How To Begin Your Essential Drawing Skills

How to Begin Your Essentail Drawing Skills

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These are the fundamentals of drawing from step one through to several intermediate steps, where drawing skills can be developed to master the art of drawing. Without knowing these basics, a drawing will lack rhythm and style.

Steps

1. Some of these initial steps may appear to you far too basic, but try them anyway because it may lead you to discover other aspects you can use whilst developing your drawing skills.
   
2. You've probably heard many times “I can't even draw a straight line” and a straight line is rather mechanical so use a ruler if you want straight lines. The important thing about lines in a drawing is direction as all lines go in specific directions—or multiple directions--to give character to a drawing.
   
3. All paintings have form, value (light to dark), tone and color. If you strip all these away you are left with an outline of the forms with lines surrounding colors and values. So now you are left with a two-dimensional outline drawing. You can look at these as “boundary marks” which run in all directions. Some of them will be fairly straight and others curved.
   
4. Accuracy is less important than a sense of direction and that means varying distance and space between your lines especially angular forms. Without these in place your drawing will lack rhythm and structure.
   
5. Another important point about lines is they must have sensitivity which is the thickness or thinness in which your lines are drawn. Putting more pencil pressure on your paper gives a thicker or thinner line, a lighter or darker line. You will find in most beginners a lack of this sensitivity.
   
6. To start your line drawings, draw many lines flowing in all directions on your paper. Your lines should go from very light which you will obtain by pressing very lightly, to the darkest line where your pressure is very heavy—not too heavy that it breaks the lead. For these effects use a medium pencil, not too hard (HB) or too soft (4B) but something in between. Always, always keep you pencils sharp for crisp, clean lines.
   
7. Let's start off by putting together items you have around the house that are straight. A mug, a broomstick, a few books. Lean the broomstick against the table or bookcase so you have a few angles to play with. Get your angles correct by comparing one angle to the next.
   
8. Look for the negative shapes, that is not the actual shape of the object itself but the shapes between the objects. By comparing these, you will discover your drawing will be quite accurate. Follow along on WikiHow for how to develop more basic drawing skills.
   

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