Mike Lin

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]

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]

In setting up perspective in mounds or terrains, you must assume they are in a square box, locate their base points on perspective and find their height, then do connect from each base point to the top.  Hope this help.

A beautiful landscape plan nicely rendered by our member Romella Edgmon who took our workshop in July 2007. She contributes the entire rendering process below to share with our members.  Thanks to Romella.
It was a pleasure coming up with a conceptual design for a water feature in honor of philanthropist Walter Annenberg. A water…[Read more]

                               
Drawing with a Good Attitude                    
 
 
Many people feel they are unable to draw or sketch well either due to the lack of talented background or missing proper guided graphic skill. I have spent over 35 years of my life teaching people how to draw well with confidence, often I have seen people walke…[Read more]

Improvement of B/A drawings in just 7 days?

Before: Bad perspective, no gradual value change and lack of details on walls, ceiling and floor.  Requires nicer design with more furniture, bad person that was scaled too short, need more colors like blue, purple, and orange.
After: Good perspective, good details on walls with nice gradual value…[Read more]

How to render a sofa with markers

Left Sofa: (Rendered as Designer’s sofa): Outlined sofa lightly with a red or #B pencil, then render each surface of cushions by applying Chartpak Colorless Blender first and use the value sequence of Sunset Pink, Salmon, Deep Salmon, Scarlet and Maroon to achieve a nice Graduate Value Change to White Space. …[Read more]

How to draw Bubble Diagram and Marker Lettering: 
1. Use circle template, apply one circle with Sharpie and another one with Thin     Pen (don’t forget Professional Gap within circle), two circles offset to each     other with small gap in between. 2. Use different shades of green and blue markers and apply stripes with Over     The Edge just a b…[Read more]