Learning to draw

Learning to draw only requires that you follow a few simple rules. Though the rules are simple, they must be followed faithfully, consistently, and persistently. There are no shortcuts. However, it is not difficult, in fact, it is fun.

First: Get into the habit of always having a sketch pad and pencil or pen with you and draw everything you see and every chance you get. Don't merely look at what you are drawing, but observe it, analyze it, and remember what you see. We see in three dimensions, but we must interpret what we see in the two dimensional plane of our paper.

Second: Practice with a ball point or felt tip pen rather than a pencil. The pen forces you to be more accurate in your strokes as you draw because you can not erase. If you make a mistake, simply re-draw a new line over the mistaken one. This helps you to see your mistakes as you correct them. The same can be done with pencil if you can kick the habit of erasing and re-drawing. This is all in practice drawing.

When going for a finished pencil drawing you will want to use light pencil strokes to block out your subject and then as you see that everything is looking right you can use heavier strokes to delineate the subject.

Third: Such exercises as continuous line drawing, drawing of basic geometrical shapes, and light/shadow studies can be of great value to you.

*Continuous Line Drawing: Draw your subject with a single line without lifting the pen or pencil from the paper from start to finish. The results might not look like much at first, but with practice you'll get better at it. This is great for developing greater hand/eye coordination. As you get used to drawing this way try it without looking at the paper until you are finished, it's fun.

*Basic Geometric Shapes: The sphere or ball, pyramid or triangle, box or rectangle/square, cone, and cylinder are the basic shapes contained in everything that you will ever draw. For instance, a barn and silo are made up of nothing more than an oblong box with a triangular roof on top for the barn, and for the silo, a cylinder with a cone on top. The human body is basically a combination of modified spheres, cylinders, boxes and cones. Try to identify the basic shapes in everything.

*Light and Shadow Studies: Observe carefully the shadow areas of a strongly lighted subject and using a broad, flat marker block out only the shadows on your paper. Do not draw any outline for the light areas. You only want to emphasize the shadows. It will surprise you how well the subject can be defined by the use of shadow only. This exercise will teach you how to interpret your two dimensional drawing as a solid, three dimensional object. It can also help you recognize spatial relationships between various features of a subject; say in a face for instance: eyes, nose, mouth, etc.

Of course, the single most important thing to remember is practice, practice, practice! Theory is nothing until it is put into practice. It has been said that constant observation and practice drawing only an egg, day in and day out, can develop into the ability to draw anything that one can see. So start drawing, and drawing, and drawing, and have great fun!

Learn more about this author, Richard Ellis.
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