Traditional Techniques

Line & Value Mastering hatching and cross-hatching is an essential step in becoming a confident and versatile artist. These linear techniques date back centuries and are still used by illustrators, draftsmen, and fine artists today. Simple yet powerful, they provide a way to depict depth, volume, light, and surface quality using only lines. Whether you […]

What Is Gesture Drawing? When it comes to capturing the essence of the human form—or any living subject—gesture drawing stands as one of the most powerful and enduring exercises in an artist’s toolkit. With fluid lines and dynamic mark-making, this practice helps you portray weight, motion, balance, and expression in just a few confident strokes.

Chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro shading is one of the most powerful tools in an artist’s visual vocabulary. By emphasizing dramatic light and shadow, artists can create the illusion of three-dimensional form, evoke mood, and guide the viewer’s eye through a composition. Whether you’re working in graphite, charcoal, ink, or digital media, mastering chiaroscuro will transform the way

What Makes Toned Paper with White Chalk So Effective? When it comes to elevating traditional drawing techniques, few approaches are as satisfying and visually rich as working on toned paper with white chalk. This classical method allows artists to depict both light and shadow in a single pass—using the mid-tone of the paper as a

Getting Scaled In the world of classical representational art, sight-size drawing remains one of the most precise and time-tested techniques for achieving accurate proportions. Rooted in traditional atelier training, this method places your drawing and subject side by side, allowing you to view them from a fixed distance and compare them as if they were