Wood Working Projects You Can Do At Home

By Owen Jones

More and more individuals are turning to making household items in their spare time as a hobby. Some people make rugs or throws, others make pots and others are turning to woodwork. Wood working is a very satisfying hobby or craft. It is also therapeutic after having done your day job and when you have finished, you have something useful which you can be proud of. You could even sell it. Both men and women are turning to wood working projects for relaxation.

The majority of these new weekend carpenters are not professional trades people and so they need help with a wood working project like a bench or a cabinet. This help comes most often in the guise of wood working plans. A good set of wood working plans will give a description of what to do first, an exploded diagram of the item to be made and all the necessary dimensions. These details will really help the wood working project to go smoothly.

The first thing to do, clearly, is decide what you want to make. If this is your first wood working project, do not be over bold. Do not leap right in there and choose an ornate display cabinet. The best objects to start with are a bench, a dog kennel or even a bird table. Once you have finished this task, you can move on to something more difficult with increased confidence.

So, having made up your mind on a wood working project, you should look for a set of plans for that article. You will find woodworking plans in DIY shops, hobbyists, craft shops and on the Internet. If you look online, look for a specialist in woodworking plans so that you know that they will be complete in every detail

The next task is to totally familiarize yourself with the plan and the project. You will need to come to a decision which timber you want to use and how many lengths of the different sizes you will require. This information could be given on the plan. You should order or buy in everything you need (except glass) right from the beginning. You will also require glues, nails, screws and tools. Check which tools you will want for the job and buy or borrow them. This information may be given on the wood working project's plans too.

When you have assembled your materials and your tools, you should make sure that the tools are in good condition. The saws and chisels must be sharp. Put a new blade in your craft knife and make sure your tape runs smoothly and that the end has not broken off. It is very annoying, once you get going, to have to stop and sort your tools out, just when you want to use one of them.

Finally you can begin. It is a fantastic feeling. Try to plan your time too. Neighbours are not going to want to hear your power saw going after dark, so try to get that sort of thing done in daylight hours, you can assemble the parts quite quietly later on in the evening. - 32367

About the Author:

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with a favourite subject, bench woodworking plans. If you are interested in Desk Woodworking Plans, please click through to our site, where we have 14,000 wood working plans.

Art Pencil Drawings -- Adding Watercolor & Ink to Your Art

By Lori Lee

Art pencil drawings can be made even more fun by adding pen, ink and watercolor to them. This is an art form learned from Claudia Nice. Claudia is a Pacific Northwest artist who has her studio in Oregon. She has many animals on her place and when you attend a workshop with her, you get to see exactly how to draw the fur on a horse by looking at a real, live horse!

The first step to start your art pencil drawing is to choose something to draw. A subject or scene that's easy, such as a flower, is a good choice if you are new to drawing. You will first want to work up a pencil drawing sketch and you can use art pencils or a regular pencil to do this.

"But I can draw!" is a common thing to say right about now. Please keep reading because everyone can draw! You may want to start out easy by tracing a photo or picture from a book onto your piece of paper. It doesn't have to be anything fancy and certainly not perfect. You can look at a photo or picture and sketch it out while looking at it. And you can also create abstract art by drawing some shapes on a piece of paper -- anything that you feel like.

Supplies that are essential to this first drawing are:

A pencil, Ink pens -- the ink must be waterproof, smudge proof and archival ink, Watercolor paper -- 130 pound is good for this type of work, A picture or idea of what you will draw, Watercolor sticks, pencils or watercolor pencils

Once the pencils drawing is complete, the ink work is added next. This is simple to do by just tracing over the pencil lines you've just drawn with the ink pen. Adding depth and dimension using extra ink in areas to darken can be done by looking at your original photo or picture and adding shading where needed. If you're drawing an animal, you can add lines or strokes of ink to darken the fur around the eyes and ears.

Next, you will choose areas to add watercolor to. Use the watercolor pencils, sticks or paint with the brush and a little water. Be careful not to over saturate your paper by adding too much water as you don't want all the colors to run together -- or maybe you do! There's no such thing as bad art and you don't have to show your work to anyone if you don't want to! So have fun and experiment. - 32367

About the Author:

Creating art is a great way to relieve stress and have some fun. You can find informative, straight forward ways to create art by visiting http://www.centerforspiritualarts.com. Have confidence that you can create artwork -- the inner expression of the self.

Freelance Illustration Artist Budapest- Ildiko Szegszardy

By Kerisha Collins

Graphic Design, Nature and Traditional Illustration are the skills produced by Ildiko Szegszardy. Full-time freelancing is what Ildiko is involved in, after graduating in 1989 from the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest, with a BFA in Graphic Design.

With over 20 years of experience in this field, Ildiko is now able to create a wide range of illustrations. She has been proven to be one of the best when it comes to designing with digital enhancements. Ildiko has also been able to design the graphics for non-fiction and educational books, large posters, wrapping paper and many more prints.

Winning an award for work with Bates Saatchi & Saatchi, a significant prize with her graphics on it and an international exhibition of advertisement in London in 1991.

Designing from illustration-based context, Ildiko is able to present pieces of art from plants, portrait paintings and fruit to general drawings and naturalistic animal. However, she has made the preference of traditional illustration, which shows where her original talent lies. She can demonstrate designs with the use of a ballpoint pen, pencil, ink, coloured pencil's and watercolours.

Ildiko's work is an amazing range of high-class illustrated quality. There is no denying that these pieces are some of the best out there, with the range of skills displayed in each one. From non-coloured portraits to fields of green, yellows and blue, she can pull off the traditional art with her own finishing touches.

Ildiko's graphics are exclusively handmade, really tasteful works of art of high standard. She work fast, accurately and is very reliable when it comes to competing a project. A client list shows that Ildiko can gain full-proof references by working for the best Hungarian publishing houses and advertising agencies. Besides that, she has worked for several famous international advertising agencies such as GGK Direct, DDB Needham, McCann-Erickson and the UK Anness Publishing.

For more information and images please take a more, in-depth look at Ildiko Szegszardy's portfolio, via the website. - 32367

About the Author:

Find new ways to become more efficient illustrators and find a host of top professionals by viewing their illustration.

Learn A New Hobby With Easy Cartoons To Draw

By Trevor Johnson

What do you do when you have some time, what something to do and need to relieve a case of boredom? Think about doing a picture with some easy cartoons to draw.

Cartoons can be very simple to draw so they are a great way to begin. You can cartoon any object you want. A tree or a house have basic, easy shapes such as rectangles, triangles and circles. Start easy and build from there.

Your imagination is the only limit you have when drawing cartoons. You can make them as simple or as hard as you want to. You can draw them in pencil and leave them that way, or you can decide to add colors. You can just do one picture or you can make a whole book or cartoon strip. You can draw cartoons for any time of the year - witches for Halloween for example.

Some hobbies can be very expensive, but drawing is cheap! You can begin with just paper, a pencil and pencil sharpener and an eraser. You can always buy more accessories later such as crayons, colored pens or even paints. You don't need to buy a lot of things to being. You can decide when you want to add to your supplies.

Drawing can be done anywhere. You can draw while sitting in a doctor's waiting room or while you are in the airport waiting on a flight. When you are waiting for your food to be brought to you in a restaurant, draw a quick sketch!

You really can not fail when drawing cartoons. There are no rules and your figures can be whatever you want them to be. If you decide that you don't care for the cartoon you just drew, simply begin again!

After some time as passed, you might find that you are good at drawing and want to do more with your skills. There are many jobs that are available to artists, such as drawing the pictures for kids books, illustrating a political cartoon in a magazine or newspaper or maybe even animating a movie or television show. Your only boundaries are the ones you put on yourself! - 32367

About the Author:

Check out more help to draw cartoons with these useful cartoon drawing tips.

Using Shapes to Learn How to Draw Animals

By Charlene Sim

People who are interested in learning how to draw will often start with simple images. Often this leads to the desire to draw animals, even though they are not always easy to draw. Some animals have simple structures and lend themselves well to being drawn, but there is such a wide variety of animals that will be more difficult than others. One way to tackle this is by focusing on creating animals by only using common shapes.

If you portray various animals with basic shapes, like rectangles, triangles, squares or dots, which are all arranged in different ways to produce body parts and features, then you'll have an easier time drawing. This can be good practice at drawing, even though it might seem a bit juvenile, since it offers you an easy technique for assembling assorted sections of varying animals. After some practice, you'll come to understand the shape of each animal that you draw, and how each segment is put together.

Using shapes when sketching animals won't create true pictures, however it will provide you with a result not unlike animation characters or cartoons. If this is your field of interest, then that's all that you require. Artist Ed Emberley has published several books that demonstrate many different ways to draw common animals utilizing only a handful of different shapes. His books are essentially targeted to drawing for children, however they can assist a serious beginner to gain a structural understanding of drawing.

The next step would be to merge the shapes together to draw animals that have more realism to their look. Just like an object that you draw with a pencil and then erase to remove overlapping lines, you can start with shapes joined together, and then erase the connecting lines so that each body part flows more smoothly into the other. With drawing practice you can eliminate the boxed look and hard angles to create animals that are a good step closer to looking real.

So if you want to draw animals but don't have any inherited skills, then a good way to learn how to draw is by starting with shapes. Look at different animals and decide how you want to put them together using only a stock supply of shapes. Once you've mastered that particular technique, you can use the skills you've developed to more comfortably take the next step. If you're serious about wanting to learn to draw and paint, then this is an easy and fun way to begin. - 32367

About the Author:

Most people go through stages as they learn how to draw. At the beginning you might just be drawing stick figures, but by taking drawing lessons anyone can become more proficient and progress from there.

Cartoon Me - Learn To Draw A Cartoon Me Avatar Face In Minutes!

By Carmeline Calvistacro

One of the biggest challenges for even the most talented artists is learning how to draw a cartoon me avatar face quickly and accurately. First you need to choose the person you want to draw. Second you need to determine what kind of tools and colors you will use to draw the person.

As a child, most people learn to draw in kindergarten using big fat markers and a large variety of crayons. If you want to take your art skills to the next level you just need to invest in some colored pencils. Do not worry if your drawings are not great because with a little practice you will be fine.

When you first try drawing a cartoon me face avatar, you will realize that it is not at all as easy as it looks. People do not realize that artists literally spend hours drawing their cartoons to bring them to life on a piece of paper.

If you are good at using paint, you can actually try drawing a cartoon me avatar face. However, you are bound to make a mess and also risk all of the colors blending together too much.

Drawing with a colored pencil creates sharper and more detailed images than with crayons. You do not need to spend a lot of money on colored pencils because they are literally a dime a dozen sometimes.

If you have ever played hopscotch, you also know that using sidewalk chalk to draw a cartoon me avatar face outside is another option. Just make sure you cover your drawing in case it rains or snows.

Spray paint on cement is another way artists express themselves. However, it is not the best idea because it is not always legal and sometime is used by gang members in the ghetto.

Just make sure you go to a professional art school if you really have your heart set on becoming an artist and you like to draw a cartoon me avatar face. You will be far ahead of traditional art students in smaller schools. - 32367

About the Author:

I actually came across the secret to creatingan amazingly accurate cartoon me avatar face in just a few minutes. But no way would I reveal it to everyone on a public site like this. If you want to find out this new secret just click the cartoon me avatar face link.

The Art Work Of Denise Biondo

By Kerisha Collins

Denise Biondo currently residing in Buffalo, New York is a testimony of what hard work can achieve. She has shown endless dedication to always better herself and maximise her talents in animation and web design which initially only occupied her spare time.

The main creative focus of Denise Biondo lies within flash animation, web design and graphic design. As these are her main disciplines she has made it a priority in becoming a master of these fields. They are all inter-related, so enabling her to provide a more comprehensive service to her clients.

Simple, yet extremely sophisticated is the only way to describe the flourishing work of Denise Biondo. Her work has a calm and peaceful aura to it, and she uses very few colours, but the emotion of what she creates is extremely powerful.

The personality type of Denise is what causes her work to vary so much, never knowing what she may come up with next. Her desire, to live, learn, expand and grow is shown throughout her career as a freelancer, as she has been able the mature into the wonderful designer we see before us. Rather than conform to what society expects, Denise has taken it upon her self to make her work unique, and to create a style of her own, that she can be proud of.

Denise started out her creative life like many others, just for the fun of it, but as time progressed and her skills developed she was able to make a living from something that gave her so much joy.

Denise's character is what sets her apart amongst many in the industry, not being afraid to incorporate her own personality and interest from her personal life into what she does for a living. This enables her work to remain fresh, and having faith in her own stylised art form keeps her from conforming to contemporary artists of this modern age.

We have much to see from the graphic designer Denise Biondo in the future, and I'm sure we will not be disappointed. - 32367

About the Author:

Think about how you can become more successful illustrators and track down a host of top professionals by viewing their illustration.