What, How to Draw

I think I can attempt to answer two common questions, here, that come up virtually every day in Yahoo Answers. "What do I draw?" "How do I draw?" And other, similar queries like, "How do I get better at drawing?" "Can someone give me step by step instructions on how to draw a ... ?"

I know, from experience, that almost anyone can learn to draw. It doesn't require any special, innate, inborn "talent" to draw well. Drawing is a skill, and, like any skill, it has to be developed and practiced. In this way, it is no different than playing an instrument, singing, dancing, racing a motorcycle, public speaking, skipping rope, driving a car, making record breaking high jumps or pretty much any skill. What it takes is to learn the technique(s), practicing the heck out of them and keep working at it until the skill is mastered. (good coaching also helps)

It's true that, for all of these "skills" it comes more naturally and with less effort for some, but, think about it. No infant is born with the ability to pick up a pencil and immediately start making good drawings. Like with anyone else, this infant has to learn how to do things. Someone with a natural born talent may learn it faster, but he or she must still learn.

But almost anyone can do it. All it takes is a desire to do it and the willingness to put in the time and work at practice to have the skill developed. Imagine, say, a world class sprinter. He or she learns the technique needed to get the most out of one's efforts. He would practice the technique of starting off of the blocks, how to pump one's arms, how to place one's feet, how to breathe, how to THINK and so on. Knowing the technique is not enough. This athlete must spend hours upon hours practicing these small techniques that add up to a set of skills. The more time he spends practicing and perfecting the techniques, the better he will perform.

It's no different with learning to draw. Just getting down a few techniques and tricks in class or out of a book is not enough. The artist must spend time in practice. Spending many HOURS in practice will yield better results that just spending a few minutes at it. In fact, anyone wishing to BE an artist should expect to spend a LIFETIME perfecting his craft. A world class runner can't expect the hours spent practicing in college to keep him at the top of his form for the rest of his life. He has to keep practicing or else his skills get rusty. Same for the motocross racer. Same for the guitarist. Same for the artist.

So, the answer to "How do I learn to draw better?" is to practice drawing. And the best practice is to draw from real life. I knew many kids in school who could draw one thing, one subject or one set of subjects very well. I knew lots of young women who could draw the prettiest little pony heads. They could draw them with jeweled harness, colorful manes and big, beautiful horsey eyes. They could draw them an any color one could imagine and impress the heck out of everyone who would see them. But if one were to ask them to draw the pony head from, say, another angle, or for them to draw the rest of the horse, or to show the horse in different poses and actions, these girls could only look at me with a blank stare. Because, of course, they could ONLY draw their little pony heads and nothing else. They spent all of their drawing time on that one single subject. They had but to set a pencil down to paper and they'd crank out a "masterpiece" pony head every time

But that's all they could do.

For others, they could draw super heros in their favorite action pose. But they could NOT do that same character, sitting down, eating a sandwich, or draw them from a different point of view, say, from above, looking down. They couldn't begin to draw the same character in regular street clothes. Or worse, they couldn't draw the character IN a scene because they never spent time drawing anything but the hero, just in an action pose.

I knew kids that could draw motorcycles and nothing else. Or rock band poses in dramatic lighting, and nothing else. Or fashion models and nothing else. Or puppies, or kittes, or birdies, but nothing else.

So, my advice to those who want to learn to draw, or to draw better or to draw specific things ... My advice is to go out and draw. Draw everything. Draw anything and keep drawing it until you "get it right." Draw the chair in your room. Draw it from the side, the front, from above. Draw it from floor level. Draw it at different angles. Draw it next to a table. Draw the table and chair in the corner of the room, next to the bookcase. Draw what you see out the window. Step outside and draw what you see through the window looking in. Draw a tree, flower, bush, the neighbor's cat. Draw other houses. Draw a car. Draw another kind of car.

Draw clouds, mountains, fountains, park benches and chipmonks. Draw kids playing on the slide and the wino sleeping on the grass. Draw everything you see and keep making drawings. Go buy a cheap sketchbook and make LOTS and lots of drawings. Don't expect every sketch to be a masterpiece. That's why they call it practice. That hypothetical world class runner doesn't expect a record breaking run every time he goes out to practice. That's why HE calls it practice. But, regarding your sketchbook: What you SHOULD expect is those quick sketches at the back of the book should look better than the sketches near the front of the book. And the second book of sketches that much better than the first book, and so on.

And, finally, as you start seeing progress, then you can start concentrating at improving what you might percieve as your "weaknesses." Having trouble with faces? Spend more time drawing face sketches. Can't seem to get the hands and fingers right? Spend time working on those. Having trouble with sketching moving people? Spend a lot of time doing quick sketches.

The ultimate answer is NOT just taking a class, or reading a book or going to some website. There are no shortcuts. It takes a lot of hard work, time and effort to become a good artist. Practice, practice, practice!

luv,

vince