Today’s post is not only advice for beginners (although they are most useful to them). I for example for few years repeated the mistakes that resulted from the ignorance of the following tips. I share them with you so that you can have it easier at the start. Learning then is much faster and more effective.
- A lot of sketching, less finished work. the pareto principle also applies to drawing – by creating 20% of the drawing you learn in 80%. Not following this rule can be seen in some novice work. They try to imitate realism and already have quite well-mastered shading, but the proportions are still badly drawn. It will be very hard to master the basics if person draws every time trying to create a ready-made illustration. Allow regular free-sketching sessions. You do not have to finish every illustration you sit down to. It is beneficial having two sketchbooks one for scribbles and experiments, the other for more representative works.
- When you sit down to draw, start with a preliminary sketch. Select the object that you draw with several basic shapes. It will be easier for you to assess the correctness of the proportions, see whether you fit everything on a piece of paper, and make corrections at a more simple stage.
- Do not glory your works, start producing them in large amount. Maybe this point does not apply to you, but many aspiring draftsmen have a problem with that. When they done with illustration, they admire it and are afraid to sit down to the next one so that they do not get worse. Meanwhile, the creation process is a kind of parabola. Once it is better once worse. There is a saying that everyone has 1000 unsuccessful drawings in themselves and has to release them outside. Do not focus on good jobs or bad ones. Create work in large quantities and you will start to get better.
- Do not be afraid of mistakes and do not be afraid of eraser. If something is wrong, just erase it and draw from scratch, sometimes you need a few tries. This is another problem that some people experience. They prefer to leave something on a piece of paper, even though it is incorrect. They are afraid not to spoil the work even more. Learn to erase all errors immediately. Look once in a while at your drawing at the right angle (as they have drawing boards) from a distance and check if everything is okay with it.
- Draw thumbnails – this way you choose the best composition of a more complicated drawing. It’s the same as with the initial sketches. It’s easier and faster to check several potential variants of the composition by drawing small pictures and using simple basic shapes.
- Draw every day, make a habit so that your drawing is done automatically. Work on removing any blockages related to drawing. Draw in public, do not be ashamed, carry a sketchbook always with you. You can also do an exercise when you draw one and the same object at different rates. e.g. 30 then 20 and finally 10 minutes. It also helps improve drawing.
- Plan time to draw and stick to it. If you do not have enough time, get up early or trace for what you are wasting your time (maybe you want to know my ways to manage time)
The key is to be systematic.
- Think good about yourself, be confident and let yourself be a beginner. Do not compare yourself with others. It’s very easy to get discouraged in this way. If you like someone else’s works, treat them as motivation.
- Learn the basics, use reference photos. Drawing specific shapes needs to be learned. Our brain does not remember how exactly each object looks, so help yourself with photos or even better draw from nature.
- Be persistent. As I mentioned in one of the previous posts: The key to success is always perseverance and regularity, as well as checking the effectiveness of their actions and their possible correction. If you see that you are not progressing, think about what you are doing wrong, what you can improve in your approach to learning. You can also look for support in people with similar interests.
- Take care of your level of inspiration. Remember the power of new experiences and new impressions. Also test new materials. Such experiments stimulate our creativity. (More methods to find inspiration can be found here ).
- Search for your own style and path, but not force it! Let it be an evolution and not a revolution (I plan ta separate post about finding style in drawing)