How To Improve Your Drawing Skill With This Simple Lesson
All of us are deeply inculcated with symbolic preconceptions.
When we begin to draw there is a disconnect between what we see and what we are looking at.
This is not just a difference in syntax, it is the result of a system of symbols within our racial subconscious that asserts itself as soon as a pencil touches paper.
For example: a beginner's portrait drawing exhibits many of the same characteristics as that of children: The eyes are generally elliptical and the head an oval.
These are symbols of eyes and the head.
Even a professional artist with many years of experience and training constantly struggles with extricating these symbolic preconceptions from their work.
Often an artist will subconsciously invent their own symbols -- instead of drawing elliptical eyes they will tend to draw their own eyes.
An artist's training should begin with learning how to accurately strike the overall shape of an object.
But even beginning with a simple object such as a shoe box involves a set of complex actions.
First, one needs to gauge how big to draw the box relative to their drawing paper (or canvas).
Second, the height to width proportion needs to be accurately established.
And, third, the angles of the shoe box must be rendered correctly to convincingly convey spatial dimension.
A beginning artist's initial lessons should be to acquire the skill of accurately assessing and drawing any given rectangle.
This will train you to immediately assess any subject's height/width proportion, a critical component to drawing accurately.
The Drawing Lesson Using a water-soluble black marker, preferably one with a thick nib, approximate a large rectangle, 18 x 24 inches will suffice, on a suitable piece of paper.
You can also use a toned pre-stretched canvas.
Affix this onto a wall about six feet distance and at your eye level.
You will need a piece of plexiglass, about 14 x 11 inches, that is placed over your drawing paper.
With your black marker quickly draw that rectangle as accurately as you can adjudge onto the plexiglass without any pre-measuring.
This is important; any pre-measuring will defeat the purpose of this lesson.
From your station point (this is where you are standing at your easel) hold up the plexiglass toward the subject rectangle to assess the accuracy of your drawing.
You will need to focus your plexiglass so that the top and bottom of both the subject rectangle and your drawing are aligned.
If the widths are matched you have done a commendable job.
More likely, however, your drawing will be too wide.
Most beginning artists tend to exaggerate the width of their subjects.
Wipe off your plexiglass and repeat the exercise with the knowledge that you likely tend to draw things too wide.
This self-corrective strategy is extremely effective in improving your drawing skill.
Once you can accurately inscribe an 18 x 24 inches rectangle push yourself forward and repeat this drawing lesson with a variety of rectangles.
Whether your subject is portraiture, landscape or still-life the height/width proportion needs to be immediately established.
When drawing a portrait I always begin by indicating the height of the head from crown to chin while simultaneously determining my composition.
This singular drawing lesson will literally save you years of struggle and significantly propel your art making forward.
When we begin to draw there is a disconnect between what we see and what we are looking at.
This is not just a difference in syntax, it is the result of a system of symbols within our racial subconscious that asserts itself as soon as a pencil touches paper.
For example: a beginner's portrait drawing exhibits many of the same characteristics as that of children: The eyes are generally elliptical and the head an oval.
These are symbols of eyes and the head.
Even a professional artist with many years of experience and training constantly struggles with extricating these symbolic preconceptions from their work.
Often an artist will subconsciously invent their own symbols -- instead of drawing elliptical eyes they will tend to draw their own eyes.
An artist's training should begin with learning how to accurately strike the overall shape of an object.
But even beginning with a simple object such as a shoe box involves a set of complex actions.
First, one needs to gauge how big to draw the box relative to their drawing paper (or canvas).
Second, the height to width proportion needs to be accurately established.
And, third, the angles of the shoe box must be rendered correctly to convincingly convey spatial dimension.
A beginning artist's initial lessons should be to acquire the skill of accurately assessing and drawing any given rectangle.
This will train you to immediately assess any subject's height/width proportion, a critical component to drawing accurately.
The Drawing Lesson Using a water-soluble black marker, preferably one with a thick nib, approximate a large rectangle, 18 x 24 inches will suffice, on a suitable piece of paper.
You can also use a toned pre-stretched canvas.
Affix this onto a wall about six feet distance and at your eye level.
You will need a piece of plexiglass, about 14 x 11 inches, that is placed over your drawing paper.
With your black marker quickly draw that rectangle as accurately as you can adjudge onto the plexiglass without any pre-measuring.
This is important; any pre-measuring will defeat the purpose of this lesson.
From your station point (this is where you are standing at your easel) hold up the plexiglass toward the subject rectangle to assess the accuracy of your drawing.
You will need to focus your plexiglass so that the top and bottom of both the subject rectangle and your drawing are aligned.
If the widths are matched you have done a commendable job.
More likely, however, your drawing will be too wide.
Most beginning artists tend to exaggerate the width of their subjects.
Wipe off your plexiglass and repeat the exercise with the knowledge that you likely tend to draw things too wide.
This self-corrective strategy is extremely effective in improving your drawing skill.
Once you can accurately inscribe an 18 x 24 inches rectangle push yourself forward and repeat this drawing lesson with a variety of rectangles.
Whether your subject is portraiture, landscape or still-life the height/width proportion needs to be immediately established.
When drawing a portrait I always begin by indicating the height of the head from crown to chin while simultaneously determining my composition.
This singular drawing lesson will literally save you years of struggle and significantly propel your art making forward.