Monthly Archives: June 2009

how to draw a easy

Creative artists, creative process.

Creative artists, rule the world, if we think about it but we are not doing that, today because everybody should be able, to at least understand, the creative process and creative techniques we use, if you just keep on reading this simple explanation, you will.  Creative drawing is a pastime, that many people enjoy, all over the world and I am no different, it has been, so many things to me, throughout my life but one thing, it has always consistently been, is pleasure. The wonderful thing about drawing, is you only need, a pencil or pen, some paper, your eyes and your mind, in order to draw great pictures, a pleasure so easily obtained, it’s little wonder that many people enjoy it, the creative process is simple.

When I draw pictures, I often get lost for hours, fantasizing and dreaming to myself, about all sorts of imaginary ideas, concepts, stories or worlds, people, creatures and places, magic, and illusions. This is often the realm of creative artists, things that don’t exist, until you draw them and they are released from the imprisonment, of your mind, onto an unsuspecting world, it’s amazing, when someone looks at your work and says wow.

The creative artists and process.

Below is an image of Gearman, he is an attempt at showing, the workings of how creative artists, with their imagination, create illusions from everyday objects, something I have done many times, when drawing because you can often see things, in other things.

Creative artists example of developmental stages when building an image from another image.
Image showing, the constructional stages of building an image, from another different images.

Yes, I know this is not, a creative drawing as such but is it, because it is not a photograph either, except for the, LX mountain bike gears, the rest could be considered a digital drawing, rather than a pencil drawing but in this format, it more easily shows the process, of seeing things, as other things.

If you draw pictures, any pictures, out of you imagination, from a picture or from life and you look, at what you are doing, you will start to see other things, this is not likely to happen at first because you will need, to build up visual memory from doing, a stock of past works, this is often called a repertoire. This is why, it is important to practice by doing drawings, all the time but if you like drawing, like many people do and you are a creative artist, it will not be a problem, as you will soon have a repertoire.

I want to tell you a little story, it is a bit of a dark story but a true story, all the same and also a good reason for understanding, a little bit more, about what I am trying to explain, about visual memory and creative artists.

I had a bit of an obsession, from when I was a small child, I wanted to be able to draw the human likeness, I wanted to be able, to draw portraits of real people, that looked like them. A large part of my young life, had been focused, on trying to do this accurately, so as others, would uphold my observations and confirm that I had, the ability to capture the human likeness, through drawing. I eventually reached the pinnacle of my success, in this, by drawing and painting portraits for people, getting paid by them for this work. During this time of about 3 years, doing portraits, I sold over a hundred of these, to the expressed wishes of those, I was drawing them for but I also drew many more, in the process, that I also sold, how many I do not really know, but in total, a couple of hundred. I was at it, all the time but it was causing me other problems, I discovered, I was so over exposed to faces, that I began to start seeing them everywhere, in everything I looked at. I seen faces in trees, bushes, the drawings I was doing, buildings, everything, it was fun at first but it soon became annoying, for me because I felt it was restricting my imagination, unless I was drawing faces.

I never wanted to be like that, I wanted to be able to draw faces, as well as cars, robots, landscapes, mountain bike scape’s or what ever but not just faces, and I had to stop.

I am glad I did, I don’t just see faces in everything, I look at anymore but, the only way to do this, was to stop and go back, to drawing anything but not faces, only when I needed them, for something else now.

This leads me to believe, that all creative artists, can hone their skills into a focused but restricted visual memory, by repetitively doing the same subjects, over and over, it seems to be a reason, why some of these creative artists, can draw from memory, without even looking, which is something I did not like because it felt like, my creative abilities where being restricted, to only one type of subject.


My new obsession, is to be able to draw everything and I am joking because I can do that anyway, so that’s what I do, we are all creative artists, developing a creative process, in every thing we do because that’s what humans do, when they focus their attentions on a task, this dose not just apply to drawing.

how to draw graffiti style.

How to draw graffiti easy.

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How to draw graffiti, the first step you need to take, is deciding, what you are going to write, are you going to write, your name or are you going to give yourself a handle, like many graffiti artists and writers do, all over the world, all of the time. If you want to get a better understanding of, what a handle is, then you can, by following this link to graffiti creator,graffiti art.

Now take a sheet of paper and write your name or handle on it, with a pencil, the way you would normally, write it and have a look, at how you write it. Write it again, only this time make it all capitals letters, with plenty of space between them, now try writing it, in as many different ways, as you can think of and don’t worry, about the end results, it is only the start of a process.

Please see my example ideas, design sheet, below.

3D graffiti design sheet of ideas drawn with a 3B graphite pencil.
3D graffiti design sheet of ideas drawn with a 3B graphite pencil, cool anybody can do this.

As you can see, I have used different types of letters, curved ones, square linear type letters, boxed, three dimensional letters and some, that are hardly readable as letters at all, the more you create, the better. If you find yourself stuck, after only drawing a few, then look for some ideas, in the news paper, a comic, magazine or anywhere, you might find ideas for lettering.

When you are happy, that you have generated enough ideas, then you can look over them and pick out one or two, that you like, for further development, it can be as many as you like, not just one or two, if you like them. Now, redraw these out on their own, in the center, of a clean piece of paper, try to fill the paper, as much as you can and make these drawings, more accurate, correcting or altering, anything that needs it, as you go. Try to keep your lines faint and not too heavy because they will be harder to cover later.

You can also look online, for lettering and graffiti art because there is an abundance of it, even videos that show some fantastic work, with it all being, a great source of ideas and inspiration.

You can create block lettering easy, by just redrawing your letters, over the top of each other, again but out of line, like in the example below.

You could trace your name or handle and then move it a little, to the left or right, up or down and retrace it, over the top, then fill in the area, where you can still see, the first letter outline in black, to create the illusion of shadow.

You can also overlap letters, so the second is hiding, slightly behind the first and the third behind the second, to create the illusion, of one being in front of the other, this overlapping, is a very common feature, in graffiti art.

Please see the example below, to understand this a little bit more, in a visual context.

An example of 3d box lettering using outlines over the top of one and other.
An example of 3d box lettering using outlines over the top of one and other.

Notice the black shadowing, created by moving the letters, up and the black outline, around all the letter shapes, you can also see that the colors have been added, any old how but are still effective because of the, well defined black outlines.

Now you can take some of your original ideas and try some of this, with them, below you will find some of my designs, taken from the first sheet of simple pencil drawings.

3D lettering example of how to use letters doubled over the top of each other to make box letters.
3D lettering example of how to use letters doubled over the top of each other to make box letters.

I have added color and black outlines, which is something you should now be trying, with your own designs, you could try many different combinations of color or black outlines, you could even try, colored outlines.

Now you can, further develop one idea and try it, as many different ways, as you can think of or combinations or color, see the examples below, for further development of ideas.

Images of earlier examples that have been further developed.
Some of the earlier examples that have been further developed.
Images of further development graffiti letter ideas.
Examples of further development with graffiti letter ideas.

The tools I use:

Paper or drawing pad, A4 printer paper is good and not very expensive but pads are better, you can carry them around with you, if they are not too big.

Soft graphite pencils, preferably mechanical, pop a point type pencils, 0.5, 3B, if you can get them.

Fine line permanent ink pens, 0.5 and Biro’s, in different colors.

Permanent marker pens, the more colors, the better.

Water soluble felt tip pens, the more colors, the better.

Colored pencils in various colors.

Quarter inch, flat brush and water.

Learning how to draw graffiti, is not difficult or hard and you can get, very good, very quickly, if you put a little effort in to it, honest.

how to draw graffiti style.

Graffiti creator, graffiti art.

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Graffiti, H is for handle.

The graffiti starting point, is the creation of a handle, what is a handle you might ask, it is a name, alias, nickname, code name, tag, moniker and soubriquet, yes it is all of these but it is not, your real name, so the first task for you to do, is get a handle.

Graffiti writers, have always used false names or handles, as they are called but not their real or own name, for obvious reasons because graffiti is illegal, when done on other people’s property, it is considered to be vandalism. I don’t put graffiti on other people’s property but I do have a handle. You don’t have to use a handle, you can use your name, if you want but in order to get into the whole concept, of being a writer, then why not give yourself a handle? A handle works really well, in all areas of art, writers often write under pen names, which are alias’s, so why can’t you, also have one?

Get your handle right.

To do this, you could take, the first letter of your first name and add other letters to it, for example, Peter could be, poP, toP, stoP, floP or you could use your initials, perhaps your initials make a word, like LOB, Lindsay Ogden Bradshaw, aim for something attention grabbing, like boG if your name starts with the letter G, something off the wall, so to speak.

This is where you can be what ever you want, like a piG, just a little side note on this: it was discovered, that in the burial chamber of an Egyptian emperor, there was a statement about him, being a fat pig. This is now regarded as graffiti and a form of political expression, of it’s time, which of course, much graffiti is because would you allow yourself, to be called a fat pig, let alone, an Egyptian emperor doing so.

Graffiti on other peoples property is illegal, it is a crime, punishable with imprisonment in some cases, in other cases it has been punishable with death, many young and older people have died, in pursuit of this lust for self actualization. I will not tell you that you must not to do it because I do not think people, take notice but I will say this much, there is far more to be gained elsewhere, without risking your freedom or your life.

Do not take my word for it, take a look below.

Image of some of the money I have made through graffiti type art.
Make money not trouble, pimp you art not you freedom.

Yes you can make money from doing this, especially if you get good at it; the design processes for graffiti, are not much different, from any other design process, that could be graphic design or illustration.

The handle, is your own personal graffiti art logo, starting point, people get paid, lots of money for creating these, examples of this are the Nike tick or the Mc Donald’s M, your aim, is to personalize your own unique handle, so as to do this, you need to get one. My advice when creating a handle, is to keep it short, about three to four letters, like, zit, xon, Lxxx or xxx, the possibilities are endless.

So get yourself a handle, as the starting point for your graffiti art, as an example I decided to use is the name BoG but I wouldn’t use Banksy, it’s too big. Big usually means time and the bigger it is, the longer it takes to create, time is money.

Graffiti style art, makes money for many artists, not just me, it has also been the starting point and tool, that has enabled many artists, to progress, so it is not worthless vandalism, unless you make it that way, by doing it on other peoples property.

Now I have got my handle, I will show you examples of ways, you can learn how to improve your own skills and develop, your own designs, enabling you to become a graffiti creator.

how to draw a easy

Simple pencil drawings, how to draw.

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Simple pencil drawings do exist, yes they do, and the most difficult part, of any drawing, is the construction, so to make it easy, eliminate, the construction problem. Now to be honest, if you eliminate, the construction process, then you might be thinking, there is nothing left to draw, but you will only be half right because there are two parts to a drawing, construction and shading.

If you trace the basic construction, of your potential drawing, then take the time, to fill it in, by doing the shading, you are actually reducing the work load, by at least half but still learning, how to draw. This is not to say, that you are cheating because you still have to do the shading and although, the grunt work of the construction, has been done easy, you still have to make sure your construction, of the shading is accurate. This means that you still, have to do important work, on your picture or drawing but with, less effort. The end results, are that you end up learning, how to draw better, producing very nice drawings, that are accurate, with only having to put half the work, into doing it.

Just in case, you need some further reassurance, that it is OK, to do this, then take a good look around, for information about how to draw. You will find much reference, to using a viewing grid, to help you, construct your drawing and viewing grids, are just a slightly more, difficult way, to trace pictures. Many artists world wide, use viewing grids, as their preferred method, of doing construction drawings and what they are doing in actual fact, is tracing their construction drawings, by using a grid, instead of using a picture, to trace over.

Simple pencil drawings, do exist and people do them all the time, they just don’t explain, how they are done because you never ask.

Dragon Head.