How to Draw Edited by Myrehas, Ben Rubenstein, Tom Viren, dot cpp and 142 others 1K+ Article

Edit Discuss Do you want to build up your drawing skills? Whether you dream of becoming a gre at artist or are simply looking to give your own imagination a creative outlet, drawing is a beautiful way of expressing your individuality and observing the de tails of the world around you. This article should help you. Draw Edit Steps Part 1: Drawing Basics 1 Draw what you see. Start with simple objects (like the classic bowl of fruit ) or common objects and progress to more complicated subjects an intricately sha ped table, for instance, or people's faces. The better you get at drawing real-l ife objects, the better you'll eventually be at putting ideas on paper. For example, let's say you get an idea for a comic book character. You c an imagine every detail the expression on their face, the emotion in their eyes, the pose that represents who this character is but if you haven't been practici ng with faces, eyes, and poses, you'll have a hard time recording this character on paper in a way that matches with the image you have in your head. Instead of going big or elaborate in the beginning, focus on the small a nd simple. Take a bowl of fruit, or a house, or a mountain range, and practice r eplicating these objects with just a pencil. Draw different versions of the same thing. If you're drawing a mountain range, for example, do a little evaluation of your first drawing. Figure out what's right and what's wrong, or have a frien d tell you which parts of the mountain look unnatural or need improvement. Once you have a list of the things you can improve on, draw the mountain range again. This time, improve on the parts you didn't draw well the first time. Think of yourself like a chef. When a chef learns a new recipe, he often spends days or weeks only cooking that recipe. It makes for pretty boring eatin g, but he's able to perfect his dish by the end of the week. Don't get discourag ed when your dish doesn't come out perfectly right away. It takes a while to get things right. 2 Draw as often as you can. The more you practice, the better you'll get. Even when you're concentrating on something else but your hands are free (being on t he phone is the perfect opportunity to doodle) take a piece of paper and a penci l and start drawing basic shapes. Practice with basic, elemental shapes in the beginning. These basic shap es will form the basis of many harder shapes as you continue drawing. Mastering them will make your journey going forward more meaningful and productive. Draw circles, squares, triangles, rectangles, etc. Challenge yourself pr ogressively by making these shapes as perfect as possible. Then challenge yourse lf some more by drawing variations of a shape: different sizes of circles and sq uares, different kinds of rectangles and triangles. With enough repetition (and crumpled sheets in the recycling bin), you s hould reach a point where you could comfortably draw most shapes. To heighten th is basic skill, draw curves and curls as well. Try doing springs and spirals and various loops, curlicues and garlands, paying attention to the consistency of y our curves.

Part 2: Concepts You Should Master 1 Make a rough sketch. If you're drawing a tree, don't draw one leaf at time. Otherwise, it's easy to get caught up in drawing one section of the object and f orget about the "big picture" so that you end up running out of room, or, more o ften, your drawing ends up looking unattractively imbalanced. Use light, repeated strokes. Keep things loose, and don't worry about mi stakes. You're trying to get the general idea right, not a perfect facsimile. Co mpare, adjust, and improve what you ultimately have. If you're drawing a real object, cross check what you have on paper with the original object. Make sure that the sizes of the shapes relative to each ot her are as accurate as possible. Imagine what you want the tree to look like ultimately, and make a light sketch with a pencil. You can draw an outline of your intended drawing, or you can draw its "skeleton" (as is often done with drawing bodies). A great method is to imagine the basic shapes the object is made of. In other words, break the object apart in your mind. A tree, in most cases, is an o val or triangle centered on top of a cylinder. Draw both shapes in 3D so that yo u can fill in the details later, while maintaining the proportions you want. 2 Elaborate on your sketch. Use heavier/darker line to bring out the parts of the drawing you need, and use an eraser to take out the lines you don't need. Ad d details, bit by bit, making sure to frequently step back and look at your draw ing as a whole to make sure it's coming along the way you want it to. Learn and experiment with several techniques, which can enhance your ability to express id eas through drawing. Draw with shading. Shading means the differences in light and color. Thi nk about the way the light hits an object and which parts of the object are ligh t or dark as a result. This can add luminosity, intensity, and depth to a drawin g. Picture a bowling ball in the foreground and the sun, right as it's begi nning to set, in the background. Since the sun is close to the horizon, the ligh t is going to be hitting the bowling ball from a very low angle, as opposed to h igh angle (where the sun would be at around noon on a sunny day). This means tha t in order to capture the light hitting the bowling ball, you're going to need t o shade the top of the bowling ball lighter than the bottom, because the sun won 't hit the bottom directly. Practice with the shadows. If you want to get very realistic drawings, s tudy the way that light reflects from objects, including the shadows that it lea ves. Shadows can be almost mirror images of the object, or they can be stretched out, diagonal, and distorted. Pay attention to the type of shadows that the sun makes in real life, and try to duplicate that in your drawings. 3 Add touches of realism. Even if you ultimately want to draw cartoons or cari catures, you'll need to know what makes an object appear realistic in your drawi ngs. If you want your drawings to appear more life-like, then mastering these pr actices is key. Familiarize yourself with perspective. Perspective is the idea that thin gs that are further away appear smaller, and things that are closer up appear bi gger. If you are drawing a large object (such as a building) or a complicated sc ene (such as a neighborhood), it's especially important to understand perspectiv e, unless you want your drawing to appear cartoon-like. Focusing on perspective when drawing small, simple objects (a cube, a stack of books) is an excellent ex ercise in drawing. Get to know proportions. Proportion is the way different parts of an obj ect relate to each other in terms of size. Proportion can affect how realistic t

he drawing is perceived to be. Use measuring techniques like a grid method or ti ck marks for accurate proportions. Altering proportions by exaggerating some asp ects and minimizing others can convey unique ideas, or represent a certain style of drawing. Characters in caricatures and anime, for example, have exaggerated eyes or proportionally large faces. Experiment with getting proportions of objec ts and people right before you turn them on their head. Play with color. Color adds a different dimension to a piece. Contrast, blending, saturation, and color schemes make some drawings more lively, or more realistic, or abstract, depending on how the color is applied. If you're interes ted, start mixing watercolors and acrylics. Blend unlikely colors and see which new ones come up. Photocopy some of your drawings, play with different colors, a nd see how the end result changes depending on which colors you use. Part 3: Materials, Recording, and Timed Drawing 1 What you need to start out. For the beginner, sketch paper will probably wor k best; very smooth paper will give you better detail, but "toothier" paper hold s the graphite from your pencil better. Pencils come in a scale of hardness, from "hard" pencils, like H, to "so ft," like 9B. Hard pencils are low in tones, which means the ability to go from light to dark. Soft pencils, on the other hand, have lots of tones, meaning the pressure you put on the pencil affects the lightness of the line. Try sketching with a 6B or an 8B, a relatively soft pencil, so that pressing down the pencil h arder will create darker tones. Once you're ready, try drawing with charcoal. Charcoal comes in a compre ssed stick or in pencil form. Harder charcoal produces a gray tint, while softer charcoal smudges easier. Use charcoal in the same way that you'd use a pencil. Charcoal, however, can be more expressive than pencil. Use it to capture sweepin g gestures and motions, or use it to create deep shading. If you plan on paintin g a canvas, charcoal can serve as a great outline before you put paint to canvas . 2 Keep your work. Make a place where you can put all of your drawings, or keep it all together in an art journal. Doing this will help you review your progres s. The more you get used to drawing, the more you'll be able to see what your fl aws are and determine how to correct them. Also, as you continue drawing, you'll develop your own personal style. It's always interesting to look back and see h ow your ability to express yourself has grown. Don't let yourself down. When you practice you can make it perfect. 3 Try a timed gesture drawing. If you find yourself struggling with proportion , annoyed that your poses are stiff and worst of all making and mistakes that yo ur conscious mind knows better not to do, this is a great way to break that cycl e. Get a kitchen timer. Set it for five minutes. Choose a subject that's not goi ng to move like a silk rose, something a little challenging that you're fond eno ugh of it to draw it more than once. It helps if you really like the subject. Us ing a soft (B grade or 2B or 4B, any of the B pencils) pencil, try to sketch it within five minutes or two minutes. Set a specific time period no longer than fi ve minutes. When the buzzer goes off, stop even if it's not finished. Try again on a fresh part of the page. Each time you try to draw something within five minutes, you'll observe something different about it and concentrate. You'll be correcting mistakes with out bothering to go back and erase them. This method is especially good for drawing people since it's not hard to get a friend to pose for a two minute "gesture sketch" as opposed to making the m sit still for an hour.

Once you have done gesture sketches of a subject, giving yourself a long er time like fifteen minutes will feel like you have forever to get it right. Yo u'll probably finish before the time is up. This is very good practice for being able to draw outdoors when the light can change in half an hour. Try drawing your cat or dog while it's sleeping in short gesture drawing s. Two minutes is about as long as a sleeping animal holds still before it rolls over or moves in its sleep. Try drawing something simple like a pencil. Things that are common and e asy to draw. Practice the object you chose a few times until it looks right. The n, once you think it looks right, go on to a harder thing such as a human face. Add method 1. Add Method