Today’s weekend tutorial will teach you how to create a one-line musical drawing! My smokin hot pen is back for a tutorial with a technique that EVERYONE can create – and  you’ll find it very relaxing, I hope!

This post is going live a day early – to give you a heads up in case you’d like to join me for the Premiere of this video on YouTube! We can chat about pen and ink, if you have questions this is an opportunity to get them answered right away. 

The link below is NOT playable until after the video is live, but you can click here to go RSVP and have YT remind you with a notification.

You can choose your own soundtrack of course, but since it’s #blackhistorymonth and I drew Miles Davis earlier this week, I’ve picked Round Midnight recorded in 1955 at Newport Jazz. He played with some of the all stars of the day:  Thelonious Monk, who wrote the song, along with Connie Kay and Percy Heath, Zoot Sims, and Gerry Mulligan.

Davis was received to great acclaim — but his response was typical: “What are they talking about? I just played the way I always play.” He sounds like someone I’d get along with quite well! Just do what you do, huh! 

Restless genius … Miles Davis in 1955. Photograph: Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo

Tutorial: How to create a one-line musical drawing

Many of you have asked HOW to loosen up your doodling. This is a great way to do it!

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Tips to loosen up and listen

It may help to listen through the music once to start with; just sit back, close your eyes, and see if anything “comes” to you for a line quality or a style. A staccato piece may be more geometric, and you’ll need to be prepared to move with the music; but a gentle jazz piece like the one I chose has soaring notes that lend themselves to soaring lines.

Use a pen and paper with good flow – a fountain pen with something smooth like marker paper is perfect. 

Take turns in your mind listening to the melody, an underlying bass, maybe an interesting bit of drums. Let yourself float between them.

I find that simply covering the whole page with lines can be dissatisfying as a finished work, but might be where you end up too, and that’s ok! Use a sketchbook so there’s less pressure either way.

The kinds of flowing lines I love to make lend themselves to traveling along a wide curved shape so that’s where many of my doodles like this have gone. I’ll back over to an area already drawn and add bits to it, join sections….but always moving. Keep the pen going.

Give it a try!

This is an exercise perfect for a short break from something else. Put a song on your headphones while the family watches tv, or as you sit in the doctor’s waiting room or an airplane terminal. Learning to loosen up and just go with the flow without THINKING is a great way to chill!

Supplies

1. Alcohol marker sketchbook 
2. Visconti Mirage fountain pen 
3. Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink

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Have you ever wondered how to enlarge a sketch or photo without having a projector? Well there’s a simple technique artists have used for centuries. Low tech and do-able! 

In today’s tutorial I’ll show  you a simple way to do it – with the help of a website that I wish was around when I was in college! Plus the large piece today is also in honor of the great Miles Davis for #blackhistorymonth .

A SPECIAL REQUEST WHILE WATCHING THIS VIDEO: Open a new browser tab on your computer and open THIS link. If on a smart device, go grab another device to open the link. It’s a Miles Davis album, and it’s a great backdrop for my video!

Tutorial: How to enlarge a sketch or photo

In the first portion of the video, I’ll demo a sketchbook-sized sample of freehand and grid method enlargement; then a little look at how I used the technique for a large art piece.

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

Step by step

The freehand method is to draw a loose “box” around the object, divide it into a few sections that make sense, no measuring – but use those blocks to sketch in shapes. It’s similar to what many artists do in breaking objects down into shapes – loose and blocky, then build in detail.

For the grid method, the grids need to have the same number of blocks. NOT measurements that “match” in an easy mathematical way. 

1. Starting with the photo reference, upload it to Add a Grid, and create the grid atop the reference.
2. Change the color to black (000) or white (fff) depending on the colors in the photo.
3. Change the thickness of the lines as desired.
4. Change the number of squares to one that’ll be replicated in the larger piece.

OR

1. Start with the finished piece and draw a grid on it. Whatever the number of blocks (evenly spaced both horizontally and vertical), change the grid to match that number of blocks.

THEN

1. To transfer the drawing, label one side with numbers, one with letters, on both the reference and drawing. (I write it on the tape).
2. You can approach it square by square, looking at what lines and shapes appear in that square only, and move methodically across the page.
3. OR you can approach it by elements, as I did. Look for the beginning and ending of a line, or the top/bottom/left/right of a shape. 
4. Draw in as much detail as needed, then ink/color as desired.

Both of these were colored with Sketchmarkers.

Miles Davis Portrait

This large piece took about three 12-hour days. Or maybe more, it sure felt like it! Lots of stippling, some line work, and thankfully a big old brush for the black areas—although the paper didn’t like the wet ink much!

It’s….large!

I’m determined to get this large paper used up – pads and pads of 19″ x 24″ bristol that I hoarded since college! Some pads got yellowed so they’ll be paper to keep tables or counters clean when I do messy things, and some are just a little warpy after all these years. But I’m determined to USE it!

My recommendation: try this now.

Go make a tiny photo into a small sketch – and use the website to add a grid. Leave your grid drawn in the sketchbook, and tape that picture in it. Some day you’ll thank me for telling you to do this, making notes, writing down the title of my video, so you can go find it again if you need it someday!

Supplies

• Trumpet sketch:
  1. Marker sketchbook
  2. TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen M
• Portrait:
  1. Bristol paper, 19″ x 24″ (brand no longer made)
  2. Visconti Mirage fountain pen 
  3. Platinum Carbon Fountain Pen Ink

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