How to Sharpen Pencils for Drawing

When you first learned how to sharpen pencils as a small child in a classroom, remember how much those metal gears used to grind your pencil down? Yikes!

Luckily we have grown up from that and now treat our drawing pencils much more kindly by sharpening them without a sharpener, but instead with a knife or razor blade and sandpaper. With this method you can get your pencil lead as long as you like it for variety in shading abilities. Enjoy!

If you get a sanding board from this link it helps to support my channel, thank you:)

Nitram Pencil Sander https://bit.ly/35Rhuq5

5.8.2020

How to Draw a Portrait :: Front, Side , 3/4 View

Yaay!! The final piece of the 'Drawing Portraits Realistically' series is here for you friends, ‘Placing the Features Correctly on the Head.’

Whew it has been quite a ride and I hope you’ve learned a ton!

During a few of the weeks I was filming these tutorials for YouTube I was actually fortunate enough to teach this entire series as part of a ‘How to Draw Portraits from Photographs’ workshop in person to a small class. I asked the attendees for feedback and heard and saw great results.

I even got photos of two final portrait drawings from ladies who said they had never drawn portraits before. I’m so floored and excited to see such amazing results from my first time teaching this particular lesson!

And if you didn't catch the rest of the series grab a bowl of popcorn and your sketchbook and get comfy 'cause I'm 'bout to drop that knowledge bomb on ya!

How to Draw a Nose

How to Draw Lips

How to Draw Eyes

How to Draw Ears

2.14.2020

How to Draw Ears

Woo hoo we are doing this people!

Welcome to Part 4 of my Drawing Portraits Realistically series, How to Draw Ears. And as with all the features in this series, I'm showing you from the front, the side, and three quarter view.

If you didn't catch How to Draw a Nose or How to Draw Lips or How to Draw Eyes check those out and make sure you pop that Subscribe button because I still have how to place things properly on the head coming in the next two weeks, which you definitely do not want to miss.

Enjoy and tag me on Insta if you're practicing! @caleighbirdart

1.31.2020

New Portrait Drawing :: Hana Wize

It’s been a few months since I’ve taken the time to sit down and do a portrait drawing but having all these open studio sessions at my residency here at Highlands Art League has been really marvelous for me after so much time spent in transition.

Sometimes when I’m looking for inspo I scroll around some of my followers pages who have a really dynamic or unusual look and also take really clear selfies. It’s super fun to surprise folks with a work in progress shot of themselves and then it’s such a great feeling when they see the finished product and really like it:):)

So here is the hypnotic Hana Wize today! Doesn’t she have a certain classical carved-from-marble beauty!? Love those features! You can see her naturally beautiful face in person on her IG here: @hanawize

1.29.2020

How to Draw Eyes

Are you ready to learn how to draw BOTH eyes?!? Like the way humans actually own two (usually) and not one as sooooo many other tutorials seem to believe?

Then you've come to the right spot!

Now I know today's vid is a long one, and I swear I did my best to edit it as succinctly as possible, but it's just a lot of information so just get comfy. I'm going to show you not only how to draw both eyes in relation to each other, but from three different views. Yep, you're welcome ;)

If you didn't catch How to Draw a Nose or How to Draw Lips check those out and make sure you pop that Subscribe button because I still have the ear from three angles and finally how to place things properly on the head coming in the next two and four weeks, which you definitely do not want to miss.

Enjoy and tag me on Insta if you're practicing! @caleighbirdart

1.17.2020

How to Draw Lips

Hey folks, let's draw some luscious realistic lips! I'll walk you through a simple outline demo for three different, and then we'll shade 'em up real good. You're gonna want to kiss your own drawing by the time we're done!

Today is Part 2 of my 'Drawing Portraits Realistically' series. Last time I did noses, then we'll have eyes, ears, and finally placement on the head.

Here is Part 1 :: Drawing Noses

12.27.2019

Make sure you are subscribed to the Birdie Blog so you’ll get a weekly roundup of my blog posts and YouTube vids so you won’t miss any of this series:

How to Draw a Nose

Hi friends, are you ready to level up your portrait game?

Well that is super duper because I’ve got a 5 Part series coming atcha that is sure to help you out:)

Today I’ll be going over how to draw the nose from three angles, then every other week I’ll have a video on drawing eyes, lips, ears, and finally how and where to place them all on the head.

Make sure you are subscribed to the Birdie Blog so you’ll get a weekly roundup of my blog posts and YouTube vids so you won’t miss any of this series:

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12.13.2019

Portrait Drawing Demo :: NB

Just a lil pencil portrait drawing demo today that I filmed at my old spot. Wish me luck on getting my new studio set up today! If you're curious about my Hawai'i homes check out these vids showing my past and present studios:)

Are you curious about the specific materials I use to draw? Check this one out.

5.10.2019

3 Essential Erasers

These 3 erasers have become my absolute favorites for pencil drawing. If you need to lighten or totally eliminate your pencil marks, as well as being able to refine detail, then I've got the erasers for you.

If you'd like to add any erasers from the video to your own collection here are the links where you can find them (and any purchase helps support this channel - yay!):

Kneaded Eraser:

https://bit.ly/2WOwYWA

Vinyl Eraser:

https://bit.ly/2DfSDOM

https://bit.ly/2Sxdd6H

Mono Zero:

https://bit.ly/2DfU93e

Eraser Refill:

https://bit.ly/2SC64C0

2.7.2019

Portrait Drawing Timelapse :: Keliko + Kokua

Portrait drawing speed demo timelapse of a really sweet couple I know here on O'ahu. Thought I would keep today's video nice and mellow, but if you're curious about how the commissioning process works for getting a custom portrait drawn check this vid out:

https://youtu.be/onkQYDcE8J8

And here are the materials I use to draw these portraits:

https://youtu.be/qtUzPQKiXRk

::

originally published January 17, 2019