Creating a viewfinder frame

Hi hi,

This post is a tutorial follow-up of the one published in Drawspace lesson AO7.

When I began section B of the Drawspace program I've realized that this might be a great way to do something really "by the book".

Because usually I never do it. So when I started reading Lesson B01 I've realized that I should construct a Viewfinder Frame.
So I put aside my reading and prepared for some cutting!

I began thinking about the card box I am about to use and while in the kitchen, I laid my eyes on an empty cereal box I didn't get a chance to through yet. So I took my scissors, a ruler and began to work.

First I cut one side of the box to make it more comfortable to work with.

Then I took measures and made some cuts and came with this result.

Since I was left with another square I made another view frame, a bit smaller, and then another, the smallest.

So here I am with one side of an empty cereal box turning into three view frames of different sizes, no money spent but 15 minutes of my time. How cool is that?

After looking at all this DIY I got a feeling that the smallest frame will be the one I would use the most.





The future will show how well spent these fifteen minutes were.

Have a great day,
Dalia

Tu biShvat

Hi hi,

Tu biShvat, a New year of the trees is here.

Its due today, Saturday 26th.
Trees are going to be plant, dry fruits are going to be eaten...

And it deserves a new card.

Have a great day,
Dalia.

Drawspace: Beginner level A04-A09

Hi hi,

Let's continue. 

 

Today is A04 lesson of a Drawspace online art program. This is a text only article, where the author talks about organizing your work space - chairs, tables, lamps, storage. How you can make your workplace comfortable. 

Lesson A05 is all about constructing a portfolio. Like literally building the case itself from cardboard, ropes and duct tape. So if you are a really creative person, it can turn out just wonderfully.

Lesson A06 is all about sitting in a right position to avoid any physical damage; A07 is about constructing and using a viewfinder frame. This one is actually very useful; it's just like looking into a photo camera eyepiece while trying to find a perfect frame.

In Lesson A08 the author talks about the natural movement of the artist's hand. Reading the article I've learned that Leonardo da Vinci was a left handed and that this can be seen from the way he shaded his sketches (from left to right); it's a new thing for me. Brenda, the author, suggests the student to try and find one's natural hand movement. After doing the exercise I've realized that my natural hand movement is the one from bottom left corner to upper right and vice versa and from the one from above down. Definitely an interesting and an important lesson, A08!

The last lesson of this section, A09 is all about curved lines. Just like in the previous lesson the idea was to find one's natural hand movement. I found that I was comfortable to work both left to right and right to left.

And apparently this is all for the first part of the program. I have no idea why I skipped it when I first time started it, it didn't take me too long to complete, and it was absolutely useful.







What about you? Did you find this section of the program useful?

I'll be moving to section B now.

See you soon,
Dalia.

Drawspace: Beginner level A02 + A03

Hi all,

Drawspace Lesson A02 was a special one. It's a text written by Brenda Hoddinott, the artist and the creator of a Drawspace program. In this text she talks about her development as an artist and her view on what it takes to become one. So those of you - myself included - who have any doubt of becoming if not an artist per se but a skilled drawer, do yourself a favor and read this text. It's really encouraging.

Since reading the A02 article took me only several minutes, I moved on to Lesson A03. In this one the author explains about drawing tools, like pens and papers, and what combination works best; chalks, markers and graphite erasers, sharpers and etc. She gives tips for using these tools and suggests ways of preserving your art work.

Its really nice, since you are able to see, for example, the scale of the 6H and 8B pencils without having them all; you can see what can be done with an eraser before you even started the drawing.


It's nice.

Have you find these lessons interesting too?

Have a great day,
Dalia

Drawspace: Beginner level A01

Hello!

Today I begin a new drawing project - taking online lessons with a Drawspace art program. 

The program is divided into 26 sections - A to Z. Each section deals with a different subject of drawing - shading, perspective, people; pencil, color, chalk etc. So the first one, naturally, is an introduction. 

When I first started learning from Drawspace last year, I skipped section A and went straight to section B, which involved some drawing (and after all, that's what I wanted to do, draw!). This time I decided to put my arrogance aside and start from the very basis. I'm so glad I did that!




So I began with Section A lesson 01. This means many reading little drawing. The lesson is basically an artist vocabulary - in alphabetical order - for novices. And I must tell you that it was pretty enlightening. There were some cool tips about drawing like sharpening your pencil tips with sanding paper instead of with a sharpener, which allows you a longer usage of your pencil. It has a great explanation of a human body parts like a nose and an eye. And many many more. 
It was really worth reading. 

It didn't involve any sketching at all, but I attached a sketch anyway. And who can claim it isn't one? 

So what about you? Did you find this first lesson useful?
Dalia

Drawspace.com - Let the drawing begin!!!

Ho ho ho and Happy New Year!!!

The celebrations are over, the resolutions are written and it's time to start a new project.

This year I'm going to focus on the Drawspace.com lessons doing them in the format of the Flower project. I'll do a lesson each week - hopefully more than just one - and put some additional sketches based on that specific lesson.

Originally I wanted to choose another solid theme for this year; I actually thought of drawing wild or domestic animals or Chinese calendar characters or something. But since my focus is cartoons and not realistic drawing I've decided to change my plan a bit. In this case DrawSpace is really wonderful since it covers both cartoon and realistic drawing, pencil and oil, shading, perspective and many more. Also one can post one's work on the site forum and get a feedback for it.

I invite you to join me on this project and share your thoughts and insights via blogs' comments.

I'll see you in a bit after a first lesson.

Have a great day, 
Dalia  

The new year resolution - a new plan for a new year.

Hi all.

It's been a week since the beginning of the new year and I think it's time to create a new list.

Last year was great and eventful, personally and professionally. I created my Goal list and some of it I even brought to life. Not all of it, of course but some, and for that I'm proud.

So now I'm making a new list.
Some of it will be items from the last year's list. Some of it will be new ones. I will add to it in the course of the year and hopefully I will be able to check a large part of it by the end of 2013.

So here it goes.

1. Sketch, sketch, sketch. As much as possible!!! 
2. Learnd to draw Chinese calendar characters. 
3. Finish the flower project this year. At this poin I have 24 unpublished posts. I must finish them. It just doesn't feel right to leave it as it is. 
4. Work on portraits and human figure sketches. 
5. Be ready with a holiday illustration(s) at least one month in advance.  
6. Do Drawspace lessons weekly.
7. Become a regular on Illustration Friday.
8. Learn to shade properly.
9. Learn to draw water properly.
10. Do Animals drawing. 
11. Follow all Shoo Rayner youtube tuts. (added 27.02.13)
12. Learn more about Graphic Design (added 29.05.13)

Other things are in order:

1. Keep developing my Graphiking gift shop. At the moment it stands on 345 items. 
2. Keep blogging - at least once a week. 
3. Develop readership for this blog. 
4. Do more SEO.

It's a big list, I know. 

But I rather to plan big and reach low than to plan small and reach nothing. 

Have you made your list already?

Have a great week, 

Dalia

Valentine season is near

Hi all,

It's an early January and it means it's time to get ready for the Valentine season.
My real intent is to create as many illustrations as possible for my ShutterStock gallery and my Zazzle Shop. But at this moment I concentrate on improving my tags in both of these stations. 

Most of these tags were created long before I started delving into the art of SEO, choosing tags absolutely randomly, without any prior investigation. 

Today, when I know a bit more on the subject, I do it a bit wiser. So now, when I go over my Zazzle products I really begin to understand how naive I was hoping that someone would be able to see the Be my Valentine pillow using the phrase "be my valentine" or "romantic illustration". I mean, come on!!!

So at this point I do the boring work of going over all of my Valentine products and illustrations changing tags. 

I hope it will make the difference I'm looking for. 

Wish me luck, 

Dalia 

Happy new year - it's time to conclude!!!

Happy New year everybody!!!

It is 2013.
21.12.12 was uneventful. The world didn't come to its end. It goes on.

And so shall I.
It is a new year and it's time to conclude the year that ended.

I had many plans for this year and I had many plans for this blog.
I actually was doing great for the first part of the year, but then something wonderful happened - I had my baby boy in the end of April. I did manage to keep the blog running for 2 more months afterwards, but as my son grew up I wanted to spend more and more time with him which left me almost no time for my lovely blog.

I still hope to make it happen and to fulfill all my goals.
So let's see what was I thinking of in January 2012:

1. Sketch, sketch, sketch!!! As much as possible!!! And keep it documented. - And I drew almost every day for several hours and loved I every minute of it!! I think that today I would be capable to draw a rose or a tulip, something I couldn't do a year ago.
   Regarding the documenting - I did it for a while, but then I dropped it... at that time it didn't matter anymore. I managed to discipline myself.
2. Learn how to draw a Chinese calendar characters and Zodiacs, being ready for every year in advance. - I never got to it, leaving it for this year. 
3. Do a 5, 10, 15 minutes exercise once a week. - Did it for several times and got bored, so I dropped it. Maybe sometime in the future.
4. Draw 12 flowers this year, one for each month. - Drew only 6 of them, not always for a complete month. I do hope to still complete it in the future. 
5. Work on Portraits and human figure. - Oh, come on, how naive can you be!!!
6. Being ready a month in advance before holidays. - The idea was to create illustrations at least two weeks in advance. Well, Sometimes I managed to do that, although it was always a struggle. 
7. Learn about Adobe Illustrator Brushes and symbols - I did use them several times, it was fun.
8. Do Drawspace lessons more often. - Ha ha!!!
9. Become a regular on Illustrator Friday. - Not even close!!!
10. Learn how to shade properly. - Didn't. Still want to. 
11. Learn to draw water and water drops properly. - Didn't. 
12. Learn to draw domestic and wild animals. - hate to repeat the same thing again and again. Didn't.
    
    Other things are in order:

1. Keep developing my Graphiking gift shop. - Worked on it for periods of times, the assortment is bigger, and amount of visits is larger, now it's time to enlarge the income. 
2. Keep blogging - at least once a week. - Did it up to October. 80 posts in total. 
3. Develop readership for this blog. - Didn't. 
4. Work on some HTML, CSS and just make the blog and the shop look better. - I guess there are some things one cannot do. This is the one for me.
5. SEO. Nothing to add. - I've learned a lot by myself and took a short and very effective course in December. 
6. Do an Airbrush course. - Moves for the next year. 

So let's see. There were 18 items planned. 7 of them I managed to do, some of them better and some of them worse.
I don't know whether it's good but there are some things I am really proud of:

1. I started to plan my posts in advance, which led me to 79 posts in 10 month. This is more than a post per week in average.
2. I drew like crazy during these first 6 months and it was a pure fun!
3. I took a SEO course justr recently and I already have 3 sites to be promoted. I will share these sites here in the future.
4. I discovered that I loved blogging! I never thought I would like it this much. I just hope I will be able to maintain my blog this year too. 
5. WeeklyDoodles visits are steady and growing. It's 105 per day in average this year opposite the 46 last year. It is growing.
6. And I had a baby :) (should be first in this list, really)

I know that I didn't manage to meet all my goals this year. I know I will be adding more things to my list during the years' course. And I'm sure that some of these goals will not be completed, maybe at all.
But at least I have a plan.

Wishing you a great holiday season,
Dalia

Happy New year!!!

Hi all and Happy New year!!!




My best wishes to you and your family. Let this year be better than the previous one!!!
Happy New year!!!

Truly yours,
Dalia

P.S. This is the first card Daynix got this year.
I decided to change a style for that company this year... Hopefuly I will be able to keep the style's line. Wish me luck!

P.P.S. This card was ready 3 weeks before the actual sendout. Go me!!!!




Have a great week,
Dalia