ARTipolo Group President, Mr. Pol Mesina, Jr.

This video interview happened on the last week of August 2021. But unfortunately, I was infected with Covid19 and failed to upload it earlier. Thanks be to God for the healing and complete recovery. Now, I can resume my blogging activity, which serves as my way to share lessons learned from fellow artists.

I feel that many would benefit from Mr. Pol Mesina, Jr.'s story as with how he started his endeavor in arts. He was patient, generous to share his gifts, and hold strong to this noble profession as an artist. Like other artist aspirants, it was not an easy journey. The regularity of income was one of the challenges. But when he was able to hone his gifts, he discovered the "flow" and soon enough, he was sailing towards his artistic goals.

This video comes in two parts. Part 1 tells more about his beginning. Part 2 tells us about ARTipolo group, how it started and what is its objectives. You cannot separate ARTipolo Group from Pol. Not just because he's the founding president of the group, but because he has committed to sustaining this group for the benefit of new and incoming artists.

Sir Pol, as we call him also started his art training from a master artist, Mr. Fernando Sena. I too learned so much from Mr. Sena. As you watch this video, you'll learn how master Sena left a mark on Sir Pol.  

After watching the video and reading the blog, please feel free to share. We give you this free recorded interview to learn from. We don't ask money to sustain this endeavor. But we hope you'll help us spread and pay-it-forward to other people. Art is not just for the young, but for all ages.

In the end, we give glory to our creator. To God be the Glory!

How to Draw Alive-Looking Eyes

If you want to learn how to draw faces and portraiture, one key to make it captivating and real is by drawing the eyes realistically or making it alive.  The eyes are windows to our soul or emotions.  Even through drawing, being able to draw a  captivating eye can change the appearance and impact of your work.

When I started learning how to draw portraiture, I practiced a lot on the eyes of the subject.  I experimented and finally, I learned how we can possibly draw alive looking eyes.  There are several materials online to learn how to draw beautiful looking eyes.  So I curated some here for different levels of learning.  

Remember, you will not grow if you don't practice.  So with these materials, I advise you get your tools and find a perfect place to start drawing.  

Drawing Eyes for Beginners

The following video illustrates an easy way of drawing eyes starting from a circle.  This video exhibits outlines and not much on shading.  Thus, as a beginner, you'll be able to produce eyes that may lack details.

Advance Art Tutorial - Drawing hyper realistic eye

The next video takes longer but the end product is much better.  This will teach you more details on shaping the eye and using the right amount of shading for pencil drawings. 

As you have seen from the video, you need to layer the shading starting from light to darkest.  To add more value and make it realistic, take notice of the highlights or how the artist lifted off some of the granite to reveal the white light.  Always consider where the light falls in your drawing.  Train your eyes to see the details of lighting.

Painting Realistic Eye

You may now have the urge to learn how to add colors to your artwork.  The following video is a time-lapse but would still give you idea on how to paint realistically looking eyes.  The medium used in this video is oil paint. Oil paint doesn’t dry quickly and needs longer time to finish. If you are going to use oil paint, you need to be patient and don’t rush your work.

Take notice of the process.  Different from using graphite, the artist started with dark background to build on the foundation of his painting.  Then little by little he layered the lighter colors and used fine brushes to shape and add volume to his painting.  The final touches uses tutanium white for highlights.  He also uses clean dry brushes for softening parts that he wanted to blend.  The good thing with oil paint is that you can blend colors well using linseed oil even after a day or two. The colors are brighter as well and blending is much easier compared to acrylic. When acrylic dries, you can no longer blend it.  With acrylic, you have to work on wet-on-wet.

After watching these videos, it inspires me to start working on my art.  I hope that through these materials, you are able to learn some tips on how you would work on your "Eyes".

Now here are other references related to this post:

* From Art Rocket  Easy Tips for Drawing Eyes. 

* From Marvin Todd's pin in Pinterest - Drawing Eyes

FEATURED ARTIST 2: MR. NORBING VILLEZ

 

In February 2021, I had the privilege to meet Mr. Norbing Villez, the founder of Let's Paint Group on FB via an online interview.  It was only now that I found time to post his feature. One of his paintings, "Tampisaw Series" painting number 1has caught my attention. I asked him if I can buy it but not with outright payment because I can't afford it with my meager salary. And I was surprised that he agreed to let me pay on three (3) scheduled terms. Maybe because he saw how much I liked his work and that I am sincere with my promises to pay. Hahaha!

The "Tampisaw" series became successful. Maybe because he does it without the intent of selling. He just loves the subject, which is his daughter. His paintings were also featured in a book and he has produced more than five (5) paintings under this series.

Mr. Norbing may seem like an outgoing and fun-loving person. However, he appears to be very shy during the interview. He works abroad and stays there with his family. Painting is not his main source of income but his rest venue. He paints because it is close to his heart. He takes care of his family and exposes them to art as well. His wife, also once been a part of a women exhibit in the Philippines. Mr. Norbing is also an active member of ARTipolo group, where I am an active member as well.

This month's feature, I'll be sharing with you his interview. You'll find him very humble and very willing to share his talent with many aspiring artists. Watch it and find out what I mean. For now, it is in Filipino. I will find time to translate it into English. Just click on the video below to view.

Thank you for watching the video.  Now here are some of his works and tips on how we can improve on our work.  If you want to learn his skills in doing pastel painting, he shared on his FB account some snips or video clips of his works.

The clips below are posted on his account.  Click on the image so that you can view how he finished this Koi painting.

This photo shows how he started painting the Koi.  

I mentioned earlier about his work being featured on a book. Here's the screenshot of his feature.

Check out this step-by-step photos on how he worked on Pebble Picking painting.

He made a sketch of the sitting girl.  Moving forward, he worked on the fine details of the central subject, moving-out to the background and fine details to complete the entire piece.

Click on this clip to see how he worked on the painting's details.

And here's how he worked on his "Tampisaw S6".

Follow Mr. Norbing Villez at his FB Account NORBING VILLEZ.

Upcycling is a Creative and Fun Activity for our Children

 It took us a long time to post new learning materials here. But I get obliged to share this article to help us cope with the long-lasting impact of the pandemic.  Allow me to share this craft activity that you can do with your children.

Our natural resources are dwindling and we need to help our earth recover and revive. To do that, we can tap on our creative minds and produce another product from the trash. We call this "upcycling".  I have heard of some industries earning much from upcycled materials. For example, google search "bags made of tarpaulin" and you'll get bags sold through Lazada, and from Freitag. The tarpaulin is very sturdy. If you have an eye for design, it will not be hard to produce a saleable upcycled bag.

Now, for our children let us make this simple but useful bath scrub for our backs. It is easy.

What you will need are net bags made of plastic.  These net bags were used to contain garlic. You may also use plastic net bags that were used to pack oranges or lemons.

Clean the net packaging materials and cut it into 1 single sheet so that it will be easy to fold.  Now get a string, or thick thread and a needle or crochet hook.  Use whichever is handy for you.  

Fold the net lengthwise.  Try if it's thick enough.  Usually, I do four-folds.  Then stitch it using the thick thread you found or knit it at the center so that it will not spread wide.

On both ends, seam the corners together and add a loop so that you can hold both ends.  Since I know how to crochet, I thickened the holder through knitting.  You may use ropes or other forms of thick handle for the ends.

Now, your back scrubber is finished!

 From this...

...to this.

FEATURED ARTIST 1: CORAZON G. PATARATA

We have introduced to you a proficient and well respected artist, Ms. Corazon G. Patarata before the launch of CASCADE.  Now, we are featuring her once again as she shares her latest works with us. She has contributed well to our fund raising for CASCADE Art Studio and without her help, we would have found it difficult to sustain our activities.  For this month of February, allow me to introduce to you Ate Cora as we call her.

Ms. Patarata painted this bag when I asked her to share her talent for the sake of helping people with needs.  She willingly and excitedly acted on my request and has produced this pretty hand-painted bag, designed with the birds of paradise flowers.  This bag went to Ms. Michelle Diwa, who highly appreciated Ate Cora's works.

Latest work of Ms. Patarata
Bright Morning. acrylic on canvas. 24 in.high x 18 in wide. 2021

     61 years old, with an earlier 20-year experience as a diplomat, is a self-taught artist, who works with watercolors, oil pastels and acrylic paints, in a modern realist-impressionist style. Her subjects are flowers, landscapes, marine life, famous landmarks and monuments, heavenly bodies, and angels, and sometimes there are human figures included in her picture compositions.  Two articles about Cora’s painting career, penned by Babeth Lolarga, were published by Verafiles.Org and circulated in Yahoo News: “A Former Diplomat’s Sojourn Into Painting”, published on 30 May 2014; and “The Traveller As Painter”, published on 20 January 2017. Souce: https://verafiles.org/articles/traveler-painter

     Patarata is with the Antipolo-based artists’ group ARTipolo that has the Hemophilia Association of the Philippines for Love and Service as permanent beneficiary for all its exhibits. This self-taught vignette painter admires Amorsolo. “I aspire to someday learn his techniques with light and shadows.”Among the Renaissance artists, she singled out Rembrandt for the sensitivity of his human figures, Tintoretto for his lights and shadows, Paul Cezanne, Paul Gaugin and Vincent Van Gogh for their colors and brushstrokes.

     Of the moderns, she likes John Singer Sargent “for the emotional impact of his paintings,” Frida Kahlo “for her use of Nature as symbols for human emotions,” Miro “for his joyful and playful abstract renditions” and Norman Rockwell “for portraying scenes of everyday life that everyone can relate with.” 

     Now that she is doing what fulfills her, she calls painting “an essential part of me. Painting is something I owe to my Maker and to the people around me.Through the process, I enjoy many good feelings in heart and spirit.Painting is like praying. It is like a cleansing and uplifting process.”

     The following are Ms. Patarata's works.  If you are a collector or an Art enthusiast, you may want to avail one her works, which is posted in our Gallery Shop.     Check it out now!

"A Place For Healing", acrylic on canvas, 24 inches high x 30 inches wide, 2021.       

   

Lesson 3: Different types of Shading.

 A simple drawing is lifeless and appears as one dimensional.  To give it a 3D or three dimensional look, we need to define where are the lights coming from and how does it falls on the object.  Then we need see where the shadows are.

In creating shadows on our objects, there are several types of shadows.  We have taught you about the hatching, thatching, and cross-thatching from previous posts.  Now, let us continue learning the other types of shadowing styles and let us practice by repeating what has been shown in the featured videos.

The first video that we will show is from the works of Ms. Lauren Arno.  She showed how to do the following:

• Cross hatching
• Hatching
• Contour Shading
• Scribbles
• Strippling, and
• Circular lines

 

The next video is an application of lighting on geometrical shapes by Bial-Art Art school. The video demonstrated well how one should look at the direction of the light and the volume of shadows to improve the appearance of the drawing.

LET'S PRACTICE DRAWING 

 Now, to improve our drawing techniques in drawing, let us look at the following drawings as our references. Follow the following steps in our practice drawing: 

STEP 1. Draw 6 circles in a bond paper or drawing paper 

STEP 2. Shade the 6 Circles based on the 6 shown kinds of shading below;

STEP 3. After doing the sphere shading, apply all types of shading based on what you learned to a pear. See the photo below.

Share your works by commenting on this post and stay tune for next featured free art lessons online.

See below other reference videos for practice:

Sunday Online Practice Class on Drawing with Ink

 Hello readers! I was quite a while that we haven’t had a free art lesson.  This Sunday, February 7, 10 a.m., may I invite you to a free tutorial on drawing using ballpoint pens.  It will be online and we will use zoom for our meeting.  To join, please send me your e-mail address so I can send you the invites and link.  You may use the form below, left side for a private message or use the FB Chat pop-up at the right side of this blog.

Since we will be practicing, be ready with your pencil, ballpen and paper.  I will be using a reference but if you have a subject you wish to use other than what I will provide, you may do so.  This will be an exciting art session.  Ready with your drawing table and camera so I can check your works.

See you then!

 

Video Tutorials: Painting with Watercolors or Poster Colors and Oil Pastel

Hello, beautiful children and adults deserving excellence! Finally, I found time to create another video, which I hope you'll find useful as you try to learn how to make art. Allow me to say that though I am not a master in arts, I still love to share what our creator had endow to your humble servant. Let us learn ARTS!

Today, we will be using your watercolor or poster colors, and oil pastel, whatever brand you have. I am sure, you have these in your schoolbags and being stuck there for a long time. Let us find a photo that you like and use it as a reference. Now, since I want to see once again mother nature in her full splendor, let me use a photo of a stream shared to us by fellow artist, Mr. Norbing Velez as a ready reference.

The materials that we will need are as follows:

1. Watercolor or Poster colors

2. Oil Pastel

3. Paper or Canvas Pad

4. Masking tape

5. Pencil for sketching

6. Eraser

7. Hardboard or a piece of plywood

Now, this is part 1 of a work-in-progress. I haven't done part two, but do stay tuned because I am determined to finish this piece and share it with all of you.

If upon watching the video, you are able to create beautiful work, please feel free to post it here or on our blog (see about info for blog address). Who knows, you may win a pad (for children only, Hehehe).

Enjoy!!!

LESSON 2: Sketching Inanimate Objects

Drawing Inanimate Objects

As of the afternoon of May 9, from 3:00 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., we had a live feed on our FB Page @CascadeArtStudio.  We continued with Lesson 2 of our Free Saturday Art Class while still on Enhanced Community Quarantine or ECQ.

For those unable to join or see the live feed, we have added it here in our blog for quick access and understanding for those who wish to learn how to draw. It may be for a hobby or to pass the time.  But I hope this article helps you relieve boredom or help you discover your potential in drawing.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Drawing pencils
• Drawing pad
• Eraser

Let us start with our lesson.  

To draw inanimate objects, you must remember the different shapes. Drawing would be easy if you could identify shapes by looking at pictures.

Now to illustrate, let us use the following picture as a reference:

First, identify the complete shape of the object.  The 1st vase, it's a tall rectangle.  Add two perpendicular lines for the width of the vase mouth.  Then a horizontal line for the neck of the vase.  Now, for the body, you may use an oval shape to get its form.  

For the second vase, let us use a square to box in the object.  The same with the first vase; use two perpendicular lines to get the location and form of the vase's mouth.  The vase's body is like a circle or a lying egg shape. 

The third vase is very much the same as the 1st vase.  We used a red color to show you how it will overlap with the figure of the 2nd vase.

Now, let us transfer the shapes on paper.  Draw those lines and shapes from the above image on your drawing pad.

Using your reference, sketch in the shape of the vases, using the lines and shape as your guide.

When you can get the shapes of the vases, define them a little, then using the kneaded eraser, remove or erase all guidelines and shapes as shown in the image below.  Now, you have a drawing of the three vases.

With what we learned from our 1st lesson, let us work on detailing and defining the shadows.   From the original picture, where is the source of light?  From the left?  That is correct!  So the shadows should be placed on the right side of the image.

Work on the shadows.  From the figure below, I used hatching and cross-hatching.

Now that you have finished these drawings let us work on your assignments.  I will be posting 3 photos here.  Select one and work on it.

For those who will send me their output, I will feature it here.  To send your assignments, message me on my FB Page, CASCADE Art Studio.

ASSIGNMENT 1

ASSIGNMENT 2

ASSIGNMENT 3

Send me your work!  I'm excited to see it.  Thanks, and Keep Safe!

CASCADE'S SATURDAY ART CLASS: BASIC DRAWING LESSONS FOR BEGINNERS

Click here for the video view

Last 2 May, 2020, I gave a free Basic Online Drawing via a live feed in Cascade Art Studio's page.  I accepted about 8 participants but 2 were not able to join due to technical issues.  Many reacted on my post and my officemates asked me that they'll join when I had another one.  So as to share the same experience to my followers, I added this blog so that they can review and share the same experience.

The Content of the webinar included the following lectures:

First Lesson - Understanding Drawing Materials

Second Lesson - How to Sketch?

Third Lesson - Shadowing techniques

Fourth Lesson - Workshop activity

Now let us go into details.

The Webinar started with the introduction of each participants.  Then a quick run down of the following house rules to ensure that the presentation run smoothly.  I you will join our next Saturday Art Classes, please take note of these house rules:

FIRST LESSON: UNDERSTANDING OUR DRAWING MATERIALS

1. DRAWING PENCILS

Drawing pencils comes in different forms.  They are named or labeled based on their output.  H pencils are hard-led pencils, which is used for light sketching, or for creating finer lines.  Examples of Hard pencils are the one we used in our schools, with #2 labels.  For drawing pencils, you can select from HB or 2H-6H.  

"F" stands for finer point pencils.  If you need to draw the lashes or the teeth, you may use F.  This is darker compared to usual H pencils.  I usually use it for outlining my sketches.

"B" stands for Black.  These pencils are softer compared to "H" and produces darker lines.  These B-type pencils are usually used for shadowing.  In drawing portraits, I keep in handy a 2B, 4B, 6B, and 8B pencils.

Charcoal pencils are much different compared to B-pencils.  They are very dark and usually takes skill in controlling its balance.  Look at the slide below to see the differences produced by these pencils.

The Top image used HB pencil.  The drawing of 2 guys are drawn with 6B pencils.  The last image is a charcoal drawing.

If you are to draw using charcoal and 6B pencils, we recommend that you also have the following tools:

2. The KNEADED ERASER can be shaped so that you can erase very fine details in your drawing.  Rubber eraser tends to break paper when not used properly.

3.  DRAWING PAD

In drawing, we also want to emphasize that the thickness of paper also helps in drawing properly.  If you uses thin GSM paper, tendency is you must not make so much error so that you'll not need to erase often, which causes holes or breaks the paper.

4. KNEADING ROLLED PAPER is used for shadowing, by getting some powdered charcoal pencil.  It produces fine shadows and distribute the shadowing smoothly on paper.


SECOND LESSON:  SKETCHING

Sketching is like creating short, lighter strokes, creating an image or shape.  You keep on adding lines to refine the drawing, until you reach the exact appearance or drawing that you've wanted.  To illustrate, here's an example:

THIRD LESSON:  SHADOWING TECHNIQUES

There are four (4) shadowing techniques discussed here.  These shadowing techniques would help you produce better portrait drawings or pencil drawings.

1. HATCHING.   This is done by doing simple strokes or one directional strokes and then you layer it up to produce darker shadows.

2.  CROSS HATCHING.  Almost the same with hatching, cross hatching is done by doing criss-cross line drawings or creating two different direction of lines, overlapping one another.

3.  CIRCULISM.  This is done by creating small circles and overlapping them until you create the desired shadowing.  I usually use it for creating textures.

4.  CONTOUR SHADOW.  This is done by following the shape or contour of the object that you are producing.  Layer the pencil lines until you reach the desired volume of your drawn object.

To understand further how to do shadowing, you need to find the "Source of Light".  The Object that stopped the light from flowing is called "Terminator" zone.  This cast the darkest part or shadow.

Let us look at the sphere below.  The brightest part of the object is called the Core Light.  Next to it is the Highlight.   The darkest part of the sphere is called the Core Shadow.  Between the Highlight and Core shadow, the slightly lighted part yet a bit dim is called the Mid-tones.  The reflected light is a bit darker compared to Mid-tones.  But it's saturation is quite near the color of the mid-tones.

Using the image below, let us do a quick workshop on shadowing.  Copy the shadow of the sphere below, using any of the shadowing techniques.  (In my video, I used the hatching and cross hatching technique).

For the assignment, please do a drawing and add shadowing for the image below.  The lines are the sources of light.

Send me a picture of your output and I'll give you feedback. You may use the e-mail link on this page or you may send it to our page, which you'll find below.

If you are interested to get our services for a one-on-one tutorial, please register here:  (REGISTER)

CASCADE Studio's Free Basic Drawing On-line Workshop

With the Enhance Community Quarantine holding us all from going-out of our homes, it's fortunate that now we find time to draw and be creative.  Finally, we can now get our art materials and start sketching and drawing, a visual way of expressing our thoughts or recording the events in our surroundings through freehand drawing.

Mothers get to spend more time with their children and monitor their activities.  This is also an opportunity to explore if you, as a mother, (or for your children), have a talent to draw.  One mother contacted me through chat.  She was inquiring if I can give workshop through online. I told myself, why not?  I've been managing webinars since March 16, and was unable to hold my pencils and art materials because the webinars are eating most of my time.  It is good timing that this May 1, we are on holiday and May 2 falls on a Saturday.  With the long weekend ahead, I can now prepare the materials for drawing and patch it live on FB.

Thus, may we invite you on May 2, 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. for a workshop on basic drawing.  We will start with understanding the art materials and understanding the movements of light, and its significance to drawing.

With the live feed, I will be accepting 10 online students to be coached and mentored while we do an online feed via FB.  You may still be able to get a slot for the sample coaching in this online workshop.  Just get a ticket here and I'll send you the Google Meet link to take part.

The requirements is if you are using a celfone, be sure to download the Google Meet Application.  If you are using laptop or desktop, then you just have to click on the invite that will be sent to you.

For the art materials:

See the complete lessons and the video on my next blog.  Enjoy!!!