On Air Video: Learn to See, Learn To Draw

Many people feel that the only people that can be successful as artists are those that are born with a natural talent for visualizing a scene and recreating what they see, either in front of them, or in their minds eye.

Aspiring artists are often inspired by what they see, but are intimidated by the complexity of the three dimensional objects they are confronted with. In this inspiring art instruction workshop from On Air Video, host and instructor Larry Withers encourages new and intermediate students to embrace the forms they see in the real world, and how to translate the shapes they see into art they can recreate.

As this drawing instruction video begins, Withers introduces the fundamental drawing skills that every artist should be comfortable with. Withers advises his students to think about drawing like riding a bike or throwing a ball: in all three of these tasks, understanding the mechanics and basic principles of the activity are key to being able to produce effective results over and over again.

Students will love the way that Withers breaks down complex scenes and photographs into their most basic geometric shapes, and will benefit from the easy practice exercises that he provides so that they can develop a more intuitive way of seeing these shapes all around them. This workshop is divided into a series of easy to digest chapters that can be watched multiple times until the student feels they are ready to move on to the next technique or concept.

Withers' calm and reassuring teaching style makes it possible for students of all levels to expand their drawing skills while absorbing valuable lessons about designing and finishing a composition.

These lessons deal with a wide variety of drawing topics, including:

• Materials and tools
• Looking for simple shapes
• Drawing simple shapes
• Creating tone
•  Importance of light and shadow
• Constructing your drawing
• Drawing a still life
• Drawing a landscapes
• Rendering difficult objects