The Basics of Drawing
Posted on: September 29, 2011
Learning how to draw can be intimidating to some people. Especially when many people believe that you need to have talent in order to draw well. This is just not true. Anyone can draw. And once you learn the basic principles of drawing, you will see that you can draw as well.
Drawing is making any mark on any surface with any mark-making material. In essence, this means that if you are capable of making any type of mark on any surface then you CAN draw. It now becomes a question of drawing well or poorly.
Many people believe that people that draw well can do so because they were born with talent. Drawing is a skill. It is a skill that can be taught, learned, and developed. It is NOT an ability that people are born with. It is NOT talent. People who can draw well have put hours upon hours of work into developing their skills. Just like athletes and musicians, artists who draw well have practiced. The best athletes and musicians are the ones that practice relentlessly. Drawing is no different. Artists that can draw well can do so because of their commitment to PRACTICING drawing. By practicing drawing, you will become better at drawing.
So how do you practice drawing? Drawing is not something that happens in your arms or hands. It is an activity that happens in your mind. Drawing is about seeing. It is about understanding what you see and then making the marks that you see on the paper. So practicing drawing is about practicing seeing. It is about learning to see objects in a different way. Objects that you may want to draw are made up of shapes. No matter how complex the object may be, it can still be broken down into "simple to draw" shapes. Anyone can draw simple shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, and cirlces. By putting these simple shapes together, you can construct the final drawing. It is the artist that can draw well, that is labeled as talented, that can see these shapes in the objects that they draw. They also have the ability, through practice, of constructing drawings of objects with these shapes.
Drawing, of course is more complicated than this. But it should be noted that drawing is attainable to anyone. By exploring the basics of drawing and practicing the act of drawing by putting shapes together, anyone can learn to draw.
Drawing is making any mark on any surface with any mark-making material. In essence, this means that if you are capable of making any type of mark on any surface then you CAN draw. It now becomes a question of drawing well or poorly.
Many people believe that people that draw well can do so because they were born with talent. Drawing is a skill. It is a skill that can be taught, learned, and developed. It is NOT an ability that people are born with. It is NOT talent. People who can draw well have put hours upon hours of work into developing their skills. Just like athletes and musicians, artists who draw well have practiced. The best athletes and musicians are the ones that practice relentlessly. Drawing is no different. Artists that can draw well can do so because of their commitment to PRACTICING drawing. By practicing drawing, you will become better at drawing.
So how do you practice drawing? Drawing is not something that happens in your arms or hands. It is an activity that happens in your mind. Drawing is about seeing. It is about understanding what you see and then making the marks that you see on the paper. So practicing drawing is about practicing seeing. It is about learning to see objects in a different way. Objects that you may want to draw are made up of shapes. No matter how complex the object may be, it can still be broken down into "simple to draw" shapes. Anyone can draw simple shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, and cirlces. By putting these simple shapes together, you can construct the final drawing. It is the artist that can draw well, that is labeled as talented, that can see these shapes in the objects that they draw. They also have the ability, through practice, of constructing drawings of objects with these shapes.
Drawing, of course is more complicated than this. But it should be noted that drawing is attainable to anyone. By exploring the basics of drawing and practicing the act of drawing by putting shapes together, anyone can learn to draw.