by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: February 19, 2010

It is a great help to view learning to draw as if we were learning to read and write. In reading, we learn to decipher the symbols (words) and to translate them into ideas. In more advanced reading, we are capable of translating the symbolic representations of sentences and descriptive paragraphs into emotions or more complex ideas. With writing, we learn to do the opposite: to take ideas, feelings or objects and we translate them into the symbols that others can read.

With drawing, we read the world and then we write it. We visualize objects and learn their shapes, texture and context. When we want to draw a chair and table, we learn to draw the lines and planes of the furniture. We learn distances and proportions and ratios. We learn that light holds the answers to all things.

The first step to drawing is in observing. Look at the world and the objects in it. Learn to view how objects are composed, how they sit together or under or over each other. Observe how light or the absence of light creates depth and three dimensionality for solid objects. Observe how people stand, sit, and move. Observe how animals stand, sit and move. Observe shapes and how they break down into some form of square, circle or triangle; or cube, sphere, or cone. Observe complex shapes that may be oblongs, combinations of cube and circle and so on.

The most difficult things to draw are features of the face. Observe various facial features (without alarming people!) and how various mouths, noses, eyes, ears, and even hair are formed and shaped.

When ready to draw, first learn how to draw squares, triangles and rounds. Practicing them, making them larger and larger until you can draw them freehand and with accuracy is the equivalent to learning and practicing the scales on the piano. Then learn to shade the shapes, so that they become cones, spheres and cubes. It is easy to set the shapes up on a table and to light them with a strong lamp, so that the shadows are obvious. Then, light them with weaker light or with multiple light sources, and learn how to recognize the things that happen with multiiple shadows and reflected light.

Learn the basics of perspective. When we take a square piece of wood, we know how the shape changes as we look down on it, up from under it, and at various angles. Books are a good way to learn the principles of perspective, and it is not very hard.

When drawing a still life, put together objects that you love, then light them. Sit at

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