Dragon’s Posterity which just released in Decmeber sat half finished on my computer for five years. That’s what I call writer’s block! I tried to unblock the story for the sake of a young man who wanted book five to read. I read the other books in the series and I drew trying to get a path for the story, but the voices in my head had shut up. In the process though, my art improved.

1. Drawing dragons

Wymar drawn April, 2010

I started with dragons and some of them are down right ugly! They’re fat and even look dinosaurish. The more I worked, though, the better I became. I searched through deviantart for dragons and found help and inspiration. The beautiful drawings of artists further advanced than me kept me trying. In the meantime, I learned about dragons for my stories.

2. Drawing people

Early rendition of Brogran, August, 2010

Somewhere along the line, I decided to draw the riders of Dragon Courage and their friends. However, my first try at drawing Brogran and Ben’hyamene looked more like neanderthal men. With a deep sigh, I went back to the drawing board, quite literally. I began following artists like Paul Stowe and Ambro Jordi. I watched their gifs and videos and gained inspiration, and yet still, the story didn’t come.

3. Drawing with color

July, 2011

Colored pencils made their way into my pencil bag. I found they didn’t sing to me like graphite did. I struggled with them but still worked with dragons. Then one day, a dragon’s eye clicked! My artistic ability didn’t change overnight, but I found other artists who were willing to share their knowledge. Eventually, I was able to make the transition to color. I then discovered pastels. These moved faster much like my lifestyle had changed. Without time to draw, I needed something to work with in short spurts and to finish quickly.

4. Drawing Portraits

As I kept working and trying to unblock the story, I found my hobby becoming drawing. I didn’t worry as much about the story and just enjoyed the feel of paper under my hand and the weight of the pencil in my fingers. I’d spend between ten minutes to a half hour at a time with the theraputic feel of shading, erasing, and drawing. This is when people caught my eye.

Graphite portrait March, 2014

My family loves cameras. My husband has gone from landscape to portrait photographer, while my daughter is pursuing a photography career, and each of my sons has a unique view from the lens. Their photos inspired me to try to draw them. My neanderthal people slowly transformed to become living, breathing humans whose eyes followed us as we moved across the room.

It still amazes me the progress I’ve made, from those beginning cartoonish drawings to photorealistic portraits. The beauty of it all is that somewhere along the line, the voices began to talk again. At first they were whispers, but whispers became normal voices, which moved to almost yelling. Now, I have stories waiting to be told, and I don’t have time for the drawings I love. What inspires your heart? Let me know.

Pencils

Pencils are a major component to drawing. Their quality will affect your outcome. I have seen simple mechanical pencils do amazing work. However, much like a camera, it depends on the artist using them. Where a good photographer can take a wonderful photo with a crummy camera; so it’s true that a good artist can make wonderful art with crummy tools. Imagine how much better the work could be with the correct supplies.

So what pencils should you use?

Top to bottom: Reeves 2B, Tombow Mono 4B, Staedtler 6B, Prismacolor 9H, FaberCastel 8B

Graphite pencils come in many different forms, from simple student sets to individual pencils. I started out with Prismacolor graphite pencils. Then someone gave me a set of Pentalic pencils. Now, I have Tombow Mono and Staedtler pencils. Over the years, I have occasionally found a Reeves pencil or two laying around the classroom. I would scoop it up and keep it in my desk if I didn’t know whose it was. For my birthday, I was given a set of Reese pencils. I can’t wait to try them out.

What grades of pencils should you use?

If you purchase a set, it will come with a variety, but if you are purchasing individual pencils, you’ll want to know which ones to get. Isn’t a pencil a pencil? Not really.

Mid-grade pencils

Let’s start with what every student knows–the #2 pencil. Required for those standardized tests, the #2 pencil is what is called HB in art terms. It is the middle ground of pencils. From there, pencils are divided into H (hard) and B (soft) grades. There’s also a F, but I don’t know what it is. It seems to be similar to the HB. The larger the numbers, 2-9, the harder or softer the graphite.

Hard pencils

The H series has a very hard graphite. It takes more pressure to lay down a mark. My favorite H pencil is the 8H or 9H. At first, you may not even realize it has left a mark. It is excellent for those very light values necessary in clouds or snow or a moon.

Soft pencils

The B series is a very soft graphite. It takes hardly any pressure to have a very bold and dark mark. I was impressed with how dark I could get my drawings when I first used the B pencils. Now, I tend to start with the HB, move on to the B, 2B, 4B, 6B, and 8B to create dark values.

Which to purchase

The basic pencils would be 9H, HB (although you could get away with a normal pencil for this), B, 2B, 4B, 6B, and 8B. These will give you a wide range of values in your graphite pencils.

Erasers

Yes, you read that correctly. I often draw as much with an eraser as I do my pencils. Erasers create negative space. They also help keep your work area clean. I have three kinds I use, two are standard and inexpensive, but the third I had to save up money to purchase.

My absolute go to no matter what is the kneaded eraser. I’m sure there are other brands out there, but I have the Prismacolor brand and it’s very inexpensive and lasts forever! The kneaded eraser is like playing with playdough. You can mold it to whatever shape you want to clean up an area. I use the big blob to keep my edges clean. Whereas, catch light in an eye requires a thin point to just dab to remove any excess graphite.

My next go to eraser is a Tombow Mono Zero mechanical eraser. It is a very small eraser that comes in a pen style case. I love it for adding highlights to hair, whiskers on animals, or other small areas that need a lighter touch. It also lasts forever! No really. I purchased a set of refills for it over three years ago, thinking I needed to have it on hand because my eraser was getting low. I have yet to open the refill packet!

My third eraser I use is an electric eraser. Yes, you read that right, electric. It takes two AAA batteries. At first it took a bit to get use to. A small button on the side vibrates the round rubber eraser back and forth. I found it helped to create a point on the eraser first and then I could create very fine lines, even finer than the Tombow Mono Zero. It works excellently for hair and for colored pencil artwork which is harder to erase.

Paper

Paper is another important factor in your work. A regular copy machine paper will do in a pinch, but if you want art that will last, you’ll want to make the expenditure for archival quality paper. There are several options–sketchbooks or paper.

Sketchbooks

My first sketchbook was an inexpensive 9″x6″ book from Pacon. I loved the thickness of the paper and didn’t think anything about it until I filled all seventy sheets. Then I purchased another inexpensive sketchbook and realized that not all books are the same. With sketchbooks you can’t tell a book by its cover but by its paper! You want paper that is nice and thick and has a good tooth or weave so the graphite can sink into it. Experiment with different tooth. Another good sketchbook is made by the Bee Paper Company. They have them for different purposes. I have one that is a 9″x9″ and one that’s narrower. The square has thicker tooth and has more of a texture to it. The narrow one has less tooth and is designed for pen.

Art Paper

Art paper comes in a couple of different forms. You can purchase pads of paper or you can purchase single sheets. The single sheets vary in size but are larger than 18″ on one side and are rectangular. I have not purchased single sheets. Instead I purchase the pad of paper and have it on hand at all times. My favorite for working with pencils is Arches Watercolor. I love the feel of the paper. It’s nice and thick and the tooth is such that you can layer lots of graphite and build up deep values. My personal favorite is the hot press; however, I received a cold press pad for Christmas and can’t wait to try it out.

Now, you should have all the information you need to get started. Have fun, experiment, and relax while drawing. Let me see what you do. Don’t be intimidated. My first works were very basic as shown in the Spanish condensed version of the prologue to Dragon’s Future. The more you practice the better you become.

People talk about sleep deprivation, caffeine deprivation, and grandchild deprivation. They mean that there is something normally in their life, or that should be in their life, and it is not there. Their body reacts to the loss in different ways. For me, art is a part of my life. I’m married to a photographer. We go out and take pictures of people creating art. As a writer, I create art in written form. I actually had a member of an art gallery think that my books should be in the gallery as art. With writing, I’m now doing digital art for marketing. Most of my graphics are done by me. I’m learning how much work goes into digital art. I also draw.

My sister introduced art to me when I was a senior in high school. She brought home some school art room charcoal pencils and a paper, and we sat down and began to draw. I soon picked up a mini art pad at a local craft store and a few pencils of my own. I drew whatever I could see–mainly landscapes though. Then along came college, marriage, five kids, and a job. No time for drawing. I picked up other forms (crocheting, cross-stitch, quilting, and eventually writing). When I began writing, I began drawing again. As writer’s block set in, I’d pick up the pencils and draw. It helped me form the words and see the world. With practice, my art became better and better.

The last time I picked up a pencil was in December over Christmas break. It was just to do a quick sketch while the family played a game. The last project I finished was back in September! To put this in perspective, in 2010 when I first started drawing again, I had drawn twenty projects. Last year I completed six projects to be proud of. I didn’t think it was a big deal because I’ve produced a number of graphic art for advertising the books. I was wrong.

In January, a student turned in an assignment on a piece of paper that stood out from all the rest. My fingers caressed the soft tooth. The thickness and weight of the creamy whiteness called to me. It begged to have more than some Spanish words hastily scribbled on it. It wanted to be used for art! I sighed and placed the paper on my desk in the pile of other assignments.

Yesterday, I came home from work and marveled at the clouds. Stacked layers filled the sky with grayed lavender, dusty rose, cream, 10% warm gray, and white. Small strokes of the lighter colors smeared across the darker ones. Every so often a hint of blues shown through but not many. My fingers longed to grab my pastels and sweep the strokes of cream and white over the grays. However, other work called to me.

Art is embedded into nature. A love for art calls to all of us. Some can create it; others enjoy seeing it. When we go without art, our lives become dull and lifeless. What art are you working on or enjoying? Let me know in the comments.

First off you will need your photo for your background. You can use your own or one from a free source such as unsplash or pixaby. Deviantart also has good free stock, but make sure you check each artist’s guidelines for using their work. (Some are free no matter what, while others want you to credit them or only use on Deviantart.) What kind of photo do you need? Actually, any with texture. I am using one that has barnacles, sand, rocks, and even a chiton. What would create texture? Grass, small leaves, pebbles, concrete, shingles, wood. Really, anything with lines in it. It won’t be the main picture so you’ll be okay with just about anything.

Step 1: Set up your canvas

We want to open up a new image in Photoshop. Go to File>New.

It will open up a dialog box.

Now is when you can choose the layout of your final image. If I was going to do a flyer for an event, I would switch the pixels to inches and use an 8X10 format. Be careful where you put your numbers. Width comes first, so this formatting would be a landscape layout. For a Twitter image, I keep it at pixels and use 880×440. Your resolution will be important as well. How large are you wanting your image to be printed? If it is just a Twitter graphic, 200 pixels/inch is fine. If it is going to be an 8×10 flyer, you may want to bump that to 300-600 pixels/inch. I’m going to use a Twitter graphic as an example. Once you have all the boxes how you want them, click okay.

Step 2: Opening a new image and pasting it as a layer

You now have a white background the size you had indicated. We’re now going to work with layers. A layer is almost like a separate piece of paper on top of your background. The paper itself is clear, but whatever you put on it, will cover up the layer, or paper, underneath. So, all that white that is showing right now, is going to disappear when we bring in your photo. To bring in your background photo, we are going to open it in another tab. Go to File>Open.

You’ll need to find where you stored your photo. Usually, that’s in pictures. Once you have your photo open, you’ll use the select tool. It is located on the side tool bar and is the second tool down.

There are two ways to select your photo. You can either click and drag the crosshairs tool that you now have until it covers all the picture. Or use Ctrl (or Command on a Mac) A. It will select everything. You will now have a white dashed line around your image. Use Ctrl C to copy it. Click on your tab with your white background that is your drawing page.

Use Ctrl V to paste the image into your workspace. Now, if your image is like mine, I suddenly only have a small part of my image available to view.

Step 3: Scaling an image

I have several options. I can leave it like it is, or I can scale my photo or move it around. To scale the photo, go to Edit>Transform>Scale. You now have little squares at the edges of your photo. You can click and drag them to size your image and you can click in the center of your image and move it around. Adjust your image to the size you want it and then click the check mark at the top of the screen.

Now, you have just your normal photo sitting in your image at a size you want to display or print. It isn’t ready yet, but we now have an interesting background, but it isn’t ready to have any print added to it, because you wouldn’t be able to read it. So, we are ready to change that. Now, you’ll need to know what you want to do with your image. Do you have another photo that you want to use to display with your words? For example, I wanted to do a quote from author Niki Krauss for a Twitter chat. I used her book cover as the base color for my photo and the color of her text as the color of my text.

Step 4: Working with colors

How did I get the color? We’re going to use another tool, the color picker. It is the sixth tool down on the sidebar.

You will need to open up your image that you are using as a sample color. Just follow the steps for opening an image up above. Once you have it open, position your mouse over the color you want and click.

Now you will want to go to the third tool up from the bottom on the sidebar. You will see two colors in little squares with an arrow at the side. You will notice the first square should be the color you chose from your image. You will need a second color for your text. So, click on the arrow and the colors will switch spots.

Now you can click on another area of color in your main photo to choose a text color. I chose a color from the path in my cover. You should see that the square box with color is the color that you picked. If the top square is not the color you want your background to be, click on the arrows to make it come to the front. I notice that we now have three tabs open. You will need to go back over to the tab with your image on it. It should be the first tab.

Step 5: Brushes

Next we are going to use the brush tool. It is two below the eyedropper or the eighth from the top on the sidebar. Once you click on it, you will see that the top toolbar now has several different things on it. We want to make our brush big. So, at the second tool, when you click on it you will have the availability to adjust the size of your brush.

Slide the little arrow over to the right. As you slide, you will see that the numbers get larger or smaller. You want a brush size of at least 116 px.

Step 6: Layers

Now, we need to create a new layer. The easiest way to do this is to use the keyboard. Press Ctrl (Command on Mac), Shift, and the letter N all at once. Or you can go to Layer>New>Layer. Now you have a dialog box open. You can put a name in the box like background color and click okay.

Nothing seems to have changed. We’re about to change that. Use your mouse and click on the image. Hold the click and move the mouse around to completely cover your image in your chosen color. My color looks very similar to our original, but you’ll notice on the far right side on the bottom it shows my layers. I have three.

Step 7: Layer Opacity

We’re now going to change the opacity of our background color layer. It will enable us to see what is underneath it and still give us some color as well. To do this, go to the bottom right corner. You will see the layer’s menu. At the top of the layers menu, is a section called opacity. When you click on it you receive a slider bar. We are going to slide it to the left now. If you slide it all the way to the left, you won’t see your color at all. Experiment with what works for you.

For my photo, I think 83% opacity is about right. However, I’m not liking the chiton right there in the middle. I think I am going to go back and adjust the scale.

If you want to do the same, you will need to click on the layer in the layer menu marked layer 1. Then go back through the steps to adjust the scale.

Step 8: Text tool

Now that I have it the way I want it, I am ready to start typing in my text. You will want the tool that has a T on it. It’s eight up from the bottom.

You will need to now change the little square color boxes at the bottom of the side toolbar to the color you want for your text. Click on the arrow to switch them around. Once you have clicked on the text tool, the top toolbar changes. You will notice a color box at the top. It’s third over from the left.

Click on it and a dialog box opens up. Move your mouse around and you will see it is now the eyedropper tool. Go to the square at the bottom of the side toolbar and click on the color you want for your text. Then click okay in the dialog box.

Now you are ready to move the cursor down to your image and click where you want to insert your text. You can adjust your text to be left, right, or center aligned by the tool buttons beside your text color. Play around with it. You may also need to adjust the font size. You can highlight the whole text by using Ctrl and A or by selecting it with the mouse. Then you can adjust the font size just as you would in a document. As you can see, I need to make mine larger.

Now, that I’ve adjusted my text, I found that it was very light. My problem was in the order of the layers. Since I had gone back to fix the background image, when I clicked text, it put it under my background color. So, I simply clicked on my text layer, and drug it up in the order on the layers menu.

Now, I’m ready to add one more image and call it good. I will add some text to give my website and be done. I will use the same steps as above to copy my image, paste it into the new graphic and then size it. I will use the text steps to add my webpage to the bottom. My final step will be to save my project. File>Save saves it as a Photoshop file. I’ll do that so I can open it up and adjust it later if I want to change the quote or something like that. Then I will use File>Save As and choose jpg out of the dialog box. That way I can share it online.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll try to walk you through your issues.

So what did I teach? I shared some basic information, some more advanced, and just gave my opinion on their art as they worked. The information was on pencils and transfering images.

Pencils: Pencils come in a range of softness. The hardest ones are marked H (think H for hard) . They range from H all the way up to 9H with the higher number being the hardest. Hard pencils create very light lines, or inscribe (etch) lines into your paper if you press down hard. I love the 9H to create a bare hint of grey, almost white. I use it to make my lightest marks. The soft pencils are teh B’s. These are the ones I love to use for most of my drawing. Again they range from B to 9B with 9B being the softest. Soft pencils will leave a dark line with barely any pressure, especially your 4-9B ones. I build up my B pencil marks to crreate my darkest darks. An HB pencil is right in the middle on the hard to soft range. It is also what most people know as a #2 school pencil. I use this one when I am marking out my image.

Image transfering: There are several ways to transfer an image.

Mock Carbon Paper: The easiest for me, is to take a 6B or softer pencil and scribble on the back of my reference photo. Then I tape my photo to my paper on just one side. I usually tape it on the top. Then I use a mechanical pencil without the lead showing, just the plastic or metal tip, and draw the lines I need to have an outline of my picture. I lift up on the bottom of the reference phot and check to see that all the l ines are marked in. If not, I add a little more graphite to the back, without untaping it, and continue to trace. When I am done, I have a light outline in graphite on my paper and I can untape my reference photo and begin drawing.

made using the “carbon copy” method

Grid: Another way of transfering the image is to use a grid. I use a 1/2 inch grid, but my ladies used a 1 inch grid and it worked just fine. To create a grid, you mark your top and bottom of your pape with 1/2 or 1 inch lines and then use your ruler to connect the lines. Then mark the same on the sides of your paper and connect the lines. In effect you are creating a graph paper. You do the same to your reference photo. This enables you to draw in small squares what you see in the square. Much like those children coloring books where you were to copy in the square what you saw. You can also draw a square on a page protector using a marker. Then your reference photo can slide in and out of the protector and you save yourself the step of creating the grid on your reference photo. Using a grid also enables you to enlarge or shrink your dring from your reference photo.

You can see the grid she used to draw her lynx.

Free-hand drawing: A third and harder way for some people is to look at your photo or object that you want to draw and free-hand draw it. You look for the main shapes and outlines and place them into your drawing. This is excelent for plein air drawing or when you have a live object. I used it when I did my pastel hawk as well. I also use it when I use my carbon copy image to fill in places that were missed.

She started with a grid, but drew the flower free-hand.

As you can tell from the pictures, the class was a success. I will be teaching similar techniques and information to children on July 7, from 1-2 pm at Art by the Sea Gallery in Old Town Bandon, Oregon.