DIY – Teresa Dang

How to draw buildings, what I have learnt so far….

Drawing the same thing over and over will lead you to develop your own process…

I spent a whole year practising how to draw buildings.

All together I drew 18 buildings between the 3rd of January 2021 – 22nd November 2021.

For a long time now I have aspired to fill up a journal with one subject matter. I am so proud of myself as I usually find it difficult to follow through on a self assigned project like this. I have a tendency to get distracted by something new and shiny. As you look at these drawings you will notice that staggered dates throughout the year.

Art takes patience, persistence and deliberation.

I have reflected on the process and there are notes beside the drawings; things I have learnt, process notes and what I liked about the drawing.

What you will need:

Printer paper cut to 26 x 13cam folded in half and secured with three staples on the fold. ( All together you will need 10 pieces of paper.)
Lead pencil
1 coloured pencil
Photos of buildings

Overall, my reflections on this project are below:

Thumb nailing is worth spending time on – it’s a quick smaller drawing that helps you plan out the larger piece.
I love drawing sketchy trees.
Simplifying details can make a drawing look more fun and cohesive – not all details need to be accurate.
Drawing the same thing over and over will lead you to develop your own process… for me the process went 1. lightly blocking out shapes 2. Blocking out darkest sports 3. Add line 4 Add smaller shapes and objects.
Keep the sketch book on your desk, when you have a free 30 minutes draw!

Some notes on the paper/journal I used:

The printer paper is a bit slippery for coloured pencil
Good practise to get a sense of composition
Okay to write on
Suitable for graphite pencil
Use coloured pencils that a softer
Blending is challenging
The values are hard to build up which means the images look flat.
Layering is difficult

Download the full e-book for free below. I hope you learn something.

Purple building drawings_Full scans PDF Download

Thank you and good luck!

Teresa xx

How to take photos of products

Have you been thinking about how to take photos of your art?

Happy new year, it’s 2022, I hope you guys had a good start to the year!!!

Have you been thinking about how to take photos of your art?

I have really enjoyed exploring about how artists display and style their art work. I have found some artists who are great at visually marketing their art, taking photos of the their art and displaying it in a way that hooks you in.

I have been thinking about how I could set up a place where I could take photographs to practice my photography skills. Below you can see I have simply blu-tacked the end of my Ikea drawing roll to my Imac and left the body on the table.

I love this current set up because it is just so simple and easy to set up and pack away. The natural light and the position that I have place this set up is just perfect in the way of the shadow it creates with the natural light.

What you will need:

MALA Ikea drawing paper roll $9

Blue-tack $2

The camera I am using is the D90 with a Nikkon Lens, 35-80 mm (zoom) 1:4-5.6D (aperture range). This lens can only function with f-stop 22 ring limiting aperture range. It’s not the best in low light but can manage in the shade but will need to be adjusted to aperture F5.6. I used 5260K WB (White Balance) on the above photographs and find that this gives me a neutral colour. At shutter speed 6 it will not need a tripod. I like this lens, it is versatile and great for portrait.

I plan on setting up this table to do some speed painting or art making videos. Wish me luck!

Have a lovely week 🙂

Teresa x

How to create your personalised CARDS

Hello there,

Today I want to show you how to make a simple print out card that you can do in seconds. I am a do-it-at-the-last-minute-but-make-it-pretty kind of person. I often write up cards and make them the night of orrrr the day of so that I can add a personalised touch to the gifts I give.

Microsoft word has helpful ready made card templates that you can use, alternatively you can also use a blank page and section the page in half.

1. Place the image or drawing upside down on the top left hand corner

2. The message on the bottom write hand.

See example below:

I sometimes like to sketch so luckily I have a bank of drawings I can snip and paste onto a word document.

Mac shortcut keys combo is command + control + shift + 4 & use the screen print button on Windows

Have a lovely day.

Teresa x

DIY Coloured pencil draw to scan e-stickers

Make e-stickers out of scanned drawings… grab a pencil and draw a picture of ANYTHING.

Steps

Draw
Scan
Crop

In photoshop

Use polygonal lasso to trace around your drawing.

Right click > Layer via Cut

Delete original layer

Create a new layer > Drag and place it under the original layer

Trace around the image again using the polygonal lasso leaving a boarder

Finally, Paint Bucket Tool what ever colour your heart desires. I like the pretty pastel colours!

To make it look more like a sticker make sure the surrounding colour is pure white. This way it looks like you’ve just peeled off a fresh sticker and stuck it on your website.

You can use them to decorate your blog and other online social media accounts.

DIY E-Sticker Cheat Sheet Download

Good luck. Teresa x

DIY – coloured pencil doodles as wrapping paper design

It’s actually really easy to make on your own. All you need is….

some of your favourite coloured pencils
the ability to draw some dots and lines…
printer paper/ or any paper really

I used this piece to wrap up a small jar of honey for a friend’s birthday present.

Hope you enjoy. Teresa x

How to create a Travel Journal

Create a unique travel journal that reflects who you are and the memories you’ve created on a trip overseas, interstate or even a little adventure to the park. I share my thinking and planning process here.

The first thing to consider when at the beginning of creating is to think about intention. Doing this helps you narrow down a few key elements you want to capture in your little journal. Ask your self… why do I want to create this travel journal? So for example you could start off with the intention;

“I want to create a travel journal to help me to remember all the places, sights and people whom I traveled with….”

From this statement of intention, you could break down the key elements or prompts to help keep your journal consistent.

Here are some prompt that may align to the statement above;

photo or drawing of buildings, iconic places and restaurants
a note about what the place felt like
a story about a memorable interaction
list of those who were on the trip with you

Create a little prompt list at the front of your journal, it can be on a sticky note which is transferable and removable when you finish your travel journal.

Second thing is to find inspiration. You want to have a theme that pulls all the pages together in your journal. Look through magazines, blogs, Instagram, Pinterest to find layouts and themes that you think suits what you are trying to achieve. Save these images for reference and refer back to them when you’ve hit a wall with ideas. Make sure they are easy to find. There are some really cool artists out there!

Make sure you look through your cupboards and draws before you buy anything fancy to use on this project. You will need;

A Blank Journal
A variety of pens
Photos or drawings
Creativity
Bits and bobs from travels

Limits or rules help with narrowing down what you want to add to your page. It seems counter intuitive but sometimes having a strict rule or limitation through using a theme helps you to become more creative. For example, on this page I will have the following key elements:

Hand lettered heading in bold black colour
An illustration of a map
Important dates
Photo/ Drawing
Bullet points key words such as destinations, people in dot points on one page

It’s great to have a prompt list to refer back to when you’ve run out of organic ideas. Check out this article on Medium that talks about this concept of restrictions and creativity.

A year ago I moved to London for work and travel. I found myself traveling to all sorts of places I didn’t even know the name of before I had arrived in Europe. I really wanted to savour every bit of my experience overseas so meticulously wrote down my thoughts… at the end of the two years I had two full journals and a long notes document on my Iphone that captured all the little things I thought and felt whilst I was overseas. Moments of frustration and moments of absolute delight all captured on my phone. In addition to this I took photos on a daily basis. It felt like the first and the last time every time I saw something beautiful.

Let me know how you go, you can contact me via my instagram @365daysofscribbles.