Tips to Learn How to Draw

Drawing is a skill like any other. All it takes is practice. Even fifteen minutes of practice every day will make you look like you have talent, too. Any good drawing course will give you even better results.

Most people think you have to be born with a talent to draw, and that they don’t have it. This popular conception needs to go the way of the dinosaur. Being able to draw is a skill just as much as cooking or reading are skills. No one ever in the history of the world has starved because they were not born knowning haute cuisine. Most of us learn the basics of boiling water and then simply follow a recipe if we want a nice dinner. You can do the same thing with drawing.

A good first step is to get yourself a sketchbook and take it with you everywhere you go. Then when you see something interesting during your day, you can take out your sketchbook and do a quick drawing. Sketching is particularly good for beginners because you do not have to draw perfectly at all. Sketches are supposed to be messy.

A lot of beginners change how they look at whatever they want to draw. It is a bit tricky at first, but try to imagine your subject as flat. Being able to see the image as if it was flat makes drawing it much easier. Seeing the image flat makes it easier to measure the distances in the image and the shapes better. If you are having trouble seeing your subjects as flat, cover one of your eyes to inhibit your depth perception.

You can also try drawing a large square or frame around where you plan to be drawing. The line will frame your drawing and its composition. This imaginary frame helps control the composition and helps you measure the shapes more accurately. Framed drawings have a more finished look. Artists have a classic cheat for helping them measure parts of the image they are painting or drawing. The tip of your pencil can serve as a measuring unit; you hold it up at arm’s length to take measurements. Once you have a unit of measurement you can know how far apart different parts of your drawing should be. This one tip can create dramatically more accurate drawings.

In the beginning its good to practice patience with yourself as much as you practice drawing. Just because your first attempt at a painting or a drawing does not come out the way you wanted, do not give up! Just think about Monet or any other famous artist; they painted their subjects dozens of times. Have you ever tried to draw something even a second time, much less twelve times in a row? It can be a very educational exercise, and may also produce the kinds of drawings that you’ll be proud to show your friends and family.

Pamella Neely teaches people how to draw. She has been doodling and drawing since she was little. She helps people learn how to draw a rose step by step.