amazing talented skills

Great and amazing talent in drawing, that a man can draw natural view with his finger only! Wonderfull... why this guy till in street? sometimes world is just crazy... give him the money he needs...make him a respectable man.. Extreme Fingerpainting.

What is Drawing and Sketching?

Drawing is not just making lines with a pencil to represent a figurative scene. Drawing can be done with tone, line, texture, colour, pen, stick and ink, pencil, charcoal, brush, pen, pastel, crayon, in fact almost any medium.

There is often a very fine divide between drawing and painting, as a drawing may be tinted or coloured. Drawings are usually associated with the above mediums, but you may well ask yourself the difference when using a brush as to whether you are painting a line or drawing it? Painting, for our purposes we will assume that a colour work covering nearly all the surface and done with a brush and paint, pastels, or laid by tools such as rag, knife will constitute painting. A Drawing we will consider as done in linear colour, or a little tinting on a drawing, linear work, tonal work other than in paint, or textural work other than in paint. Sketching should not be considered an excuse for a bad drawing, merely a fast and perhaps looser drawing which is slightly governed by constraints in time and has to give maximum information in its limited content. An artist such as Munch with his style of using linear strokes of paint almost seems to border on drawing with paint!

Neither does drawing mean a photographically correct representation of a scene. Drawing can lean towards the abstract, even decorative.

I will explore drawing under the following headings =)

Materials and Tools, The Illusion of Perspective, Shapes and drawing skills, Techniques and examples in Line, Tone, Texture.

 

  

A drawing of an artist done approx. 440 B.C. – Almost Art Nouveau in appearance! A drawing by Degas 1865, then a tonal print of a painting by Munch “The Scream”, almost seems like a drawing?

Materials and Tools: What can we draw with?

Aboriginal sand paintings are done by carefully sprinkling coloured sand. A stick will make a mark in the sand on the beach, the tatooist on the human body! The answer is that almost anything that can make a mark can be drawn with.

Not only can all of these different mediums be used on their own for different effects, many can be used together.

We will concentrate, here, on the most commonly used and readily available drawing materials, but you should not be afraid to experiment further yourself whenever you wish.

Paper.

For most ordinary drawing purposes with pencils, ordinary white drawing cartridge paper is most commonly used. The term sketch pad refers, usually, to a book or pad of cartridge paper that can be easily taken anywhere for drawing. Some are of slightly higher quality and thicker paper is used. This is useful if a little paint is to be used, but beyond that and into watercolours you may need to get a proper watercolour pad! Sugar paper is another cheap and lower quality coloured paper that can be useful when a tonal or coloured background is needed. Hand made papers are expensive but can be purchased in wonderful textures and surfaces, some including seeds and petals in their makeup. Brown paper can also be a good ground to draw on and will allow some lights as well as darks to be used.

Pencils.

Pencils are not made of lead, the black colouring is Graphite. This comes in different hardness, the softer graphite giving a darker mark. They are coded with H and B grades. Think of these as standing for H for Hard and B for Black! 4B is very Black and soft 2B is not so soft, H.B. is in the middle and 4 H would be like using a needle to draw with and give a faint line.

I would suggest having only an H.B, a 2B and a 4B in your box for drawing and shading. Softer darker pencils can be used by choosing charcoal pencils. These have a much richer blacker mark but lose the silvery depth of the graphite. A pure stick of graphite with no wood encasing is available, it is the same size as a pencil and can be sharpened in the same way. This is simply called a “graphite stick”

Charcoal.

Charcoal sticks are made from thin twigs of Willow, heated with a lack of oxygen. It is useful to rake around in an expired outdoor wood fire for a possible lump of charcoal to draw with. It is also possible to wrap a piece of willow up in tinfoil and bake it in the oven, but an extractor fan is wise as the resulting smoke can be evil! Different woods will give different effects of charcoal.

Stick and Ink.

A piece of dowel or simply a piece of twig from a tree, which is sharpened, then dipped into a bottle of Indian Ink, will draw a lovely line. This is far nicer than the line drawn with a felt tip and is very useful for fast flowing drawings of moving animals.

Pen and Ink.

A traditional way of drawing than if used with waterproof ink can be tinted with watercolour or coloured inks at any time. New, fine line pens are now available in waterproof inks and are more easily transported and used – but their permanence is still suspect and after duration in sunlight they can tend to go brown and vanish.

Aquarel or Water soluble Pencils.

These are coloured pencils that can be blended with water as they are used or later. They are usually softer than ordinary coloured pencils.

Coloured Pencils.

As they sound, simply coloured pencils. They are usually fairly hard.

Pastel Pencils.

If softer coloured pencils are required, especially for working on sugar or coloured pastel paper then these will be useful.

Brush Drawing.

The brush is a wonderful drawing instrument. The Japanese have been taught to write and draw with a brush before a pencil! It gives a versatility of line that cannot be obtained any other way. Used with inks or paints both flowing and textural marks are possible.

Drawing Board, Clips/Low Tack Tape/Drawing Pins.

A board large enough to hold your paper and with a smooth surface. A piece of hardboard is cheap, will do, and is light, but a board of one inch ply is better still and will not warp, especially if paper is stretched wet onto it. Hardboard will not like drawing pins and is a bit thin for clips.

Rubbers.

A rubber can be used for blending and smudging as well as rubbing out. I would advise a putty rubber as being most useful. It can be cut in half and one half kneaded into a clean point for fine rubbing out and highlights, the other for getting messy and blending.

Pastels.

Conte’ or Inscribe pastels are the obvious choice for drawing, other than pastel pencils, as they are fairly hard.

Pencil Sharpener or Craft Knife.

Clearly you will need to sharpen your pencils.

Camera Obscura.

This simply refers to a piece of card about five inches long by four inches high with a window cut out of it to see through and choose your composition through. It aids you to gauge scale and the relative position of objects one to another. You can mark the facing inside window into halfway and quarters and eighths. Some artists even make the window into a grid by gluing dark cotton across at these measurements. The use of this and checking scale with a pencil will be dealt with later in these notes.

Plumb Line.

Very few artists use this, but a lot of sculptors do. Most artists simply gauge a rough vertical with a brush handle or pencil, but a piece of string with a small fishing weight at the end can be very useful if you are not sure of a vertical angle, figure or building.

 

The Illusion of Perspective

Each mark that we make upon the paper that is supposed to represent a real scene or object, and therefore fool the eye and brain, is a lie. It is not creating a real scene, merely the illusion if a scene. What I am going to do here is to show you how to “lie” more effectively! Perspective is an invention by artists to give the illusion of distance and receding objects.

The paper’s surface is a one dimensional plain, it is flat. We are going to give it the effect of being two dimensional, of going back, by the use of line, tone and texture. Painters can also use colour and potters and sculptors can take the surface forwards and back to produce low relief and full sculptures that are three dimensional, seen all round.

I will divide this into two halves of basic and advanced perspective.

The basic will give you all you need to know to start drawing most landscapes and still life, whilst the advanced you can attempt with a bit more experience and if you need more of a challenge?

See how many deliberate “perspective” faults you can see in this picture?

The Horizon Line.

This is the foundation stone to most perspective laws and scale. The Horizon is not where the sky meets the land, as there could be mountains! The horizon is where the sky meets the land if the land was absolutely level all of the way until the gentle curvature of the earth means you can see no further and the sky meets it. E.g.

In Fig. 1 the grey area represents the earth’s curved surface, at the very point that the girls eye level sees over the top of the curve it is the horizon. When we view it from her point, as in Fig 2. it becomes a level horizontal line. Anything at the same level as this horizon and on the same ground level, is the same height as she is, or we are. Therefore the figure on the left is only half our height! The two lines that appear to make a road away from us in Fig 2. are parallel lines which will meet at the horizon, this is called the Vanishing Point. Here they would disappear over the horizon due to the roundness of the earth. Having just one vanishing point, like his, is called single point perspective. The next illustration will demonstrate this in more detail.

 

 In the illustration above you can tell the door is slightly higher than the person’s head as it is above the horizon. All of the lines that recede go back to the one vanishing point. The others remain horizontal, the two trees are the same size, even though one is smaller in the distance. You know this by it’s height above the horizon being the same as the one closer to us to scale and eye level. They are approximately twice as tall as the figure?

 In this drawing you see two point perspective, there are two vanishing points. All of the receding lines go back to the two vanishing points on the horizon. Again you can tell the scale of people on the level ground, as their eye level is the same as yours. The smaller figure (3) would have to be a child or someone in a hollow? I have shown a figure (2) on top of another’s head to show that the house is twice the height of you. The figure in the distance (1) is a bit taller than us as the head is slightly above the horizon, or they are on a slight rise.

In (1&4) above, you can see how a cube and a tube would be extended back to a vanishing point. In (2) how a vertical tube would be cut into sections at different levels. This would give you the ellipses for a table top (3), tree, still life object such as a cup or bottle, tower or any tubular form. The tube (5) does the same but explains that this is still, actually, happening in perspective like the cube going back. The ends of ellipses are always rounded and never become a point! Where it is cut off at the horizon line it would be absolutely level.

Now let us look at how to make things seem lower or higher than us. For instance a valley and some hills?

As things recede into the distance so they become smaller and appear to become closer together. Three is a very simple way to make equally spaced objects do this correctly. This could be used on fence posts, railway sleepers, trees, or anything that is equally repetitive. (A) & (B) are a single point perspective going to a vanishing point. Th first and second lines are drawn as fence posts. A diagonal is then drawn from the top of (1) at (A) to the bottom of (2) at (B). After (2) the diagonal is drawn again at exactly the same angle to reach the base line (B) and that is where the next fence post will be placed. The single vertical line on the right has had a diagonal dropped from it ready for the second post. This would then be repeated, the posts will automatically become closer as the perspective lines converge.

Tip. Verticals in normal perspective remain Vertical. A common mistake is to let fence posts fall over at an angle!

drafting slides

I recommend drafting slides away from your desk, and sketching your original ideas on paper. You don’t have to be a modern day Picasso or Rembrandt to sketch out ideas – the goal of sketching is to set you up to design, not to win awards. There are clear advantages to sketching: innovative design ideas are likely to come faster to you and you can work uninterrupted away from your desk, which eliminates ‘switching time’ associated with jumping from one task to the next. Check out the following examples, which show how design ideas:

superb illustration idea

Check out these amazing illustrations by Si Scott Studios

Why drawing?

Drawing as a medium through which to investigate creative thinking is pertinent because of the immediacy of the activity – there is little in the medium that intervenes between the artist and the marks that are made. I read that, ‘drawings are seen as a unique form of access to the thoughts of the people who make them. Indeed they are simply treated as thoughts’ (Wigley in De Zegher & Wigley 2001: 29).

There appears to be a consensus amongst commentators that ‘drawing turns the creative mind to expose its workings’ (Hill 1966: 4). Some define the activity as a cognitive tool to facilitate and assimilate information (Tversky 1999). Others interpret drawing more personally as being akin to the conflict between signature and outcome of intelligence (Godfrey 1980; Chhatralia in Kingston 2003). Yet others emphasise how drawing plays a developmental role in the process of thinking through ‘an interplay between the functions of seeing and knowing’ (Rawson 1979: 7). Whilst many of these were the views of practitioners, they were still in effect the opinions of others. I was left wondering how I might have some understanding of these findings for myself, and began by reviewing a number of contemporary theoretical assumptions about the drawing/thinking relationship.


Style and thinking

Perhaps the most easily assumed visual connection between drawing and thinking is the possibility that a drawing’s style can reveal the nature of the thinking processes that made it. In other words, style is analogous to mode of thinking and, by extension, its purpose (Thompson 1969).

It is often assumed that cool or analytical drawings which are linear, hard-edged and precise in their mark-making are the outcome of pre-determined and conventional cognitive processes (Rawson 1969; Thompson 1969). The plan section and elevation drawings used in the architectural process rely on their ability to operate like a language that is understood by a wide range of disciplines. Warm or intuitive drawings on the other hand suggest informal, gestural and experimental attitudes to mark-making. They appear to involve processes with no a priori or forward-thinking cognitive strategy, where aims are revealed only on completion of the drawing (Perry 1992).

These assumptions have been challenged on the basis that their use very much depends upon the social and cultural context in which drawing is used (Robbins 1994). I also noticed how a variety of practitioners often use drawing styles out of context; in fact, some practitioners actively play with these assumptions. I investigated the grey area in which architects such as Kiesler rely on a range of non-technical drawing conventions for conceptual architectural projects, and where artists such as Paterson  explore technical drawing conventions more traditionally associated with architectural drawings to make social comments.

However, this idea fails to take into account how, in practice, ideas often appear to emerge as the activity progresses. I began to question whether it was actually possible to carry out a totally pre-determined drawing without the process of making it changing one’s plans as one went along. Could it be the case that the act of making would always interfere to change one’s intentional or logical reasoning?

Basics of Character Design

Today i'm write about creating characters and bringing them to life. Character creation includes a number of technical tasks, such as modeling, texturing, and rigging, all of which will be covered later. Before you start building a character, however, you'll need to design it.

Design is about making choices, both artistic and technical. It means getting to know your character's personality and then making choices that communicate this personality visually. When designing, you need to make decisions about size, shape, color, texture, clothing, and many other attributes. There is also a technical aspect to character design: well-designed characters are easy to animate, making the animator's job easier and more creative.

Good character design is one of the cornerstones of good animation. Designing your characters properly will make their personalities jump off the screen. Your audience will know who your characters are immediatelyand like them. When you pair a great design with a great personality, the results can be wonderful.

But is it art?

The term ‘art direction’ can itself be misleading, depending on whether or not you view advertising as art. This question has been the topic of many undergraduate dissertations, and has fuelled substantial debate. It’s also an issue that splits advertising practitioners, between those who do, and those who don’t consider it to be art.

There’s a risk that in setting out to create a work of art, you can lose sight of those objectives – or put simply, the ‘art’ can get in the way of the advertising message. Although it can be argued that advertising itself may not be art, it often borrows images from art or emulates distinctive artistic schools or styles in its visual execution. It does this for one purpose only – to communicate the message in the most effective and appropriate manner possible. So, in short, it’s not just about art – it’s about communication!

The idea comes first
As a conduit for communication, art direction is the means by which the creative idea is visually expressed. It can never be a substitute for the idea itself. As another art director, Steve Dunn, once put it: ‘The ad is the cake. The art direction is the icing.’ He points out that if the advert isn’t great, it’s not worth art directing. Indeed, it’s often the case that a great idea is still a great idea even if the art direction is poor.

However, the best art direction in the world won’t make a poor idea any better. With this in mind, it is important that the visual execution, styling, use of post-production effects or computer-generated images aren’t seen as the ‘big idea’. These methods and techniques may be part of the idea itself but it’s very rarely the case that the central idea or concept is based solely on the visual execution.

Fashion Sketching

Whether you're an aspiring fashion designer, an avid sewer or just a fashionista, fashion sketching is a skill you can use to help design original garments, take notes on fashions spotted while you are out and about and help train your design eye---as well as strengthen your drawing skills. It takes practice to create professional looking fashion sketches, but this step-by-step piece will introduce you to the basics, get you started on your first sketch and give you the tools to start sketching clothing with style.

Step by Step guide to drawing a Fashion Sketch
Fashion sketch is like an art. The aim is to give you ideas and guide you on a step by step approach to draw a fashion sketch. Study the fashion around us, or through the internet about the world of fashion. Fashion can be as simple as a piece of cloth wrapping around a model, but as to how you, as the fashion designer enhances the visual impact, by adding colors, lighting effects, folds, and all the drawing techniques to the model. These showcases your originality, your passion about how the clothing will look like when worn.

What you need:
Art materials and supplies required to sketch a fashion design that you have in your mind

Easiest way is to use a fashion template. Traced (using tracing paper) the body template with the pose you want.. Trace the outline and major lines of the figure onto a sheet of tracing paper, Add in facial features and hair styles if you like.

Drawing a fashion sketch and fine tuning it
Lay a carbon paper in between your sketch book and your traced figure. Draw your own design, Fill in the rest of the drawing by retracing the head, feet and any details from your first tracing. Use a darker pencil (say 3B pencil) to do some fine tuning.
Alternatively, without using carbon paper, you can flip over your traced figure paper. By retracing the outlines of the full body sketch onto the sketch book, you can also achieve the same 'duplicate' body outlined with head, body, feet etc. Use a darker pencil (say 3B pencil)to do some fine tuning.

Add colors, shading depth, folds, assessories to the fashion sketch

Add patterns,assessories to the final fashion sketch

Always remember, making sketches is a prerequisite for the fashion designers to market their ideas and designs. In the highly competitive fashion industry, fashion designers must have their own style and originality. And the fashion designers should also consider whether the collection you want to showcase has a market. Because, at the end of the day, the consumers are the ones who will buy your final apparels.

So a fashion designer must also have the target people in mind when they do the sketch.

Step 1
Practice sketching fabric in still-lifes. Good fashion sketches capture the movement and drape of the fabric on the body, and even though it may seem tedious, taking a hint from the old masters of drawing is invaluable. Try arranging cloth in different ways on a tabletop and become practiced at drawing the folds and contours.

Step 2
Study the way clothes are constructed. Sewing patterns contain two types of illustrations---a depiction of the way the completed garment will look and a flat, two-dimensional schematic of each piece with details on its construction. If you understand the different components that go into construction of a button-up shirt, for example, you'll be able to better visualize how to sketch it.

Step 3
Look at fashion magazines. There's no better education for the multitude of ways that clothes can be designed and worn than looking at what is going on in the world of fashion. Also, for beginners, tracing body and garment shapes from magazine photos is a common way to build sketching confidence.

Step 4
Prepare to make your first sketch. Find a photo of a garment similar to the one you would like to draw. Trace the outline of the body and garment onto a piece of sketch paper. Remove the photo and begin drawing your own design, using your tracing as a foundation. Color and add textures, as well as notes as to the placement of details such as buttons or zippers.

Step 5
Start the schematic version of your sketch. Using a croqui (an illustration of the human body that uses standard proportions upon which fashion illustrators sketch the schmatic construction of clothes), try redrawing your design You can find sources for free croqui templates and information on how to turn these croqui drawings into "pattern" pieces in the Resources section below.

Step 6
Collect photos of people in different poses. You can get these from magazines or the Internet. You can use these figures to expand your sketching skills beyond tracing--slide one of theese photos or illustrations under blank sheets of sketch paper and sketch your fashion ideas on top of the figure. This will also get you familiar with drawing for different body types and seeing how your fashion ideas would look from different angles.

Step 7
Practice! Fashion sketching takes time and experimentation. Feel free repeating steps 4 through 6 until you feel confident.

Here are some ideas

.... about how to get the most attention for your efforts.

1. TWO WAYS TO MAKE A POSTER ARE TO

have someone else do it, or

A professional illustrator will ask you about all the items in this presentation so they may not save you time if it is the decision making that is slowing you down! Although they will save you time in the execution of the work, you are the final arbiter of the quality and content of the poster.

make your own.

Designing the poster panels deserves consideration.Most posters are most quickly made using some kind of computer software. A word processing program plus a few graphics packages (e.g. Microsoft Powerpoint, Macromedia Freehand, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe PageMaker) are important tools. Of these, Powerpoint has the least sophisticated graphics options. If you have not tried computer graphics or are just starting out, find someone whose poster you like and ask them what they use and if they like it.

2. CHOOSING BETWEEN TWO POPULAR FORMATS:

a large format poster or

These are printed as a single large sheet.

a multiple panel poster.

These are composed of printed individually elements, predominantly 8.5X11 inches each, that get assembled into a poster on site.

The style you chose is a matter of cost and personal taste. What are the tradeoffs? Large format posters require access to a large format printer (other computer-based copying companies have these) and the latter can be done largely with tools in your office or lab. Both formats are portable although large format posters are awkward to carry without a good carrier tube with a shoulder strap. Both are affordable ($0.5 to 1.0 per inch versus about $50 for a multiple panel poster). In contrast to the multiple panel poster, you must reprint the whole large format poster if 1) the data change at the last minute or 2) the colors on printing turn out to be really ugly or 3) you spill a liquid on it (unless laminated they run badly if they get wet). If any of these factors are at issue, you may wish to consider a multiple panel poster: it is easy to reprint individual elements without having to make the whole thing over again. Although there is no question that it is easier to mount the large format poster once on site - 4 tacks and you are done - there is no way to rearrange the panels within your large format poster once it is printed. If you are going to two meetings and need a different sized poster for each, then you might consider a large format poster instead since unless you omit panels or change the spacing between them, the multiple panel poster is somewhat harder to change in size.


3. TO BEGIN:

decide what the main message is,

Keep it short and sweet and make this your title! Use the active voice (i.e., avoid "ing" on the ends of verbs) and avoid the verb "to be" whenever possible.

measure the space you have,

Regardless of poster format, lay out the space physically as well as on paper to double-check yourself. If you can, make the poster flexible enough to change the size by adding or omitting panels or elements. This flexibility is handy if you are going to more than one meeting, if the poster boards are not exactly the size advertised, if the meetings have different in size requirements for posters, or if you wish to update your data between meetings.

lay out your panels crudely,

Before you actually spend time making the final panels of the poster, take pieces of paper that are about the right size and see if you can actually make it all fit. This will save you a lot of time in the long run.

ELIMINATE all extraneous material,

Given that the average poster gazer spends less than 10 minutes on your work and you have 11 seconds to trap your subject before they move on, only show data that adds to your central message. You do need a Title, Authors, Introduction, Results, and Conclusions. Some meetings require you to include the abstract also. Usually, omitting Materials & Methods is fine: most people will not read them anyway. If you wish, have a methods handout for those who ask for it. Although sometimes the method is essential to understand the data or the validity of the conclusions, most of the time, a short version here will do as well.

Consider making handouts that include the full poster in miniature on one face and then all that other material on the opposite side. Methods, references, detailed contact information, advertisement for a postdoctoral fellowship (to ask for or to give out one), or extra data are all good options for the flip side. Take from 50-400 handouts per a meeting and leave them as a stack under your poster. This is a great way to gauge the success of your poster.

begin to make individual components of the poster!

4. POSTER LAYOUT HAS TWO ASPECTS:

Consider how to arrange poster elements and text within each panel and

People approach new information in a known spatial sequence: we track vertically from center to top to bottom, and horizontally from left to right. This means that you should put the most important message in the center top position followed by the top left, top right, bottom left, and finish in the bottom right corner. That's why the poster title should be your punch line because, in that position, the title and your name will be seen in the first 11 seconds that a person looks at the poster.

The overall format of a good poster is dictated by the way we assimilate information. For example, you would never put your first panel on the right and ask your reader to proceed to the left because we are not trained to read that way. Newspaper format, two vertical columns that are arranged so that you read the left one first and then the right one, is highly "readable" since the reader does not spend time figuring out which panel to read next. A left to right horizontal rows arrangement works too but is not as common. You can easily walk around any meeting and find lots of variation.

Space is important in a poster: without it, your reader has no visual pauses to think. Books leave space on the margins and by having chapters. Posters that are crammed with information are tiring to read and are seldom read in their entirety. Omit all extraneous text or visual distractions, including borders between related data and text, so the reader can assimilate your ideas easily.

Size of poster elements or the fonts in each panel can serve to emphasize the main points. For example, making your subheadings in all capitals and two font sizes larger than the rest of the text on the same panel will draw the reader's eye first, and so be emphasized. The use of multiple fonts in a poster can distract from the science.

You will lend the most power to your words if you spatially arrange the text in each panel of your poster following the same principles used for the poster layout as a whole. A common street sign reads "go children slow". Because the word "children" is in capitals larger than the other words and is in the center of the image, you read "Children, go slow" even though that is not the actual spatial arrangement of the words in the sign. This sign is powerful, succinct, and highly readable.

practical matters.

It takes time to make a great poster. Regardless of format, allow 2 to 3 days to assemble all the bits and pieces, such as photos etc, and then 1.5 to 2 days to assemble the poster. That last bit of data you rush around to get at the last moment will go completely unnoticed if your poster is messy and disorganized i.e. illegible and unreadable.


Portability is worth considering. The poster should fit into carry-on luggage so that even if your suitcase is lost, you can still present your work. If all your poster panels can stack and be packaged together, great. If you opt for a large format roll-up poster, do buy/make a nice tube with a shoulder strap to transport it in and to keep it dry.

A great poster is easy to mount on site and can be flexible in assembly in case the poster space is smaller than advertised. If you cannot mount the poster by yourself or the poster is awkward for one person to mount on the materials provided, be sure you arrange for someone to help you. For example, when the poster boards are wobbly it can be hard to push the pins in without pushing over the poster board! Often the person next to you will be glad to exchange labor. If you opted for a multiple panel poster then a map of how the poster should look when it is done is handy when you need to work quickly, are distracted or nervous.

5. FONT CHOICES GIVE YOU OPTIONS WITH

size,

Font sizes need to be big to be effective. A good rule is to stand back from your own poster: if you, who are familiar with the material, cannot easily read it from 6 feet away, your audience will certainly not be able to.

highlighting with text format,

Indents set text apart and are great for short lists.

Justification of text in the center of a line will draw attention.

basic font choice and highlighting with font variations.

Choose a basic font whose "e's" and "a's" stay open at all sizes and that is supported by your printer. Bookman, Helvetica, and Geneva are examples of good choices. The choice of serif or sans serif is largely a personal matter. If your font is not supported by the printer, you will get ragged edges on all your letters.

Highlighting a few parts of the text is done easily with:

/ capitals as in the "go CHILDREN slow" or the "Stop,..." street signs,?/ Zapf dingbats instead of numbers for simple lists of things,?/ wrapped letters that arc around an image,?/ switch styles (bold, italics, shadow, etc.).

6. COLOR

Ways to add color,

A color border or background is a fast way to add color to a poster. Choosing colors that do not compete with your data, that look good once printed, and that color blind people can see is wise.

If you opted for a multiple panel poster, then LaserFoil allows you to make your printed words from a laser printer come out in color. Available in mat, glossy, and "prism" finishes, LaserFoil can add pizzaz to a poster. Colored graphic tape or dots, and white arrows (Chartpak, Lettraset) can be quickly applied to poster elements to draw attention to the elements you wish to.

contrast,

Proper contrast will reduce eye strain and make the poster more legible and interesting visually. Again, be careful that the color does not outclass the visual impact of your data: too much contrast is hard on the eyes and can distract the reader from your data.

Adding light color backgrounds to your figures can make the poster attractive. For example, using white lettering and lines on a blue background can make your poster eyecatching. Like a painting, poster elements can also be double matted physically or digitally to add interesting contrast.

fidelity of reproduction,

Images do not stay the same between one medium and the next and this is especially true for color quality. Although it is efficient to use computer-generated color images as poster elements, you always lose some fidelity in doing so. For example, the edges of letters will blur slightly in going from a slide to a printed image or vice versa. Also, the colors you see on your monitor are usually not what comes out on the slide or on the final, printed poster element. You can "adjust" your monitor and check professional color books that show what the slide film recorders will print. However, it will not be an exact match from screen to print no matter what you do. Automatic film recorders used to print computer images also vary from model to model and from run to run just like photographic printing machines do. To keep the color "true", request custom printing. A good rule of thumb is to switch media as few times as possible

Do get a small print of your large format poster before you print the big one to check for all these color issues.

7. CHECK TWO THINGS BEFORE YOU “ASSEMBLE” THE POSTER

have others review it for you,

Have some people look over your poster before you call it “done”. If they are confused, it is far better to fix it now than to lose people at the meeting. Pay particular attention to things that may not be necessary: eliminate everything that you can!

do take a moment for ethical considerations.

Do follow basic rules for authorship, citation of the literature, etc. because the consequences for ethical breaches are quite serious (TBI, ASPB policies). For example, images can be touched up with Adobe Photoshop. State exactly what modifications have been made to the images - it is very easy to alter your own data (falsification) and you must be able to defend any and all of your changes. Do credit others for their work (plagiarism).

8. FINISHING YOUR POSTER

It is trivial to assemble a poster once you have decided on and made all the individual elements. Be sure to give yourself enough time to finish the poster, say 1-3 days, so you have time to reprint it if necessary to revise color or content, or to simply get into the printing queue!

I always take my own tacks: I prefer the stainless steel 1/2" ones so I know the poster will stay up for the whole meeting and that I can actually get them into the poster board.

Good luck and have fun making your poster and showing it. Displaying your finished work is a big accomplishment so take time to enjoy it and your interactions at the meeting. Remember that enthusiasm is contagious. Be on time and enthusiastic about showing your poster to colleagues at the assigned times during the meeting - it is a fine opportunity to advertise yourself and your work!

Drawing Idea List Of Sketchbook

1. Draw the inside of your closet
2. Draw the contents of your desk drawer
3. Just before your room is cleaned, draw it
4. Draw the contents of your refrigerator
5. Draw the contents of your medicine chest
6. Draw the contents of your garage
7. Draw your dad’s work table after he’s worked on a project
8. Before the dishes are washed, draw them
9. Draw a pile of laundry waiting to get washed
10. If you have an octopus for a furnace, draw it
11. Draw a pile of bicycles on the sidewalk
12. Draw the guests at your parents dinner party
13. Draw yourself in a mirror
14. Draw your brother/sister practicing his/her instrument
15. Draw your friend shooting hoops in the driveway
16. Draw yourself painting your toenails (if you do)
17. Draw your hand in multiple positions
18. Draw your hand holding a variety of objects
19. Draw your hand against other parts of anatomy (chin, knee, etc.)
20. Draw your bird, cat, dog, fish, snake, leopard, lobster doing something strange
21. Draw what is in the rear-view mirror of your car
22. Draw a dead bird in a beautiful landscape
23. Draw a flower growing next to a turned over garbage can
24. Draw raw chicken parts; cooked parts; after eaten parts
25. Draw a piece of cake and make it look delicious
26. Draw 2 eggs in the shell, fried, over easy
27. Draw one popcorn kernel, draw a bag of popcorn
28. Draw a raw steak, steak bones
29. Draw moving water, still water
30. Draw a wet object, make it look wet
31. Draw an object when looking through a tube (microscope)
32. Draw an object seen through glass (how does the glass make a difference)
33. Draw something floating
34. Draw a dark object in a light environment
35. Draw a dark object in a dark environment
36. Draw the contents of a light room when sitting in a dark room
37. Climb a ladder, draw what is below
38. Climb a mountain (hill), draw what is below
39. Lie on the floor, draw what is eye level
40. Dig a hole, put a whole in the hole, draw what is in the hole
41. Fill in the hole, cover up the whole, draw the covered hole
42. Find a quiet place in a crowd, draw the crowd
43. Find a quiet place, draw the quiet
44. Find a noisy place, draw noise
45. On the school bus, draw your friends on the way to school, draw your friends on the way home. Is there a difference?
46. Shine a light through an open weave structure, draw the cast shadow
47. Draw an object that is lit by the light coming through mini blinds
48. Draw a portrait that is lit by the light coming through mini blinds
49. Draw an object that is lit by a candle
50. Draw a figure that is lit by a candle
51. Draw your sister/brother by the light cast by the TV or computer screen
52. Draw your father/mother by the light cast from the TV or computer screen
53. Draw an apple, pear, banana
54. Draw an apple, banana, and a wrench
55. Draw a scoop of ice cream and an old shoe
56. Draw an apple, a vacation photo, a hammer and a gold fish
57. Tighten a C clamp on a banana, draw it
58. Draw an apple, pear, and a banana that is tightly wrapped in aluminum foil, plastic wrap
59. Draw an apple, pear, and a banana that is tightly wrapped in string
60. Copy the Mona Lisa
61. Rearrange the Mona Lisa to suit yourself
62. Rearrange the Mona Lisa to suit your art teacher
63. Put Mona Lisa in a contemporary setting
64. Copy any work of art older than you
65. Remake the above work of art in your way
66. Make a drawing that says something about the environment
67. Make a drawing that says something about the world situation
68. Make a drawing that is pure propaganda about any issue you feel strongly about
69. Make a drawing that is totally truthful
70. Make a drawing that lies all over the place
71. Make a drawing that is completely impossible
72. Draw a portrait inside out
73. Draw an apple, pear, banana inside out
74. Look out your bedroom window, draw what you see
75. Look out your bedroom window, draw what you would like to see
76. Draw an apple, pear, banana that is wrapped in an apple, pear, banana
77. Draw a form fitting case made of steel that would fit an apple, pear, banana
78. Draw two squares of a sidewalk and make it look interesting
79. Make a detailed drawing of five square inches of grass
80. Make a detailed drawing of five square inches of hair
81. Make a detailed drawing of five square inches of a feather
82. Make a detailed drawing of five square inches of a dollar bill
83. Make a drawing of grass, hair, feathers and a dollar bill
84. Draw an insect under a magnifying glass
85. Rearrange, redesign the insect
86. Change the size relationship (scale) of the insect and something else (i.e. building, ships, cars)
87. Draw a portrait of your best friend as an insect
88. Draw a self portrait of you as a beautiful insect
89. Draw a family insect portrait
90. Copy Copley’s Watson and Shark
91. Change the figures depicted in the Copley painting to people you know
92. Rearrange Copley’s painting Watson and the Shark to work on dry land
93. Crumple a magazine ad, draw it
94. Crumple a photograph, draw it
95. Crumple a drawing, redraw it crumpled
96. Cut out a photo into small pieces, rearrange the photo in some other order, draw it
97. Make a drawing that looks sticky
98. Make a drawing that oozes
99. Make a drawing of a mechanical structure or machine
100. Make a drawing of a machine that oozes
101. Make a drawing of a machine so that the parts are sticky
102. Make a drawing of a fine mechanical instrument (camera) under water (use your imagination)
103. Draw the Brooklyn Bridge
104. Draw the Brooklyn Bridge over a small body of water i.e. bathtub
105. Draw a form fitted case made of wood and lined with velvet for an apple, pear, and a banana
106. Draw a chair
107. Draw the concept of the uses of a chair (sitting) without the chair
108. Draw a bed
109. Draw the concept of the uses of a bed without a bed without the bed
110. Make a drawing that illustrates the phrase “I have come to a juncture in my life”
111. Make a drawing that illustrates the phrase “There is an insufficiency of intellect”
112. Make a careful drawing that illustrates the word “Haste”
113. Draw the imaginary skeleton of an apple, pear, and banana
114. Draw a monument for a bagel
115. Draw a photograph of an apple, pear, and banana at an angle tilted away from you
116. Draw a portrait of you and your friends as cards; the queen, king, and jack of spades
117. Draw a slice of the best pizza you have ever seen
118. Make a drawing of all your drawing materials
119. Make a detailed drawing of a rock
120. Make a drawing at McDonalds
121. Draw the reflection from light bouncing off a motorcycle
122. Draw your portrait from the reflection of a shiny chrome object i.e. toaster, bowl, spoon
123. Draw the reflection from a body of water
124. Draw the reflection from a store window
125. Draw the reflection of reflection
126. Reflect on your drawing of reflection, draw your retrospection
127. Draw an aerial view of your back yard
128. Draw a transparent object
129. Draw a translucent object
130. Draw a translucent object that is inside a transparent object
131. Draw a translucent apple, pear, and banana
132. Draw a building in which you would like to live
133. Make a drawing using a map of the USA as a motif
134. Make a portrait of yourself as you see yourself in twenty years
135. Make a pastoral drawing
136. Draw life in the city
137. Draw a mysterious doorway or staircase
138. Drape a mysterious object in cloth, draw it
139. Draw a moving object
140. Draw an empty room, make it interesting
141. Draw a woman wearing a big hat
142. Draw a masked man (not a super hero)
143. Draw a sleeping person
144. Draw a flower, make it appear dangerous
145. Draw a person looking out a window
146. Draw a person looking in a window
147. Draw a person reading a letter
148. Draw an apple, pear, and banana in outer space
149. Draw a detailed drawing of a nut and bolt
150. Draw a vase and a beautiful arrangement of flowers
151. Draw a picture of the inside of your stomach and the food in it after a big meal
152. Draw your idea of Paradise
153. Draw a picture of someone you would like to kiss (your boyfriend/girlfriend, a baby, your cat, etc.)
154. If animals could draw, what would their artwork look like? Draw their artwork.
155. Why are people afraid to visit cemeteries at night? Draw it.
156. Draw a necktie and design an interesting pattern on it.
157. Draw a medal for yourself. It must be designed for the thing you do best.
158. Draw a city on another planet.
159. You are a toy designer; draw your new toy.
160. Draw a logo for a t.v. show.
161. Draw a picture of yourself the way you will look 20 years from now.
162. Draw a picture of the perfect garden for your house.
163. Draw a scene from your early childhood.
164. Draw a parade.
165. Draw your greatest fear.
166. Draw a picture of where you would like to fly to.
167. Draw a poster to advertise your favorite movie.
168. Draw a construction site.
169. Draw your view from an airplane window.
170. Draw a scene on another planet and include another kind of being.
171. Draw a picture of an ideal wedding ceremony.
172. Draw a picture of someone you would like to visit.
173. Draw what you think a garden would look like from the view of an insect.
174. Draw a sandcastle.
175. Draw a house built underground.
176. Draw what a spaceship commander would see on his video screen.
177. Draw a view under a magnifying glass (include the magnifying glass).
178. Draw the boat you would like to travel in around the world.
179. Draw a scientist's top secret project.
180. Draw a new piece of sculpture for the museum's sculpture garden.
181. Draw a picture of yourself if you grew flowers instead of hair.
182. An imaginative architect has changed the look of the skyline with an innovative new building; draw the building.
183. Draw a modern house which would still look good in a neighborhood with older houses.
184. Draw an idea that came into your head by thinking of food.
185. Draw an idea that came into your head through your ears.
186. Draw an idea that came into your head through your fingers.
187. Draw an idea that came into your head through your feet.
188. Take any one of the ideas you have already drawn and revise it - - redesign it.
189. Write a large number in the middle of a page. Turn it into a person/animal.
190. Make a design using your address.
191. Combine a plant and an animal to create a new life form.
192. Add a machine to a shape (square, circle, etc.) to create a new invention.
193. Draw a picture. Cut your pictures into squares. Paste the squares into a new design.
194. Draw a picture. Fold your picture into a fan. Cut little shapes out of the fan (like cutting snowflakes). Open the picture up and glue onto a second sheet.
195. Illustrate a famous saying/quotation.
196. Draw yourself in a mood.
197. Draw things that make noise and illustrate the sound.
198. Draw things that float.
199. Draw things with a flavor.
200. Draw your greatest fear.
201. Draw things that close.
202. Illustrate "the way things were".
203. Draw the world from the point of view of a frog/toad.
204. Draw your own game board.
205. Draw a "how to" poster.
206. Draw yourself with wings.
207. Draw things that come from eggs.
208. Draw a comic strip with your own characters.
209. Draw your dream room.
210. Design an advertisement for yourself.
211. Design a new license plate for Kansas.
212. Illustrate words such as up, upside down, apart, crazy, sane...
213. Design new methods of transportation.
214. Design an ad for your favorite music.
215. Design a new map.
216. Create an imaginary alphabet.
217. Draw things that come from eggs.
218. Design a costume for 2090.
219. Draw old-fashioned puppets.
220. Illustrate: If you were the tallest person in the world.
221. Draw a view of the jungle.
222. Draw a lost dog.
223. Draw the trail of an imaginary insect.
224. Draw how you would be if you were the last person on earth.
225. Design a new CD cover.
226. Draw yourself dressed in clothing from the 1970's.
227. Draw your best friend.
228. Draw your birthday wish list.
229. Draw an illuminated letter for your best friend.
230. Draw yourself in the style of your favorite artist.
231. Draw your "dream car".
232. Draw a "fantasy" house.
233. Draw a bubble.
234. Draw a leaf.
235. Draw the sky.
236. Draw a mirror and all it reflects.
237. Draw your favorite animal with a human face.
238. Draw yourself as a robot.
239. Draw your favorite song.
240. Draw your favorite photgraph.
241. Draw your favorite person (from life).

found this entry:
http://danidraws.com/2007/09/19/make-your-own-sketchbook/
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Sketchbook
http://www.trumpetvine.com/sketchblog/moleskine-reloaded/