Sketching - Simplify Your Drawings For Greater Effect

When you first start out as an amateur artist, there is so much knowledge, skills and expertise that are important to learn. It can be quite daunting and the temptation to try out a whole variety of different techniques can be both appealing and almost overwhelming.

While trying out different mediums is always exciting, it is useful initially to learn the basic skills required to master a specific technique. Learning to capture the essence of the subject matter quickly and accurately is high on the priorities list for any beginner to the world of art and this is what makes sketching so important.

* Some artists will spend a long time developing a good sketch, capturing a variety of details so that the picture builds up to reproduce a fairly accurate image. Spending hours however on a single sketch is not a realistic use of time as practice is more important so as to be able to develop your skills in a minimal amount of time. Learning to relax and trust in your ability to reproduce a scene quickly and efficiently is crucial as there may be occasions when a quick sketch is all you can afford time-wisely.

* When out sketching it is easy to spend hours absorbed in the almost impossible to task to capture every line and every curve of the scene in front of you. However, if you wish to take an exact copy of the landscape or subject, then rather than sketching, you could easily use a camera as this would capture all of the details that you would have spent hours laboriously trying to record.

* The true art to sketching is to capture the essence of the subject or at least capture the characteristics so that when you are at home with all of your painting equipment around you, you have enough information recorded so as to be able to reproduce the theme to suit your requirements.

Quite often the information that you leave out from a sketch gives you a freedom to improve, enhance and redesign giving you complete creative license. When you get back to your studio, this is when you start adding more details to your picture.

What if I teach you how to get started with drawing and painting with great ease following simple steps?

Follow these steps for your perfect creativity flow.

Grab my free ebook from http://www.paintonmycanvas.com

'Murtaza Habib' has helped hundreds of newbies to start their painting courses, now you can do it too.

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A Dream Camera From Samsung

Are you dissatisfied with your old film camera and have some disappointment with your first digital camera? Well, last July Samsung announced their new point and shoot digital camera, the TL 34HD. Amazing is not too strong a word for this state of the art camera.

If you have been beguiled by the quality photos taken by DSLRs but are reluctant to lay out two thousand dollars for a heavy, bulky camera when all you need is a pocket friendly digital camera for kids shots, vacation memories and the occasional wedding in the family.

The TL boasts state of the art features all combined in one package. Fourteen point seven mega pixels allow artifact free sharp enlargements up to 24 x 30 photographs. More important is the fact that you can crop the image severely without loss of quality. This feat is possible due to the large number of pixels, the 25% larger CMOS sensor and the advanced processing used by Samsung.

While the amateur photographer occasionally appreciates having manual controls, the average shooter would rather rely on automatic operation and foolproof results. Aiding you in this endeavor is a three inch diagonal LCD screen with 460,000 pixels of resolution rather than the usual 290K. Also helping you is the anti-glare reflection applied to the screen's surface. This amazing screen is operated by touch. Just tap your finger on the area you want from the menu and the camera does the rest. Even manual focusing can be executed this way.

Other automatic features right out of the future are: face detection, optical and digital image stabilization, 5x digital zoom, 80 to 3200 ISO sensitivity, beauty shot, and blink detection. The beauty shot can be used for smoothing blemishes for outstanding, clean portraits. The blink detection can be a shot saver when you can't go back to do it over.

The lens is the heart of a camera and the single most important quality requirement for good, sharp pictures. The TL is fitted with a Schneider 3.6X zoom lens. The equivalent range comes out to 28mm true wide angle to a decent 102mm medium telephoto. The 5x digital zoom is quite effective when necessary because of the large number of pixels you have to work with. The maximum telephoto extension comes out to about 500mm. Here the dual image stabilization is a God send. For those close up shots of flowers, engagement rings and Mother's Day cards, this lens takes macro pictures at five centimeters with the wide setting and at 50 centimeters at the telephoto setting. When you are finished taking pictures, the lens collapses flush with the body and seals itself with an electric operated lens shade.

This camera is less than four inches long and has metal construction throughout. The design is simple but eye-catching in its fashionable colors of satin silver and red, silver with a gold top or even all brushed stainless black.

I've left the best feature for last. The ability for photographers to create an instant video with sound has recently been a feature adorning many digital cameras. Unfortunately, until now, the video portion has been minimal in quality - about like an analogue television picture - and the sound screechy and distorted. Enter High Definition 1280 x 720 video and stereo sound. With only one limitation of five minutes continuous video, the TL produces an amazingly true movie, viewable on a computer monitor or an HD LCD television screen. Helpful is the Samsung HDMI cradle which allows the regular use of the TV remote. One especially useful feature is the TLs ability to pause the movie action momentarily, then continue seamlessly when ready. Previously, digital cameras created separate clips when stopped. Four qualities are available for movie production, all at thirty frames per second for a professional look. Gratefully, Samsung chose to allow zooming while videoing. I recommend a high speed 16Gb SDHC chip if you plan on using the video feature extensively.

Shutter speeds of 1/2000th to 8 full seconds can be critical to stopping action to long night time exposures. The usual features of Aperture Priority, Auto White balance, and many others are of course present. The ISO sensitivity is usually automatically chosen by the camera according to need but the higher ISO capability of this camera allows candid photography without flash in low light levels for a natural ambiance look to the photos.

A nice element is the recycle bin that stores all your photos and videos even after you delete them. You never know when you will change your mind and regret your deletion and want to retrieve them for posterity. All these features and outstanding image quality is contained in a package three inches high and weighing less than five ounces. The TL can be had for $273.00, and adding $50.00 for the cradle, $17.00 for an extra battery and $140 for an Ultra III SDHC card, you will be ready for anything.

About the Author: A retired portrait and wedding photographer, I enjoy writing , how to articles, helpful articles on photography and many other subjects. My hobbies include quartet singing, shop, bicycling and photography.

Please visit my web site at http://www.photoartbyken.com [Articles, Digital Art, Poetry, Original sheet music.]

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