Artists are often praised for their ‘talent’. Not only does this word trigger a lot of artists, but it might create the illusion that only certain ‘chosen’ people could become artists…
While it might take a a certain amount of creative and deep thinking to create more conceptual pieces, something such as drawing on the other hand, is a skill. And like any other skill, it is developed over time.
Just like most artists would say, and in fact like most people in general, I began drawing as a child. I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil.
And even though my preschool teachers said I had a ‘talent’ for it, I have trouble understanding how they could see my supposed ‘talent’ from my many squiggly drawings I imagine I must have been doing.
But as the quote we see all around the internet says, “A creative adult is the child that survived”. So while I did have a certain -lets say- love for art, throughout my 19 years of life, I did not begin drawing seriously until I was around 14 or 15.
And over the past few years of my development, I have learnt a lot, by teaching myself.
Here's how to teach yourself to draw;
#1 Find what way you learn best, and commit to it.
There’s a certain amount of self awareness that’s needed when you want to learn to draw by yourself. I feel I learn best by doing (but also seeing), which is why I prefer to learn drawing by actually doing the drawing itself. But you might learn best from watching videos of other people drawing or teaching, or by reading a book, or even listening to a podcast. You just have to figure out what works best for you. And you do this by trying out new ways to learn. Then you can either focus on one or two of these, or use a combination of all of them.
#2 Know that there are different drawing techniques and you have to find what works best for you.
There are two methods that I’ve mainly used and have seen a lot of the artists I like also using. Choose your weapon; Grids or shapes?
Quick Demonstration Of The Grid Method. Notice How I Used The Grid To Plan Out The Placing Of Shapes Based On The Image.
Some people use the grid method;
This is when you draw a grid lightly on your paper, and use that to measure your proportions (the sizes of each part of the image in relation to the other parts).
This method can be very beneficial especially for when you are just starting out and want to learn to draw by yourself, but it might be a bit less fun as you’ll have to spend a while working with measurements and actually drawing the grid.
(WWW.griddrawingtool.com is a really good site for automatically drawing grids on any picture.)
And some people use the shape method;
This is when you draw the basic shapes of the objects or facial features lightly, and then keep refining them and adding more and more detail.
A lot of professional artists use this method, and its a really nice one as it lets you to work around the paper more freely, which I think makes it more fun.
Though if you use this method, you should be careful, because if not, your proportions could go horribly wrong.
Here's A Quick Demonstration. Notice How I Started With Two Circles And An Oval And Went On To Add More Details And Erase Unnecessary Lines, And Then Add The Shading
If you try these methods and find they don’t work for you, then find one that does! It’s that simple!
#3 Experiment and find what kind of an artist you are, but don't limit yourself.
Some people are portraiture artists and like to mainly focus on portraits, some people are landscape artists and just like to draw landscapes and nature… If either of these people force themselves to do what the opposite person is doing, not only will the not enjoy it, but they won’t be as good as they would be if they focused on their own area.
Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t experiment, you will never know how good you could be if you don’t try. And if you don’t like one area or are not very good at at, that doesn’t mean you can’t be really good at the other.
There are so many different types of art! The possibilities are endless.
But the reason I say you should find what type of artist you are is because everyone is different. Some people LOVE details, every small bit is important to them, while some people care more about the bigger picture and do not pay as much attention to the small details. Some people work fast, others prefer to work slower. Some people like to work in a large scale, on large surfaces, while others prefer miniature art. And it all comes down to knowing yourself.
Here are some things you could try;
Architectural drawing, figure drawing, doodle art, manga, line art, realism, hyperrealism, abstract art, mystical/fictional, illustration, and so on….
And that’s just for DRAWING. There are so many other types of art….
#4 PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.
I’m sure you’ve heard this before, because this is the MOST important point. As much as I’d like to say I was born being able to draw at my current level, I can’t. I have no doubt that I would not have anywhere near my current -skill- level without the hours of practice I put in, and I have no doubt that if I had more time to spend practicing, I would have been MUCH better right now. Everything you draw counts as practice. And the more you draw, the more you develop your skill level.
If you spend 10,000 hours doing any skill, you will master it. So make this your goal, and work every day towards it.
Hope this helped! Let me know what you thought of these methods and what else you think is important for learning to draw, in the comments! (Also, this is my first real blog post so I’d love to know what you thought in general!)