Great drawing tutorials on Youtube

I've had a lot of fun this month with the students in my beginning drawing class at Scottsdale Artists School. In addition to our drawing exercises, I've been bringing in classic drawing books and trying to give them as much information as I can so that they can continue their drawing studies on their own. It's only a 4 week course and so of course it's just an introduction to beginning drawing. There's so much to learn.

Just for the record, I think that nearly every method of drawing has its benefits. Sight-size, comparative sizing, quick sketching, copying classical drawings and casts, caricature and cartooning... it's all good. Stretch yourself in all directions!

I've also been directing my students to the Youtube videos posted by Stan Prokopenko at www.proko.com.   He has an instructional DVD available from his site (which I haven't yet seen) and so much good information on his videos. He's funny and he's good at what he does - you should take a look.

"Don't Go Anywhere", oil, 18" x 14"

I've had very few roses in my garden this winter (too cold here, or maybe it's my inept pruning) and so I'm happy that I was able to paint this still life while I had the chance to do it a few weeks ago.

Also, I'm honored to say that I won a Merit Award (a 5th Merit Award, to be exact) for this painting from the Portrait Society of America's 2012-2013 Member's Only Competition, Still Life Category. This painting is available for purchase at Principle Gallery in Alexandria, VA.

"Maddie in the Act of Painting"

"Maddie in the Act of Painting", oil 12" x 12"

New website design!

Be sure to take a look at my newly designed website at www.lindatraceybrandon.com  - I'll keep it updated with  images of my new work. This blog is linked to the website and it will continue to include my teaching schedule and other news.

At the moment, I'm using the photo above as the website's home page. This was taken while I was working on the cartoon for a large diptych I was painting for a wonderful family. A "cartoon" in the traditional sense means the drawing that is used as the basis for a painting. I often create a life-size drawing of a painting and tape it to the wall - what looks good on a small scale sometimes needs a different approach when it's scaled up. Then I walk around and brood about the design - including the shape of the canvas - for a couple of days. This diptych was a little tricky in terms of composition (two squares combined to make a single rectangle) but it was great fun and I can't wait to do another one.

The problem with this photo is that it looks like the fingers of my left hand are cut off at the knuckles, but rest assured, I'm fine.