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.

Access ArtisticWaves Group from the Blog

See the three new links just below the "Artistic Waves Updates" header? These are all the art groups you can join and participate in right from this blog. More details below...

• ArtisticWaves Group: This is the main group for the site and while most of the content is on the waves (and will continue to be) you can also start posting directly on the groups by clicking on the link above. 
• Everyday Matters Group: This is a group to share our interpretations of Danny Gregory's Everyday Matters Weekly Challenges. There are currently 5 years worth of challenges posted here and you can start right from the first challenge or pick one at random - whatever works for you.
• Swap ATCs Group: A new group to share tips and techniques for creating Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) and set up ATC Swaps. There are a variety of ways for creating ATCs so this group will focus only on original, hand-drawn, or painted ATCs (no prints, stamped cards, collages, etc.)

So go ahead... check out the groups and start posting! :-)

Getting Started with Colored Pencils

Ever wanted to try painting with colored pencils but didn't know how to start? Here's a quick start guide for you.

If you would like to post your comments or ask questions on the wave, join the Artistic Waves group.

Quick and Easy Access to ArtisticWaves

The easiest way to access the waves sent to ArtisticWaves is through the ArtisticWaves website where you can access waves under each category.

But what if you wanted to access the waves in your Wave inbox instead of going to the website each time? We have an option for you too :-)

1) Click here to access the Welcome to Artistic Waves wave: 

2) Go to the bottom of the wave and look for this installer and click on the Install button

Once you confirm installation, this will add two options to your wave account:

• A link to all your ArtisticWaves waves under Searches which gives you one-click access to all the waves sent to the ArtisticWaves group

• An option in the New Wave button titled New ArtisticWaves Wave which allows you to create a new wave with the ArtisticWaves group as a participant

Here's what you can expect to see after the installation:

That's all there is to it!

Post a comment or ping me on Wave if you are not able to get this to work :-)

Finding Waves sent to ArtisticWaves Group

The best way to access the waves sent to the ArtisticWaves group is by using the links on the ArtisticWaves website. Bookmark the links that you are interested in.

But if you prefer to access them from your Google Wave inbox, watch this video for details on how to find the waves sent to the ArtisticWaves group: