IMPROVING YOUR DRAWING SKILLS

IMPROVE YOUR DRAWING SKILLS

The more you practice drawing, the better you get, and the better your hand, eyes, and brain can harmonize together. Your hands become an instrument to help you record the world around you.

Here are some tips to improve drawing skills:

Practice

Practicing your drawing consistently is the number one thing that will improve your skill.

Draw something every day. It doesn’t have to be a masterpiece.

You can draw repetitive patterns, doodles, interlocking circles, pictures from magazines, anything that keeps your pencil moving.

Trace

Print off a picture of something you would like to draw and then trace over it numerous times.

This helps to build a muscle memory for curves and angles on the subject you want to draw and will help to quickly improve your drawing skills.

Also, you can use tracing paper to trace the subject and then transfer it to drawing paper. This will give you a more accurate line drawing to start with.

Use Reference Photos

It’s hard to get an accurate drawing of a specific object if we aren’t looking at it.

Using reference photos to see angles and shadows will make the drawing easier to render.

If you intend to exhibit or sell your drawings, be careful to only use reference photos that are not copyrighted. (I have a list of free reference photo sites in my group under ‘files’)

Just taking any picture you find on google without checking to see if it is free to use can end up getting you sued.

Paper

The quality of paper you use can make a big difference in how your drawing turns out. Regular printer paper is rough and will not give you a smooth blend of graphite for shading.

Most art supply stores carry drawing paper and sketch books.

Values

Value refers to the darkness or lightness of an object. Learning to see the values in an object will greatly improve your drawings and give them depth and movement.

Study different objects in different light sources to see the gradual changes in value.

 Shapes

Focus on drawing shapes at the beginning of a drawing, rather than outlines.

For example, if you are drawing a dog, draw a circle for the head, an oval for the body and rectangles for the legs. Then go from there, connecting the shapes and adding details.

Keep your initial shapes light so you can erase unnecessary lines as you go.

Stay Loose

Most of us hold our pencil close to the bottom and draw by moving their wrist. This constricts the range of motion and makes the drawing tight.

Try holding the pencil a little closer to the top and drawing with your shoulder, you will make the drawing looser and flow more.

This takes a little practice to get used to but you will be happier with the improvement to your drawing skills.

Avoid Smudges

Graphite and charcoal are soft and can be easily smudged and transferred to your hand and thus to the paper. You can avoid this by putting a piece of printer paper or tracing paper under your hand to protect the drawing.

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