Drawing TipsNow that summer is here you may be stuck inside with nothing to do or maybe you're on a great vacation somewhere and want some way to record your memories besides just photos. Either way drawing is great form of self-expression, but you may not feel comfortable with your drawing skills. If that's true here are some tips. Differences between rendering, drawing, and doodlingFirst off, decide what your goal is. Is it to copy what you see exactly, interpret what you see artistically, or just doodle on the page for fun? This is the difference between rendering, drawing, and doodling. For example, if you saw a great building and you wanted to remember every detail (and didn't have a camera) then rendering would be the best method. You would study the angles of the building and try to replicate them as exactly as you could, perhaps even holding up your pencil to the building to make sure you get the angles correct. If you wanted to draw your best friend (and you want to keep him/her as a best friend) then you would follow the basic rules of drawing a face and then take a few liberties to try and capture his/her character. As for doodling there are no rules and anyone who tries to tell differently should loosen up! Doodling is about pure expression and filling up the page with coolness. The hardest thing about doodling is knowing when to quit, when everything on the page is balanced, in harmony, and as cool as it could possibly get.Turn off the left brain...at least for a minute. The left brain is the logical side of the brain. When you are drawing it can appoint itself the art critic... the overly harsh art critic sometimes. This can be stifling to drawing and expression. Tell it to shut up! When the drawing is finished the left brain can come back and make a few changes to improve the whole.Keep it simple, then embellishFollow the main outlines of the object you are drawing first, then fill in details, and then fill in textures. Textures tend to be the hardest part. For instance hair, obviously you are not going to draw all the hairs on one human's head. So what you should do is follow one strand at a time until you have a hair "structure" made up of a bunch of lines. Another example of this tip is drawing a tree. Follow the outlines of the trunk and the big branches, fill in the leaves and the smaller branches, fill in the texture of the trunk and the visible leaves. So basically what you are doing is reducing a three-dimensional object to a series of interconnected lines to capture what is most relevant about the object.Keep your vision clearI know I said it already but it's important to remember it: don't listen to the part of your brain that keeps saying "That's not what it looks like." Ignore it. Just keep following the lines of the object with your pencil.Please yourselfDon't get frustrated. Also make decisions that make you happy even if it isn't a photographic interpretation of what you are drawing. If you want to change a line, a shape, or a color you have my permission to go ahead and do it.If all else fails, traceDid you know many artists have actually used tracing methods in different situations? It's true, but if you really want to learn how to draw practicing freehand is the best way to learn. Tracing isn't real expression and doesn't exactly stretch your abilities. Also the obvious problem of tracing is needing a photograph of what you want to trace. You can use a computer monitor since they emit so much light, but that is problematic as well. So, it should be used as a last resort or as a means of practicing. So, there's really nothing stopping us from drawing and expressing ourselves except for our own hang-ups and lack of practice. We should learn to let go of the first and do the second. The rewards of self-expression through drawing are terrific.
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