Another cool drawing of his Bobness ( Bob Dylan portrait drawing and the never ending tour ) to add to my collection. Like most things I do, there has to be a reason.

Why Bob Dylan?

Let me tell you a story about a man who started work at 14 years of age, he was employed to work on the building of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, the United Kingdom. This building was officially started in 1904 and ended in1978 after this man retired. This man worked his whole life in the same job, in the same place, for 51 years at least.

His Bobness has been doing this also, he was about 20 years old when he hit the music scene in 1961 and now 70, a grand total of 50+ years. If you take into account he was forming bands when he was in school, at a time when you left at 14 or 15 years of age, then it might be 55 or more years.

His Bobness is still at this time, (2011) performing a stage performance on a regular basis and has been entertaining for the past 50+ years. Is that a good enough reason, to do a portrait of Bob Dylan?

Regardless of any cash they did or didn’t make doing their life’s work, it must be seen as an achievement of the highest order, 50+ years doing the same job and being successful at it, is an outstanding achievement.

Bob Dylan has been on a never ending tour all his life, having taken a little time off, now and then with sickness, as happens to us all. He tells us that he is just a song and dance man, nothing more, nothing less, one who just sings songs and is not prepared to wear anybody else’s crown. An entertainer, just like Arthur Lee or Julian Beever, artists all of them, so I did this portrait drawing, titled, The Never Ending Tour. Surely it was a worthy cause and good enough reason to do it?

 The Never Ending Tour.

The first thought when doing this drawing or perhaps even before I did the drawing, was I did not want to just copy a picture of Bob because that would just be a copy of someone else’s portrait and would not say very much about the man or his life. I spent a while doing some quick sketches of Bob trying to find some ideas and get a feel for the features of his face, this is something I often do when drawing portraits. I also looked at hundreds of pictures of the man on line, in magazines and books, luckily many of my friends are fans so there there is an abundance of material around me. These people are also like encyclopedias on the man, so I could find out lots of information about him, which would help me build up and hone in on this knowledge base to inform my thinking.

This also gave me plenty of opportunity to discus these ideas and get some feed back from real human beings, as well as what was going on inside me own head. If you don’t put anything into the box then you are not going to get anything out of it, I always think.

Bob Dylan like many Americans during the 60s had idolized, Woody Guthrie, an American singer, songwriter and folk musician. Woody it seems was a man with a wonder lust, a traveling man, who jumped trains and lived as best he could, at times singing for a nickel or a dime. Bob Dylan perhaps because of the influence of his idol was much the same and spent some of his time with Woody, after seeking him out in New York during that last years of his life.

During this time trains where a big and important part of a traveling man’s life, so for both men there would have been a great deal of time spent around trains and stations. The rail road had to be a strong feature and influence in Dylan’s early life as well as well as woody’s.  The never ending tour and the railways went hand in hand so had to be a feature in any Bob Dylan portrait drawing and also having a great significance towards it being a journey.

The pencil portrait of Bob Dylan below was my first attempt at drawing him, I used graphite pencil, mostly a 2b and 4b. This was only a quick drawing but I do think I captured something of the man as he is nowadays much older than the young man moving to New York in 1961.

The more you draw a persons face, the more you learn about it, so it is important to do this when trying to create something original from photographic information. Doing this also helps to find ideas for new concepts and ways of stating something in your drawing, as often they suggest ideas.

All of this together is more than good reason to do some preliminary drawing and also having a wish of creating something original it is necessary for feeding your imagination I think.

I found an image on line of Bob not looking like Bob at all, wearing a woolly hat and a jogging suit out for a jog. It was not your usual image so I had to have a go at drawing it just because of this reason and I was looking for something original. The drawing you will find below is another quick drawing with a black Sharpie marker pen.

Notice how I have put the suggestion of other images into the drawing as well, trying out ideas and trying to generate something new from the other drawing by looking for a way of combining them.

The image below was mostly drawn with maker pens, using different grey scale tones, I did the out line sketch with graphite pencil. I tried combining another image of a railway line into the drawing because I was trying ways of portraying something different to make the drawing original. The railway line idea became a good idea when I thought about it after because it would be a significant part of the never ending tour.

Now I had something to work with I created a photographic type image by combining different images together using a free photo editing software called GIMP Shop, this is the image below.

When I am working on idea I like to put them together in one place so I can see them all together and then keep looking at them looking for further ideas.

From looking at all these ideas together I came up with the idea that I could use the blacked out side of the face to bring something else into the image and after looking at it for a while I thought that I could make an image of somebody sitting down on a stool playing the guitar. This then instigated me doing a quick sketch of what it might look like and can be seen in the drawing below.

I now had the idea I was looking for, a story of the never ending tour, a younger Bob Dylan and older version, with a railway line between both so I then made the portrait drawing you can see below by taking bits from different photographs, combining them into something completely new.

Bob Dylan portrait drawing, The never ending tour, 2011.

A graphite pencil portrait drawing of Bob Dylan, the never ending tour, size A3, 16" x 11-6/5".

The video below was another experiment captured with a camera and illustrated with black Indian ink, a brush and some water.

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The secrets of anamorphic 3d drawing and the amazing 3d drawings of street artists are no longer a secret any more, follow the information contained on this page to reveal how it can be understood using a reference grid.

The image below shows a clipper lighter standing upright, nothing unusual or out standing but the problem for many people, is to understand how it can be drawn to look like it is standing upright on flat 2d piece of paper. The secret of 3d drawings used by street artists that you need to know, is how to create the anamorphic illusion, if you know how to do this then it is not a problem. This is for those who do not know and would like a better understanding of this illusion.

A Clipper lighter standing upright to be used as an example.

Most street artists when creating these anamorphic 3d drawings use a camera to aid the process and describe their technique as drawing by eye, which means they are drawing by looking and using the camera as a guide for doing so.

In the image below a grid for reference has been drawn over the top and it has been cropped using the free GIMP shop photo editing software, many artists use reference grids for getting their construction drawing accurately draw. This can be easily done using a pencil and straight edged ruler, if you don’t have access to photo editing software you can do it by using a print out of the image.

Clipper lighter with reference grid placed over the top for aiding our 3d drawings.

Using a camera viewing window, the grid was drawn onto a piece of A1 cartridge paper to replicate the grid in the image above but as can be seen in the actual drawing, the grid drawing is far different from what can be seen through the camera lens. Notice that the grid drawing gets wider and wider, the further away it is from the camera, this is because of distance, indicting that the further away the object is, the bigger it needs to be, in order to compensate for that distance.

The secret to these 3d drawings is realising that this is what makes the technique work, being able to compensate for distance.

View revealing the position in relation to the camera of the drawing area and 3d drawing grid

Below is an image of the camera showing both the drawing of the grid and the image, as seen through the camera lens, showing the difference between both. In the camera viewing window the grid looks like it is made up of squares, where as the actual drawing isn’t made up of squares, at all. This enables us to see how the camera lens at this viewing plane is distorting the drawing, making it seem like it is made up of squares, when it is not. It is actually the same as a drawing grid, that would be drawn to depict an object as if being looked at from the top, with the bottom tapering off into the distance as will be shown the the next image below this.

This image shows a view of the reference grid drawing and what it looks like when looking through the camera lens

The secret of 3d drawings using a camera technique like the preferred choice of street artists.

In the image below you can see what the reference grid actually looks like when viewed from the front as you would normally. Take notice of how the grid is wider at the top than the bottom also notice how the squares have become elongated and the horizontal lines are further apart as they get closer to the top of the paper. This image below shows what a perspective drawing grid might look like if it was being used to draw an object, such as a building being viewed from above.

Anamorphic perspective grid for doing 3d drawings viewed directly from the front.

In the next image below I have drawn the Clipper lighter using the perspective drawing grid as a guide to accurately draw the lighter at this distorted perspective but also notice how it can be seen in the camera viewing window. Notice how when looking at it through the camera viewing window it can be seen as a Clipper lighter standing up right and also how the drawing grid also seems to be made up of squares.

3d drawing of the lighter through the camera lens, this is showing the lighter and reference grid at the correct viewing plane for comparison .

The image below is a photograph of the 3d drawing, showing further how it looks just like any other drawing of a lighter standing upright and gives a visual demonstration of the, optical illusion created by the anamorphic 3d drawings perspective and the focal plane of the camera.

Anamorphic perspective drawing at the correct photographic angle and position as photographed with the camera.

The next image has been photographed slightly out of position and not at the correct focal plane, so as to be more able to see what it looks like, revealing that it is distorted in the way that, it is much bigger at its furthest point from the viewing position.

Anamorphic Perspective drawing lying on drawing table to showing its two dimensional attributes because the camera is not correctly sighted

Below you will find two more images to show what this drawing really looks like, when viewed as you would normally, the first one is the right way round and the second is being viewed, the wrong way round. Taking a look at these gives a better understanding of what the secret really looks like and helped me to visualise the distortion created by this unusual illusionary 3d drawing technique.

This image below is being shown the correct way up and is viewed from the front as you would any other drawing or image, directly from the front it clearly shows how the drawing is distorted with the top being much wider than the bottom.

The 3d drawing of the lighter as viewed directly from the front showing it as it would be viewed when not looking at the correct angle.

The image below has been turned up side down and reveals that looking at it this way round presents an image that resembles a perspective grid for depicting something that is tapering off into the distance because that is what it is and would be doing. If something is close it will be big and as it gets further away it will get smaller and smaller, the further into the distance it gets.

The same 3d Anamorphic drawing from the front but turned upside down it gives the impression of any normal perspective drawing, creating the illusion of distance.

These 3d drawings can be created on a computer using GIMP Shop photo editing software or any other photo editing software if you can distort images with a perspective tool. I found that if I took an image and placed a reference grid over the top of it on a separate layer in GIMP shop. Then anchoring both layers together, I distorted it with the bottom being half as wide as the top, it was a good example of the drawing grid and picture needed to produce this image, that could be viewed with a camera, like shown in the image below.

Cadillac distorted 3d drawing, viewed through the camera lens at the correct visual plane.

It can easily be traced from an A4 sheet of printing paper.

This image could be used for tracing as the outline for drawing a 3d anamorphic perspective

This image below is the actual photograph of the distorted image taken with the camera it is the result of this photo manipulation technique to create 3d drawing on the computer for close up viewing with a camera.

Cadillac Image taken with a camera of the distorted image above, to show as an example

Then there are some images below this, with shots taken at a distance of about 10 feet, 3meters, of a box placed on a sheet of A1 cartridge paper, this is more closer to the working distance experienced by street artists doing, 3d drawings on the street.

3d drawing of box in comparison to the original photograph of the box in the correct position.

The actual 3d drawing of the box when viewed from the front and showing the reference grid lines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis

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If you want to learn how to draw from memory, you will first need to be very familiar with the subject you are drawing, for example if you draw the letter (A) then it will be a memory drawing the way you have always drawn the letter (A). So every time you draw one it will look very smiler to the last one you drew. This is because you have done this an unknown number of times throughout your life and it is fixed inside your head, it will not change unless you purposely make an intended change, as you are very familiar with the letter (A) . The letter (A) is a very simple shape and does not present very much to remember, but if , lets say you draw a car, then that is very different shape, that is far more complex than the letter, making it far more difficult to remember, it is more like the whole alphabet upper and lower case plus numbers together.

Now I know that it is highly likely you can draw the alphabet and numbers from memory, quite easy, so it also proves that you know how to draw from memory because you can do it with the alphabet. The question is how many times have you done this, the answer to that question is unknown but it must be thousands if not millions of times depending how old you are but how many cars have you drawn?

10,20 or even a 100, it bares no comparison to the amount of times you have drawn all the letters and numbers of the alphabet, and so it is highly unlikely you will be able to remember what the car looks like, without having it in front of you to look at. There is a lot to remember if you want to know how to draw from memory. A point to note (when I am talking about how to draw from memory I do not mean any old car, I mean a specific car like a Mustang or a Corvette). Most people can draw a box shape and put a couple of wheels on it that would make it a representation of a car but in most cases not a very good one, so that is not what I mean.

To be able to know how to draw from memory you need to train yourself to do so by braking it down into component parts, like wheels, windows, lights, tires, side view mirrors, door handles, the list goes on and on, that’s why it is difficult. Each one of these is a shape in it’s own right, so is a lot to remember, but it is possible, because by breaking it down, you learn how a car is actually made up or constructed, you learn the anatomy of a car and all cars look very similar overall.

All cars have the items mentioned above and all of these items can be found in very smiler places on all cars. If you know that a car has wheels and these wheels are usually a defined distance apart from each other, which can be measured by the number of wheels it takes to get to the next wheel, then you can easily make a template in your mind for placing these wheels the right distance apart. You can easily check this distance by measuring the number of wheels from your first wheel to your second wheel and you will get it right every time.

If you know that the wind shield usually starts about half the width of a wheel behind the front wheel then you know where it goes on most cars but also remember that every one is slightly different as well. If you learn where everything goes in this way by teaching yourself this from doing it on purpose, then you learn how to construct cars without having one to look at because you know where everything goes. Also if you use an item like a wheel as a measuring tool then everything about your car will be in proportion to everything else just like they are on real cars.

In the image of the car above you can see 3 red double sided arrows these are all the same size which show you how much smaller the rear of the car is because of its distance from the front. It also shows how far the windscreen is from the front wheel which is about half the width of the wheel. You can also take note that the door line actually almost measures up with the windscreen.

If this image was directly side on you would be able to measure the distance between the wheels and everything else about this car by using the wheels as the basic measurement which would give you a greater understanding of the anatomy of this vehicle.

If you do this then just doing it will make you more familiar with the subject of cars but also anything that you might like drawing for example, faces or people because they are not very much different from each other either. If you understand the anatomy of the subjects you draw as well as having a familiarity with them combined you will be more able and know how to draw from memory. If you do this a lot then you will also be prompted by the parts you are drawing as to what the next part to draw might be and this also helps as you are following a process of actions that becomes a natural pattern of behaviour.

A good way to practice memory drawing is to draw cars or other subjects like faces as described above and to then when you have finished the drawing, using these techniques to draw the same drawing all over again, while it is still fresh in your mind, without looking at it. Doing this will reinforce your learning, making it stronger as a memory and build up your ability to remember by exercising your visual memory, making it stronger and more capable.

Below you will find a video of a drawing I did using this method but changing the viewing position, so I was drawing it from a different angle, also making it even more difficult. When wanting to be able to draw well, you really need to push yourself hard to make, what seems like very little ground at the time but that is what will make you progressively just that little bit better.

Let me explain this in another way, cartoon films once consisted of thousands of hand drawn, hand painted images, where every single one had to be the same as the last one but in a different position or pose from a different angle. For one person to do this on there own it would take years so the cartoon makers would hire many people and break everything down into smaller components, bite sized chunks so any body could soon learn to do that one small part. Then they would have a team of say 20 people doing only small parts making it easy and also enabling them to complete them very quickly. If you had spent the last 10 years doing this for a studio that made cartoons do you think that you would probably be able to almost do this with you eyes closed?

The way to learn how to draw from memory is learned by drilling yourself to do so through continuous repetition, drawing the same thing over and over until you learn where everything goes, and purposely drawing your attention to understanding where it goes also.

 
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First off, if you want to do easy drawings of cartoons, any cartoons, then just trace them off your computer screen.

A piece of cheap A4 printer paper is thin enough to see what is on the computer screen right through the paper, so you can trace it, no problem.

Drawing cartoons is easy because unless you are copying other peoples cartoons in which case you might as well trace them off the computer screen, then they don’t have to look like anything.

This makes it easy because cartoons are just simple line drawings, usually done quickly.

How many times have you sat down drawing silly faces, with big noses or mouths or ears, that’s all that cartoon drawings are.

They do not have to be accurate and they do not have to look exactly like anything because they are only suggestions, learning to draw cartoons is easy.

Usually cartoons are just about fun.

The video below also named “easy drawings of cartoons” is an example of drawing some of the more familiar cartoons images on this page and shows them being drawn with the intention of encouraging you to draw without getting hung up on detail. The most important method of learning how to draw cartoons easy is not accomplished by thinking about ideas as much as actually drawing them your learning is greatly increased through doing.

They are about drawing jokes so the worse they look the better most of the time.

This means they can be very easy to draw and anybody can draw their own cartoons, if they can hold a pencil, even my 6 year old son could do it, so I am sure you can.

If you want to get serious about drawing cartoons then it could get considerably harder because you need to be able to use devices to express mood, through facial expressions, body language and environmental props.

Easy drawing cartoon is only easy if you don’t get serious about it too quickly.

Free style cartoons that you just make up can be very amusing and good fun to draw they also provide good experience for drawing the more familiar cartoon characters I have been drawing as examples so far on this page!

Some familiar cartoon caricatures you might recognise.

I have thoroughly enjoyed drawing the sketches on this web-page and videos.

It is such a fun free expression when doodling with cartoons and although I’m not the greatest there is, I enjoyed my completed drawings.

I enjoyed myself when I was drawing these images for this web-page and they are good simple practice for artists to draw – experienced or inexperienced.

Many cartoons employ people as the subject matter, so I did a couple of quick, funny drawings of people for you to look at.

Internet Gnus, Ed Wale and Dan Spam cartoon caricature's of real people.

When you draw Cartoons you do not need to draw objects or people the way they exist or look in reality.

They apply a lesser amount of technicality and detailed work, using over exaggerated forms and features. 

The real people who the caricature's where based on, the names have been left out to protect the innocent.

Simple devices are used for expressing a persons mood or the mood of an event they are things like dark clouds hanging over the head of a character indicating a sad mood or gloominess.

These devices change normal drawings into simple cartoon drawings!

And, of course, expressions play a big role in showing emotions when you draw cartoons!

As a child I used to love drawing cartoons from comics and these drawings became more complex as I got older so my drawings did also and I learned to draw more accurately moving away from drawing cartoons.

I used to copy the characters and I thought I was good at getting a likeness to the originals, drawing cartoons was my lead into becoming good at drawing as it is with many people who learn to draw.

I’m sure those comic books taught me a lot about drawing and helped me learn to read as well by giving me a fun way to practice.

I still look at cartoons in the newspapers and read them for a laugh, I also watch them on TV because they are funny but not serious, bringing light relief.

Giving cartoon drawing a chance will help your drawing as well and I’m sure it will help you to produce some very cool cartoon drawings.

Start looking around you for some ideas and use your imagination to see what you can include when you draw cartoons.

Keep it in mind to overemphasize facial appearances, include some loose scribbled shapes here or there, and soon you will realize you are doing easy drawings of cartoons, that are very easy .

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Pencil portrait drawing of Kurt Cobain, drawn in June 2011.

The pencil portrait drawing was an experiment for trying out some ideas, I made some quick sketches with different tools that where all dismal failures and I should have realised that there was something difficult about this image making it troublesome.

I chose Kurt Cobain, front man for Nirvana, the Grunge band, mainly  because I have had a relationship with him that was one sided as a fan during his and my life, through the television, newspapers, and radio, all with their own brand of creative news.

One starts and they all jump on the gravy train, creating portraits and I am no different except mine is only a pencil portrait drawing.

Here I am doing the same thing as them drawing a pencil portrait drawing of a common old rock star because he is familiar and recognisable.

Pencil portrait drawing of Kurt Cobain before getting to the final detail.

I enjoyed Nirvana probably because nothing good happened for me during the late 80’s early 90’s with guitar based bands and I had drifted off into little fluffy clouds, 808 State, rave music. Kraft Work had become popular again and I had been into them much earlier as well, just like, good night Vienna, Ultravox, guitar music was dead and then came Nirvana, and it was Nirvana. No more Mini Moogs and Oberhimer’s, it was Fender guitars and amplifiers, it was aggression, raw complaints and vague lyrics, “I’m so ugly, that’s ok cos so are you”.

All this and the media portrayal of a troubled soul, leading to his suicide, probably adhered me to Kurt Cobain giving me a good reason for drawing a common old dead rock star, dead but not forgotten.

I chose this image of Kurt Cobain from an Unplugged episode for a number of reasons, one of which was because he was not quite looking at the camera, which I think makes a more interesting portrait of somebody, caught unawares.  The image actually looks like he has been caught day dreaming and he is not actually focused or aware of his real surroundings, I think the image portrays this, whether it’s true or not.

The pencil portrait drawing.

Kurt Cobain pencil portrait drawing, after picking out the detail, perhaps the finished V1

I did not realise how difficult this was going to be until I tried to capture it and the eyes caused me problems. I chose these eyes because they where wet, glassy, reflecting stage lighting but only prominently in Kurt’s left eye on your right hand side, those other glints that are there but dimmed out, where difficult to get to the right tone.  The light reflecting in the iris of the left eye was also difficult for the same reasons.

I chose these elements because they are strong along with the stubble and the hair, as my intentions where to only suggest Kurt Cobain, I failed to satisfy these intentions in this drawing I think, yet learned so much more that I will use.

All of these aspects are what makes the drawing good but much more difficult with a need for deadly accuracy to capture the qualities of the subject but I made it difficult because I did not want it to be photographic, either. I had intentionally chosen an image with lots of marks in it, so as to be more able to use hatch marks as well as tonal modelling. This meant there was a lot more work involved in reproducing those marks which was a very time consuming task. I thought that I could just make hap hazard hatch marks to suggest some of the facial areas and I was wrong because it didn’t work out that way making me feel that I needed to do them almost exactly as they were.

I have drawn many portraits in the past and know that photographers usually over expose faces in an attempt at making the subject look better by masking the details with light. This usually produces images that are flatter than in real life showing less shape and form also showing less detail making them less work for someone doing a pencil portrait drawing.

The initial drawing took me about 30 minutes and you can see it being drawn in the video below.

I first toned the paper with graphite dust making it a light grey colour or tone. This was done because of the hair being blond and very light but also I did not want to create a drawing that looked like a photograph, I wanted it to look like a drawing with many marks just being suggested rather than definite. Past experience told me that I could do this successfully by using an eraser to draw with as well as a pencil, thus leaving the paper white by removing the graphite with an electric eraser.

I do have a process for doing my drawing which is probably similar to most other peoples but just in case it is not I think it needs to be stated. On most occasions I will draw some quick sketches of what it is I am going to draw, even if I have a photograph, as it helps me to focus my attention by getting things wrong, which in most instances I often do. This process also teaches me about the anatomy of the face and I learn how the elements are connected to each other, giving me practice runs at getting it right, all building up my visual memory of the face which I think helps me see it in greater detail. The whole process is about focusing down on the detail by starting out with a simple drawing, a quick out line sketch then refining it by adding more detail.

After this quick initial drawing I then set to work on finalising the detail and correcting any discrepancies between the drawing and the photographic subject, by this I mean that I make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. I do this by working through each component of the face; for example, I would take the subjects left eye on the right hand side of the paper and draw every detail as I could see it in the photograph. I always try to work from right to left because I am left handed but anyone who is right handed would be best working from the left, this enables you to more easily see what you have already drawn. It also helps because your drawing hand is not rubbing on the drawing you have been doing thus changing it by smudging the marks you have already made.

I then draw this left eye on the right hand side of the paper as I can see it, trying put every piece of the detail into place as I move around this smaller area, comparing each component in it with each other till I am satisfied that it looks good and close to the original.

Then I move to the other eye to do the same thing but then also comparing it with the eye I have just drawn to make sure it also is in the right place at the right angle being the right size and shape. At this point I begin to see discrepancies in the eye I have already drawn and although I was satisfied with it at the start I soon find faults with it when comparing with each other and the photographic subject.

When I am satisfied that the eyes are right I will move to the nose and mouth working them together along with comparisons being made with the eyes as well, at this point I start to make comparisons with the outlines of the face also. This whole process is slow, laborious and I find it enlightening because it seems to me that as you build you’re drawing, the parts you draw, the marks you make, reveal other marks that are missing in other areas that you have just finished. Areas or marks that you where sure where correct when you made them seem to change after doing some more work in another area and looking again you find they are not as good as you thought they were, so the process of elimination grows more complex and more detailed.

I do not do this process in one go but over a few days by going back to it and doing a little often with the biggest part of the work being visual study and comparison. The largest part of the work has no physical presence as most of it is just looking but it is essential to the end result.

The tools I used in the initial drawing where a HB 0.5 mechanical pencil some graphite dust scraped from a 3B graphite stick, a charcoal pencil and a Jakar battery operated eraser on A3 300gsm water colour paper using the smooth side of the paper. The graphite dust was blended in using soft tissue paper by lightly rubbing it in circular motions so as not to leave streaks as I did not want them in this drawing but sometimes I do use them for further interest.

In the seconded stage I decided to use some black chalk pastel instead of the charcoal pencil because it adhered to the paper and other pencil marks better and was better at minimising the reflected light that comes from the darkest areas of graphite pencil. Rubbing in some pastel over the top of these graphite pencil marks dulls them making them blacker and much less reflective I only used this in the darkest areas because if it is over done you end up with a very different tonal quality. If over done you end up with a pastel drawing and not a pencil drawing but used sparingly it can be very effective, notice the neck and under the chin area, around the ear, as well as the pupils, and top lip. In the second stage of the drawing where I was doing the detail I changed pencil I was using for a Derwent 4B sketching pencil which is a very soft black and layers very well over the top of previously drawn pencil. I also used the battery operated eraser and a paper stump for blending the pastel into the graphite pencil and also blending the graphite pencil it into the white of the paper.

I also experimented with a Derwent 8B dark wash pencil which is a pencil that you can wash out with some water on a brush I tried this over some of the not so dark areas in an attempt to kill the reflected light that comes from graphite pencil marks. This did work to some extent, not as well as the black pastel chalk did but I could not use the black as these areas are not meant to be black and making them black would change the whole tonal quality of the drawing completely.

HB 0.5 mechanical pencil, 3B graphite dust, a charcoal pencil, jakar battery eraser, A3 300gsm water colour paper, chalk pastel,Derwent 4B sketching pencil,paper stump, Derwent 8B dark wash pencil.

I succeeded in capturing the essence of Kurt Cobain and also managed to only suggest many strong features like the hair, creating a graphite pencil portrait drawing with photo realistic elements and also bold suggestive pencil marks. I am happy with the outcome as it now peresnts a better understanding of the 3 dimensional shape of the face giving me the possibility of further exploration and experimentation.

But…

My next victim will be, His Bobness.

Bob Dylan deserves to be immortalised in a graphite pencil portrait drawing if only for the fact that he has been on a never ending tour for possibly the last 50 years of his life, intentional or not that is a feat of endurance and lasting commitment.

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It could be said that he is an expert in the creation of dynamic optical illusions, with much experience in focal plane perspectives, this alone is to be admired, if not for any other reason than using anamorphic perspective and dynamic perspective to project himself across the world. Most of his work is celebrated by both people & businesses alike, having donated to this effort, allowing the opportunity for Julian’s work to exist. Once the work is completed it is abandoned, thus making it into what is called ephemeral art, an art form that has a short life span, something that eventually disappears like tears in rain.

Julian Beever Sidewalk art.

In his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) he proclaims himself to be an entertainer, a showman, who started as a juggler and become a community activist, celebrated on a global scale as well as also being a very competent draughtsperson. Maybe he has a BA degree acquired at Leeds Polytechnic under his belt but after that he certainly went his own way and set his mark on the world populace.

All I can say about him really, is street art.

Because Julian Beever sidewalk art is unusual it has drawn attention to him from people all over the world but he also uses the same tools as the media networks that publicize the creations and portray the work. Works that can only be seen at their best through the eye of a camera lens, the same camera lens that was used to draw them. Coincidence or not these are the same visual tools that are used in the media networks and the social media networks that are enjoying a bonanza online at the present, photos say so much and are so easy to share. Grab attention for yourself by creating unusual art, 3d drawings that you can give to the news and wider media to be shared using the same tools everybody uses, coincidence or not, it works.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, 3d paintings don’t seem that difficult when you know the methods used to create them so please let me tell you how.

If you look at a pole or post that stands upright coming up from out of the ground, it will look like it is standing upright, it needn’t be a pole or a post, it can be anything, I use a post for explanation because it is a simple shape to use as an example.

Take a look at it from about 6 meters or 12 feet away, you will easily see the image as an item standing upright. You will see the post with all the differing angles that your brain will tell you is a post standing in an upright position from the ground. If you then draw a picture from the exact position you are standing in or take a picture from that position with a camera, it’ll look like it is a post standing in an upright position. If you then place that drawing, image or photo, flat on the ground it’ll look like a picture lying on the floor but it will never have the look of a post that is standing upright. It will not matter how big or small it is, not even if as large as the post itself, it’ll never really look like an upright post. If you move further back away from where it is lying on the floor, it’ll be increasingly difficult for you to identify what it is, as the angle which you’re looking at will make it more and more obscure. Julian Beever correctly refers to this angel as a viewing plane.

This is why it’ll not work.

When looking at 3D objects in reality our eyes see many different angles which are related to size, shape and distance, because you’ve 2 eyes, they see little differences and your brain informs you when the objects are 3-dimensional by understanding the meaning of all these different angels, it tells you that what you are seeing is 3 dimensional and has more than 1 side, which is what happens for you to see in 3D.

A diagram showing the Julian Beever, Sidewalk Art Viewing Plain, Anamorphic Perspective.

An example of this phenomenon can be seen in Julian Beever sidewalk art below , described as the swimming pool, in the High Street.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, Swimming Pool on the high street an example of anamorphic perspective.

Below is the same Julian Beever sidewalk art example of a pool drawn on another high street from an opposite viewing position to show how these images are elongated in order to make up for the distance they are being viewed at and giving the illusion of them being closer than they actually are.

Julian Beever, chalk art the swimming pool, in the High Street at the opposite perspective showing the image distortion.

This helps the Julian Beever sidewalk art to achieve the illusion below by tricking the eye into thinking the focal length is shorter also enabling Julian to give the impression of a very small man on the top of a very large bottle.

Julian Beever, 3d drawings, a beer bottle drawn on a sidewalk in Scotland UK

Julian Beever 3D Beer Bottle chalk drawing that is the same as the one above it with slight changes.

In the Julian Beever sidewalk art pictures above, I’ve highlighted the lines where the paving slabs join, so you are able to see more clearly that the top part of the bottle is much bigger than it should be in relation to the bottom to create the illusion of it being closer.See how the base of the bottle in highlighted section 2 is just a little bit less than the width of one paving slab but the middle section just before the neck begins to taper in, highlighted section 1 is almost 2 slabs wide and should help you to understand that the drawing is being distorted in order to help make up for the distance it is at.

The distance is best seen by looking at the Julian Beever sidewalk art example above to see how small he is when compared with the girl and looking at the gradual reduction of the size of the tiles, they can also be used to help to measure out and map the construction of your drawing like using a grid. The top part of the drawing looks like it is about two tile’s wide and much larger than the base of the bottle in the drawing.

Trying to understand how Julian Beever sidewalk art works.

When doing a drawing of a post so that it gives the impression of it standing upright, it would have to be elongated so as to confuse your eyes and brain into thinking it was closer to you than it actually is. It would also have to be much wider at the top to compensate for the distance and the further away it is the wider it would have to be because something further away gets smaller, meaning you will need to make adjustments to it in order to be able to compensate for the distance. Doing this in the drawing will give the illusion of it being closer than it is in reality. The Julian Beever sidewalk art incorporates these measures into the drawings to make them more believable and 3D looking.

A bit like the picture below, where the horizontal drawing is much larger at the other end from the base because it is farther away so it is drawn bigger making it look like it is closer.

Julian Beever sidewalk art.

An example of how a post would need to be distorted so as to seem like it was standing upright.

Below is yet another example showing Julian Beever sidewalk art that shows the image as being elongated so that it will work from the distance in which it is being viewed.

The planet with Julian Beever standing on top, sidewalk art drawn in the same place as the beer bottle above.

The planet side view, chalk art drawing showing how it has been elongated to create the anamorphic perspective.

The image above of the world picture shows another example of stretching the drawing and how the drawn image becomes much bigger as a means of compensating for distance Please take a look at the Julian Beever sidewalk art video below.

Below, I’m told this is a different type of drawing that has been atributed as being more Julian Beever, sidewalk art in the form of being a more traditional mural on a wall, it’d not surprise me as it is somewhat in a similar style that is reminiscent of other drawings he has composed. If this is not one of his drawings then it would be safe to assume that there has been some influence from Julian Beever sidewalk art in this work and I’d be very surprised to find it hasn’t. I like it as it’s very dynamic and impressive.

Mural On Wall Optical illusion unknown artist perhaps Julian Beever?

It turns out that the above image was not by Julian Beveer and may have even been an insperation to him and not the other way round because this work was unveiled in 1975

It is fifty foot by seventy five foot mural titled TUNNELVISION by artist, Blue Sky.

More information and work by the artist can be found here at this link.

Blue Sky Gallery The online art gallery for Columbia, South Carolina’s premier artist, Blue Sky.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art can be seen in his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 is full of wonderful insights about his work giving you a small insight into the mind of the artist himself and how he created this popular street art, I bought mine from here and it was worth every penny better than any ebook online.

Image of a lighter standing upright

The challenge is to draw this lighter as an Anamorphic Perspective and reveal how it is done for those who are interested in finding out.

I took the lighter image and inserted a grid over the top to use as a reference grid for doing the drawing, I also want to show what the Anamorphic Perspective Grid actually looks like.

Lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top.

My camera was set up so I could draw the grid by using a camera as a viewer so as to be more able to draw the grid by using the viewing window of the camera as a guide. This is the same position and angle that the original lighter photograph was taken at.

Image showing the camera angle in relation to the paper drawing area.

In the image below you can see both the grid that has been drawn onto the A1 sheet of cartridge paper and the image as seen through the camera lens. It shows the difference between the real drawing on the paper and the image being viewed through the lens and you can see that the image in the camera viewer is now symmetrical. This now enables me to copy the image from the lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top as above.

Anamorphic Perspective grid as seen through the camera lens.

The image below shows what the Anamorphic Perspective Drawing Grid looks like when viewed directly from the front and looks like a normal perspective drawing grid that would perhaps be used for drawing a building looking down from the top.

Anamorphic Perspective Grid drawing shown directly from the front.

This is my quick drawing of the lighter when viewed from the correct position with the camera as you can see it worked and the lighter actually looks like it is standing upright.

Anamorphic Perspective photographed from the correct photographic angle and position.

Anamorphic perspective of the lighter drawing through the camera lens, this is showing the lighter and perspective grid at the correct viewing plane.

When you look at the image below it helps to get a look at it in its natural state as a flat drawing on a flat surface and help to get an understanding of how the Anamorphic Perspective works.

Anamorphic Perspective lying on drawing table to showing its two dimensional attributes

Below is the drawing completely in its natural viewing state as it can be seen directly from the front and now you can see how distorted it actually is. It is now quite easy to draw an Anamorphic Perspective grid because it is in actual fact a normal perspective drawing grid being looked at from upside down.

Anamorphic Perspective lighter drawing viewed directly from the front showing its normal viewing state as it would be viewed when not looking at the correct angle. From Above

The same Anamorphic drawing from above but turned upside down to show it as looking like any normal perspective drawing.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist his work can be seen in this book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 it is a full colour book of some of his work giving some wonderful insights about how he came to create this popular street art. I enjoyed reading this book and gaining the small insights into the thinking of the artist himself, it was bought from Amazon and it was worth every penny better than any ebook down loaded from off line, I prefer the real thing.

Click the image below to get a price on Amazon.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist.

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Learn how to draw skulls by first thinking about the caricaturists of a human skull, it is composed of bone that forms the overall shape and because of this it is an off white color making it great for practicing your shading and providing a good subject matter to encourage you to make more use of the paper tone. Even if you use colored paper with highlights to emphasize the lightest tones, your skull drawings will still look good, giving you plenty of practice with your drawing techniques and skills. Common features to a skull are the brain cavity with a nice curved area, eye sockets, nose cavity, jaw and teeth.  All of these can be exaggerated as features to easily create the skulls of monsters or sinister creatures but still recognizable as skulls because they have strong characteristics and features that are easily recognizable.

My advice for you would be to draw a human skull a few times so as to understand what a human skull looks like and how it is drawn but I don’t expect you to have one of your own so I have provided a few examples for you to draw if you want to use them. I would advise that you trace them first so you do not have to do the outline construction this will make it easier. If you want to learn more on the subject of tracing and its benefits then you could join my ezine and down load a free report on the right hand side of this page. When you have a few outlines drawn you can decide on which one you would like to continue by doing the shading on it.

A skull example for how to draw skulls,

This will help you to see more detail in the subject matter, informing you as to how the shapes fit together and how the shadows help to create a more three dimensional shape to your skull drawings or any drawing.

It will also be good practice for helping you to better understand how to draw skulls of all kinds’ not just human skulls because it will put accurate information into your head to start with about skull drawings .

The video below will help you by showing you how I draw; it is always good to watch how others draw.

I suggest that after doing this you should try to draw some skulls free hand from memory.

The best way to draw skulls is to start off drawing real skulls then after drawing a few you will have the information written into your brain so as to be more able to draw them from memory. The good thing about learning how to draw skulls is s is that they are not like faces and do not have to look like a particular person in fact you can be quite creative with them because of this. The best way to start off is with the main outline which depending on which angle you are looking at is a circular shape with a rectangular bottom where the jaw would be when looking from the front.

How To Draw Skulls A Front View Example To Use As An Information Source To Help You.

When looking from the side it would be an oval shape lying horizontally with a rectangular shape jutting off the front where the jaw would be again.

From this basic shape you can then start putting in the detail, if you do these out line drawings with light pencil marks they can more easily be covered up as you put more detail into your drawing building it up as you go along. My best advice would be to use photographs to get your information and you can find many of these online but just in case you’re not able find any then you can use these that’s why they are here the help you learn how to draw skulls and you will find plenty of interesting angles that can be useful if wanting to add some other adornments like hats or head dress to you skull drawings when learning how to draw skulls.

Skulls are good for drawing as they are quite easy, once you have drawn a few, you can get a buzz out of drawing them because they look good without great effort, they can be used for horror art, fantasy art, tattoos or cartoons. They can be combined with many other elements of creature and character designs, they are good for adding drama as a visual dynamic, I enjoy drawing skulls and have drawn many.

Now you should try drawing some more skulls free hand by making simple line drawings of them trying out different versions quickly, try exaggerating features like cheek bones or teeth, try having some teeth missing. You could make one into a pirate skull by giving it an eye patch and a bandanna or an Indian with a head dress or a cowboy with a Stetson, the possibilities are endless. How to draw skulls will help you to make some great skull drawings but you should at the very least start by drawing your skull drawings from the photographs of real skulls.

 
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You are not going to believe this but all pictures are easy pictures to draw, ha, ha.

The truth is drawing is easy when somebody tells you how easy, there are many easy pictures to draw but most people don’t realize, don’t know, don’t want to know or don’t want you to know and that’s the truth. The visual culture, visual media, commercial arts, arts industry, all make pictures the easy way and the only people who don’t are us, ordinary people like you and me.  Except I realized this by accident really because I spent 40 years learning the hard way first, the most difficult way possible really by teaching my self.

Easy pictures to draw lonely cliff castle drawn by human not machine

Easy pictures to draw is how the industry do it.

Take a good look at the drawing, commercial arts industry, colleges, universities and you will find far less little actual drawing going on than you realise, much of it is now done on computer, by machine, yet we all try to do it the hard way by trying to draw free hand. Yes there is great self satisfaction and accomplishment in doing drawings free hand but when you are trying to draw like your favourite artist or draw your favourite picture, you will find that it usually comes from the art media industry, who don’t do it that way really when they use machines to do it and it’s quite different.

They use computers for everything nowadays, so it is questionable if it is actually drawing at all, aren’t they very easy pictures to draw when a machine does it for you?

Yes it takes some understanding and skill to use those machines but the question is are they doing the drawing or are they operating a machine that’s doing the drawing?

Of course nobody tells you this, nobody tells you when you are drawing or learning to draw that you are competing against machines and I am not sure if they or any body at all even realizes it but drawing with a machines is questionable because who’s actually doing the drawing?

Those that use these machines don’t tell you either but like I have already said I am not sure they have realized, I would love to tell you that it’s some dirty secret but I am not sure it is, they just let you form your own opinion which is what we mostly all do anyway.

The dragons flight showing easy pictures to draw without using a machine to do it.

Let me get back to the subject after my little rant, easy pictures to draw are very easy so easy even you can do them and compete against these machines, not only compete but use them so you are doing the drawing, real drawings that you can tear in half if you want to and throw away. Try doing that with a computer drawing, have you tried ripping a computer in half, don’t bother it’s a waste of time and somebody else might have the drawing on their computer so you won’t even be able to destroy it.  Just a silly joke don’t take me too serious on it please!!!

How much does a pencil cost, $2 perhaps for an expensive one, how much does a computer cost $500 for a reasonably cheap one, how much does the software cost, any thing from $50 to a $1000 plus depending on what it is. You already have access to a computer or you wouldn’t be reading this so no worries there, all you need now is a pencil and some paper.

I am sorry but I still haven’t told you how to draw easy pictures but I will if you join me and down load my free report (How To Draw Easy And Simple), please find a subscription box at the top of the page, soon it will be you finding easy pictures to draw.

Easy pictures to draw, Dragon Land drawing in pen and ink, showing that we are not machines, we are human beings.

If you want some drawing ideas then take a look at the page at the end of this link to drawing ideas.

Easy pictures to draw will soon be everywhere you look if you read my report, I promise and I will also not be filling your email in box with spam every five minuets trying to sell you something either, once or maybe twice a month if your lucky will be sufficient but not trying to sell you stuff.

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Easy drawings to draw are so easy they are simple.

Yes, easy drawings to draw are so easy, you just find the pictures that you like, that you can get from anywhere on line or from photographs that you or other people have taken, they could be anything. You can get your favourite Anime or Manga pictures they could be pictures of animals or people the choice is yours and all you really need to do is trace them from your computer screen, it’s that easy.

If you place a piece of plane printing paper on your computer screen over a picture that you like you will be able to see it through the paper because of the light coming from your computer monitor. This means that you can trace any picture you want if you can get it up on your computer monitor screen and it’s so easy. Most commercial arts, drawing studios have tools that are called light boxes or rather they used to have these because now nearly everything is done on a computer, meaning the light boxes are not used so much anymore. These light boxes are a box with a light inside and a piece of glass or clear plastic over the top, where you place the picture you want to draw and a clean piece of thin paper over the top to draw onto. These light boxes are not as good as a computer monitor because the light has to shine through the image and the paper you want to draw onto, whereas with a picture on a computer monitor the picture is its self the actual the light source.

Tracing pictures in this way will help you to be able to draw any picture you like quite easily and once you have got the outline of the picture you want to draw then you can finish it off by doing the shading or colouring it in, but don’t attempt to do this on the monitor remove it first. Many people might think that this is cheating but it is just an easy way to learn how to draw easy drawings and if you do this it will help your free hand drawing improve a great deal.

Now that you know this you should also know that you can now draw any picture you want easy and get it right every time, the simple way, why make things difficult when they don’t have to be?

Just one thing you need to know first before you do this, if you are using a flat soft screen TFT monitor then do not press hard on your pencil as it will damage the screen, if it is glass then it will be fine and will not get damaged. There is no need to press hard on your pencil because you only need a light line to start out with as you can easily go over your drawing when it is on the table, desk or where ever you do your drawing.

We will not accept any responsibility if you damage your monitor as there is no need to press hard on your pencil and by not doing so it will also help you to become better at drawing.

This is a quick drawing taken from a paused video on YouTube.

This is another character, Bleach taken from the same place as the one above in the same way.

Easy drawings to draw are so easy, even you can do it when you know how and now you have been told how.

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First off let’s get an understanding of what Emo cartoons are just in case you don’t know but want to.

Emo is a subculture of main stream culture with a focus on the expression of emotional devastation; it is a fashion, a trend, a music genre, a derivative of the word emotion and as such an attempt at depicting human sadness, they are the elements of Emo cartoons.

Freedom from the struggle to feel love

Emo cartoons tend to closely reflect all of the above by depicting sombre, dark, colourless images often being black and white with a tiny splash of colour. There seems to be no definitive explanation of this drawing style other than it being about deep, often dark emotions, Emo cartoons reflect this.

Be sure to give your characters a sad appearance. This essential goes with every mode of Emo cartoons drawing, from anime or manga type drawings to album cover illustrations. More often than not this is conveyed by focusing on creating weepy, sad eyes.

Place your characters in sombre bleak situations.

Emo is easily expressed by drawing someone sitting all alone with their head down. Add some black clouds and a little rain, a few derelict, creepy buildings and you will have created a whole Emo scene.

You can draw figures in silhouette without detail and featureless instead of entirely sketched-out features. The silhouette styles are popular not only with Emo t-shirts, but they can also be seen used as website images, graphics and album covers.

You can employ subdued, muted colours to further express a sense of despair when you draw Emo cartoons. This is a style that is reminiscent of the hardcore music albums by bands in the late 90′s and creates an Emo sensation when combined with grey mono tones.

When doing portrait drawings of your most favourite Emo bands you can make them look cool if you put the effort into taking your art to yet another level by experimenting with new ideas to say something different with it.

It can be very interesting to also experiment with collages depicting iconic images, mixed together with text, ink splats, splatters and splashes as incorporated design elements. Doing this style of image can not only convey an Emo feel, but is also more accessible to those who feel they do not draw well.

This new creative outlet can also help you get through the tough times that you might encounter by helping you to pour out your excess emotions into the drawings.

Dynamic visual devices for portraying gloom and doom, Emo drawings. Some of these items could include religious paraphernalia such as crosses, old churches; death symbols such as coffins, tome stones, skulls, graves, locked gates could portray exclusion. Empty streets and lonely figures Emo cartoons can be interesting and expressive try some.

Hey Joe how's it going?

My heart's been cut with a blade.

Emo Cartoons Drawing, Cut Through My Heart With A Blade.

Emo Cartoons Drawing, Up On The Roof we are so small.

Emo cartoons Drawing Girls

Cartoon Emo Girl Sitting all alone with no one.

The XX, Emo Cartoon Drawing, from the video, Crystalised, X marks the spot, Emo cartoons can be of bands and often convey all the right visual lighting.

 
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