Improve Your Drawing Skills With A Little Practice by RedBubble

Yay for drawing! One tip I got once was that there were no lines in a drawing, just shading. It took me many years to figure out that this was absolute rubbish. There are lines of all shapes and sizes, wiggles that make a nose, a curve that becomes an eyelid, hatching and cross hatching that define a cheekbone. Recently I’ve discovered the awesome power of the forbidden outline too. There’s something so great about a chunky outline around something delicate, I’m loving it.

great idea Sarah. I’m wanting to do that more too – the outline thingy.

Magnificent subject included ..sharing to learn..there is no limit to gain from every one.!!

Terrific Tips

Drawing’s the best!!!…and it’s not just how you draw but also what you choose to draw on, and with, that adds to the whole wonderful drawing experience! Masking fluid and Scraperboard are two mediums that come to mind as something fun and a little bit different that I have used in the past.

Thank you for sharing. Great journal

Great article with lots of advices! The blind drawing is fantastic to do within both hands a crayon and follow music, or specific instruments communicating with eachother whilst you express it on the paper. Not looking just hearing feeling and drawing with left and right hand :) I learned this from Annette Wessels a great artist and coach, an excerise I regularly do with pleasure :)

If you want a fun online drawing tool (great for practicing contour line) check out mr doobs harmony
it is a procedural drawing tool written in html5

Just logged in, didn’t finish reading this but it’s already a MEGA-fav!!!!!
MANY thanks for posting it!

One exercise I occasionally try is to draw upside down (using a rotated photo as a reference). Here’s a quick one of Geoffrey Rush .

Thanks Bubble :D

cool!

Very nice article! Thanks for this :)

oi thanx for sharing! Very helpful!

Nice article. Short and sweet with just enough temptation to get a non drawing person to try it. Drawing is a wonderful way to learn about a subject. We often look at something, but we don’t really see it. When you do a detailed drawing of a subject you carefully study every inch of it. Drawing is an excellent way for artists to learn how to see. Try it! I bet you like it. Sally

Great! Even when I am planning a piece that I will eventually call a watercolor, a graphic design, or a digital painting, it begins with pencil on paper. The drawing is the foundation upon which great work succeeds or fails.

My favorite exercise, indeed it rules my recent sketchbooks, is to toss some lines on a page, and then find the illustration within them. If at first I can’t pull something out of them, I look up, look around, while my pencil hand is still moving around the scribble. I’ll flip the page upside-down, randomly erase, ask my muse what she sees, and before I know it, I’ve pulled something out of my subconscious. The effect of this exercise is often therapeutically exhilarating, as if I’ve pulled a stopper out of my mind and creativity is once again flowing freely. I call this exercise “combing my brain.”

Great idea- I was told years ago by an architecture tutor that he always takes 5 minues out of his day to draw the same tree…just to get the daily drawing practice in. I keep intendeding to draw daily, and go through spurts of focusing on it…

I shall give these ideas a go and hope that it kicks starts more fluid scribblings!

WELL DONE A GREAT MANY GOOD IDEAS !lIZ THANKS

Thanks for all these great ideas, RB! Our local artists’ co-op, ‘ELMWOOD STARZ’, is planning to hold a week-long Summer Art Camp again this year for kids, Grades 3 to 7, and these would make excellent lessons. I’m looking forward to trying out these fun techniques with them. :)

“Have a Sunny Day!” :)

Elaine Macdougall
(aka ‘memac’) ‘Sunny Days Originals’

I am have been feeling a bit blocked recently. But I might well try one or two of these.

Excellent tips and great journal. Thank you

A few years ago I broke my right (dominant) wrist and was forced to do everything left-handed for months, including but not limited to writing, drawing, and brushing of teeth. What a royal nuisance! but what a great revitalization of all my creative juices, not just in drawing but in all media. If you haven’t done it yet, you’ve got to give the non-dominant hand a workout. It stirs up creative impulses you never knew you had.

Thank you! Great tips!

I can draw money out of the bank.

upside-down drawing …

I can’t draw :( That’s why I camera! :)

I remember my art teacher often told us to do continuous line drawings “bilnd”. The results of drawing blind to looking at what you do were like chalk and cheese. When i drew blind, they quite often turned out better.

I draw all the time doodles on my papers at work swirls on bus tickets and in my dreams. I think it drives my boss up the wall when he gets back a set of papers with things on but one day they may turn up in one of my long drawings. At school I was told I couldn’t draw, but it was rubbish everyone can draw. Even my father could draw a dog with a square nose on squared paper. Everything starts from a small thing and leads on, don’t be afraid to try.

Everyone can draw. Some people draw better or more precisely than others but that doesn’t mean that they will produce superior artwork! There is no technique that is better than another and it’s worth remembering how much fun can be had from getting out of our comfort zone once in a while. Personally I would like to try and tighten my drawing skills as I’ve been free with my art for too long and need some discipline and remember how I started! :)

Thanks for the tips… :-)

Over the years, I’ve tried the drawing thing. I’ve come up with a couple of pictures, but for the most part, MY talent comes from a camera. I love photoart and making something abstract from a photo, gets me better results than drawing with a pencil, or colored pencils or felt tip markers. I’ve tried the tablet and pen on my computer, but I find it difficult to watch the screen and use my tablet off to the side. I guess I will improve with time and usage, but I really depend on my cameras for my images. I do agree that everybody can draw, just some way better than others. I’ve found several artists on the bubble that have remarkably fantastic artistic abilities…to the point of drawing or painting anything in photo quality reality. I could have swarn it was a photograph, but it was a painting. I dabble every now and then with drawing, I’m just more comfortable with my photoart and my photos. Bob :)

This is a great drawing exercise. I have drawn all my life and painted for years. So taking up this exercise a few hours this week to add to my painting schedule will be fun. Thanks I think I will try some during break time tomorrow.

I was doing those in art school – a lifetime ago, but always fun. Another to try is to change your “tool”.. instead of a pencil, try a felt tip marker or a ball point pen. Both help you to become more observant because you CANNOT ERASE! The only thing I’m consistent with (barring health issues) is drawing a little bit each day. It doesn’t have to be the same piece, just as long as I touch “something”…

thanks for this tips!:)

wow..great tip..thanks.

some great ideas – now if I can just get off this darn computer & DO something!!!!!!

@sarah butcher.. thanks for the mr doobs harmony link – i love it!!

These are great, simple tips. I’ve been relying too much on collage and on my camera. I really DO need to work on my drawing and painting skills, because I don’t want to lose them!

great tips. reminds me of my college days :)

wonderful tips! lately, i’ve been really into the lines that are ‘left out’ to create an image… so rather than put in every fine detaill it can be quite striking to omit certain elements..