Hot Fine Art How-Tos

How To: Use a Buddha Board and waterbrush pens for calligraphy

Whether you are just starting out doing Chinese calligraphy and painting or a have been doing it your whole life, practice is crucial. Rather than wasting ink, paint, and paper on practice pieces that you are going to discard or throw away afterwards, now you can use a Buddha Board! These devices allow you to use a waterbrush pen and water, no paper, ink, or paint, to create images that will disappear after the water dries! No mess, no waste, just an effective way to practice your art and sav...

How To: Create mood with the Gaussian blur tool in Photoshop

Learn how to use the Gaussian blur tool to add mood to your digital photos while maintaining sharpness and detail. Meet the Adobe Photoshop pen tool! Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial, which presents a complete overview of how to use the Gaussian blur filter when touching up a photo. For more information, and to get started using the Gaussian blur tool yourse...

How To: Create an easy photo montage as a Photoshop beginner

Create stunning montages the easy way. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular image editing software or simply looking to pick up a few new tips and tricks, you're sure to benefit from this free video tutorial from Pro Photo Life. For more information, including step-by-step instructions on how to create your own custom photo montages, watch this graphic designer's guide.

How To: Draw a "realistic", angry manga face

Anger is one of the emotions most prominently featured in manga, especially "boy" manga. Thus, knowing how to draw an angry male manga face is an important skill to master if you want to create your own manga-style art. This video demonstrates how to do just that in pencil, starting with the outline of a head. It offers detailed instructions that should enable any budding manga artist to replicate it themselves.

How To: Take professional digital photos at night

Taking professional photographs at night poses a whole new set of problems relative to taking pictures during the day. This four-part video is here to help, in great detail. It covers several topics, including subject selection, tools necessary, deterring depth of field, and all of the other things that you will have to do to take really good-looking photos at night.

How To: Set up and take a portrait with a digital camera

Taking really professional-looking portrait is a tricky business, which is why so many people are so well-paid for doing so. If you want to create similar results without hiring the professional, this two-part video will give you some handy tips for how to do it. It includes how to frame the shot, some equipment and props that you will need, and other techniques. Never pay hundred of dollars for a professional Christmas card photo again!

How To: Develop black and white 120 roll film

This four-part video describes, in great detail, how to develop black-and-white 120 film. With photo labs becoming rarer by the day, knowing how to do this yourself will become increasing important if you want to continue to take and develop pictures with film. Developing 120 is a bit different than developing 35 millimeter, so if you can already do that still watching this video! Thankfully, the presenter demonstrates the process in full light. Bear in mind it will be very dark when you do t...

How To: Develop C41 black and white or color film at home

With photo labs around the world closing in the wake of the digital camera revolution, knowing how to develop your own film at home is more important than ever. This video teaches you how to develop one type of film, C41, at home using a kit. Even when there are no more photo labs left, you will still be able to make beautiful still prints from film at home after watching this video.

How To: Develop black and white film in the dark room

Developing black-and-white film is an arcane, but very rewarding and useful process if you want to make really good-looking prints from your film. This two-part video goes over the entire process, from chemical measurement and selection to the actual process of developing the film. A must-watch for any would-be film photographer.

How To: Process large-format sheet film in trays

In the digital age, old fashioned film processing and developing may seem outmoded and obsolete. However, for professional and aspiring professional photographer who want o make classic-looking prints, this is far from the case. This three-part video describes how to do tray processing yourself for large-format sheets. It breaks down the equipment you will need, the advantages and disadvantages, and of course how to go about processing you own film sheets. The dark room is back!

How To: Draw a bowl of fruit

There's nothing like a delicious bowl of fruit to fill your body with energy and nurtrition. Now learn how to fill your walls full of energy and nutrition with help from this Hawks Vs. Pigeon Production. In this free drawing tutorial, learn how to draw a bowl of fruit.

How To: Sew & make a t-shirt

The t-shirt is arguably the most basic part of modern Western fashion. Billions of people around the world wear them every day for ease and comfort. This two-part video will teach all you sewing fans out there how to sew your own t-shirts at home. You can then use these techniques to make other t-shirt based garments like t-shirt dresses and whatever other t-shirt-like clothing that you can imagine. The fabric is the limit!

How To: Draw a body of water

Do you love to draw? Do you love to draw nature scenes? Whether it's trees, rocks, or water - the parts that make up Mother Nature are beautiful enough to hang on your wall. In this Hawks Vs. Pigeon Production, learn how to draw a body of water against an edge of trees.

How To: Recycle your t-shirt fabric scraps into new clothing

If you sew a lot, your probably have a massive quantity of old fabric scraps lying around. This four-part video will teach you how to recycle those strips into all sorts of fun textile projects. These include a quilt, tie-dye strips, and notebook covers for your children's (or your) books for school. No matter what your tastes, there is probably a cool fashion recycling tip for you in here.

How To: Draw a dress form

Are you an aspiring fashion designer? Or do you just love drawing clothes and dresses? In this Hawks Vs. Pigeon Production, learn everything you need to know about drawing a dress form. Get that career as a fashion designer started now with help from this tutorial.

How To: Draw a happy cartoon monkey

Looking for a really good lesson on how to draw cartoon animals? Look no further. From Toonseum, Pittsburgh's museum of cartoon art, learn how to draw an adorable cartoon monkey, suitable for any cartoon strip or drawing! Get skilled in the cartooning department with help from an expert!

How To: Draw beginner cartoons

Want to get started in the world of cartooning? You can with a little help from this video! In this drawing tutorial, get started drawing beginner cartoons, perfect for the novice drawer! With enough time and practice, you'll be drawing advanced cartoons before you know it.

How To: Make a multi-colored duct tape wallet

Why buy a brand new wallet when you can make one? And out of duct tape! Take the original duct tape wallet idea and kick it up a notch with help from this tutorial presented by Seasonal Science on how to make a multi-colored duct tape wallet. Show off your unique style at school with this unique accessory!

How To: Draw skateboard equipment

Do you love to skateboard? Big fan of Tony Hawk, Bam Margera, or Ed Templeton? Show how much you love to skateboard by bringing your skateboard and its equipment to the walls of your bedroom with help from this drawing tutorial presented by Hawks Vs. Pigeon Productions.

How To: Draw an Indian paint brush

Ever heard of an Indian Paintbrush? An Indian Paintbrush, also known as a Castilleja and Prairie-fire, are edible and sweet plants that were consumed in moderation by various American Indian tribes as a condiment with other fresh greens. Now that you know what an Indian Paintbrush is, here's your chance to larn how to draw one with help from this drawing tutorial presented by Hawks Vs. Pigeon Productions.

How To: Line draw a cow

Attention artists! You might be Picasso in certain areas of the arts, but have you mastered the art of drawing cartoon farm animals? Didn't think so. In this video presented by Toonseum, learn how to line draw an adorable cartoon cow.

How To: Shoot directly from your camera to your hard drive

Sick of transferring megabytes and megabytes worth of photos into your computer, only to send them to your hard drive? Skip the middle step and learn how to shoot directly from your camera to your hard drive with help from this video by Pro Photo Life. Get your photos to your hard drive quicker and easier with the tips and tricks given here.

How To: Draw a face with a pencil and a child

Some kids are just born to draw. In this 2-part video from her series Oliart, child artist Olivia demonstrates how to draw a face in pencil, using proven geometric techniques to get the proportions correct. It includes such tips are how to draw a mouth by using the eyes as a guide to its proportions. We truly can learn everything we need to know from the children.

How To: Draw comic book superheroes, including Vegeta

This video, assembled for a school project by some art school students, teaches you how to draw comic book superheroes in two parts. They begin by going over the material that you will need, then the basic shapes that make up the majority of comic character's bodies, then goes over examples, including how to draw the popular anti-hero Vegeta from Dragonball Z.

How To: Sketch poses of the human body on the computer

Drawing the human body making dynamic poses is a massive challenge for most artists. This video demonstrates how to sketch some different poses in the Photoshop with a tablet pen. They obviously need to be elaborated to be called final art works, but these sketches teach you how to capture the basic forms that are really the trickiest part of capturing ourselves in action.

How To: Sketch a dragon serpent figure in pencil

Serpents and dragons are among the most intricate, varied, and fun to draw of fantastical images. This video demonstrates how to sketch a serpent / dragon figure, you can work out the fantasy taxonomy for yourself. It's eerie grin makes it almost seem alive. Improve your fantasy art skills by watching this video.