Learn To Draw

Learn to Draw and Paint at a High Level

Everyone, at some time in their life, wants to learn to draw and paint. Really watch children and you'll soon see that this skill set attracts and entices them during their developmental years. However, not everyone desires to draw well or become a good artist. Not everyone takes their own artwork seriously. And, as adulthood draws nearer, even fewer follow the call of the pencil and paper. Even so, should you wish to develop any innate artistic skills, it's very achievable. Here are a few of the basics that you must know in order to succeed:

Drawing vs Painting

An important element, one that people don't always understand is that drawing and painting are not the same. Thus, should you desire to learn how to draw and paint, you'll be required to learn and develop two separate skill sets. Drawing is more often than not characterized as rendering a subject by the use of lines. Then again, painting constitutes the art of covering any surface with paint (oil, water, or acrylic) for artistic and/or functional intentions.

Therefore, the medium you use plus the process itself will become the main difference. Even so, these two disciplines are all the same associated and very often combine to make a work of art ... work. Much of the time, though not always, drawing is a prerequisite to painting.

Drawing Basics

In order to expand on any inherent drawing skills, one needs to constantly exercise the hands and eyes. This can be accomplished by sketching for a set amount of time each day. Sketching in perpetuity comprises the best way, maybe the only way, for you to accelerate the "learn how to draw" process in a more artistic and professional manner.

Recall that drawing skill develops via ceaseless practice using both your hands and your eyes, your ability to observe. Such a skill does not improve by merely reading a book or acquiring a plethora of available book-based knowledge. Thus, practice your hand to draw and practice your eyes to see. Be ever attentive to your surroundings. Try sketching inanimate objects or people during any idle time. Taking this approach can turn a worthwhile hobby into a well-paying job in the future.

Copying, replicating someone else's work, is an important stepping stone in the drawing process. Acquire a model or small mannequin and copy it using pencil and paper. It's quite all right to make mistakes and eraser marks. It's exactly what erasers were invented for in the first place. Likewise, eliminate the opinion that you need professional materials only in order for your work to look professional. Hogwash! A simple sketch pad plus a number two pencil with an eraser will work just fine.

Painting Basics

To the contrary, painting does entail making use of professional-grade materials so your finished work is of a high quality. A painting project requires a couple of different sized brushes. Such a task also requires a variety of colored acrylic paints, and, most importantly, you'll need your primary colors, black and white, in tubes larger than any of the other colors. However, should you not want to buy a black tube, you can simply create your own by combining all the primary colors. For all intents and purposes, investing in a large tube of acrylic black paint, if you can afford it, will be the easist solution.

Starting with Acrylic paints is the best option because, being water-based, they are the easiest with which to work. That said, the pervasive stages of painting development are mastering acrylics first before aspiring to acquire the necessary skills for either oils or water colors. Also, this kind of paint mixes easily with water. All that's necessary is a glass of water used for thinning the paint and cleaning the brush. Water can also be utilized to moisten your paints while working on your project since acryllic paints have a tendency to dry up rather quickly. Also, a pallet on which to mix your paints is also quite handy. Should you not have one, you can easily improvise using a paper plate covered with aluminum foil.

Before you begin painting, you must first sketch an outline of your proposed work on a piece of canvas. Lightly sketch your subject and other particulars of the pictures’ surroundings. Following this, start adding color using your paints. Practice blending Keep on practicing by choosing different subjects. Also, try to experiment with the colors you’ve got.

Make full use of your pallet to mix paints creating various color shades. Continue sketching and painting on a regular basis and your skills will develop quickly.

About the Author: An artist at a young age, Eric Weeks always emphasized the importance of practice if he hoped to learn to draw and draw well. Though Eric no longer draws, his brother Lee is a Marvel comics artist who knows how to draw cartoon people and popular action heroes. Lee learned his craft via constant, ongoing practice and hard work. Study this article to discover what you must do to improve your drawing ability.

Learning to Draw? You're going to need a Pencil

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If you're going to be doing any pencil drawing you're going to need a pencil. I know, I know, thank you captain obvious.... But, in this article I want to talk about some of the different options available.

Here are some of the options:
Mechanical Pencils, Lead Holders, Woodless Graphite, And ofcourse traditional wooden pencils

Mechanical Pencils: You're probably familiar with these. They're the ones that hold the lead (graphite actually) inside and when you push on the eraser more lead comes out. What you may not know is that, like traditional wooden pencils, the leads are available in various degrees of hardness which can be used to achieve lighter or darker tones as needed. We'll talk more about that later.

Lead Holders: These are somewhat similar to mechanical pencils in that you can use various leads with them. But rather than push a button to release more lead, these pencils actually have sort of a claw that grabs onto and holds the lead. Hence the term "lead holder".

Woodless Graphite: These pencils are basically a piece of graphite in the shape of a pencil. There are also some woodless graphite pencils that are encased in a laquer coating rather than wood.

Wooden Pencils: Okay. We all know what a wooden pencil is. It's the yellow one with a pink eraser on top and a number 2 on it. You know, the ones we used to fill in the little circles on our multiple choice tests in school.

Well yes, those are pencils, but a set of good quality drawing pencils comes with a lot more variety than that. All of the pencil types mentioned above come in varying degrees of hardness and are labled with a number and the letter H or B. The pencils labled H are on the hard side and the ones labled with a B are the soft ones. I don't know where the "B" comes from but that's the way it is.
Pencils range from 9H (the hardest) to 9B (the softest).

The number 2 pencils we're so familiar with are right in the middle in terms of hardness. They're equivalent to an HB pencil. If you're just starting out drawing or you're just doing some doodling or sketching an HB or #2 will work just fine for you. But, if you want to get a much more interesting drawing you'll have to have some contrast between lights and darks. If all you've ever drawn with before is a number 2 pencil, the way you achieve your darker tones is simply to press down harder.

But there is a better way. That's where the softer pencils come in. After #2 in terms of softness comes B then 2B, 3B ect. all the way up to 9B. Although many artists never use anything softer than a 6B. With a 6B you can get some very dark tones and it's not going to be as soft and thus crumbly as a 9B.

For the harder pencils, I rarely use anything harder than a 2H and that's usually just for the initial line drawing before any shading takes place. Doing the initial line drawing very lightly allows you to erase any mistakes you might have made. Once your line drawing is acurate, it's time to get the softer pencils out and start shading.

So to wrap this up, if you're planning on getting a little more serious with your drawing you'll want to get a set of pencils. There are some sets out there that have just 4 pencils in them. So if you're strapped for cash this is an option. Pencils are also available individually so you can pick and choose whichever number / letter combo you need.

I prefer traditional wooden pencils for my drawings and my brand of choice is Derwent. They make sets of 12 pencils that range from 4H to 6B or from H all the way up to 9B. And, you can get a set of 12 pencils for about $12 - $15 so it's not terribly expensive to get into drawing.

So now go out, get yourself some good pencils, and start drawing....

About the Author: Adam Valentine is a professional artist specializing in realistic graphite pencil drawing. His work can be seen online at http://www.adamvalentine.com He also has instructional DVDs available for anyone that wants to learn to draw.