How to Draw

Three Parts:Drawing BasicsConcepts You Should MasterMaterials, Recording, and

Timed DrawingQuestions and Answers
Do you want to improve your drawing skills? Whether you dream of becoming a
great 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 details
of the world around you. This article should help you.
Part 1
Drawing Basics
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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 shaped
table, for instance, or people's faces. The better you get at drawing real-life 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 can
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 practicing 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 and
simple. Take a bowl of fruit, or a house, or a mountain range, and practice
replicating 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 friend 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. If you want after a few
weeks and your drawing skills improve, draw the same picture again. See how much
you've improved!
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 eating, but he's
able to perfect his dish by the end of the week. Don't get discouraged when your
dish doesn't come out perfectly right away. It takes a while to get things right.
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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 the
phone is the perfect opportunity to doodle) take a piece of paper and a pencil and
start drawing basic shapes.
Practice with basic, elemental shapes in the beginning. These basic shapes 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

progressively by making these shapes as perfect as possible. Then challenge
yourself some more by drawing variations of a shape: different sizes of circles and
squares, different kinds of rectangles and triangles.
With enough repetition (and crumpled sheets in the recycling bin), you should
reach a point where you could comfortably draw most shapes. To heighten this 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 your curves.
Part 2
Concepts You Should Master
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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 forget
about the "big picture" so that you end up running out of room, or, more often, your
drawing ends up looking unattractively imbalanced.
Use light, repeated strokes. Keep things loose, and don't worry about mistakes.
You're trying to get the general idea right, not a perfect facsimile. Compare, 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 other 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 oval or
triangle centered on top of a cylinder. Draw both shapes in 3D so that you can fill in
the details later, while maintaining the proportions you want.
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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. Add
details, bit by bit, making sure to frequently step back and look at your drawing 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 ideas through
drawing.
Draw with shading. Shading means the differences in light and color. Think
about the way the light hits an object and which parts of the object are light or dark
as a result. This can add luminosity, intensity, and depth to a drawing.
Picture a bowling ball in the foreground and the sun, right as it's beginning to
set, in the background. Since the sun is close to the horizon, the light is going to be
hitting the bowling ball from a very low angle, as opposed to high angle (where the
sun would be at around noon on a sunny day). This means that in order to capture
the light hitting the bowling ball, you're going to need to 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, study the
way that light reflects from objects, including the shadows that it leaves. 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.
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Add touches of realism. Even if you ultimately want to draw cartoons or
caricatures, you'll need to know what makes an object appear realistic in your
drawings. If you want your drawings to appear more life-like, then mastering these
practices is key.
Familiarize yourself with perspective. Perspective is the idea that things that
are further away appear smaller, and things that are closer up appear bigger, very
true. If you are drawing a large object (such as a building) or a complicated scene
(such as a neighborhood), it's especially important to understand perspective,
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 exercise in
drawing.
Get to know proportions. Proportion is the way different parts of an object
relate to each other in terms of size. Proportion can affect how realistic the drawing
is perceived to be. Use measuring techniques like a grid method or tick marks for
accurate proportions. Altering proportions by exaggerating some aspects 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 objects 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 interested, start mixing
watercolors and acrylics. Blend unlikely colors and see which new ones come up.
Photocopy some of your drawings, play with different colors, and see how the end
result changes depending on which colors you use.
Part 3
Materials, Recording, and Timed Drawing
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What you need to start out. For the beginner, sketch paper will probably work
best; very smooth paper will give you better detail, but "toothier" paper holds the
graphite from your pencil better.
Pencils come in a scale of hardness, from "hard" pencils, like H, to "soft," 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 harder will create darker
tones.
Once you're ready, try drawing with charcoal. Charcoal comes in a compressed
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 sweeping gestures

and motions, or use it to create deep shading. If you plan on painting a canvas,
charcoal can serve as a great outline before you put paint to canvas.
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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 progress. The
more you get used to drawing, the more you'll be able to see what your flaws 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 how your
ability to express yourself has grown. Don't let yourself down. When you practice
you can make it perfect.
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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 your
conscious mind knows better not to do, this is a great way to break that cycle. Get a
kitchen timer. Set it for five minutes. Choose a subject that's not going to move like
a silk rose, something a little challenging that you're fond enough of it to draw it
more than once. It helps if you really like the subject. Using 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 five 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 without
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 them sit still
for an hour.
Once you have done gesture sketches of a subject, giving yourself a longer
time like fifteen minutes will feel like you have forever to get it right. You'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 drawings. 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 easy
to draw. Practice the object you chose a few times until it looks right. Then, once
you think it looks right, go on to a harder thing such as a human face.
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Tips
Vary what you draw. For instance, work on drawing inanimate objects, then take a
break and work on people the next day. This keeps your brain fresh and prevents
you from becoming frustrated.
The joy of drawing is being able to draw freely, so go easy on yourself when you
feel you're not progressing as fast as you want to.
Try looking at the art styles of others for inspiration.
Date every sketch and draw on the back of the page. It's good for morale to see
how much you've improved, over weeks and months progress can become
dramatic.
Remember, as the famous author James A. Owen once said, "Drawing is just two
things, putting lines on paper, and deciding where they go."
Some of the best art has the best shading. If you master shading you're off to a
great start. Remember practice makes perfect.
Find inspiration in everything. News stories, landscapes, emotions, anything can
be drawn realistically or abstractly.
Don't draw with a lot of pressure on the paper because it will be harder to erase
any mistakes made and any errors may still be viable.
Pay attention to critique and use it to improve. It's common for amateurs to take
offense from critique however in the majority cases the person giving the critique
doesn't mean to hurt your feelings. Acknowledge flaws in your art and try to
overcome them.
Another secret to drawing realistic pictures is trying to make them look threedimensional. This is done not only with shading but texture and the direction of
lines. For example, if you draw a ball, make the lines curved.
Show 22 more tips
Warnings
Learn to distinguish helpful critique from discouragement. Critique is always
specific and usually provides suggestions to improve.
You should only present your work to those you know will encourage you. Ask
them to be honest, then improve using the feedback.
Always be open to critique if you are going to show your work.
Draw lightly or else you will be able to see it when you color or shade in. It
usually shows up more than what you think!