Explore your how-to-draw Videos

the BASIC TECHNIQUE series

To draw you need pencils, a desire to draw, and knowledge of the basic techniques.

The DRAW WITH MIKE videos are designed to provide the knowledge you need - in a very easy to understand form. And they build step-by-step from one video to the next.

No fluff - they are deliberately concise but packed full of help, information, and advice.

A professional graphite artist for over 40 years, I know the techniques and the tricks. I know the common errors too, and I understand what you need to know, because they're based on my 8-week Drawspace Beginners course.

The pencil chisel point
The Chisel Point
Duration:
8½ mins
Download:
£
Pencil leads and their grades
Pencil Grades
Duration:
7¼ mins
Download:
£
Choosing Pencil Types and pencil leads
Choosing Pencils & Leads
Duration:
9¼ mins
Download:
£
First Steps in pencil drawing
First Steps
Duration:
10 mins
Download:
£
Layering and Burnishing to create smooth shading and intense darks with graphite pencil
Layer and Burnish
Duration:
10½ mins
Download:
£
Graphite pencil tapered lines - Why and how to draw tapered lines.
Tapered Lines
Duration:
9½ mins
Download:
£
Shading and Blending a lovely lily - excellent shading practice!
Shade and Blend a Lily
Duration:
11¼ mins
Download:
£
Linear Shading - hatching, cross-hatching, scribble, and stippling explained
Linear Shading
Duration:
10¼ mins
Download:
£
Contour Shading - hatching, cross-hatching, and flat shading following the surface contour - and blending of the result
Contour Shading
Duration:
10¼ mins
Download:
£
Tonal Shading - flat and gradated shading following the perspective of the subject - and blending of the result
Tonal Shading
Duration:
10½ mins
Download:
£
Erasing Basics - the different types of eraser.  Which erasers to use, which to avoid, and why
Erasing Basics
Duration:
8¼ mins
Download:
£
Erasing Selectively - cutting shapes into existing drawing
Erasing Selectively
Duration:
10¾ mins
Download:
£
Erasing to Fine Tune - fine-tuning values in pencil drawing
Erasing to Fine Tune
Duration:
10¼ mins
Download:
£
Indenting Basics - All the basic techniques of intending directly to your paper in pencil drawing
Indenting Basics
Duration:
13½ mins
Download:
£
Indirect Indenting - Indenting through a cover sheet to your paper in pencil drawing with all the benefits and problems explained
Indirect Indenting
Duration:
7½ mins
Download:
£
Graphite Indenting - Indenting with a hard grade pencil to your paper in pencil drawing with all the benefits and problems explained
Graphite Indenting
Duration:
12½ mins
Download:
£
Introduction to breaking a drawing down into manageable sections
Divide and Conquer
Duration:
12 mins
Download:
£
How to separate LINE and TONE in a drawing simply pencil drawing
Divide by Line and Tone
Duration:
14½ mins
Download:
£
How to divide work to simplify pencil drawing
Divide To Control
Duration:
19¾ mins
Download:
£
How to transfer a photo to drawing paper using a grid
Guideline Basics - the Grid
Duration:
21¾ mins
Download:
£
How to transfer a photo with a prportional divider, compass, triangulation, etc
Guidelines - Manual Methods
Duration:
13 mins
Download:
£
How to trace or transfer a photo or sketch to paper using devices, such as Opaque and Digitial Projectors, the Camera Lucida, a Lightbox, and generating a line drawing from a photo in Photoshop.
Guidelines - Device Methods
Duration:
21 mins
Download:
£
How to control and adapt your references and not let the references control you.
Guidelines - the Magic stage
Duration:
22 ¾ mins
Download:
£
Series available as a
complete set
with
4¾ hours of video
plus
20% DISCOUNT!

Crispin Gundry
I have found Mike's videos really helpful in my drawing development. The techniques are well explained and demonstrated with examples of what they look like in his artwork. These will work for any subject you wish to draw. I highly recommend these video tutorials if you are wishing to expand your drawing skill and understanding of basic techniques and their applications.
Mary Hollis
I watched a video last night of someone supposedly teaching. I was halfway through the video and he was still just taking about himself. I quit there so I don't know if he ever did get around to any actual teaching. Such a contrast from your videos, which are packed full of information from beginning to end.

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