Upside Down Drawing

Drawing upside down is a common exercise wannabe-artists are asked to work on in order to improve observational skills and help switch from the logical mode (left-brain) to the creative mode (right brain).

In the Betty Edwards book 'Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,' the exercise is to sketch Picasso's 'Portrait of Igor Stravinsky' upside down. Here's my attempt: 

The point of the exercise is to draw what we see and stop us from seeing recognizable shapes drawing our interpretation/stored concept of that shape. But it's difficult to switch off your logical mode completely so here are some tips to help you complete this exercise:

• Focus on the lines and how they relate to each other rather than look at the whole shape
• Look at negative space around the lines to get a more accurate placement of the lines
• If you cannot stop seeing recognizable shapes, focus on one part of the sketch and place a piece of paper over your original to cover parts that you aren't sketching. Once you are done with that section, move the paper to uncover the next section

Those are the tips that worked for me. Share your tips and techniques in the ArtisticWaves Group.

Tutorials for Realistic Pencil Portraits

If you have been following my blog, you'll notice that I had a sudden urge to dabble in portraits. I've been trying to draw portraits and caricatures for a while but they usually look a little too flat. So I decided to look for resources to learn to draw more realistic portraits. I love sketching with pencils and I was really amazed by some of the realistic looking portraits one could create using just pencils so I decided that was the medium I was going to go after.

After wading through different links/videos/resources and searching for a variety of portrait classes, I finally found one that "clicked." Check out the links below for the beginners and advanced version of the course:

Portrait Drawing for Beginners

Portrait Drawing - Advanced

The beginner's version is great for those who haven't tried portraits before. If you have already sketches a few portraits before and want to improve your technique, go for the advanced version. Both versions include step by step instructions with photos and exercises to practice the skills you've learnt.