• This week’s Wednesday Drawing Show is all about snakes – Why? because it’s The Chinese New Year next Month and it will herald the Year of the Snake. Why now and not Next month, then? Because you need to get some practice in to get ready to celebrate and draw snakes.

    According to Wikipedia, “Ancient Chinese wisdom says a Snake in the house is a good omen because it means your family will not starve. The Snake is keen and cunning, quite intelligent and wise.” That’s Chinese Culture. I’m not sure if the snake is as welcome in many other cultures!

    In this show I’m going to show you a bit about Eyes and how to draw them from the side. I’ve made a video for monday which will continue this lesson into understanding elipses a bit more.

    Then I’m going to show you a three ways of making you snake looks smoother and curvier and then I’ll show you how snakes are involved in celtic knots and the art of the Vikings and Anglo Saxons.

    Plus a fun What’s in the mail? A look at the wonderful drawings of famous people that you posted to the http://www.thewednesdaydrawingshow.com/uploadyourdrawings/ website and at the end all the other drawings you have wanted to share. This is getting so popular so quickly I think I’m going to have to put them all in their own video as the show is getting too long!

    Also this weeks task to upload to the same address. Draw a snake – Any kind of snake or anything to do with snakes. Snake patterns, celtic knots, realistic snakes, mechanical snakes… let your imagination go wild and then go to http://www.thewednesdaydrawingshow.com/uploadyourdrawings/ and share your work with us all. And don’t forget to tell us you tell us who you are! I’ll look forward to seeing it.

  • snake-smallI’m still trying to empty my Bic Biro because I want to use an empty biro in another video. You Might want to get on with using up a whole biro so you can join me later!

    2013 is the Chinese Year of the snake so what better subject to draw. I looked at a few photos of snakes before I sketched out a plan but the finished drawing is all out of my head.

    Biro is a tricky medium. The ink is quite sticky, so I can’t pencil in a plan and erase it after as the ink will smudge terribly. So I have to be brave and just go for it. This took about 3 1/2 hours to complete.

    Working in this style, you have to believe that it will all come together at the end and somehow, when I start the serious overall shading, it does – hope you like it. What should I draw in Biro next?



  • An email, from Devina in Indonesia, has got me thinking about drawing this week. Devina has just realised that drawings don’t have to look realistic. It’s a a mind-set that is hard to break out of and is the reason most people give up drawing. They think drawings have to look “proper”, preferably like a photograph. We have cameras that make “proper” images these days.

    The joy of drawing is that you can draw in any way you like and put your own personality into the drawing. Drawing is about understanding the physical world around us. We are bombarded by other people’s images of the world all day. Drawing allows you the time to see, look and understand in your own way and express your personal view.

    Drawing is how we learn and understand. Drawing is not Art – with a capital “A”.

    It can become Art when you decide to make a piece of art, or it may become Art when others decide that’s what you’ve done.

    Mostly, Drawing is the planning and learning stage. Not just of Art but of Fashion, Design, Production, Science, Technology, Moon Missions, Battle Manoeuvres – almost any physical undertaking.

    Drawing should is like writing, because writing is just a formalised method of drawing. If we put the same amount of effort into drawing as we do writing, there would be much more interesting communication in the world – and much better writing.

    On the Show we also have the Rhino Drawings you uploaded to the http://thewednesdaydrawingshow.com/youruploads from last week’s task, and if you wait to the end, you can see all the other drawings that were posted too.

    Also a bit of advice about sketchbooks. Don’t rip out the bad work and don’t feel it’s a waste of paper. If you are worried about the cost, get a cheaper sketchbook or use the backs of envelopes. But keep all the sketches bound together so you can see your progress – also so that you can return to previous ideas when you are ready to build on them and create something new.