I continue to need to practice fundamentals. We all do. This week I look at a classic educator in drawing and how he shares his skills.
First published March 2, 2024: When I first started out using online tutorials, I signed up for The Virtual Instructor. Matt Fussell teaches just about every medium. He is a licensed high school art teacher (or was? not sure) and his lessons are for those of us who want to make realistic scenes, portraits and drawings. There is a yearly fee for joining The Virtual Instructor, but the class I took today was free on YouTube. Matt covers eight different drawing exercises that should improve your drawing skills if you practice them regularly. I am not going to steal his thunder by sharing all of them here. I strongly encourage my readers to watch his tutorial and give each of the exercises a try.
But I was interested in trying the last one, which is to draw on black paper. Being a lover of black and white, I just had to try this one. Of course, I have done a lot of work on black paper, so this one is not really new to me, but I have been asked to create a portrait for a friend’s pet, so I thought this lesson would be a great first step. She is eventually going to use my work to get a tattoo, so I will provide lots of different pieces for her to choose from. This is my way of practicing.
This is Orea, my friend’s rescue. I did this in colored pencils and charcoals from a photo, and have not yet met her, but cannot wait to meet her some day.
For those of you who want to draw more realistically, and want the ability to try many different mediums, I recommend The Virtual Instructor. His classes helped me alot, and I may just sign up again some day!
Happy artventures this week!