Blair Michener

Tips of the Week: Drawing a Tree
A simple 5 mins tree with Chartpak markers:  First outlined it with red or 6B pencil and render leaves with Grass Green and Nile Green; trunk with Buff, Suntan and Mocha.  Finally outlined it with black Sharpie and hit it with Prismacolor pencils – Poppy Red and True Blue.  Always apply markers from lighter to da…[Read more]

Better attitude can affect your drawing skills immensely Ever since I have changed my attitude to be better and looser, my drawing skills improved drastically. These are what I have changed: * I will no longer want to compete with my peers, just want to draw better than my wife, that is all. * I begin to realize that the more mistakes I have made…[Read more]

TIP OF THE WEEK: How to place people in a sketch
It is very easy to place people in sketches or perspectives with the following rules:
1. You must assume yourself is a 5 ft tall person and people you are drawing are all 5 ft. tall just like you.
2. Draw an eye line on paper, then sketch or trace people with their eyes located on the eye line.
3.…[Read more]

Do you have hard time drawing good looking trees?  Here are some tips:
1. Use of a black pen and outlines the tree with one of the four leaf languages –    Concave, Convex, Wendy and McDonald.
2. Don’t draw any details inside a tree, just apply it with 45 degree strokes,solid     color or leave it blank.
3. Use only one language per tree or grass,…[Read more]

Tips of the “Loose Sketch” with Marker and PenBeLoose Graphic Workshop – Mike Lin

Tips of the Loose Sketch with Marker and Pen
Often when you like make sketches to be loose and lovely with markers and pen, here are some tips to help you achieve great results and satisfactions:

• Paper: Use of paper towel, napkin or any rough texture…

[Read more]

Land8 online has invited me to provide a free webinar on sustainable site design, small scale sites and residential landscapes on November 7th. What type of information you would find most useful?

Simple Tips of Applying Colors to a Drawing:
Do you know when we stare at a color (Blue for example), we actually saw the opposite color of the color wheel (Orange), these blue and orange colors are known as complementary colors in the color theory (see below left for a test). 

Therefore two colors (Blue-Orange, Red-Green, and Yellow-Purple)…[Read more]

Hi Brian, Thanks for your response, somehow I missed it until now. Vellum is a bit pricey, so I ended up buying Canson light weight bond which works a lot like marker paper. I like your trace on foamcore style too. How do you mount it?