I am really thrilled to get back to blogging again, it’s been a busy summer for me-I recently took part in a plein air painting Competition in London called “Pintar Rapido”- I happened to win the First Prize, you can read about it HERE ! I have also been painting in York, that was a wonderful experience-you can read my blogposts about it by clicking HERE. I have also been illustrating two children’s books which I’ll let you know about once they are published!

Hope you have kept your sketching going?

This HOT SHOT is all about the one thing we all use while sketching-THE LINE!! The line for the sketcher is the most powerful tool! If the lines can speak, the sketch will have a great IMPACT!

But this HOT SHOT is not only about LINES but also about VARYING THE WEIGHT OF YOUR LINES!

I really can’t wait to keep rambling on, but if you missed my last HOT SHOT you can click HERE, it was all about WHAT TO EMPHASIZE in your sketches.

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I’m always excited to post something new here! This tip or should I say hot shot, is really one of those that reveal the difference between the pro- artist and the amateur. But even the amateur can develop this mind-set and watch their work advance! This hot shot is what to leave out, more what what to put in.

It is about where to work and where not to work. You don’t have to over labour your sketches.

Think in terms of where you want you viewer to focus on…… think of what you really want to emphasize! Anyway, before I keep rambling on, Please click HERE if you missed my last HOT SHOT on letting who you are show through your sketches!

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This is another great hot-shot! Here I’ll be sharing a little bit about the concept of letting who you are show through your sketches. Every artist has something special about them, something that makes them unique.

This part of us should be showing through in our sketches! My last post was about Squinting and seeing shapes, click HERE if missed this post.

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This is a double hot shot and I have decided to combine them both because they are related!

It’s all about having your eyes partially closed in order to see the main shapes in whatever you plan to sketch and then using this to quickly get down some basic marks to get going while sketching this is very helpful when approaching complicated subjects.

But before we continue If you missed my last Hot Shot, number 11, on actually sketching what you see and not what you know about what you see. Click HERE

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It’s great to get into my Hot Shots again!!!  If this is your first time here, this is where I share my tips on sketching! I call the tips-Hot Shots! This Hot Shot has a very long title-and that’s the only way I could put it!

I say this to art students and sometimes I get that ‘look-back’. They look back and say, “but I know that!” But it’s one thing to know it and it’s another thing, to make sure one practices what one knows!

So lets get into it but if you missed HOT SHOT 10 which focused on the structure of whatever you plan to sketch, click HERE

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I am happy to get back to this again after a good long think on how I was going to share this HOT SHOT. I am really excited about this tip and I hope you are able to really grasp the full gist of what I am trying to communicate. This hot shot is all about practicing sketching with an understanding of the structure, planes or with the mind of “The Three-Dimensional” in anything you are sketching.  If you missed my last HOT SHOT, HOTSHOT 9 which had to do with angles and tilts, please click HERE.

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Now! I am ready to go with HOT SHOT Number 9! I hope you’ve been putting the blind contour into practice? Just keep it going and flowing. Use up loads of sheets. Remember it’s the mileage covered in your sketch journey that matters. You really want to just keep it going, if you stop, just forgive yourself and start again!

There’s no better way to get better at anything than to just DO IT! Doing it correctly is what this blog is about, so be ready to give everything you pick up a go! Don’t seek for immediate results, just keep it going, nothing worthwhile ever came overnight!

If you missed HOT SHOT 7 & 8 just click HERE to see what the Blind contour was all about and keep it going. In this HOT SHOT we are going to be looking at practicing sketching of the outline with angles. When I say angles I mean the change in direction of the outline in terms of tilts and angles.

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We are now into the demos! This is where I’ll be showing and explaining in depth a few of the things that have made my sketching life much easier. In this particular post, I’ll be dealing with the OUTLINE and something I discovered from a 1985 American Artist Magazine, called-“The Blind Contour”. The Blind Contour actually improved my eye-hand co-ordination more than any other technique!

But before we get going on HOT SHOT 7 & 8, please click HERE if you missed HOT SHOT 6.

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We are getting closer to the demos now and I have almost exhausted the preliminary intros, but just before we get into the  demos and other great things ahead, I would like to share with you, my HOT SHOT number 6-Which is MAKE IT A DAILY HABIT!!!

If you missed HOT SHOT 4 & 5, please click HERE Read the rest of this entry

Today we we are going to talk about HOT SHOT 3, if you missed HOT SHOT 1, 2 click here to read it.

HOT SHOT 3

What you sketch with, is very important- in fact, this would be one of the main things that will determine whether you’ll keep sketching or not through the years, because what you use to sketch becomes an extension of your sketching hand.

You need to practice with every kind of material you can lay your hands on. Pencil, charcoal, charcoal pencil, ball point pens, felt tips, micro nib pens. Coloured pencils, brush pens etc. Read the rest of this entry