janjam963

Photorealistic artists are amazing and frustrating. Their mastery of shading and blending is incredible. When my little how-to books fell short of getting my graphite and colored pencil shading and blending where I wanted them to be, I turned to youtube, where tons of folks have put up very helpful videos. I learned about: * Coloring with hard graphite to keep an area light. (untried) * Shading with tiny ovals instead of straight strokes. * Coloring dark-to-light. (untried) * Coloring light-do-dark. (untried) (but not when to use each, so I'm a bit lost) * Using blending stumps and pencils * Using solvents (untried) * Reshading the edges of

At least for aspiring artists. All the books say 'draw cats while they sleep'. Dogs sleep, but not nearly as much and run off at every noise. I keep losing my models!

I have two new books, both concentrating on drawing, and am faithfully doing the exercises: blind contour drawing, shading, hatching, shapes, shadows, etc. There's nothing in these worth posting, but the sketchbook is getting full!