Tips On How To Learn Drawing
Why should you learn drawing in this digital time? There’s a reason why every single drawing class starts off with simple pencil and paper. While I believe you can technically learn drawing in a digital medium, it’s definitely harder. And if you can draw in pencil, you can draw in any medium you want to.
Drawing is a skill which develops as you practice. You’re not alone when you say that you’re terrible at drawing. Here’s some tips on how you should start your artist career and chase your dream.
Draw a lot.
Don’t be precious about materials. Don’t use fancy art board or moleskines. Get a big newsprint pad or a stack of cheap legal pads from Staples. You want to draw as much and as quickly as possible, without being worried about wasting expensive paper.
Draw fearlessly.
Use a pen or Sharpie. No erasers, no correcting fluid. Fill the page completely as fast as you can. Use loose scribbles and gestures. Don’t sweat details. Use The Force — let go your feelings. Get it right the first time or start over. Try to push each drawing to completion, but if you’re really not happy with where it’s going, toss it in the recycling and move on. Also try drawing without looking at the page. Get ready to be pleasantly surprised by the result.
Draw light, not objects.
Squint your eyes at the scene until all you can see are big blobs of light and dark. Draw those. Try to ignore boundaries of objects; let those emerge out the natural boundaries of light and shadows.
Draw repetitively.
Get a stack of 3×5 index cards. Set up a simple still-life, a bowl of fruit or whatever, and draw it on every single index card. Do it from different angles, distances, etc. Use simple lines and don’t spend more than two minutes on each one.
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Observation
The real World is your biggest resource. I am not suggesting that everything you draw has to be realistic, but that is a good place to start. You have to observe details and try to replicate them onto paper. This helps build both skill and imagination.
Draw everything.
Bowls of fruit and people are always nice, but try drawing whatever’s around: rocks, tangled computer cables, a brick wall, a rumpled bedsheet, wrappers and packaging, flaking paint, a movie poster, other works of art, a comic book page, an eggbeater, the underside of a table. Imitate other artists you admire. Copy your favorites as exactly as possible.
Imagination
If you are drawing something from your imagination, your imagination better be more detailed than “girl in white dress”. The more clearly you see it in your mind, the better your drawing will be.
Expression
This is the point where you express yourself through your art. Your art depicts more than a scene, it shows your thoughts and emotions. There are no rules to this. It has very little to do with pencil and paper and a lot more to do with exploring yourself.
There’s no such thing as “talent.”
Everybody who draws well got there by practicing, practicing, practicing, formally or informally. The only thing that separates you from the masters is the Gladwellian ten thousand hours. Get to it, and have fun.
And if you have a Pinterest account, pin this 😉
Author’s Note:
All you need is a keen eye, a lot of curiosity, plenty of imagination, and a ready set of drawing stuff, like assorted sketchbooks, pens and pencils.
In general, just keep drawing, regardless of what of. You’ll only get better the more you draw. It’s a process but a truly wonderful one.
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