HOW TO START DRAWING AND KEEP DRAWING
I WANT TO DRAW BUT I DON'T KNOW IF I HAVE THE TALENT
Drawing is a skill. It is not a magical power bestowed upon you by a deity. Notice that you are reading this text. You didn't always know how to do that, and when you first started out, you probably couldn't do it very quickly or accurately. First, you had to learn your letters, then you had to move up to reading simple words, and the more you practiced, the faster you got, and the more words you learned. This may have happened to you really quickly. Maybe you're Matilda Wormwood and you were starting to read in preschool. Or maybe you couldn't read very fluently until middle school. But whatever path you took, here you are, with a skill that you weren't born with, doing it better than you did when you started.
"But you can't compare that to drawing, that's a skill everyone needs to have!" Yeah, but it's also a WEIRD skill. Think about how abstract the act of reading is and how many weird little pitfalls there are all over the place. Homonyms, homophones, all the weird little rules like i before e except after c. Reading and writing are complex, nuanced skills.
Drawing is also weird, complex and nuanced, and some people seem to take to it more easily and quickly than others. But the point is, it's not a divine gift that only some of us can ever do.
Drawing is a skill. It is not a magical power bestowed upon you by a deity. Notice that you are reading this text. You didn't always know how to do that, and when you first started out, you probably couldn't do it very quickly or accurately. First, you had to learn your letters, then you had to move up to reading simple words, and the more you practiced, the faster you got, and the more words you learned. This may have happened to you really quickly. Maybe you're Matilda Wormwood and you were starting to read in preschool. Or maybe you couldn't read very fluently until middle school. But whatever path you took, here you are, with a skill that you weren't born with, doing it better than you did when you started.
"But you can't compare that to drawing, that's a skill everyone needs to have!" Yeah, but it's also a WEIRD skill. Think about how abstract the act of reading is and how many weird little pitfalls there are all over the place. Homonyms, homophones, all the weird little rules like i before e except after c. Reading and writing are complex, nuanced skills.
Drawing is also weird, complex and nuanced, and some people seem to take to it more easily and quickly than others. But the point is, it's not a divine gift that only some of us can ever do.
OH COOL WHERE DO I START?
Sight measuring! This is the single most important skill for a new artist and a lot of How To Draw books NEVER mention it. When you see an artist do that thing where they hold up their paintbrush/pencil and squint or close one eye, they're sight measuring. The trouble with sight measuring is really just that it's WEIRDLY hard to explain.
Sight measuring allows you to use the relative size of objects to make sure that your drawing is in proportion and that things are positioned correctly. What you're measuring isn't inches or centimeters, it's the proportional relationship between things. For example, let's say I'm trying to draw the Princess Peach figurine on my desk. First I rough in the shape of the head. Then I pick up my pencil, close one eye and position it in front of me so that in my vision, the top of the pencil aligns with the top of her head, and my thumb aligns with the bottom of her head. Keeping my arm extended at the same length, I keep my eyes on the spot where my thumb is resting and move the top of the pencil down to it. Repeating this process until I reach her feet, I find that she's about four and a half heads tall. Now on my drawing, where I've already drawn one rough head, I'll put my pencil or some other straight tool against it and, in the same way I measured the figure, measure four and a half heads down on the drawing. Now I know where the feet should end up.
I can use this in any number of ways to continue checking that my drawing of the subject is accurate. For example, it's one head from where her arm begins to her wrist (she has weird cartoon proportions). Her hair is about two heads long. Her eyes are one eye's width apart from each other. It's about the same distance between the fingertips of her outstretch hands as it is between her waist and the bottom of the skirt.
You are not chained to strict sight measuring forever. As you get more practiced, you'll be measuring unconsciously, and to get a natural, believable drawing you won't have to check your work as much. You'll also be able to draw more things freehand and even without reference, because you'll have added to your visual vocabulary. The reason sight measuring is so important is because it strengthens the connection between your hand and your eye. This one foundational skill will carry you through the early parts of learning to draw and build you a much stronger foundation than just trying to copy what you see without measuring.
Sight measuring! This is the single most important skill for a new artist and a lot of How To Draw books NEVER mention it. When you see an artist do that thing where they hold up their paintbrush/pencil and squint or close one eye, they're sight measuring. The trouble with sight measuring is really just that it's WEIRDLY hard to explain.
Sight measuring allows you to use the relative size of objects to make sure that your drawing is in proportion and that things are positioned correctly. What you're measuring isn't inches or centimeters, it's the proportional relationship between things. For example, let's say I'm trying to draw the Princess Peach figurine on my desk. First I rough in the shape of the head. Then I pick up my pencil, close one eye and position it in front of me so that in my vision, the top of the pencil aligns with the top of her head, and my thumb aligns with the bottom of her head. Keeping my arm extended at the same length, I keep my eyes on the spot where my thumb is resting and move the top of the pencil down to it. Repeating this process until I reach her feet, I find that she's about four and a half heads tall. Now on my drawing, where I've already drawn one rough head, I'll put my pencil or some other straight tool against it and, in the same way I measured the figure, measure four and a half heads down on the drawing. Now I know where the feet should end up.
I can use this in any number of ways to continue checking that my drawing of the subject is accurate. For example, it's one head from where her arm begins to her wrist (she has weird cartoon proportions). Her hair is about two heads long. Her eyes are one eye's width apart from each other. It's about the same distance between the fingertips of her outstretch hands as it is between her waist and the bottom of the skirt.
You are not chained to strict sight measuring forever. As you get more practiced, you'll be measuring unconsciously, and to get a natural, believable drawing you won't have to check your work as much. You'll also be able to draw more things freehand and even without reference, because you'll have added to your visual vocabulary. The reason sight measuring is so important is because it strengthens the connection between your hand and your eye. This one foundational skill will carry you through the early parts of learning to draw and build you a much stronger foundation than just trying to copy what you see without measuring.