Your sketchbook shows your thought process An art school portfolio benefits a lot from having a slide to show an image or two of a sketchbook spread. The advantage of showing a sketchbook spread is that it’s an opportunity for you to demonstrate your thinking, sketching, and brainstorming process in it’s raw, unedited form. A […]
Table of contents What do I need to know first? Preparing an art school portfolio for college admission is not a casual undertaking, it’s very common for high school students to underestimate how much time and labor is involved. Creating the artworks for an art school portfolio is not simply the amount of time it […]
This video comprehensively covers the fundamentals of painting with gouache by showing the process of painting a book cover illustration based on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. The process begins by shooting reference photos at a graveyard in Concord, MA, moving on to thumbnail sketches, painting color studies, and then exploring techniques […]
A mix of inspirational, educational, how to books, and more to nurture yourself as an artist. See all of our books lists here, our manga list, how to list, comics list, and educational books list. videos staff picks Prof Lieu’s Top Picks Jordan’s Top Picks Lauryn’s Top Picks As a free educational source, Art Prof […]
Table of Contents How do think conceptually? Unfortunately, many art students are taught to learn technique and content separately. They are instructed to first focus exclusively on mastering technique because they are told that they are “not ready” to address the subject matter of their artwork. The consequence is that students develop technical proficiency, but […]
“There are many ways to be an artist.” The transition from art school into the “real world” can be abrupt and disorienting for many graduates. Entering and navigating the professional world can be confusing, and there are many challenges that came along the way. This video provides suggestions for concrete initiatives art school graduates can […]
A comprehensive list of useful art resources.
Table of Contents Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artists Lauryn Welch and Jordan McCracken-Foster discuss mistakes you can avoid when preparing an art portfolio for art school. Types of artwork such as fan art, anime, celebrity portraits are generally not what admissions officers at art school art looking for, in addition to cliche images, […]
Index Artist Wellness Artistic Process Business & Selling Careers Copyright Critiques Discussion Promotion
These videos explain and demonstrate the process of how thumbnail sketches work within the artistic process. There are many benefits of thumbnail sketches: they can save you time when working on a final piece of artwork and allow you to explore more options for composition. The demonstration shows simple strategies on how to crop or […]
Brainstorming is an essential process that artists can use to develop their ideas to create their artwork. Exercises such as word association, mind maps, thumbnail sketches, and sketchbook doodles are all discussed as a means towards stimulating the development of ideas for future artworks. Video Walkthrough Prof Lieu’s Tips Often people will ask me whether […]
Creating mood boards is a fun, exciting way to gather visual inspiration for your projects. This video explores Jordan’s mood boards, created for the character designs in the series Shadow Boxers. Jordan explains his process for finding visual inspiration, using Pinterest to organize the images, developing the stories behind the characters, and ultimately to the […]
Art Prof Clara Lieu demonstrates how to run a group art critique in a classroom. For every art teacher, leading art critiques during an art class is an ongoing challenge. Every student, every artwork, and every art critique is different. Art students have their own challenges as participants in a group critique, how do you […]
Critique is a fundamental part of the artistic process, providing artists an opportunity to get a fresh pair of eyes on their artwork. This video explains concrete, practical strategies that both art teachers and art students can apply to group critiques in the classroom. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artists Cat […]
Shooting your own photo references for your artwork can be very effective for getting the visuals you need! This video explains what is necessary for a photo reference to be effective, what visual elements to look for and emphasize, how to make choices on setting up a model, lighting, props, and more. Discussion led by […]
This video provides a comprehensive look at how to photograph your 2D & 3D artwork, showing common problems and with practical techniques to achieve photos that will accurately represent your artwork. Having high quality photos of your artwork is more important today than ever: you need photos of your artwork for your website, social media, […]
Creating different lighting situations for characters has impactful visual effects and can also be used as a narrative tool. The interaction of color and various types of light can create a broad range of color schemes. Lighting can be a very effective means of creating a mood or atmosphere to a character as well. Draw […]
Lighting can be a powerful visual tool in art! This video gets down to the nuts and bolts of how lighting works in an artwork, focusing on the specifics of different types of highlights and the various ranges of visual effects they create. Examples from art history and contemporary art show how artists can apply […]
This video explains how lighting works in art, focusing on shadows and breaking down the specific visual qualities. Knowing how shadows work, and understanding the difference between cast shadows and form shadows are important skills for all artists in order to create a broad range of visual effects in many art forms. Discussion led by […]
This video shows common problems artists encounter with 2D compositions, explaining how certain types of compositions can come across as tiresome and/or cliche. Examples of artworks with compositions that are “bad” are shown, which stimulates a discussion on why a specific 2D composition is successful or not. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and […]
This video discusses common problems artists encounter with 2D compositions, explaining how certain types of compositions can come across as tiresome and/or cliche. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Lauryn Welch and Alex Rowe. Video Walkthrough Prof Lieu’s Tips People often think that spending time on a thumbnail means that they […]
What qualities are seen in great 2D compositions in art? Examples of impactful compositions from fine art, comics, illustration, movies, and more are shown in this video. These examples explain and break down the compositions to point out strategies that make for an engaging 2D composition. Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Jordan McCracken-Foster. […]
This video walks through basic tips on how to compose a portrait, citing strategies for placement of the head, neck and shoulders to create a dynamic composition. Using examples from both contemporary art and art history, concrete, practical tips for how to consider the posture of the neck and shoulders, the mass of the hair, […]
This video provides ideas for how to create backgrounds for portraits so that your compositions are visually dynamic and engaging. Backgrounds are often neglected, especially in portraits where the focus is usually on the face. However, backgrounds can have a great impact on the way a portrait comes across, especially in terms of conveying a […]
Atmospheric perspective in art creates the illusion of space in a 2D artwork. Atmospheric perspective emphasizes spatial intervals, the distance between objects where as objects recede into the distance, they become less detailed, lower in contrast, and more blurry. Objects in the foreground by contrast are articulated with crisp details and high contrast in order […]
The essentials of 1 point and 2 point linear perspective are explained in this video by breaking it down with clear, concrete images. This makes it easy to translate perspective to observational drawing, as opposed to dry and boring diagrams of cubes and blocks. Basic ideas of linear perspective, such as point of view, and […]
The nuts and bolts of 1 point linear perspective are comprehensively explained in this video. Using stills from movies that display 1 point perspective shows that linear perspective doesn’t have to be the boring, dry, outdated technical exercise that it frequently is presented as in classrooms. Basic concepts of linear perspective, such as point of […]
This video is a drawing demonstration of how to apply rules of 1 point linear perspective into the context of observational drawing using pastel pencils. The processes of how to identify the vanishing point, the vanishing lines, establish the horizon line, and how to develop the drawing to convey a convincing sense of space are […]
Tombow’s Create Your Best Work Art Scholarship Deadline: March 2021Eligibility: high school seniors, college freshmen, and college sophomores seeking art degreesAccepts: “Artwork created using any of the following mediums: graphite pencil, water-based marker/brush pen, drawing pen, and/or permanent marker. At least one submission must be created using graphite pencils. (digital artwork,including graphic design and photography, will not be […]
Using Discord in the Classroom Use the Art Prof Discord to get to know Discord before your class begins! Join in on our conversations and you’ll be able to familiarize yourself with how Discord works, how conversations flow and what types of interactions are possible. You don’t want your first interactions on Discord to be […]
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Art Prof offers a wide selection of high resolution photos you can download and use freely as reference for your art. FAQ Can I really use these photos for free? Yes! All of our photos on Flickr are labeled under Creative Commons as Attribution 2.0 Generic. This requires that you credit Art Prof when you use our photos. […]