Active Fine Art Posts

How To: Paint on plexiglass

Watch this instructional painting video to begin painting on plexiglass. Create some cool effects using spray paint, paint thinner, acrylic paint. Make marks and unique textures using your finger, scratching tools and stencils.

How To: Create a Light Painting Vortex Using a DIY Reusable Steel Wool Cage

There's no shortage of uses for steel wool, but the majority of them tend to be on the pyromaniacal side, like DIY fireworks. This trick by Mike Mikkelson is no different—it uses a homemade reusable "wool cage" to create a spinning vortex of light, like in the photo below. You can do this with just a piece of steel wool on a cable, but Michael wanted something he could easily reuse no matter how many shots he took, so he built a small cage to house the steel wool out of chicken wire, a small ...

How To: Draw a mountain landscape using charcoal techniques

Drawing is an excellent exercise for the brain that also lets your mind wander. This video tutorial demonstrates how to draw a serene mountain landscape using charcoal techniques. Begin with a simple sky and mountain range, then add trees and a beach. Pencilling in water will help to bring the trees to the foreground. Finally, add shadows and a waterfall to provide a sense of depth to the entire rendering.

How To: Make a paper mache baby elephant

In this tutorial, we learn how to make a paper mache baby elephant. To begin, you will need a pattern, which you can find at Ultimate Paper Mache. There is a grid on the pattern that you can use to expand onto a large piece of particle board. This will give you the entire body for the elephant. After you cut the elephant out of the board, glue and nail it together with spacers in between the body parts. After this, crumple up newspaper and then tape and squish it onto the wood until the muscl...

How To: Paint a Pet Portrait

If you want to capture your pet in an oil-based portrait, this video series will help guide you along the way as you paint your animal masterpiece. In the video below, get started by learning about all of the supplies you'll need for drawing pet portraits. To see the other videos in this series, make sure to hit up the link below the video.

How To: Draw a black and white male zombie in MS Paint

Though it's not typical for idrawgirls to focus on the male gender, don't count this tutorial out if you're looking for good instructions on how to draw a zombie. This male zombie is being drawn in MS Paint, and you can watch the drawing take place while listening to the commentary on what's being done and what needs to be done to create the living dead. But don't fret, there is a wonderfully drawn woman right next to the horrific zombie, so it's not that far of a departure for drawgirls.

How To: Draw a flower using MS paint

Learn how to draw a flower in MS Paint in this video tutorial from Shannon. In the first step, you will need to draw a circle with the shape tool. To create the petals, you will need to draw additional circles surrounding the first circle. Use the paint brush tool in green to create the stem and leaves, which you will draw free-hand. Using the bucket tool, fill in the leaves and the petals of the flower. Shannon also shows in this video how to draw a bird next to the flower with the paint bru...

How To: Make a messenger bag out of trash bags

Watch this instructional video to learn how to make a messenger bag out of trash bags. All you need to do is melt some trash bags together with an iron and wax paper, stitch them up, and then add some necessary buckles and pack accessories. Join Bre Pettis and Make Magazine for this great craft project.

How To: Build a simple float frame for your painting

Building a frame for your paintings can save you money and provide one more creation of which to be proud. Normally recommended for abstract paintings, basic float frames offer a professional feel to your art. This video demonstrates how to build a very simple float frame, which compliments a modern, contemporary, abstract painting rather nicely.

How To: Make a fashionable hat from duct tape

In this tutorial, we learn how to make a Duct tape hat. First, grab a hat that you want to duplicate and measure it out with a piece of paper. Then use this piece of paper as reference to how you will cut your pieces of duct tape. Now, cut the duct tape and stick them together to create the top of the hat. After this, you will connect the other areas of the hat together and make the bill of the hat. This will need to be thicker than the other areas and you will also have to cut it into a curv...

How To: Draw a character with graffiti bubble letters

Do you remember the Snorks? If not, they were a cheap knock-off of the Smurfs, but the setting took place in the ocean and they had long tubes at the top of their heads. Why is this important? Well in the tutorial above, you'll find out how to draw a character with graffiti bubble letters. That character happens to resemble that of a Snork. So good luck and have a snorky day. Enjoy!

How To: Draw manga faces in profile

This easy to follow and informational video, brought to you by Mark Crilley of [www.markcrilley.com Mark Crilley], details in depth, the steps you will need to take to create a manga style cartoon character's face drawing, in profile view. In this video, Mark demonstrates the process he uses to create his manga style drawings on three different drawings, both on female and male characters. If you are an aspiring cartoonist, looking for some great tips this video will surely deliver.

How To: Draw a scary manga female vampire

A scary vampire is just what the artist ordered. In this video tutorial, learn how to draw a scary manga female vampire. See how to do the sketch illustration, step-by-step, strictly for anime and manga comics. This quick and easy video will have you drawing eerie female vamps in no time. You see the torso, head, pelvis, hips, and legs drawn.

How To: Make a bomber hat

ThreadBanger give us a great recipe to make a unisex bomber hat using just a flannel shirt, white faux fur, a measuring tape, the bomber hat pattern, a sewing machine, and two and a half hours of your creative time. Add pom-poms at the ears to give it extra flavor! Super cool look for both dudes and ladies.

CES 2015: The CUBE Action Camera, Polaroid's Answer to the GoPro

Polaroid's answer to the masculine-fueled GoPro comes in the form of a tiny family-friendly square, fittingly named the Polaroid CUBE. Starting at a very modest $99.99 , the water-resistant action camera comes in all different colors, shoots HD video at 1080p, allows users to take 6MP pictures, and supports a microSD card of up to 32GB. Attached to the bottom of the cube is a magnet that allows you to stick the camera in many places, including the side of a car (though the Polaroid representa...

How To: Draw Cartoons!

If you're a beginner artist, it's best to start off with simple line drawings at first, like this one! In the following video, I show you how to draw a slightly sleepy-looking cartoon bat. He's pretty easy to create - give it a go and see for yourself! :-)

How To: draw Zoella!

This video will show you an easy way to draw one of the most popular people on YouTube at the moment - Zoella! From drawing out a rough first sketch, all the way through to creating a complete, coloured-in illustration, this video will show you how it's all done. Hope you like it!

How To: Add Creepy Apparitions to Your Halloween Photos Using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion

Photographers have been using the Pepper's Ghost Illusion for over a century to play up the level of creepiness in their photos. Many of the pictures that claim to be real "sightings" use this technique to project a ghostly figure into the background of their images. Today, it's still used in theatre, "scary" rides at amusement parks, and haunted houses all over the world, which makes it a great photography trick for Halloween time. As shown in the tutorial below by Make's Jason Poel Smith, t...