Happy New Year!

Everyone ready for a great year of drawing? There's always something new to learn and something new to perceive through art work. I've seen some new drawings from some great artists. This morning I woke up to an email from Macy, age 15.





Wow! What amazing drawings Macy! Great work! There's something about the line quality that I love. Keep up the great drawing Macy! Can't wait to see more.

If anyone's been holding out on sending my artwork, please don't. Jump online and send me your drawings! I love to get them! Keep your pencils sharp in the new year!

Nice grasshopper!

My good friend Michael sent me these two awesome drawings of a horse and a grasshopper! Great job on both drawings Michael. Looks like you had fun. I really like the feet on the grasshopper! They feel very bug-like.

Thanks for sending them Michael! Keep your pencil sharp!

Well here's something I've never seen before! Shane decided to take all of my animal drawings and combine them into one single image! Wow! That is just awesome Shane. Thanks for using your creative juices to make something extra ordinary. I love it! Keep it up!

The Talented Mr. Young

When I did the How To Draw books, I was worried that I made the drawing lessons too difficult. But when I was a young artist, I always enjoyed being challenged because I knew it made me a better. What's crazy is that I keep getting these incredible drawings from artists all over the country that make me believe that I made the lessons just right.

One of those artists is L. Young, from Castro Valley In California. Mr Young is 9 and easily a better artist then I was when I was 9. L. Young sent me this image of the camel, and he did an amazing job.




Great work L.! I like how you turned it into a bit of a scientific illustration by labeling the different parts of the Camel. Scientific illustrators are needed in the art industry. Maybe it's a career you should look into.

Now for the critique! My favorite part of your drawing is the head of the camel. It's very distinguishable as a camel head, great shape and size. Nice work!



If you ever attempt the the camel again and you want to improve it, focus on the structure of the legs. You want the legs to look like they're truly bearing the weight of the camel. To do that all you have to do is make the legs straighter. Over all though - this is a great image and you're clearly on your way to a hobby or career in art work.

Great job Mr. Young!

Jessica's drawings!

I just got these drawing sent to me from Jessica (age 14). All I can say is Wow! These are amazing Jessica! She says she finds time to draw everyday and that my How To Draw books helped her learn more about animal anatomy. That's great Jessica. Remember that there's always more to learn too. God made living bodies very complex machines. I feel like I'm still learning anatomy all the time, and if I don't draw for a while I forget everything. :(

These are really excellent drawings Jessica. Great work! My comments are very general so I won't use my red and blue markers.

My favorite part of your drawings is I can still see your construction lines. It shows that you built the drawing from the ground up. It makes the final image feel like it's truly leaning on that underlying structure.

If there's anything to improve it's in your line work. Your lines are very confident (meaning you're sure of yourself and your ability) but your lines could be even more confident. And that really just comes with lot's of practice. The more you draw the more you'll be sure that the strokes of your pencil or pen are accomplishing exactly what you want them to. Until then - keep exploring and practicing.

Thanks Jessica!

Drawings from Matthew and Daniel!

I got a couple of great illustrations from two brothers that apparently share a love of drawing. Daniel, age 12, sent me this amazing horse, it's really well done. I struggle the most with drawing horses so I find it amazing when I get a drawing like this emailed to me. There's no way I could have reproduced a drawing of a horse like this when I was 12.



The best part, Daniel, is the detail around the neck. I can tell that you're not just copying an image but you actually understand the structures that are being suggested in the book. Although that sounds goofy, it's a big leap to make when you go from seeing what you're drawing, to understanding what you're drawing.

The only critique I'll give you is on the tail. It looks like it should be hanging further away from the body. If you wanted to improve this drawing, or if you ever try it a second time, I'd recommend pushing that tail a little to the left.

Otherwise, this is a great image! Nice work Daniel!



Matthew, Daniel's brother, age 9, took a crack at drawing the serpent from Genesis. Snakes are a lot of bendy lines and curves and there isn't much easy about drawing them.



This is excellent Matthew! I hope you enjoyed drawing a snake with legs as much as I did. I can see that you took a lot of time defining the feet and the claws. They look great.



The most impressive part is the face of the serpent. It's hard to get all the overlapping of the jaw, the fangs, the tongue, and the nose to work correctly with each other. You, like your brother, drew like you understood the structure of the serpents head. Nice work! The only suggestions I have are those wiggly lines in the body. Keeping your pencil steady takes practice, and I don't expect you to be a pro, but if you wanted to practice anything, that's what I'd suggest.

Daniel, make sure to help your brother Matthew when he draws. As you learn new tricks, you can show him what you've learned. Watch each other draw, and draw together. It'll make you both great artists!

Thanks guys! Keep your pencils sharp!

Christian's drawings

I got some more artwork from you guys, keep them rolling in, I want to see your drawings!


Here's three amazing pieces from Christian who's 12 and says he draws every day. Do you ever get a sore thumb Christian? For some reason my thumb always gets sore first when I draw for too long.






I can't believe how well people do on the beggar. This is top notch, Christian! Really fine work. The strongest part of your illustration is the face. There's a lot of structure and detail going on in there that's hard to define, but you recreated it very well. The proportions are good, and the detail is there. Nice!

The area of improvement that caught my eye was the length of the fingers. They seemed a little short and stubby. Hands and feet are the most difficult though and yours are still really good.




Next, Christian did the ol' carpenter! I love the titles you added by the way!





You're right, let's just call him Noah. Great job! With his wrinkly face and his hairy body, it's easy to get lost in the details, but it looks like you stayed focused. Especially on those feet! Sandals with straps like that are hard to draw because you have to keep track of them all in your mind. You made it look easy!

The area of improvement on this illustration is in the balance. If you look at your drawing, Noah seems to be leaning forward a little bit. His weight would seem more balanced if he was leaning to the left side of the page a little more. It's kind of a hard thing to keep track of, but you can always check the balance of your character before you switch over to pen or dark pencil for details. All in all - Well done!





And the final illustration of Christian's is the Giant! It's one of my favorites in case you haven't seen the video on the Luke 2:52 website yet. I love drawing the giant. Over all, Christian, this is your strongest of the three. I didn't do a formal critique on it because it's just darn good. If anything, his left eye is a little squished and lost in lines, but that's all I could see. This is a very strong illustration. Congratulations!





With that said there's always room for improvement, so don't ever feel like you can't try a drawing again and see if you can improve on it. I packed tons of detail into these drawings so that there would always be more things to learn about.

Keep drawing everyone, and keep your pencils sharp! I gotta get to bed so I can get up early tomorrow and do a couple drawings before I head off to work. g'night!

Sorry!

Hey all, sorry I never post here. I had intended this blog to be dedicated to drawing submissions from the readers, but I never get any. Please don't be shy about your work. If you don't want it posted on the blog, I'd still love to see it.

I hope you're all still having fun with the How To Draw books. If you'd like to see more books along these lines, send me an email!

Seeya!
Keep your pencil sharp!
-royden

Jocelyn's Israelite Soldier

Check out this awesome drawing of an Israelite soldier! Drawn by Jocelyn - age 12. What a great illustration Jocelyn! Thanks for sharing it! As promised I'll tell you my favorite part of the drawing, and the part of the drawing that could be best improved.




Wow! Nice detail on the shin guards and feet. That detail isn't easy - I know. I really like the face too. My favorite part is the detailed folds of the cloak around the neck. Good job! Cloth and drapery are among the hardest things to capture in art. It's taken me years to figure out how cloth and material fold in on each other.

If there was anything I'd encourage you to improve, it would be the sword. Swords look best when the lines are really straight. Sometimes it helps to use a ruler, however you don't have to. The whole drawing is excellent, and I think you did a great job! Keep it up and keep your pencil sharp!

Hey guys! The Luke2:52 website is live! Go there and build a beast or download some desktops, or watch some clips of me as I draw the giant.


It's a rainy day today in Seattle, so it seems like a good day to draw. I'm gonna go make a sandwhich and hit the drawing board!