Tag Archives: artist

how to draw a easy

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art.

7 Comments

Julian Beever sidewalk art and pavement chalk artist is now very well known on line. Over the past 6 or 7 years he has grown to become a very popular figure of discussion, which is because of his excellent 3d drawings having gained him widespread publicity, people sure like unusual subjects to discuss don’t they? In his work he creates the most amazing side-walk art by using anamorphic perspectives.

It could be said that he is an expert in the creation of dynamic optical illusions, with much experience in focal plane perspectives, this alone is to be admired, if not for any other reason than using anamorphic perspective and dynamic perspective to project himself across the world. Most of his work is celebrated by both people & businesses alike, having donated to this effort, allowing the opportunity for Julian’s work to exist. Once the work is completed it is abandoned, thus making it into what is called ephemeral art, an art form that has a short life span, something that eventually disappears like tears in rain.

Julian Beever sidewalk art-chalk art.


Julian Beever Sidewalk art.

In his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) he proclaims himself to be an entertainer, a showman, who started as a juggler and become a community activist, celebrated on a global scale as well as also being a very competent draughtsperson. Maybe he has a BA degree acquired at Leeds Polytechnic under his belt but after that he certainly went his own way and set his mark on the world populace.

All I can say about him really, is street art.

Because Julian Beever sidewalk art is unusual it has drawn attention to him from people all over the world but he also uses the same tools as the media networks that publicize the creations and portray the work. Works that can only be seen at their best through the eye of a camera lens, the same camera lens that was used to draw them. Coincidence or not these are the same visual tools that are used in the media networks and the social media networks that are enjoying a bonanza online at the present, photos say so much and are so easy to share. Grab attention for yourself by creating unusual art, 3d drawings that you can give to the news and wider media to be shared using the same tools everybody uses, coincidence or not, it works.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, 3d paintings don’t seem that difficult when you know the methods used to create them so please let me tell you how.

If you look at a pole or post that stands upright coming up from out of the ground, it will look like it is standing upright, it needn’t be a pole or a post, it can be anything, I use a post for explanation because it is a simple shape to use as an example.

Take a look at it from about 6 meters or 12 feet away, you will easily see the image as an item standing upright. You will see the post with all the differing angles that your brain will tell you is a post standing in an upright position from the ground. If you then draw a picture from the exact position you are standing in or take a picture from that position with a camera, it’ll look like it is a post standing in an upright position. If you then place that drawing, image or photo, flat on the ground it’ll look like a picture lying on the floor but it will never have the look of a post that is standing upright. It will not matter how big or small it is, not even if as large as the post itself, it’ll never really look like an upright post. If you move further back away from where it is lying on the floor, it’ll be increasingly difficult for you to identify what it is, as the angle which you’re looking at will make it more and more obscure. Julian Beever correctly refers to this angel as a viewing plane.

This is why it’ll not work.

When looking at 3D objects in reality our eyes see many different angles which are related to size, shape and distance, because you’ve 2 eyes, they see little differences and your brain informs you when the objects are 3-dimensional by understanding the meaning of all these different angels, it tells you that what you are seeing is 3 dimensional and has more than 1 side, which is what happens for you to see in 3D.

ulian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art, Viewing Plain Anamorphic Perspective
A diagram showing the Julian Beever, Sidewalk Art Viewing Plain, Anamorphic Perspective.

An example of this phenomenon can be seen in Julian Beever sidewalk art below, described as the swimming pool, in the High Street.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, Swimming Pool on the high street.
Julian Beever sidewalk art, Swimming Pool on the high street an example of anamorphic perspective.

Below is the same Julian Beever sidewalk art example of a pool drawn on another high street from an opposite viewing position to show how these images are elongated in order to make up for the distance they are being viewed at and giving the illusion of them being closer than they actually are.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, Swimming Pool on the high street.
Julian Beever, chalk art, the swimming pool in the High Street at the opposite perspective, showing the image distortion.

This helps the Julian Beever sidewalk art to achieve the illusion below by tricking the eye into thinking the focal length is shorter also enabling Julian to give the impression of a very small man on the top of a very large bottle.

Julian Beever, 3d drawings a beer bottle.
Julian Beever, 3d drawings,  a beer bottle drawn on a sidewalk in Scotland UK
Julian Beever 3D Beer Bottle chalk drawing.
Julian Beever 3D Beer Bottle chalk drawing that is the same as the one above it with slight changes.

In the Julian Beever sidewalk art pictures above, I’ve highlighted the lines where the paving slabs join, so you are able to see more clearly that the top part of the bottle is much bigger than it should be in relation to the bottom to create the illusion of it being closer.See how the base of the bottle in highlighted section 2 is just a little bit less than the width of one paving slab but the middle section just before the neck begins to taper in, highlighted section 1 is almost 2 slabs wide and should help you to understand that the drawing is being distorted in order to help make up for the distance it is at.

The distance is best seen by looking at the Julian Beever sidewalk art example aboveto see how small he is when compared with the girl and looking at the gradual reduction of the size of the tiles, they can also be used to help to measure out and map the construction of your drawing like using a grid. The top part of the drawing looks like it is about two tile’s wide and much larger than the base of the bottle in the drawing.

Trying to understand how Julian Beever sidewalk art works.

When doing a drawing of a post so that it gives the impression of it standing upright, it would have to be elongated so as to confuse your eyes and brain into thinking it was closer to you than it actually is. It would also have to be much wider at the top to compensate for the distance and the further away it is the wider it would have to be because something further away gets smaller, meaning you will need to make adjustments to it in order to be able to compensate for the distance. Doing this in the drawing will give the illusion of it being closer than it is in reality. The Julian Beever sidewalk art incorporates these measures into the drawings to make them more believable and 3D looking.

A bit like the picture below, where the horizontal drawing is much larger at the other end from the base because it is farther away so it is drawn bigger making it look like it is closer.

Julian Beever sidewalk art.


Post Drawing For Julian Beever Example to show distortion.
An example of how a post would need to be distorted so as to seem like it was standing upright.

Below is yet another example showing Julian Beever sidewalk art that shows the image as being elongated so that it will work from the distance in which it is being viewed.

The planet with Julian Beever standing on top.
The planet with Julian Beever standing on top, sidewalk art drawn in the same place as the beer bottle above.
Chalk art drawing showing elongation for creating anamorphic perspective.
The planet side view, chalk art drawing showing how it has been elongated to create the anamorphic perspective.

The image above of the world picture shows another example of stretching the drawing and how the drawn image becomes much bigger as a means of compensating for distance Please take a look at the Julian Beever sidewalk art video below.


Below, I’m told this is a different type of drawing that has been attributed as being more Julian Beever, sidewalk art in the form of being a more traditional mural on a wall, it’d not surprise me as it is somewhat in a similar style that is reminiscent of other drawings he has composed. If this is not one of his drawings then it would be safe to assume that there has been some influence from Julian Beever sidewalk art in this work and I’d be very surprised to find it hasn’t. I like it as it’s very dynamic and impressive.

Mural On Wall, Optical illusion,TUNNELVISION by artist, Blue Sky.
Mural On Wall Optical illusion unknown artist perhaps Julian Beever?

It turns out that the above image was not by Julian Beveer and may have even been an insperation to him and not the other way round because this work was unveiled in 1975

It is fifty foot by seventy five foot mural titled TUNNELVISION by artist, Blue Sky.

More information and work by the artist can be found here at this link.

Blue Sky Gallery The online art gallery for Columbia, South Carolina’s premier artist, Blue Sky.

Julian Beever Pavement Chalk Artist Book Cover

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk art can be seen in his book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 is full of wonderful insights about his work giving you a small insight into the mind of the artist himself and how he created this popular street art, I bought mine from here and it was worth every penny better than any ebook online.

 

Image of a lighter standing upright.
Image of a lighter standing upright

The challenge is to draw this lighter as an Anamorphic Perspective and reveal how it is done for those who are interested in finding out.

I took the lighter image and inserted a grid over the top to use as a reference grid for doing the drawing, I also want to show what the Anamorphic Perspective Grid actually looks like.

Lighter standing upright with grid over the top.
Lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top.

My camera was set up so I could draw the grid by using a camera as a viewer so as to be more able to draw the grid by using the viewing window of the camera as a guide. This is the same position and angle that the original lighter photograph was taken at.

Image showing the camera angle in relation to the paper drawing area.
Image showing the camera angle in relation to the paper drawing area.

In the image below you can see both the grid that has been drawn onto the A1 sheet of cartridge paper and the image as seen through the camera lens. It shows the difference between the real drawing on the paper and the image being viewed through the lens and you can see that the image in the camera viewer is now symmetrical. This now enables me to copy the image from the lighter standing in upright position with reference grid over the top as above.

Anamorphic Perspective through the camara lens showing the grid.
Anamorphic Perspective grid as seen through the camera lens.

The image below shows what the Anamorphic Perspective Drawing Grid looks like when viewed directly from the front and looks like a normal perspective drawing grid that would perhaps be used for drawing a building looking down from the top.

Anamorphic Perspective Grid.
Anamorphic Perspective Grid drawing shown directly from the front.

This is my quick drawing of the lighter when viewed from the correct position with the camera as you can see it worked and the lighter actually looks like it is standing upright.

Anamorphic Perspective Grid And Lighter Drawing
Anamorphic Perspective photographed from the correct photographic angle and position.
Anamorphic Perspective Through Camera Lens Showing Lighter And Grid Showing Visual Plane.
Anamorphic perspective of the lighter drawing through the camera lens, this is showing the lighter and perspective grid at the correct viewing plane.

When you look at the image below it helps to get a look at it in its natural state as a flat drawing on a flat surface and help to get an understanding of how the Anamorphic Perspective works.

Anamorphic Perspective Grid Drawing Not Sighted with Camera Correctly.
Anamorphic Perspective lying on drawing table to showing its two dimensional attributes

Below is the drawing completely in its natural viewing state as it can be seen directly from the front and now you can see how distorted it actually is. It is now quite easy to draw an Anamorphic Perspective grid because it is in actual fact a normal perspective drawing grid being looked at from upside down.

Anamorphic Perspective lighter drawing viewed from the front.
Anamorphic Perspective lighter drawing viewed directly from the front showing its normal viewing state as it would be viewed when not looking at the correct angle. From Above
Anamorphic Perspective lighter Drawing Upside Down From Above
The same Anamorphic drawing from above but turned upside down to show it as looking like any normal perspective drawing.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist his work can be seen in this book (Pavement Chalk Artist) 2010 it is a full colour book of some of his work giving some wonderful insights about how he came to create this popular street art. I enjoyed reading this book and gaining the small insights into the thinking of the artist himself, it was bought from Amazon and it was worth every penny better than any ebook down loaded from off line, I prefer the real thing.

Click the image below to get a price on Amazon.

Julian Beever sidewalk art, chalk artist.

Julian Beever Pavement Chalk Artist Book Cover

View Gareth Pritchard’s profile on G+

 

Draw cartoons

How to draw caricature, cartoon drawings.

Before you begin to draw caricature cartoons, it is best to understand the principles of a caricature drawing, this is a drawing of a person whose features, have been exaggerated and it is usually drawn in the same style, as cartoons are drawn. When people draw cartoon characters, they usually draw them as line drawings in a cartoon style, so this is a good place to start. You might even want to try just copying a few cartoons, to give yourself a feeling for drawing in this style and doing this will give you some great results, quite quickly it will enable you, to get a feeling for it.

Cheryl Cole, With Wax Dummy, Spot The Dummy,
Simple cartoon line drawings taken from media to develop a caricature.

Caricature drawings are not just for those who are beginners, many professional cartoonists, make a good living out of drawing caricatures and often use this, as a way of supplementing their income and promoting their skills, in a fun way, you can often see up and coming cartoonists drawing impressive sketches in tourist areas of the passersby and celebrities in a few minutes for a couple of dollars. The caricaturists can often be seen working away their magic at fates and carnivals all over the world, amusing people, but this practice is most common in Europe. It is a fact that we do not all want to be able to draw a caricature in just a few minutes for the most part it is about enjoying the doing a finished product and how long it took does not matter to most of us.

Famous personalities are often exposed to caricatures and cartoons in newspapers or magazine articles. Artists often include props on the drawing to help readers make a connection with the celebrity in question and their caricaturized drawing. Footballers can be depicted kicking a football or a film star can be in a famous scene from a film. Singers can be seen holding microphones or playing instruments, the artist can also choose a minimum for the detailed environment in which the subject maybe sitting in a vehicle or standing on a patch of grass to place them somewhere. It is these little added details that are so important to take into consideration when learning to draw caricatures.

The elements of exaggeration in caricature drawing make them a perfect medium for satirizing what’s going on in current affairs. Images expressed in this way are sometimes created by taking on different aspects of the person’s behavior or personality, as well as the way they look or their appearance. An example of a politician that is regularly seen speaking out of turn can be depicted with a large mouth. An illustrator might even decide to highlight this feature by drawing a politician with their own foot positioned in their mouth, such an example is where the artist as actually thrown in a familiar take on the caricature drawing which describes the person accurately, they have got a big mouth and they are always putting their foot in it.

To discover caricature drawing well the first step to take is to focus yourself on becoming observant at finding peculiarities in other people. You have to teach yourself to be able to pick out their most outstanding, unusual or interesting features so you can exaggerate them in your drawing. Begin with facial features of the person; for example, look for particularly large or unusual shaped eyes, round puffed out red cheeks, peculiar noses that might be long, flat, wide, small or big, a pointed chin, narrow or large toothy grin. Many cartoonists often only draw just the face and shoulders a portrait type drawing but others will extend their drawings  to the full body and use other bodily features such as height or lack of it, small, round and fat with these being exaggerated to make them funny looking. This is often seen as more difficult to draw but can help the novice to produce more useful material, making his subjects more recognizable. Taking the whole figure into consideration is probably a larger part of creating the distinguishing characteristics of the person being depicted. So when looking at how you might draw a caricature, you should also consider what other props you want to use to get the most out of your image.

Spot The Dummy, Cheryl Cole, Draw Caricature, Just For The Crack.
Using news items to create caricatures Cheryl Cole is up for attention.

It is most often good practice to start by taking your subjects from strangers in still photographs. There are an infinite number of images that are appropriate subjects that can be found online or in newspapers, beginning with strangers who will not get hurt if you mock them then as you get better with identifying and drawing the main features of individuals you can move on to draw more familiar subjects.

Politicians are good subjects if you had an interest in politics then you could make political statements based on the news in fact the news is a great source of subject material for caricature drawings.

News story lines can give you plenty of subject material to practice how to draw caricature cartoons as satirical sketches.

View Gareth Pritchard’s profile on G+

 

Draw cartoons

Learning to draw cartoons

2 Comments

Learning how to draw cartoons is a great place to start drawing, even if you don’t draw that well or you don’t practice much, anyone can draw cartoons, in fact everything we draw when we are children, is in the cartoon style because we draw in line drawings, even if you only draw stick figures they are still cartoons or simple line drawings, cartoon drawing is not really connected in any way, to your ability to draw realistically, in fact it works better if you don’t, as cartoons are usually meant to be funny.

Success at being able to draw cartoons is not based on your ability to draw accurately, so much as being able to convey a message with a simple line drawing because cartoon drawings are meant to be simple drawings, that can be drawn very easily and quickly by the person drawing them, to convey a message, most often a joke or a funny story but not always.

If you are an aspiring artist wanting to develop your drawing skills, then cartoon drawing is a great place to start practicing your drawing skills but in a more relaxed, lighthearted way and many people start out drawing them, in the beginning because as I have said, all drawings when we are children are in a cartoon style.

There is a basic set of principles to drawing cartoons, that enable the person drawing them to convey a message, that is based on facial expression and body language; people really do look down in the mouth when they are unhappy or the opposite when they are happy.

Draw Cartoons Faces, Emoticons, the cartoon code.
Faces, Emoticons, are the basics of the the cartoon code.

When the mouth is relaxed it tends to droop in the corners, although the example above is exaggerated, this makes a face look sad but the exact opposite happens when you smile, the corners of the mouth point upward because of the muscles pulling upward, this makes a face look happy.

This knowledge alone gives the artist two very different forms of expression, one that’s happy, one that’s sad, making it easy for others to understand the message being conveyed. The eyes also change shape with different facial expressions, again when sad they tend to droop at the outer corners and when smiling, showing happiness they tend to squint, so that the actual eyeballs can hardly be seen.

Draw Cartoons Facial Expressions For Using In Your Cartoons.
Different facial expressions to use for drawing cartoons, a little bit more of the cartoon code.

The direction of the look also helps to convey some meaning, to the expressions we make in cartoon drawings but if you think about it, we do in real life as well and in written words, like when we are feeling up, we relate that to feeling good or happy, when we are feeling down, we relate that to feeling gloomy or sad.

Using these different symbolic expressions, help to convey different meanings with your cartoons, aiding the creation of different messages or meanings in a visual way.

There are a lot more than just these few examples but it should give you the basic understanding, of how to draw cartoons and how they really work but one thing for sure, none of these drawings are difficult, anyone of you could draw them easily. You probably make these expressions yourself, in your daily life and even use them as expressions in your emails, every time you write them to some one, as cartoon gestures.

View Gareth Pritchard’s profile on G+

how to draw graffiti style.

How to draw Wildstyle graffiti.

4 Comments

What on earth is Wildstyle graffiti?

In the video above the wildstyle writer only gives basic instructions and examples of doing this kind of writing with good reason. Knowing how to draw wildstyle graffiti is something that is best developed with practice and not influenced too much by others.

How to draw Wildstyle graffiti, is a question most difficult to answer, perhaps the name gives us some indication, as to it’s demeanor, the character of Wildstyle is that of being a secret message, of the street but more so a message of the artist.

Each reputable artist has their own nuances, distinct from each other.

Take your name/handle or what ever you care to call it but take it, as far as it can go and just that little bit more because you can. I am old school so arrows play a major role, in all graffiti styles because they point and without trying to be smart, that is the point. Graffiti is an extreme form of forced advertising, a counter force rebellion against conformity and control, from the media giants, the masters of a brainwash plan, conform or be executed for resistance. Graffiti goes back to the beginning of time and has always been measured as a form of protest but it doesn’t have to be because it can just be fun.

Our social masters do not want us, to be free and scream anarchy, if we try to push the envelope beyond the norm, conform, you must conform, saying it’s rubbish because we can’t read it, as if it was ever meant to be read. Words and letters are deformed, beyond recognition into the secret language, known as Wildstyle, stretched and misconstrued, into the words of an anti social song, I am me, have it.

The media moguls conspire in secret but the Wildstyle writer secretly stands alone, like a warrior on the edge of time, forcing his message on an unsuspecting world, I am me, have it.

Long live the king, the king is dead.


Wildstyle graffiti with plenty of traditional arrows for good mesure.
An example of Wildsyle Graffiti with plenty of traditional arrows for good mesure.

Above is a quick example of how to draw Wildstyle graffiti, with heavy play on arrows and black outline, I am sure you could do better, so please do, if you want to write Wildstyle.

Study other writers, in the same way old school fine artists study the masters such, as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Rembrandt to name only a few, this preparatory work, informs your further development. Copy the Wildstyles of other writers, in order to understand them, this will enable you to mix and match, when drafting your own secret codes of resistance and form your own style.

Always start out with basic, everyday readable letters, then keep working them into oblivion, distorting them into the unrecognizable entangled mass’s, known as Wildstyle, then do it all over again because you can. It pays to revel in your obsession, I do digress for reason because that is how to draw Wildstyle graffiti, by getting way off the subject but keeping, the tiniest thread of whence it came.

The guy in the video below shows three different letter styles that are also known as graffiti styles. He is drawing them big on a wall area with spray cans and gives a great demonstration of his interpretation of how to draw wildstyle grffiti as a basic wildstyle, as well as others. 

 

View Gareth Pritchard’s profile on G+