Learning to Draw

What this topic covers

Drawing is a skill that improves through observation and repetition far more than through talent. This topic splits the first steps into seven guides: what to buy, what to practise first, and which principles make a drawing look convincing. The order is tools, lines and shapes, perspective, shading, figure proportions, color, and digital drawing. There are no pictures in these guides. Instead, each one spells out steps and checklists you can follow on paper straight away. Reading alone will not change your drawing, so keep a pencil and paper beside you and try the exercise from each guide as you go.

Drawing is learning to see

The main reason beginner drawings look awkward lies in the eye, not the hand. When we look at an object we tend to recall a stored symbol before the real shape: an almond for an eye, a triangle roof for a house, a rectangle for a table top. Yet a table top seen at an angle is not a rectangle but a shape narrower at the far end, and an eye seen from the side is closer to a triangle than an almond. Half of drawing practice is unlearning those symbols and measuring the lengths, angles and values actually in front of you. Holding your pencil at arm's length to compare lengths, or squinting until only light and dark masses remain, helps build that habit.

Five core ideas

The seven guides come down to the five ideas below. Whatever you draw, checking in this order makes it much easier to find where things went wrong.

• Form: turn objects into simple solids such as boxes, cylinders, spheres and cones
• Proportion: use one length as the unit and measure the rest against it
• Perspective: things shrink with distance and parallel lines meet at a point
• Shading: decide where the light comes from and separate lit and shadow sides
• Color: value comes before hue, and color sits on top of the shading

Suggested reading order

If you are starting from scratch, keep the shopping short with the tools guide, then do the line and shape exercises briefly every day for about a week. Once your hand loosens up, read perspective and then shading; together they are what make objects look solid. If you want to draw people, the figure proportions guide comes next, and if you want to work in color, move on to the coloring guide. You can start digital drawing at any time, but the feel for line and value you build with a pencil carries straight over, so a little paper practice first makes the switch much quicker.

A little every day beats a long session

Drawing a line is a physical movement, rather like a sport, so fifteen minutes a day sticks better than three hours crammed into a weekend. Use a timer to give each session a clear start and finish. A simple plan is to spend the first five minutes on straight lines and circles to warm up, then pick a single subject for the rest of the time. Do not throw your drawings away; write the date on each sheet and keep them. Laid side by side with your first drawings a month later, they reveal progress you could not see day to day, and that comparison is one of the best reasons to keep going.

Common misconceptions

Many of the beliefs that stop people from starting are simply not true.

• You need talent: observation and proportion are skills that can be learned
• Expensive tools make you better: two or three pencils and some paper are enough to begin
• Lines must be clean in one stroke: searching lightly several times before committing is normal
• Drawing from photos is cheating: working from reference is a standard way to practise
• Digital is the easy route: undo is convenient, but form and value work the same way

Things to watch

Long sessions put strain on the wrist, shoulders and neck. Adjust your desk height, tilt your board or paper up a little so you bend your head less, and stand up every thirty minutes to an hour to loosen your wrists and shoulders. If numbness or pain in your wrist or fingers lasts more than a few days, take a break from drawing and see a doctor. Use fixative and strong-smelling paints somewhere well ventilated, and read the product warnings before use. Avoid shaping brush tips with your mouth, and when drawing with children, choose materials labelled as suitable for them.

The seven guides in this topic

Read in this order, they run as one path from preparing your tools to working in color and on screen. Each guide includes exercises you can try right away and a list of common mistakes.

• Drawing tools for beginners: pencil grades and paper
• Practising lines and basic shapes
• Perspective basics: one-point and two-point
• Light and shading: the five zones of form
• Figure proportion basics: using the head as a ruler
• Coloring basics: watercolor and colored pencils
• Getting started with digital drawing: hardware, layers, resolution