Everyone Can Learn to Draw

Do your drawings look like a child did it?  Do you think you need to be born with a special gift in order to draw?  Most people believe that to be true, but it is not.  Everyone can learn to draw realistically!

Look at this before instruction photo.  It looks pretty elementary.  This student was hesitant in drawing the portrait and consequently, drew it quite small.  Compare this drawing to the one below which was completed during the first 2 hour class!  It doesn't even look like the same person drew it!!

So what made the difference?  The first drawing was done using the dominant, analytical side of the brain which tends to draw symbols.  The face is one of the earliest recognizable subjects a child draws. As you begin to see beyond dots for eyes and a curved line for a mouth, your symbol begins to change, but it still remains a symbol.  By using the creative, visual right side of the brain to do the task, your drawings begin to change and look more realistic.  The right side of the brain looks at things in terms of line, shape, value and color and looks at the relationship of each to one another.  

If this much progress can be made in a short 2 hour class, imagine what you could do with a little more time?  I guarantee your drawings will change in just one class!  Don't believe me? Check it out in our weekly drawing classes at Hobby Lobby every Thursday!    

Here's a couple of students' before and after photos!

I'd love to hear from some of my students what you thought of your drawing class experience.

Audrey Bottrell - Fine Art and Instruction: Arizona Colors!

Audrey Bottrell - Fine Art and Instruction: Arizona Colors!

Arizona Colors!

One thing the Impressionists did for us was to show us that colors look different in other locations!  The colors looked different in France than other countries.  Here in the USA, the colors out West look different than the colors here in the Midwest.  Last week I spent time in Lake Havasu City Arizona painting a 60 foot long mural.  I flew to Las Vegas and drove 2 1/2 hours to Lake Havasu City.  The drive was a different kind of beautiful through the desert.  I marvel at the purple mountains and tried to photo them as I drove!  I wouldn't recommend that for the safety of driving and for the quality of the photos.  I really wanted to be able to capture the colors I saw with my naked eye.  As you can see, the photos do not do them justice.

I was studying the local colors of the desert in preparation for painting a mural.  It's amazing the colors you see when you really look!  Not only are the distant mountains purple but the greens are different too, more of a blue green than a lush grass green.

I began the mural with the lavender mountains on the horizon.  Cooler colors stay in the background while warmer colors seem to move closer.  Since I had a long narrow framework for the mural, I had little vertical distant to create depth.  Size and colors helped to achieve that effect.

 Study your surroundings and really look at the color.  Remember, color looks different at different times of the day.  What color are the trees on the horizon?  Compare that with the colors of the trees that are close to you.  Have you traveled and noticed colors were different than at home?