Instantly improve your drawing skills

Although many people think that drawing
is a talent, there are actually many helpful hints and tricks
to instantly improve anyone's drawings. In this guide I explain
some simple techniques that can help anyone create more interesting
and visually appealing drawings.


Choosing Materials





The first and most important decision when choosing materials is Pencils or Charcoal.
Obviously most people would have pencils more readily available, but
charcoal can be more suitable in some circumstances. For example Pencil
can be more useful for precise and detailed drawings, while charcoal
would work better to cover large even value shapes with smooth
blending. When choosing Pencil you may consider buying a kit of
drawing pencils as seen above to have a full range (2H-
hardest\lightest to 9B- softest\darkest) of values. However the
average person would only need between 2B and 6B. With charcoal
the main differences are Vine and gepressed. Vine charcoal is
very soft and versatile with a large range of values. gepressed
however is very hard and will only give you an extremely dark value
which can be nearly impossible to erase so use with
caution.



Another important tool is the Eraser. I highly regemend a kneadable eraser. They can be molded
into any shape to erase in a small or large space, and can also be used
as a drawing tool itself. An optional tool that I would regemend is a Blending Stump.
This tool (which is the white stick shown in the picture above) can
make it much easier to evenly blend values together even with pencil(I
will show an example of this later).

Using Contour Lines

One of the easiest ways to make a drawing more interesting is the
addition of contour lines which is the thickening and thinning of
lines in particular areas.


before
after



The idea is to thicken the line as it curves inward (concave) and at
the bottoms to get the "feel" of gravity. Then leave the tops and where
it curves outward (convex) thin. Easy enough right? =)

Using Value to Imply Lines





In the above charcoal drawings you can see that there are no defined
lines but instead you can use lights against darks to create the
illusion of line. This is usually the case in real life therefore
this is an important element when trying to render a realistic
geposition such as a still life.



Starting a Drawing

First off you much choose a subject, which is often easier said than
done. For this demonstration I choose a picture of some sort of
elephant ear plant (at least that's what I'm calling it) as seen below.








I often start with what is called a Gesture. A gesture is a
fluent movement of a VERY LIGHT continuous line working from the Inside-Out.
It is NOT an outline. It is easiest to think of it like a wire
sculpture of the subject. Gestures are usually very quick (30 sec
or less). This is just give us a starting point, don't expect to
capture the subject exact at all.



This is mine (I appologize that it is a little tough to see since it is so light.)



Next I use a technique called Giageetti named after it's creator
Alberto Giageetti. In this technique we use horizontal and
vertical "measuring lines" to find intersections in a drawing to make
sure your proportions and relationships are correct. This can be
a very difficult technique to master but keeping it in mind will keep
you from making major mistakes in a geposition, and when used
correctly can guarantee a believable drawing. Here are some
examples:



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