In October, I kept thinking about Halloween. I uploaded a video where I painted bloody letters and another where I painted a jack-o-lantern. I filmed multiple makeup looks and making Halloween decorations, which I will upload next year. I also sketched the jack-o-lantern in the photo above in pencil days before Halloween.
While I only uploaded two Halloween videos this year, I plan to make eight for next September and October. I am also going to make more seasonal videos in the future. I uploaded a video where I drew feathers last week, and am going to do a feathers realism challenge next week. The feathers are roughly for Thanksgiving (turkey, feathers ;) I am also going to have winter themed videos, like one where I paint a knitted scarf and another with a tree without leaves. Not all of my future videos will be based on the season though.
If you have any video requests, comment below. Thank you!
Yesterday, I was brainstorming ideas for future videos on my whiteboard. Bloody letters and a jack-o-lantern in acrylic paint for October. Feathers in pen for November. A knitted scarf for December. I needed more video ideas to fill a gap in late November. I thought about how I have drawn trees before, and began to sketch one on my whiteboard with marker. I made little curved lines to add bark, and drew the outlines of branches. The tree looked like it did not have enough branches, and I wondered how to add branches that would be behind the ones I had drawn if the tree was three dimensional. I was able to draw light lines with my marker for branches that were towards the background. This looked okay, though I want to experiment more with shading if I draw a tree on paper.
Here are more photos of the tree on my whiteboard:
What do you think? Should I turn a tree like this one into a how to draw video? Do you have any requests for future videos? Please leave a comment, even if it is anonymous.
You can find the how to draw videos that I have already posted on my YouTube channel, Varietygirl1.
After I made my first clay dragon, I had some extra clay. I looked around for something to make, and decided to make a hat. At first glance, I knew I could make a hat with two cylinders; a thin one for the brim and a thick one for the top. I also wanted to add a ribbon and flowers. I had to experiment with shaping the clay in order to add the flowers and ribbon. I made about two hats before I filmed myself making one.
I made the clay hat video before I decided to re-make the dragon. Both videos are from before I started using Adobe Audition, so there is some background noise.
I still have some extra clay. If you have any suggestions for what I should make, please leave a comment. Thank you!
A few years ago, I needed a three dimensional piece of art for a portfolio. Usually, my art consists of two dimensional drawings in different mediums. Then I remembered working with clay when I was at a summer camp. I had not worked with clay in years, but I decided to try it again.
I wanted to make a clay version of a dragon I had drawn. I started by making a smooth base, and then added lots of scales. I could not get the dragon to stand, so I made it in a sitting position. I was so short on time, I took the dragon to show people without baking it. The head fell off a couple times, and I tried to repair it with scrap clay at the last minute. I was so nervous that the whole thing would fall apart as someone looked at it. Luckily, the head did not fall off again until I took it home :)
I had another chance to show my dragon about a week later. This time I baked it. Someone suggested adding some type of wiring to the inside of the neck in order to hold up the head. I added toothpicks instead, and it worked! The ears were a little burnt, but it looked good.
Multiple people who saw the dragon asked how I made it. I described the process, but they thought it was difficult. I remembered getting the same reaction when I brought a bigger version of my model house in for a school project. In both
cases, people thought it was hard to make, so I made a how to video. I made a baby dragon for the video, just like I made a second, smaller house.
The photo on the right shows the baby dragon:
Here is the video that shows how to make the dragon:
Earlier this week, I posted about my ideas for a video that showed ways to draw simple eyes. Now this video is on YouTube, although you can watch it from the blog post.
The video shows how to draw three different types of simple eyes, eyes looking in different directions, and eyes that show emotions. It also shows how to use the simple eyes as an iris in more detailed eyes.
For many of my videos, I used a single shot from the video as a thumbnail. For this video, I decided to experiment with the thumbnail. I cropped multiple shots from the video, and edited them together. I was having trouble getting the cropped photos to be the right dimensions for a thumbnail, so I added a blue border. The colorful border may draw someone's attention when they are looking for videos to watch. I might change the thumbnail to something less cluttered later, though I want to see how this one does at gaining views/watch time.
The Thumbnail:
Photos I combined:
Please comment below if you enjoyed the video or like the thumbnail. You can also leave questions, requests for future how to videos, etc. Thank you!
My latest how to draw video featured realistic looking eyes. Days after I filmed this video, I was sitting in geometry class learning about circles and arcs. I began to doodle using the types of lines I was learning about, and realized I could create eyes with circles and arcs! When I got home, I redrew the eyes with my camera recording.
The photo above shows the three types of eyes I came up with. The one on the far right has straight lines as well as arcs. I will go into more detail of how these eyes contain circles and arcs in the video this Thursday.
After a while, I worried that these eyes might be too simple for a how to video. I wanted to add something else about eyes. One idea I have is to show how to use these types of eyes as an iris, and turn them into more complex eyes. My second idea is to talk about eyes looking in different directions. The photo below shows a sketch of the second idea from my whiteboard. Please comment below if you think I should add either of these two ideas to the video, or both.
Right now, I have multiple ideas and footage for upcoming how to draw videos. The picture above shows some of the drawings that will be featured in future videos. I would like to write a few blog posts about my ideas in order to get feedback before I post the videos.
Also, there are a few videos that I posted to my channel before I created my blog or did not post about. The photo below shows some of my artwork from my published how to videos. I am going to write posts about old videos as well.
Between old and upcoming videos, as well as sketches I did off camera, I hope to be able to update my blog more often. The posts will probably still be published on random dates, though I have been uploading videos on YouTube every other Thursday. My channel name is Varietygirl1.
Please comment below about what you think of having more posts about my videos.
One day, I was looking at some flowers, and imagined how to draw them. I decided to try to draw daisies based on the real ones I had in front of me. I tried sketching them in different ways with different mediums, filming my attempts. My favorite version of the daisy was the one I drew with pen. I edited the footage of me drawing the pen version into a how to draw video, and posted it on YouTube a few weeks ago.
I was going to post photos of other versions of the daisies I drew in marker, acrylic paint, and colored pencil in a blog post similar to the one I made surrounding my clay strawberry video. As I looked for places in the daisy footage to save photos from, I realized I had enough clips to make a second video. I am not sure if the repetition interested my viewers or not. At least it gave a larger glimpse at the other drawings I had made than photos could have. Here is the daisy video with multiple mediums:
I post videos to YouTube on every other Thursday on my channel Varietygirl1. You can watch more how to draw videos there. Please comment below about what you think about two videos on the same subject, or tweet me @Varietygirl1.
It has been six months since I uploaded a YouTube video. I had been filming videos, but until I downloaded Adobe Premiere Pro, I was struggling to edit them. Also, uploading YouTube videos requires a lot of time (unless the internet speed is very fast) and data. I could only upload in places with unlimited internet access. Recently, I not only got new editing software, but I also got the feature on YouTube where you can schedule posts. Now I can upload multiple videos when I have good internet access, and schedule them to publish at different times! Watch the video below to know how often I plan to publish videos:
What do you think of videos like this where I just talk to you? I was thinking of doing ones like this more often, as well as asking questions on social media (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and YouTube under the name Varietygirl1). You can also leave comments on these blog posts.
I promised to show readers what was not shown on camera in my YouTube videos. I think that goal was met, considering two posts had to do with artwork not shown in videos. Other posts showed water damage to my lace drawing, and part of the process of creating the fake food that had to be cut out of the video. I do not know if this blog has inspired anyone, though it has gotten more views than I expected.
For the second year of this blog, I hope to engage with my readers more. This does depend on you to comment, or share on social media. I would like to know what you think of posts, and what you would like to see me make next. I have redesigned my blog recently so the links to my social media pages are more easily view-able. The part that depends on me is the posts themselves. I have only made five posts in the past year. I want to start posting at least once a month, if not once a week. This will encourage me to draw more.
I know I have not uploaded YouTube videos in a while either. It was November 2014 when I last uploaded. I was having trouble with the editing software. I was using two programs that came with my computer; Windows Movie Maker and Cyberlink Powerdirector10. I liked both programs at first, and had made my first sixteen YouTube videos with them, as well as videos for school projects. Lately, the programs have constantly crashed when I was using them, as well as blur footage that was not blurry before editing. This may be due to them being older versions. The other day, I purchased Adobe Creative Cloud. I have been using Adobe Premiere Pro at school, and have two videos half edited. As soon as I download the program to my computer, I will be able to edit videos at home again. Now I can edit over this summer as well. New videos are coming soon. The pictures below show three pieces of artwork I am currently editing videos based on:
How to Draw a Daisy:
How to Draw a Knitted Scarf:
How to Draw Realistic Eyes:
How to Draw a Jack-o-lantern:
(I will probably upload this one closer to Halloween.)
Read about how my lace drawing, and video, came into existence:
One day, earlier this year, I was sitting in school with all my work done. There was still more than ten minutes of class left, so I decided to take out a piece of paper and draw. The only paper I had at the time was lined or graph paper. I chose the graph paper because it had lighter lines.
At this point, I did not know what I was going to draw. First, I needed a writing utensil. All my pencils needed sharpening. I managed to find a pen that barely worked. I moved the pen in circles to get the ink started.
When I took the pen away, I noticed that these squiggly lines looked like stitches in cloth. I practiced making this type of line a few times, as you can see in the photo on the left, and then decided to draw lace.
I was not able to finish my drawing before I had to switch classes. However, when I got home, I decided to work on it. My camera and tripod were already nearby, so I filmed myself drawing. I didn't notice that there was a smudge on my camera until after I finished the drawing. I didn't have time to start over. Instead, I saved the footage on my computer, and debated whether to turn it into a video.
Months went by. I soon forgot about the lace video. When the school year ended, I took all my papers and folders home. The other day, I was flipping through one of these folders when I found my lace drawing.
The corner had been damaged from one day where I had to walk through heavy rain, but luckily the water had not reached the ink.
Looking at this paper again, I decided to finish the video I had filmed months before. The footage was a little shaky, but I felt that since this drawing had survived the rain storm, it was worth finishing the video.
For my Spanish class, I had to preform a restaurant scene. We were allowed to use props, and I decided to make clay food (rolls, flan, and a strawberry).
Dinner Rolls:
I made clay rolls by making aluminum foil balls, and covering them in a thin layer of baking clay. I wanted to paint the rolls with different shades of brown, to make the rolls appear baked. I used watercolor paints, until all the colors started to blend together. When I tried to add a second coat of paint, the first coat became wet again. In the end, I painted the entire roll with one shade of brown. I placed the rolls in a wicker basket.
Flan:
I thought it would be easier to make the flan out of paper mache than clay. First, I tried to make the flan out of a yogurt container covered in paper mache. The next day, the paper mache dried, but the yogurt container smelled like spoiled milk, even though I had washed it with soap and water. I decided to throw this flan away, but I didn't give up.
I looked through the recycling for a container shaped like a flan. I found a plastic applesauce container, which didn't smell of spoiled food. Due to lack of time, I decided to paint the container without covering it with paper mache. I covered the entire container, inside and outside, with yellow acrylic paint. After the yellow paint dried, I covered the top of the flan with light brown acrylic paint.
Once all of the paint dried, I placed the flan on a plastic plate. Then, I placed a clay strawberry on top of the flan.
The Strawberry:
The strawberry was the only piece of food I was able to make without any problems arising. It was made out of baking clay, which I covered with acrylic paint. To see how I made the strawberry, click the video below:
My name is Miriam Sachs, and art is my passion. In 2012, I started the YouTube channel Varietygirl1. My first video was How to Draw a Five Petal Flower, which went live on November 29, 2012.
Since then, I have uploaded eleven more videos, and am currently editing five more. I enjoy using my camera to capture the process of making pieces, but a camera can't capture everything. This blog will allow me to share artwork I made off camera, and give viewers a chance to see behind-the-scenes sketches and the thought process that went into making the videos. It will also allow me to infuse another one of my passions into my artwork, writing.
I hope both my channel and blog will inspire and teach. Enjoy.
