a little peek into bring it to life online class

My latest online class is underway and so far it is one of my favorites! My husband Andy and I have teamed to create a fun little class all about bringing your art to life. From drawing people to painting abstract to doodles and pattern, we have put together a class full of our favorite tips, shortcuts, techniques and inspiration for breathing life into a variety of subject matter. While I can't share everything from the class I did want to give a little peek into Andy's lesson on shading.

Andy is a MASTER at realism and drawing exactly what he sees comes natural to him. In fact it is easier for him to work in a realistic style than in an expressive and messy way- crazy right?!! Because most of his subject matter revolves around portraits and figure drawings, he depends on traditional and classic shading techniques to bring his drawings to life. Here are a few of his favorite tips:

• Different tools will create different results when it comes to shading. For example- when shading with a pencil you are able to blend things together. When shading with a pen you have to utilize lots of light layers of lines to get the effect of shading.

• Holding your pencil at different angles will result in different results (lighter vs. darker, smooth vs. texture, etc).

• Keep the tones of your shading the same by applying the same pressure on your drawing tool.

• Look for subject matter with contrast. When you work with shading techniques it is helpful to pick subject matter that has lots of contrast and variation between light and dark. 

• Don't be afraid to layer and combine different shading techniques. Often layering results in achieving dimension, depth and life in a drawing. 

• Challenge yourself to come up your own shading techniques. Grab your favorite drawing tool and fill a couple pages with swatches of different ways that you can use lines.

I love how completely different Andy and I are when it comes to our art and I am always amazed when I watch how to brings a portrait to life with all of his shading techniques.  Here is a little look at his entire process of drawing a portrait from start to finish!

bring it to life- andy draw face from Alisa Burke on Vimeo.
music: lemon, trance mix

Bring it to Life is an online class with unlimited access which means you can register at any time and work at your own pace. Visit the shop HERE for all the information!