Learn to draw a hair braid

Learning to draw a hair braid?

Follow the post till the end and you find it is not so difficult at all.

Here's a simple pencil sketch for kids, beginners or anyone who is keen to learn the art of pencil sketching. This sketching was done by my 11-year-old daughter who loves sketching with pencil and insists on using pencil nowadays more than color pencils. So while she was struggling to make this sketch, I clicked the pictures of the steps as she proceeded with the sketch and made a picture tutorial for all you with tips for improving the sketch. 

Hair Braid Pencil Sketch

Materials required:

HB pencil, 2B pencil, paper, eraser

Procedure:

Step 01:

Start with the rough outline of the braid, using an HB pencil.

Step 01: Draw Braid outline

Step 02:

Using the same HB pencil, draw the interlocking braid pattern as shown below.

Step 02:  Interlocking braid pattern

 Step 03:
Continue the pattern as you go downwards. Make sure the pattern becomes thinner as you go downwards as the braid becomes narrower towards the end.

Step 03: Continue the interlocking pattern downwards

Step 04:
Now, using a HB pencil only start hatching the braid. Start with a downwards stroke following the curves.

Step 04: Start hatching with HB pencil

Step 05:
Now, using a 2B pencil darken the top and bottom strokes, to accentuate the pattern.

Step 05: Darken the strokes using 2B pencil

Step 06:
Notice, that the mid part is left grey. Use an HB pencil to soften the strokes. You can fill up the middles part which looks white with a very light shade of grey using an HB pencil.

Step 06: Leave the mid parts white or fill up with light grey using HB pencil

Step 07:
Now the final step is to add some loose strands to make the braid look more realistic. Use HB pencil to make the loose strands.

Step 07: Add loose strands

Finally, the braid is done. Observe the sketches of the hair braid below. The long one looks incomplete, with strokes not evenly made. The second one of the left has made over-use of hatches, making it dense and it has lost the realistic effect. The third one on the bottom is closer to the effect we wish to achieve. Clear hatches and pencil strokes, with the 3D effect we wish to achieve.

Hair Braids 

Tip:

• Use a well-sharpened pencil to make clear strokes. Keep sharpening them if the lead of the pencil becomes blunt in between.
• Try cross-hatching to make it more realistic.

The picture below shows the final result we wish to achieve with cross-hatching.

Hair Braid Pencil Sketch

Happy sketching. Have a nice day ahead and stay safe.

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Easy Origami Bookmarks for Kids

While we are stuck indoors due to this pandemic called Coronavirus, we practice social distancing and keep ourselves safe at home, how can we make our kids involved in more productive ways...that's the question of the hour.

So the answer is different for everyone...while some would like their kids to play indoors, we at home need to follow a disciplined life even during this time. Begin your day with exercise, follow a healthy routine even when you are at home.

For kids who are finding it difficult to find ways to keep themselves from boredom, here's an easy origami tutorial for all you kids to be occupied with some craft activity.

Here's a short picture tutorial for an origami bookmark. This tutorial was created by my daughter so all you need to do is just follow the steps, make something useful and make productive use of your time.

Origami Bookmark

Material required:

• For origami: Square sheet of paper
• For decoration: black marker, glue, white paper cutouts, glue

Procedure:

Step 01: 
Start by making a diagonal crease at the center as shown in the picture below.

Step 01: Make a diagonal crease

Step 02:
Fold along the diagonal crease to form a triangular shape.

Step 02: Fold along the diagonal crease

Step 03:
Take the tip of the triangle paper and fold it up to meet the other tip (it should form a perfect mini triangle)

Step 03: Fold the paper up to meet the top tip

Step 04:
Fold the other half of the paper just like the other side (when both sides are folded it should look like a square)

Step 04: Fold the other tip up 

Step 05:
Open the folds and make sure that when opened it looks like the picture given below.

Step 05: Open the folds

Step 06:

Take the top flap and fold it down as shown below

Step 06: Fold the tip down

Step 07:
Now, fold the two sides again following the crease made earlier.

Step 07: Fold sides up

Step 08:

Insert the two flaps one by one into the pocket made as shown below.

Step 08: Insert small triangle tip inside pocket

Step 09:

Fold the other small triangle tip into the pocket (when finished it should look like the picture given below).

Step 09: Fold the other triangle into the pocket

Step 10: 

And Done...

Now you can decorate the bookmark to look like a cute animal of your choice and add small paper features to it, or you can draw a pattern of your choice on it for decoration. 

And yes after the entire exercise don't forget to wash your hands clean from all the glue or pen marks you would have gathered on your hands.

I hope you also enjoy making this animal bookmark and keep yourself safe while we all fight the pandemic together.

Have a good day.

Learn to make Origami Blossom Heart in 12 Steps

The most important thing in life is to learn how to give love out and to let it in...With this thought let us all welcome all the love and learn to live harmoniously with each other...

This tutorial contains 12 steps to make the origami heart with clear instructions and pictures to help you understand clearly.


Material Required : 

• Origami sheet or craft paper

For this tutorial, the size of the paper used is 21.0 cm x 10.5 cm rectangular sheet.

Steps for making the origami blossom heart

Step 01 :

Take the rectangular sheet, fold in half vertically. You can see the crease in the center of the picture below.

01 -  Fold the sheet into half

Step 02 :

You have two squares. Take the first half and make diagonal mountain folds as shown below.

02 - Make diagonal mountain folds on each part of the squares

Repeat the same in the other half of the square sheet as well.

Step 03 :

Make a vertical crease or valley fold at the center of each square.

03 - Make vertical valley folds as indicated by dotted lines on each of the squares

Step 04 :

Then follow the creases squash fold it to get double triangular bases.

04a - Follow the creases to squash fold it further

04b - Squash fold to get two triangular bases 

Step 05:

Note the lines made on one of the triangular flaps. Fold the flaps as shown in the picture below.

05a - Fold the flaps upwards

Step 06 :

Open the triangles one by one and squash fold one by one to get mini squares as shown below.

06 - Squash fold to get squares on each flap

Repeat the squash fold on every flap to get four mini squares as shown below.

06a - Squash fold to get mini squares on each flap

Step 07 :

Fold the flaps following the lines indicated on each square flaps.

07a - Note the lines on each flap for making the next folds

After making the folds this is how it should look like.

07b - Follow the lines to make the folds as shown in the picture

Step 08 :

Open flaps and squash fold each of them. 

08a - Open each flap and squash the tips as shown

 Repeat this step on each of the flaps.

08b - Open the flaps and squash fold the tips on each of the flaps

Step 09 :

Turn over

09 - Turn over

Step 10 :

Fold in the triangular part backward. 

10 - Fold up the flap as shown

Step 11 :

Fold in the two edges as shown and you can see the heart taking its shape.

11 - Fold in the two edges 

Step 12 : 

All you need to do is flip over the entire assembly and the blossom heart is ready.

12 - Flip over

You can place a star/bead/button in the center to make it look more pretty.

Place decoration of your choice

Tips for use:

You can use this beautiful origami for gift toppers, decorating cards or simply as a bookmark.

Make one today and gift it to your loved ones. Keep spreading the love...

Have a nice day. 

And Happy Origaming!

25 different ways to sketch a Christmas tree

Hi there,

Christmas is long gone...and the new year has just begun...so I am a little late in posting this sketching tutorial. Maybe you can learn and use it for the next Christmas...If your child loves to draw, this is one activity that keep him/her occupied for a long time. 

Actually I sketched these for my daughter during the Christmas vacations itself. She was making some greeting cards for her friends during the Christmas break, and was out of ideas. She wanted to draw a Christmas tree differently in every card. So, there I was helping her out. The sketches are very easy to make involving just a few lines.

Picture 01: Pencil Sketches - Christmas tree

You can make use of different shapes and feel free to sketch them. Have a look at picture 02 below. The first five in the entire set makes use of only triangles. It gets a little complicated as we move down towards other options. The 6th one is just a bunch of rectangles, starting from the top, they get bigger as we go down. The 8th one is like a wiggly snake. 9th option is again very simple; begin with a central spine and add a triangle to it. From 10th to 16th, you add the curves to get the spruce effect. the 18th option is just a pile of circles, while the 19th is again just a triangle with a star on the top. Easy ain't it?

Go to 21st option, and its just two triangles one above the other. 

Picture 02: Pencil sketches Colored - Christmas tree

24th option is just adding some eyes and mouth to give it a cartoon look. Children love to draw cartoons. And this one turned out to be a favorite option preferred by my child. The last option is just curvy lines.

Xmas tree sketching - cartoon version

Turns out my daughter used at least 10 of these sketches to make her cards. So my effort was not in vain. 

If you love drawing and sketching, do try them out. I am sure you will come up with more ideas to draw a Christmas tree. 

Hope this tutorial was helpful. Thank you for stopping by.

Have a good day...

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Easy Origami Rose tutorial for kids

Come September...so now it is warm rather than the sun blasting its heat on the head, the grass is cooler. A new month has come, and as we try to forget the summer, here's a  new origami tutorial...yes after a long time I suppose. Well, lets say I was busy managing my summer time with some freelancing projects and there was hardly any time to pursue a hobby. But then, here I am back with a mini origami tutorial for kids. It is a paper rose made from two different sheets of paper and is a rather easy tutorial. I shall try posting more tutorials in between work, no promises though!

For now, let's learn to make an easy origami rose. It's so easy that anyone who doesn't like too many folds can also make it. 

Origami Rose Tutorial by Art Hours

You will need two square sheets - one for the rose and one for the leaf.

Procedure to make the rose flower:

Here we have used a 4" pink colored paper with one side white. Start with the white side on the top.

• Step 01- Make a horizontal and vertical crease along the center of the paper
• Step 02 - Now fold all the four corners to meet at the centre
• Step 03 - Fold in the tips as shown in the figure.
• Step 04 - Fold the four corners backwards along the hidden lines shown to give shape to the flower and that's done.

Let's make the leaf now. 

Procedure to make the leaf:
Here we have used a 3" square green color sheet.

• Step 01 - Make a diagonal crease along the centre.
• Step 02 - Fold the top corners to meet at the centre.
• Step 03 - Note the crease in the picture for the next fold.
• Step 04 - Fold the lower flaps to meet at the centre.
• Step 05 - Fold the leaf into half.
• Step 06 - Pocket fold along the hidden lines and the leaf is ready.

So here's how it will look like, once the two units are assembled. 

Origami Rose Flower

This is an easy flower to fold, so do give it a try.

You can use this origami flower model to decorate and make greeting cards. The options are endless, just be creative.

Hope this tutorial is helpful.

Thank you for stopping by. Have a good day.

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Learn to make Origami Heart Clover for decoration this Valentine

Looking for last minute ideas for Handmade gifts or decorations for this Valentine's?

You have landed on the right page...Through this post today, you will learn to fold an origami Heart Clover that you can use to make decorations for cards, gift toppers and more...

Category: Modular Origami

Level of difficulty: On a scale of 5,  I would give it a 3.

Heart Clover Origami

Below is a picture tutorial, followed by a written step by step explanation, that will guide you to make this model.

Material used:

8.75cm x 8.75cm square sheets cut out from the printer paper. Requires 4 such square units. You can use any square sized sheets depending upon the requirement.

Procedure:

Steps to follow as per the picture above for making the Clover unit. 

If you are using a two-sided different colored paper, start with white side on the top and proceed with the instructions in the same way.

Heart Clover Unit 

Instructions to make the Heart Clover Unit:

1. Fold in half along the centers to make the horizontal and vertical creases and then open it. Note the hidden lines for the fold in the next step.
2. Fold in as shown.
3. Turn over and note the hidden lines for the next fold.
4. Fold along the hidden lines to meet at the centre.
5. Turn over and note the hidden lines to make the next fold.
6. Fold along the hidden lines.
7. Now focus on the upper part of the unit. Squash open the folds and fold as shown.
8. Note the hidden lines for the next fold.
9. Fold in both the sides along the hidden lines to meet at the centre.
10. Fold in the top triangles along the indicated hidden lines.
11. Turn over and one heart unit is ready.

Heart Clover Model Assembly

Instructions to assemble the model:

1. Follow the instructions above and make a total of 4 units.
2. Insert units one by one, below each other as shown in the picture above and glue them. The heart clover model is ready.

You can use this origami model to make greeting cards or decorate the gifts by using them as gift toppers and gift them to your dear and near ones this Valentine's season. Your friends will love receiving gifts made by hand and if it is such a pretty thing, your efforts will surely be appreciated.

Hope this tutorial inspires you to make many such beautiful origami models.

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a nice day ahead and... yes...wishing you all a very Happy Valentine's Day. 

Keep folding and spreading peace and love.

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Origami Tutorial: Sonobe unit and a glimpse into Sonobe Variations

The last few months have been a great journey while we explored the world of 3D and modular origami. In the process, we discovered beautiful models designed by several origami artists around the world. Most popular is, of course, the Sonobe model. On digging out the internet we found that their origin is still unknown. Two of the possible creators could be Toshie Takohama and Mitsunobu Sonobe, who have published several books together and are members of the Origami Group. 

The beauty of the Sonobe unit lies in its flexibility to combine in several different combinations that can be used to build a simple triangular bipyramid, cube, trisoctahedron to many complicated polyhedrons. Origami artists around the world have experimented with this basic unit and have built several variations using the same unit. 

Here's a picture tutorial you can follow to make a Sonobe unit.

Sonobe Unit: Picture Tutorial by Art Hours

The model made of three units results in a triangular bipyramid. Using six units results in a cube. Using twelve Sonobe units, results in a triakis octahedron.  Using 30 units you can make a triakis icosahedron. 

Here's a picture of a bipyramid (also called a dipyramid) that was built using 3 Sonobe units. Only 3 units were used to build the bipyramid which has 6 triangular faces and hence can also be called a hexahedron.

A Triangular Bipyramid using 3 sonobe units

Below is a picture of a cube that was built using 6 nos. of Sonobe units. This one has six square faces as visible in the picture.

Origami Cube using 6 Sonobe units

We found several models of the Sonobe on the internet and had fun building models from different types of variations. Below is a picture of a Trisoctahedron we built using 12 units of the Sonobe unit but its a slightly different variation of the Sonobe unit. The shape that resulted is actually an octahedron with triangular pyramids added on its every face. So, it has 8 extreme ends or tips and each tip has 3 triangular faces. Totally, it has 24 triangular faces.

We used magazine paper to build the model...one way of putting magazine paper to good use instead of throwing them away, and after all, recycling is the buzzword nowadays!

Trisoctahedron made from 12 units - variation of Sonobe unit

Here are two more models using the same variation of Sonobe unit used above for the trisoctahedron. The cube was made using 6 units and the Triambic Icosahedron was made using 30 units.

Left Front: Cube using 6 units
Right Back: Triambic Icosahedron using 30 units

We tried out several other variations too. Below is something splendid we tried using other variations developed by Maria Sinayskaya. She calls it the Rose Kusudama. You will find the model diagrams on her website. By the way kusudama is a Japanese word which means medicine balls (kusuri means medicine and tama means a ball in Japanese). They were used for incense and potpourri; nowadays typically used as decorations or gifts.

The first model you see in the picture below is a yellow rose kusudama, made from 12 nos. of 1:2 rectangular sheets. The second model is a pink rose kusudama, made from 12 nos. square sheets. Personally, I loved the second model, as it turns out to be a sturdy one. 

Rose Kusudama using 12 nos. 1:2 Rectangular sheet

Rose Kusudama using 12 nos. Square sheet

We are still exploring many other origami models and designing our own variations too.

Our journey is Origami is getting interesting day by day...keep visiting us more often to learn and explore the art world. 

Stay with us, learn, like and share. Your valuable comments and feedback are welcome.

Follow us on Instagram to explore what we are working on currently: www.instagram.com/archguide16 or stop by our FB page:fb.me/arthours to explore our tutorials and student workshops.

Thank you for stopping by.

Have a good day...

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