Welcome! I’m Shoo Rayner, children’s author, illustrator & champion of drawing. See my Drawing Videos that you are welcome to use for school and homework.
If you would like me to visit your school or library for a day of storytelling and drawing, Check out my School Visit information page here.
Do you want to improve your drawing skills?
Do you want to motivate yourself to draw something everyday?
Do you want to get your brain into drawing inspiration mode?
Use these nine, easy drawing exercises everyday, to get yourself warmed up and ready to draw something inspirational.
Drawing exercises like these are like learning sales on the piano, they give you the courage, knowledge and confidence to launch out and try something new. Your new idea may or may not work, but at least you tried and these exercises will help you get started. If your idea didn’t work first time, then keep going until it does!
If you are inspired to draw something else half-way through an exercise, that’s great! Come back and finish the exercise tomorrow. Exercises are also about building resilience and stamina. It’s good to see things finished.
Do all this in your sketchbook. Keep your sketchbook and pen at hand all the time. It’s like your instant art studio, always open, always ready for a quick start when inspiration strikes. And it’s always there to remind you of ideas and never lets you forget.YOUR SKETCHBOOK IS YOUR FRIEND!
The Seawhite of Brighton a5 travel journal that I use http://amzn.to/2hLANfw in the UK and http://amzn.to/2zU9dkU in the USA
Rotring Tikky Graphic Pen http://amzn.to/2hLNgQo in the UK and https://amzn.to/2Oe85R6 in the USA and http://amzn.to/2E3qL08 in Canada
Yay! It’s the 4th of July! and A very happy day to all my viewers in the States.
Learn to draw this great 4th July design and paint it in a classic, loose watercolor style.
This is a three step approach.
First, sketch out the design on a rough piece of paper. Thinner paper is best as you you can trace more easily from it.
Second, trace the design using a window or a light pad (links below) Don’t worry that this is copying. Copying is when you copy other people’s work and claim it as your own. This is tracing to get your design exactly how you want it. All great artists do this!
Third, paint the design in watercolour. Colours used: a mix of Cadmium Red and Alizarin Crimson – French Ultramarine for blue and also mixed with Burnt Sienna to create the grey, inline shadow. These come in the Winsor and Newton Sketchers set which I review here: https://youtu.be/nGOPk_21CHI Finally erase the pencil lines to leave a lovey clean design which, because you have a master plan, you can copy as many times as you like.
The design will also work if you increase the size for posters and banners.
The Paint set seems unavailable in the States but this set has the same paints in it: https://bit.ly/WNewtonWCsketchSetUSA This is the link to the set in the UK http://bit.ly/NewtonWatercolourSetUK
Support my videos by buying me a cu of coffee and get a pdf download of the finished image and a scan of the working sketch here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/38911164
Botanical watercolor paper seems unavailable in the US so try Arches, which I also use and like: https://amzn.to/2CWomYz Botanical Watercolour paper can be got here in the UK: https://amzn.to/2YZggHv
Learn how to draw Queen Elizabeth the first of England real easy, with step by step instructions.
Accession means taking the place of the previous king or queen. In this portrait, the newly crowned Elizabeth wears the full costume she wore for her coronation at Westminster Abbey on 15 January 1559.
The original painting is very complicated, but I have tried to make it easy for you to draw for Tudor History or fashion projects.
This drawing is based on the Accession portrait which you can see at the National Portrait gallery in London –
See Cate Blanchette dressed in the same costume in this Video of Elizabeth the first’s coronation