Y'all. 2020 has kicked my behind. Please be nice even though I'm cutting my own hair- hahaha! Hope you're doing as well as you can be out there. Sending love and lots of drawing tutorials!

Hey all! This is the last of a 5 part series I've posted over the last year or so. This time starting the drawing of the cat for a commissioned drawing. Thanks for watching! I'm planning lots more videos in the upcoming months, I'm excited to get more out to you soon!

Hey everyone! I wanted to let you know a bit about my release schedule and what I've been working on behind the scenes! Also big reveal: my name!!! Because I can't believe I've somehow never mentioned it before. Hope you are all well and can't wait to see what you'll be drawing this year!

I wanted to share the speed draw where I shade in the eyes of the dog. You'll see the steps I take and then I'll start to shade in more detail on the snout.

You'll also see me take a photo of the drawing, which is how I compare what has been done to what needs to be done. Taking a photo helps me to see the progress with fresh eyes so I can make more adjustments to the drawing. At another point, I lift up the drawing to look at it from another angle, which helps me to see it new again also.

Just a hint of blue on the eggs and a hint of brown on the nest. Here is a little bit of how I draw, when I'm working on my own artwork. I layer really lightly and slowly, so building up a drawing takes time. This one probably took me about 3 hours total (but to be honest, I don't usually time my drawings, because it all takes so long it'd be depressing!). Sorry for the bad sound quality, I just recorded this one at my work studio with my phone camera, so it isn't as high a quality as my regular videos.

I'm using a Mitsu-bishi Hi Uni 2B and HB graphite pencil and a Caran D'ache Luminescence Turquoise Blue colored pencil. Drawn to a song I love and can listen to 800 times in a row, Station, by Lapsley.

This one shows continued progress on the drawing of the dog, specifically the nose. Somehow, I am missing video from the middle stage- so there is a jump from when I draw the nostrils to when I'm working on more detail around the nostrils. Sorry about that- it's not intentionally missing!

Hope this speed draw helps you to see how long I labor over a drawing, and some of the stages I go through to get a completed finish that I like in the end.

This video shows the very beginning of how I started drawing the image of the dog and cat (you'll see my completed drawing at the beginning & end of the video). I both start shading AND you'll see me debossing the paper with my plastic ruler, which helped me to get the white whisker effect on this drawing. Hope you enjoy watching the process as much as I do, and there will be more parts of this drawing in upcoming videos!

Here you can see with more detail how I drew the white whiskers of the dog. This was done AFTER embossing the page where the white whiskers would go, so the embossing helps retain the white of the page. You'll also see me drawing around the white whiskers- so keeping the white of the page as I draw in the black hair of the dog is important.

At times you'll see me take a photo of the drawing with my phone camera. I often use a photo of my drawing during the process to reveal areas that need more work. Also this video is at double speed.

Let me know if it's too slow and I can triple the speed on the next one!

SO I know I say SO a lot. I usually am a bit of a goofball when I'm teaching and you know, when I'm a real person out there in the world not teaching. But in videos I seem SO SERIOUS. That is because it is hard work for me, memorizing the order of everything I want to say and not messing it up. So here I am, messing a lot up and also entertaining myself right before I get SOOOO SERIOUS about pencils and shading and such. Have fun laughing at me. I sure do!

These two goofballs are a huge part of my team, bringing these videos to the interwebs: Parker and Brian of tinycourage.com Thankfully they enjoy laughing at me while I make 14 mistakes during filming and somehow don't lose patience with me, while it takes me months to review all my videos for them to edit! I know I look kind of serious in my videos- that is because filming them and remembering everything is hard work! But really, I enjoy laughing with these two in between takes. Thanks, team!

Here is the announcement of the winner of the pear drawing giveaway! The winner who subscribed, shared a video, and told me what they wanted to learn to draw was @Bikash kumar Behera

FREE Drawing Giveaway!!!!!!!

I'm giving away the pear drawing on the thumbnail to a randomly selected subscriber on June 23, 2017.

I treated myself for the holidays and bought 5 sets of pencils! Check out my haul, and stay tuned to future reviews so I can share my experience with each brand of pencil: Marco Raffine, Faber-Castell, Caran D'ache, Mitsubishi Hi-Uni and Tombow Homo-Graph Mono pencils.

My most exciting new drawing tool, the Slate, records my drawings digitally as I draw and paint on real paper with real pencils and brushes!

More about Laurie and LZM Studio, and why you'd want to learn to draw with me!