Ask Andrea

I am currently beavering away, creating my fourth zine in the 'How To Draw' series. This one is, again, about drawing with the ballpoint pen and I'll be taking a closer look at the colour ballpoint. For the first time, I'll also be including a 'problem page'!

So, if you have any questions about drawing with ballpoint pens please ask away. I'll choose a few that I'll endeavour to answer in the new zine - available at the beginning of August.

I'd better get my socks on!

Previous zines available HERE.

lost in France

I started this drawing on New Years day. It felt good to start the new year drawing. I really needed to. With everything else I've had going on, I haven't really got lost in a big detailed drawing in a long while. This is the first in what I hope will become a series. It was drawn from a mish mash of photos, and memories (and a bit of imagination) from a trip to France in November. I've always loved France. When I was young I used to wish I was French. My favourite film is French. It's the country, outside of the UK, I've visited the most. For the last few years I've exhibited my work in France. And, now, of course I've had my book published by a French publisher.

So this is a love letter to France. Je t'aime.

sleeping through the day

WARNING; zinemaking can seriously damage your sanity.
'How to Draw Like a Nut' is still available HERE.

to follow where you are

So you might have seen a bit of this drawing before. Half of it to be precise. This is the last piece of artwork to be finished for the new ballpoint zine. I'm looking forward to seeing it all printed and assembled. It's quite different product from my previous Molezines so, as yet, I have no idea how it'll turn out.

I'm hoping it'll look pretty cute. I'm quite happy with this spread, anyway. But, to bed now. I've been awake until the wee hours for the last three months. Or at least that's how it feels.

Night night.

all through the night

Here's one from the up and coming new ballpoint pen zine. It's not completely finished in this version, a little more has been added since. A little something extra for those who purchase the zine. C'mon, I have to entice you somehow. I'll be putting it for pre order in the next couple of days.

This is my living room and the armchair is my workspace.

how to draw a shoe

As promised, here is the second method I use, when it comes to drawing shoes. This, it has to be said, is my favourite method of all. And, I use it not only for drawings shoes but for most of the still life drawings that I make. In fact, this is probably how about 90% of them were created. A friend of mine says it's cheating, but I don't think so. This method means that everything I draw is the actual size of the object. Plus, for me, it brings the object and the drawing closer together. I feel that the object really becomes a part of the drawing when I draw like this;

Method 2

Oh, and by the way, I have used exactly the same tools as in the last post minus the tracing paper. You don't need that.
Step 1. Get your Converse boot, or whatever it is you want to draw, and draw around it. Yes, actually put it on the page and draw around it. I've used pencil to get the initial shape in the drawing above. It'll never be true to shape, because it depends what angle you are coming from (in so many ways), but I like that.
Step 2. Then draw around the pencil outline with a ballpoint to give you a ballpoint outline (apologies for the totally bloody obviousness of what I'm saying). It doesn't matter if it differs from the pencil outline, it's your shoe and your drawing.

Step 3. Adding 'values'. I'd never actually heard this term before I started drawing-blogging. I think it might be a US term (?) or even a technical term. As I said in the last post, I've had no training so maybe that's why I'd never heard it before. So, for those, not in the know, like me, add some shading. By looking at your shoe you can see where the darker bits are - hatch there.

Step 4. More hatching. More more more. Continuing on from the last step, building it up and adding some texture.

Step 5. Adding more detail and continuing with the therapeutic cross hatching. Really feel those textures. Touch your boots!

Step 6. Finishing touches. Adding the lovely details and, again, for this drawing I've added a bold outline. If you don't want a bold outline leave it out. Not every drawing needs one. Finish when you want to finish. It's your drawing. Let the drawing tell you when it's done.

Well, that's the process I go through. But, hey, don't listen to me. I'm sure you have your own thing going on.

Check out THIS LINK to see the other method I use for drawing shoes.
Plus, you can buy my 'How To Draw...' zines, and other stuff, HERE.