We’re used to thinking that the blue part of the red-blue eraser is used for erasing pen ink. We even tell our children that when they ask us.
But has it ever worked? Didn’t we all end up with torn pages after a vigorous attempt of trying to erase whatever we wrote down using a pen?
The blue part of the eraser is used for erasing pencil marks on grainy art paper, hence the rough and grainy texture of the eraser. It would require you to use more force to erase something written on these rough paper if you’re using a normal eraser (the pink part). The bue eraser makes the task easier.
Not sure where the logic of erasing pen ink came from, but at least now you can stop damaging the pages of your exercise books now.
Fantasy artist Dan Reeder made a video on how to make an astonishingly cool paper mache dragon. The video is time-compressed so that you can watch the entire process in a little over three minutes. The results are amazing!
This free drawing worksheet, How To Draw The Stone Stars, is a good project that may be part of a fantasy or historical art piece. The stars could be in a dungeon or a castle; a hero could be climbing them or monster descending them.
Our project starts with an arch big enough for all the details inside. Mark the vanishing point at eye-level, all the vertical lines will tilt toward it.
The steps are bigger at the bottom, they get narrower and shorter as they progress up. The right side of the steps are drawn against the right wall, and the left side is hidden by the hidden arch since we are not looking directly into the stairwell but at an angle. The top of the stair wraps around so we change direction and draw the left side of the steps with the right side being hidden behind the right turn of the wall. These sides are drawn with lines going up then back along the guideline to the vanishing point. The front of the steps are tall but the tops of the steps are narrow due to perspective. Divide the front of the steps into different stones,
Lightly mark a pattern on the wall by lines going toward the vanishing point then draw some lines vertical and arching at the top; this makes a checker grid that you can use to develop the stones or the bricks of the walls. Draw around the grid to make individual stones make some to have different shapes.
The stars are dark and shadowy so look for areas to shadow like the distant parts and the parts where walls come together or the bottom of the steps. Keep the top of the steps as white as you can.
Take your time and add detail to the stones with smudges and chips, Leave the spaces between the stones white for the mortar.
There will be more detail in the foreground, the front steps, and near walls than in the background.
