Practice Drawing to Improve Your Art Skills – Art Kick Sunday

One way to practice drawing is to choose a subject and draw it over and over again. The more you draw it the easier it will get. For example, if you wanted to get better at drawing hands you could fill a page with hands drawn in lots of different positions. Repeat the exercise regularly and watch your improvement.

We release a new Art Kick Sunday video every week. You can find them here

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

Sketching with Limited Time (Timed Drawing Practice Exercise) – Art Kick Sunday

In Today’s Art Kick Sunday we are going to look at doing short timed drawings.

It can be so easy to over-work a drawing and one way to get over this is to practice drawing with a set time limit. It can really help you to loosen up. It’s also great if you have only a limited time available to draw.

In this video, we show you how you can create a simple drawing in just 2 minutes.

Sketching in a limited time (from 2 to 10 minutes) means you can make time to be creative every day.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our Channel – https://bit.ly/KickYoutube

Materials

In this video we use:

A Pentel brush pen which you can get from Amazon
https://amzn.to/2GRMREN
(affiliate link)

A timer which is also available from Amazon
https://amzn.to/2URLCug
(affiliate link)

A cheap sketchbook from “The Works” perfect for practice, when you don’t want to feel precious about what you do.

Subscribe

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

Create Cartoons with Everyday Objects Using Photos and Apps – Art Kick Sunday

We show you step by step how to take everyday objects and create cute cartoons with fun messages. You could use them to create cards, a comic strip, notebook covers, posters etc.

To create the cartoon first arrange the objects, take a photo, then draw on it with an app and finally add some text in Canva.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

How to Draw Hair Easily

Today, we’re going to show you how to draw hair easily. We are going to start by showing you how to draw cartoon hair and then move on to how to draw realistic hair.

How to draw cartoon hair

How to draw female cartoon hair

draw cartoon hair woman

I am basing this cartoon hair on the photo you can see. The woman has a very rounded hairstyle and I am exaggerating that with sweeping lines. You want to look for big shapes rather than strands of hair when you are drawing a cartoon. To see the big shapes of the hair, it often helps to squint, which blurs the image and simplifies it. You can see I haven’t included much detail but given the impression of the curl going around the top of her head with a spiral type line.

Don’t expect that you will get the hair perfect the first time you draw it. Draw lightly in pencil and then go over it with a pen. If you still feel that the cartoon hair needs tweaking, trace over it again and refine it. You can either use thin paper to do this or use a lightbox to see through thicker paper.

How to draw male cartoon hair

draw cartoon hair male

Now we are going to draw male cartoon hair. You can see I have already created a pencil drawing to speed things up. Short hair on a male cartoon is really easy. I am using the reference picture on the right as a guide and have drawn a simplified hair shape. I’ve done this by squinting to see the big shape again. Rather than draw in strands of hair, I have drawn little pointed peaks that stick up on the top of his head. Then I’ve created a few more peaks that break up where his hair meets his head. You can see I have also simplified his beard and eyebrows into simple shapes.

It’s always useful to use a face reference photo even if you are drawing a cartoon. You are not trying to create a likeness but it’s a great starting point for a face and hairstyle shape.

How to draw realistic hair

draw realistic hair

The biggest mistake that beginners often make when drawing realistic hair is trying to draw every single strand of hair, and you don’t need to do that, all you need is to create the illusion of it. So first of all, I’ll start by indicating the direction of the hair growth with my pencil. On each section of the hair, I’ll have a look and see where it’s falling and I’ll follow that. Then once I’m happy with that, I’ll use my cotton bud. I’ll blend and soften those lines with the cotton bud. That alone can indicate hair without having to draw in every single line to represent hair strands.

Next, I’ll start redefining the darks, particularly where hair sections separate. If you go too dark with the shadows you can lift out the highlights again with a putty rubber. The shine is created by defining those darks and then lifting out those lights. The more contrast you have between the lights and darks the shinier the hair will look. I drew this with one pencil which is enough to give a variety of tones.

Sometimes instead of a cotton bud, I use a paper stump, which is also known as a tortillon. Both are great for blending and softening pencil lines. A tortillon has more of a point so you can be more definite about where you’re using it and it doesn’t cover such a large area.

Remember when you’re drawing, that the hair will cast a shadow across the forehead. I use a cotton bud to indicate that. I’ll take a bit of the pencil from the hair and using the cotton bud, blend it into the forehead a little bit. This gives it a three-dimensional effect so you can see it’s lifting off of the face.

How to draw hair curls

how to draw hair curls

It’s not hard to draw hair curls. All you’ve got to do is observe how the light hits each individual curl. I’m doing the same thing as I did before. I’m starting by defining the direction of the hair growth with my pencil. As the hair twists, I’m indicating the new direction it’s going in. And then I’m going in with my cotton bud to blend those lines to make them softer. Then I’m going back in and redefining the darks, in particular where the hair is separating.

Hair is not perfect. So you do need to make sure you add those random bits of hair that aren’t in the curl and are sticking out. I then go back in with my eraser just to pull out those highlights a little bit more where the light is hitting the curl. Then, I darken the shadows that are cast where the hair twists over itself because it will cast a shadow on the hair beneath. And you can just keep going on and on until you achieve the level of realism that you’re after.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

Artist Inspiration not Imitation – Art Kick Sunday

Want to see Sandra and I do spectacular impressions of each other? Now’s your chance. 🙂

We explain why it’s fine to copy the styles of other artists at first, but why it’s important to find your own style. Plus we give some suggestions on collecting together inspiration. So it’s artist inspiration not imitation.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

How to Create Continuous Line Drawing Animals – Art Kick Sunday

How to create continuous line drawing animals. In this video, we explain in our unique way what a continuous line drawing is. Then we show you how to draw a continuous line drawing animal, we use a horse as an example. We also have some suggestions for what you could do with the drawing afterwards.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

Lightbox – Link to Lightbox (affiliate link)

The link above is an affiliate link which means we get a small commission if you use our link. Thank you for your support.

How to Use a Lightbox to Refine or Trace your Art – Art Kick Sunday

This week we show you how to use a cheap lightbox to refine or trace your own art onto another piece of paper. This is useful if you’ve created a sketch on cartridge paper but now want to transfer it to watercolour or mixed media paper. You can a lightbox to refine your drawings by redrawing with minor alterations

There are a variety of different lightboxes you can get. The one we used in the video was a basic one which costs around £10 see link below.

Lightbox – https://amzn.to/2U4ktb1(amazon affiliate link)

The link above is an affiliate link which means we get a small commission if you use our link. Thank you for your support.

Don’t forget to Subscribe to our channel and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

subscribe Youtube channel

How to Draw Face Cartoons / Caricatures from Distorted Reflections – Art Kick Sunday

How to Draw Face Cartoons / Caricature from Distorted Reflections – Art Kick Sunday

Have you ever wanted to draw a caricature or cartoon face but didn’t know how?

Here’s a fun exercise to try using your distorted reflection in metallic items or using an app like Bendy Booth.

Don’t forget to Subscribe and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for future Art Kick Sunday Videos
[sm-youtube-subscribe]

Sketching in Public More Confidently – Art Kick Sunday

Sketching in Public More Confidently – Art Kick Sunday

Learn how to draw and sketch more confidently in public. Whether you want to draw buildings, landscapes or create sketches of people in a cafe, we’ve got a few simple tips to help you.

Don’t forget to Subscribe and click the notifications bell to be alerted on all our new videos.

Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for future Art Kick Sunday Videos
[sm-youtube-subscribe]

Buy us a Coffee!

Love what we do? Support us by buying us a coffee.

Newsletter Sign up

Podcast Episode list

Click here for a complete list of our podcast episodes

join the Kick in the Creatives Facebook Group

Buy us a Coffee!

Love what we do? Support us by buying us a coffee.

Newsletter Sign up

Podcast Episode list

Click here for a complete list of our podcast episodes

join the Kick in the Creatives Facebook Group

Buy us a Coffee!

Love what we do? Support us by buying us a coffee.

Newsletter Sign up

Podcast Episode list

Click here for a complete list of our podcast episodes

join the Kick in the Creatives Facebook Group

Sorry to interrupt, but would you like to know more about our art challenges and podcasts?

Join our mailing list to keep up to date with our art challenges and podcasts

We're doing a happy dance, thanks for signing up

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This