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Drawing a Japanese beetle
When you think of Japanese rural life, one of the first things that comes to mind might be the abundance of bugs scurrying around. Japan is home to many bugs you can only find there, and while they might not be too present in big cities such as Tokyo or Kyoto, once you visit more rural areas, you’ll be sure to notice them! Japanese children often grow up catching beetles and other bugs to study and collect them. Some children make them fight each other to see who has the strongest insects. You can even find bugs in stores as pets. This activity is called mushitori, which translates to bug catching. Did you know that Pokémon, an immensely popular Japanese series of comics, TV series, games and more, was based on bug catching? The creator of the Pokémon series loved catching bugs as a kid! We prefer drawing bugs instead of catching them, though. In this step-by-step plan, we show you how you can draw your own Japanese rhinoceros beetle (also known as the Japanese horned beetle or kabutomushi (カブトムシ)). Let’s get started drawing this impressive bug!
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Kingfisher
This step-by-step plan, created by our colleague Siona from the Royal Talens Experience Centre, contains some very useful tips on how to build up your sketch and colours to recreate a reference photo. Learn how to create your own colourful kingfisher using these sketching and layering techniques. Let’s get started!
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Travel-friendly art supplies
Traveling can be a great source of inspiration for artists. Whether you’re into urban sketching, painting landscapes, botanical drawings or still life paintings, they’re all great things to do during a trip abroad or in your own country. If you want to travel lightly, however, it’s not always practical to take all of your art supplies with you. That’s why we’ve picked out some handy travel-friendly art supplies that are small enough to take with you in your hand luggage or backpack. Let’s explore the possibilities!
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Colouring page Fruit
Colouring pages are always a blast, but a colouring page in which you can use all of your coloured pencils is even more fun! And better yet: once you’ve coloured all the pictures, you can use them to play not 1 but 2 different games: Lotto and Memory. Are there more than two players? Just print out some extra pages for even more colouring fun. Good luck!
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Cherry blossoms
Cherry blossoms are beautiful little flowers that symbolise spring, a time of renewal and the fleeting nature of life, because the blossoms only last for about two weeks each year. Since their lifespan is so short, cherry blossoms are admired for their tragic beauty. In Japan, the period in which the cherry blossoms bloom is celebrated by eating and drinking under the cherry blossom trees. This tradition is called hanami (花見), which literally translates to flower viewing. Did you know that Sakura, the name of our Japanese brand, means cherry blossom? In this step-by-step plan, our colleague Siona from the Royal Talens Experience Centre, shows us how to create your own cherry blossoms on black paper using Sakura Gelly Roll Moonlight gel pens. These vibrant gel pens with opaque ink show up well on any colour of paper, including black!
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Anime-inspired drawings
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Sakura, our Japanese brand, in 2021, we would like to share these anime-inspired drawings with you. This year, Sakura announces a different Japanese theme each month for their art contest on social media. Our ambassador Kamariya, also known as Kamerim, has made a video of her creating several drawings relating to April’s theme: pop culture. Watch the video below to see how she created drawings inspired by scenes from Studio Ghibli’s movies: Howl’s Moving Castle, Whisper of the Heart and Spirited Away. Sit back, relax and be inspired!
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Boro & sashiko patchwork
What is boro & sashiko? Boro & sashiko are a combination of traditional Japanese styles of patchworking. Boro (ぼろ) refers to different pieces of textile that have been stitched or re-woven together to create new items of clothing. The term comes from the Japanese word “boroboro”, meaning something tattered or ripped. Sashiko (刺し子), literally meaning “little stabs”, is a type of traditional Japanese embroidery or stitching used as both a functional and decorative way to reinforce clothing. Although these techniques may be centuries old, they are making a comeback with the current uprise in vintage, second-hand and upcycled fashion. Modern-day boro & sashiko items are comprised of bright, colourful patches and contrasting stitching to create new, fashionable clothing. This step-by-step plan is heavily inspired by the combination of these two Japanese patchwork techniques. Though the term refers to sewing textile together, why not try something like this with old drawings? By using old drawings in a patchwork technique, all the different parts become one new artwork. To add the sashiko, or stitching part of boro & sashiko, and to make your work more cohesive, you can “embroider” your patchwork of drawings using Gelly Roll or other pens. This is an incredibly fun and relaxing thing to do, so let’s get into it!
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Tokyo fashion
A big part of Japanese pop culture is fashion. In the streets of Tokyo, everything is possible! From elaborate dresses and accessories to colourful outfits, we love the creativity people show. What we find especially inspiring, however, are the shoes. Intricate designs, interesting colours and sky-high platforms, anything to express yourself can be found in Tokyo’s shoes. In this step-by-step plan, we show you how to draw your own colourful Tokyo-proof shoes! Let’s get into it!
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Japanese tea room
A tea room or chashitsu (茶室) is a traditional Japanese space designed to be used for tea ceremonies. The term can be used for free-standing tea houses, but also for individual rooms intended for tea ceremonies. Since they are significant elements of Japanese culture and have been for ages, tea rooms are a popular subject for traditional drawings and prints. In this step-by-step plan we will show you how to recreate your own Japanese-inspired tea room! Since the drawings from the Japanese antiquity are often perfectly straight, we decided to imitate these straight lines by cutting them. Let's begin!
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Drawing shadows
In this step-by-step plan, we will show you how you can add light to a drawing by creating shadows. Using five steps, we will explain how to utilise shadows when drawing a plant. To create this drawing, we used Van Gogh coloured pencils, since they are lightfast, as opposed to other coloured pencils. This means your work will stay in the same condition for years to come, without discolouration!
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Relaxing kimono patterns
The kimono is a traditional Japanese garment that is still often seen in modern Japan. The garment is shaped like a T with square sleeves and a rectangular body and features a wrapped front. The word kimono is made up of the words ki from the verb ‘to wear’ and mono from the noun ‘thing’, so it literally translates to ‘thing to wear’. Kimonos come in various styles based on occasion, season, gender, age and more! Materials and patterns vary greatly as well. In this step-by-step plan, we will show you how to create your own kimono-inspired drawing with a focus on different patterns. Relax and lose the stress of everyday life by drawing these therapeutic patterns and create a lovely kimono! You can use this technique to add patterns to your illustrations or on its own. Have fun!
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Portrait in primary colours
The primary colours red, blue and yellow are the source of all other colours on the colour wheel. They cannot be created by mixing together other colours. Primary colours form the secondary colours: orange, green and violet when two colours adjacent to each other on the colour wheel are mixed. Besides being colours, the primary colours can be used as tones as well. In this step-by-step plan, we show you how you can use primary colours to create depth and contrast in a portrait. We used grey-toned paper to provide a contrast between the paper and the lightest colour. This would not work as well on plain white paper. At the end of the plan, you will see what the primary colours look like when converted to greyscale!
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Drawing perspective
Have you ever tried drawing a building or street, but not quite getting the perspective to look right? With this tutorial you can learn how to add depth and perspective to your drawing in steps. Draw with us and create your own urban drawing of a street in Rome!
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Urban life
Since Tokyo is the world’s largest city with its 37 million inhabitants, while also battling land scarcity and high property prices, Japanese architects have no choice but to become very creative in utilizing the tiniest spaces to invent new forms of urban living. The amazing tiny house in this drawing, for example, can actually be found in downtown Tokyo! This minimalistic building is called the “Reflection of Mineral” due to its interesting shape and bright white exterior. It was designed in this shape because of the client’s wish to have a garage with their home. Unusual architecture is a great subject for urban sketches such as the one in this step-by-step plan. If you need inspiration, you can find many interesting examples of tiny houses in Japan online!
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A girl with flowers in her hair, drawing a portrait in colour pencils
Drawing realistic portraits is notoriously difficult to pull off. Have you always wanted to draw a beautiful portrait using coloured pencils? This step-by-step plan will teach you some very useful tips and tricks to practise your portrait drawing skills! Pick out a reference photo you would like to draw and let’s begin! To make this plan a little easier to follow, we divided the artwork into three parts: the face, the hair and the flower hair accessory.
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Bloom
Bloom! Sometimes I like to go back to my origins and add text to my flower illustratons. Let’s play with different sizes of Pigma Micron to create a beautiful double-page spread artwork in your sketchbook.
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Rose
A rose symbolizes love and romance. These beautiful flowers may also be in your garden. The botanical drawing technique helps you to show specific characteristics of a plant or flower. You try to do this as realistically as possible and this is how you approach the plant or flower in your garden. In this step-by-step plan we draw a rose with fineliner / brush pens, watercolor and pencil. The rose is not yet in bloom, but is still in the bud.
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Chestnut
Autumn brings a lot of colors and therefore inspiration. Nature gives you new insights to develop your creativity. Take a look around which plant or flower you would like to draw. In this step-by-step plan we draw a chestnut with fineliner / brush pens, watercolor brush and pencil. A botanical drawing in which we show specific characteristics of the plant or flower. As realistic as possible.
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Rose hips
Botanical drawing is a technique in which you show specific characteristics of a plant or flower. You try to do this as realistic as possible and in this way you can draw the plants or flowers that are in your own garden. In this step-by-step plan we draw a rose hip with fineliner / brush pens, watercolour brush and pencil.
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Turtle Colouring Page
Looking for a creative indoor activity to do with your children? This colouring page may be just the thing for you!
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Colour mixing chart
The Fineliner / Brush pens from Bruynzeel are available in 72 colours! By mixing the colours with a watercolour brush, you can make many more colours. This is how you make your creations unique! The mixing schedule will get you started.
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The Nutcracker Colouring Page
Enjoy colouring the nutcracker with your kids in the coming holidays. Take your colour pencils en felt tips and start colouring! Which colours will you use for the presents?
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Kids Colouring Pages
Four cheerful colouring pages for children to colour with Bruynzeel colour pencils or felt-tips. The drawings are simple so that even the little ones can color them.
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Flower Colouring Page
A beautiful flower image for colouring with, for example, Bruynzeel colour pencils or felt-tips. With this colouring page for adults you can relax in a free moment during a busy day or during your vacation.
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Mandala Colouring Page
Unwind completely while colouring this floral pattern mandala. A mandala colouring page for adults which you can colour with for example colour pencils or felt tips.
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Cactus
Draw together with Bruynzeel this fun cactus. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a cactus.
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Seal
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute seal. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a seal.
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Trophy
Draw together with Bruynzeel this trophy for you mom or dad. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a trophy.
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Bird
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute bird. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a bird.
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Fox
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute fox. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a fox.
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Jellyfish
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute jellyfish. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a jellyfish.
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Bat
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute bat. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a bat.
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Panda
Draw together with Bruynzeel this cute panda. With this step-by-step plan, everyone can draw a panda.
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