-shaped head with small ears on each side. Draw a horizontal and vertical line in the middle of the head and make these lines intersect to draw facial features.

Draw the face: In the middle of the head, sketch out the nose and place small circles on each side for glasses. Draw a small line below the mouth for the chin.

Sketch the body: From the bottom of the head, draw two vertical lines going down curving slightly outward. Draw these lines wider apart at the bottom than at the top to form a bell shape. Add the arms to the character and then place the legs and add the shoes. Add some accessories to give a funnier look.

When you’re finished, ink your character and give the final look.

Tips You Should Know About Scenery Drawing

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Scenery drawing

A scenery drawing is something that mainly focuses on natural scenery.

The drawings can include mountains, trees, rivers, or valleys among others. Of course, anyone who has tried it knows that it is not an easy task. And that is why you should know some tips while doing the scenery.

When starting your scenery drawing, select a single subject. Firstly, start with the focal point. Then move on to sketching the outlines of drawings and shading can be done later. Once you complete this, draw the background.

Next, you have to simplify the scene as you go by avoiding all distracting elements. Finally, start shading and adding details. Start shading with the focal point. Then move to other parts of drawings and shade them accordingly. Finish drawing your scenery with the background.

Once you get settled and feel comfortable with drawing scenery, you can move on to complicated drawings.

What you need to know about Street Artist Banksy

Alina Nibu MathewLeave a comment

Street art is an independent virtual art created in public locations. Artists try to communicate with common people about social and political issues or create awareness in local people through such drawings.

Street artists have taken their canvases from papers to public property walls, which is now off to street walls as well. There are different varieties of street artists based on the area he or she chooses. They are graffiti artists, portrait artists, caricaturists, affichiste, and chalk artists among others.

Banksy is an English based street artist. Even though his identity remains unknown, he is considered as the most famous street artist in the world. His satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humor with graffiti executed in distinctive stenciling techniques.

Apart from street art, Banksy is a famous political activist and film director. He uses smart vandalism to raise awareness of social and political issues.

He started street art in 1997 and his first work is known as ‘The Mild Mild West’. He did it to cover an advertisement of a former solicitors’ office on Stokes Croft in Bristol. The art depicts a teddy bear lobbing a Molotov cocktail along with three riot police. Banksy’s stencils feature striking and humorous images occasionally combined with slogans. His works are so valuable that it often gets stolen or chipped out of walls as well.

Here is a tip to hold the pencil correctly while drawing

Renjith RavindranLeave a comment

Holding the pencil is the first step that should be mastered if you want to become an artist. The way in which you hold the pencil places a huge role in how the final work turns out.

Artist Bobby Chiu has given an important tip regarding the same in one of his YouTube videos. He recommends that holding the pencil like a charcoal can lead to some great results. The idea is to draw using the side of the lead rather than using the point. This can help to keep the pencil sharper for a longer period and also give you a texture that is usually not achieved.

“When covering large areas, I shade with my pencil perpendicular to the line I’m drawing to get wide, soft lines. For details, I hold my pencil parallel to my lines to get sharp, narrow marks. The only time I use the point is when I’m working on intricate details,” he notes.

So get going and try this out the next time you are scribbling.

Here are 3 Tips you can use to improve creativity

Renjith RavindranLeave a comment

Having a wild imagination and high creativity are keys to becoming a good artist. And unlike many of us believe, these things can be actually developed through practice and constant efforts.

There are some tips with which you can improve your creativity and we will be listing down three of them below.

  • Unplug: Disconnecting yourself from the social media and giving your brain some rest can do wonders to your creativity. Your mind will be allowed to wander in such scenarios which in turn can result in great ideas.
  • Have a walk: A recent study have found out that people who take part in walking meetings are more creative and productive. Considering that an average person sits for 7 to 15 hours, it is highly recommended that you take a walk to improve your brain activity.
  • Collaborate: Collaboration is often underrated. It can bombard you with many ideas and thought processes that you might not even imagine in your wildest dreams.

Try these tips and understand the differences yourselves.

How to Draw a Hand: The basic shapes you should understand

Renjith RavindranLeave a comment

Almost everything out there is made up of such basic shapes which can make our drawing process easier. Drawing a hand is no different.

There are some basic shapes that make up our hand and we are going to list them down below courtesy of the picture from virtualinstructor.com.

First, look at your hands; you can understand that a square makes up the back portion of your palm. Similarly, a triangle is formed where the palm meets the thumb. These shapes might differ based on perspectives, but they will still be there.

Lastly, the fingers are basically cylinders as you can see from the picture. They may become taper and larger based on the finger but the basic shape is cylinder after all.

3 Shocking Facts about Salvador Dali that you should know

Renjith RavindranLeave a comment

Salvador Dali is hands down one of the most influential figures in modern art. He had a career that spanned across six decades and during this period; he managed to create some masterpieces as well.

Though most people didn’t know about Dali and his works, he once again came to the spotlight recently thanks to the Netflix Series Money Heist. And apparently, Dali’s life is worthy enough of a Netflix series itself.

Here are three shocking facts that you might not know about him.

  • He was expelled from art school twice: Dali was a rebel from his young age itself. He was known for eccentric behavior and dresses which often got him into trouble. And he did not graduate due to these expulsions.
  • He was never into Drugs: While a lot of people believe that Dali was into drugs due to his surreal artwork and eccentric behavior, the truth is: he never was into drugs. ‘I don’t do drugs; I’m drugs’, he once famously stated.
  • He believed that he was the reincarnation of his brother: Nine months before Dali was born, his older brother passed away. Dali believed that he was the reincarnation of his brother.

You can also go ahead and checkout some artworks of Dali and remember these facts next time you hear about him.