Improve Your Drawing Skills
While you might be great at drawing, when it comes to refining your drawing skills, this requires dedicated practice rather than sheer talent. Fortunately, there are lots of things you can do to improve your drawing skills.
Contents
Steps
Using simple designs
- Draw shapes. Try drawing the five basic shapes..
- The five basic shapes are - Sphere, Pyramid, Rectangle, Cylinder and Cone. All drawings are derived from these five basic shapes
- Draw the shapes in different sizes and proportions and angles
- Practice shading with the shapes, lighting them from different directions. This trains you for more complex shapes down the track, don't get impatient with it
- Use different drawing tools; pencils of varying thicknesses, pens, markers, colored pencils, charcoal, etc. This will help you to get a feel for different mediums.
- Draw simple designs.When you are comfortable with shapes you can begin combining them. A cylinder with a cone on top of it, or interlocking spheres begin to move you towards very complex drawings in a simple way
- Don't press too hard if using pencil; this allows you to erase errors easily as you go. You also typically want to figure out the proportions and the forms in the drawing before you begin darkening in lines.
- Again, use different drawing tools, to get a feel for those that work best for you.
- Practice shading. When a form changes, as does the value (how dark or light it is in that location). The way to make something appear truly 3d and give it a lot of weight is to apply values (shading) to it. Start by shading the simple forms and then apply the ideas to more complex combinations.
- Shade only in one direction. However, while shading in one direction (as in a straight line) is good for most objects, for things like animals or leaves, shading along with the curves of the object will help it read properly. If you do not shade with the contours of an object you are giving the brain two different ideas of how a given form should read and the result is it will not look right
- Ask for help and advice. Do not think you need to evolve your inner artist on your own. Ask other artists, art teachers, friends and anyone you trust to give advice. Listen to their suggestions to help you improve the areas of your drawing skills that need it, and to learn new ways of doing your art.
Advancing your drawing skills
- Draw from life constantly. This is the fundamental exercise that will train your observational skills and build your skill immensely
- Photographs are not ideal compared to life, a photograph flattens the perspective out, can distort and also takes away the sense of proportion. Seeing a fighter plane in a photo is one thing, seeing how large they are in real life is another
- Add details with precision. But do not obsess over them. a good drawing will read early and details only go so far
- The best way to make detailed drawings is to start off by breaking it down into simple shapes and lines. make measurements by holding your pencil out and estimating height vs width. Once you have captured the bigger picture go in and refine further, and then focus on the details last. Always capture the bigger picture first and detail uniformly across the image
- For animals, add stripes, spots, scales, shine, fur, long coats and background.
- Practice drawing animals or people in motion. This requires adding in motion-suggestive movements. This will take you quite a while to master, so take it slowly and keep practicing; don't be surprised if your initial attempts look awkward or cartoonish.
- Draw larger scenes. Try a landscape or a street-scape, with all of the activities going on. Do a rough sketch first, to capture everything, then return and infill everything that makes the scene come to life.
- Keep practicing and enjoy drawing as a lifelong passion. Drawing isn't something you master overnight; moreover, it is something that will continue to evolve all of your life. If you do some research on artists, you'll find that those who kept doing their art throughout many years would often change their styles over decades, reflecting new-found knowledge, new ways of pushing the boundaries and simply seeking to change and improve. In other words, improving your drawing skills, no matter how good you are already, is a work-for-life and is always in progress. At the heart of it is effort and dedication; if you love drawing, both will come easily to you.
Tips
- Don't compare your drawings to the work of a famous artist. Remember that they are professionals and have been practicing their whole life. However use them as inspiration if it helps you stay motivated knowing you can draw like them one day
- To see how much you've improved drawing, get one of your old drawings and draw it again. If it hasn't improved much, focus on what to improve on. You can do this multiple times.
- Don't stick to one medium all the time; as a good and open-minded artist, be happy to experiment with whatever you can get your hands on. All core principles of drawing apply across mediums, Linear perspective will still apply whether you are using a pencil or charcoal
- Drawing is not a competitive sport; you are doing this to express something you care about, in your own way, and in your own time.
- Art is a way to express something you cannot with words. When something truly meaningful comes to you, draw it.
- Don't be afraid of drawing something you aren't entirely happy with. Some of your art is bound to fall short of your expectations, but it's important not to give up or get discouraged. Follow through as best you can and take every new piece as a learning experience. When you're done, review your work constructively and think about where you would like to improve, then make a conscious effort to practice in that area on your next drawing.
- Experiment with different paper types and textures. Pencil on Bristol board has a different look and feel than pencil on cotton fiber paper. Find a surface that appeals to you.
- Ask for some constructive criticism. Note: this means ask someone if they can point out a few flaws in the drawing, but also ask them if they know any ways to improve it so the flaws can be fixed or minimized.
- Create an account at Deviantart.com and post your drawings there. You can ask for critique and get some tips.
Warnings
- If you have a friend who can draw better than you, don't let it get to you. Try to improve; also, try not to see this as a case of "better"; it just means you haven't found your style yet, and when you do, your work will be just as good, in its own way.
- Sometimes it's just hard to draw, and you feel like you've lost any skills in drawing, otherwise known as artist's block. It's normal, so don't let it get to you. Try finding a way to 'beat the block' that works for you.
- Don't stress yourself (emotionally and physically) from frustration. Everybody makes mistakes.
- Don't take it hard if somebody says your drawing stinks. Just keep trying.
- If your drawing didn't turn out well, recognize its flaws and use that analysis to improve in the future. Very often just stepping back and practicing the core fundamentals of anatomy, perspective and lighting will help get over hurdles
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