A Beginner’s Guide on How to Draw
This is “A Beginner’s Guide on How to Draw”… sounds a preposterous thing to say because we all can DRAW in one way or another and it doesn’t matter what it looks like regardless of our age.
The thing with anything in life, it’s not what you know or can do, it’s who you know that sets you off on the right road in the art world. In other words, you can sell a scribble to one person and not to another. You don’t have to go to college to learn how to draw, paint etc. Great artists of the past didn’t go to college. They were either born with the gift or they self-taught themselves the talent that we so love today when we venture into an art gallery or museum where you will find masterpieces created by the likes of Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh etc.
If you’ve been lucky like me to be born with the gift to draw things without being taught how to do it then you are very fortunate to have that talent – unlike most people need teaching to know how to draw. That’s not to say a person could be born with musical ability or the creativity of sculpting things with their hands. We are all born with some ability; it’s knowing what it is. In some cases, the person have already found their niche and it was probably more prevalent in them than in most people.
Lets get down to the nitty-gritty… something like portrait drawing which is less daunting than wild life scenery to start with.
a) First thing, what the background is going to be like is what you need to sort out before your subject is in
place.
b) The next thing is to get comfortable with the positions of your particular subject, whether you want the
subject lying down, sitting up or standing in some obscure way.
When you’re happy with the layout, you check out your selection of fine-leaded pencils or charcoals to begin your sketching. If you going to paint over the drawing afterwards then you will need a soft leaded pencil so that you can rub out any lines showing when you’re painting. If you use a hard leaded pencil it might leave marks after painting so be careful what you use. Once you have sorted out your implement, it’s time to get focus.
You must try and visualise the distance between you and your subject. The reason for this is, to judge the size or know the size of your subject in comparison to the size of your canvas or drawing pad. In other words, you don’t want to draw the subject too big on a small canvas or drawing pad or too small for that matter. Once you’ve sussed out this then it’s time to put pen to paper.
TIP: Usually all artists practise sketching the subject time after time until the right position is found to work on in a more in-depth way.
Starting with the OUTLINE – some would be artists start out to draw a person or even wild life incorrectly (unless they are perfect in drawing a subject without guidelines). They tend to start at the top of the head but not using the right kind of method to draw the head. They draw the top part of the head first, draw down to where the ears might be, draw the shape of the ears, draw down to the chin and under until the lines meet up. This way is not getting the right perspective or order in how it should be drawn or portrayed when starting out to be an artist.
A simple way of drawing the head
Is an oval or roundish shape first (make sure you’ve drawn the shape in an appropriate position on the canvas or drawing pad).
1. Depending on which angle or position of the eyes are going to be. Draw a line down through the oval shape, not so much being straight but more of a curve, giving it a two dimensional effect. This will be the guideline to separate the eyes and the centralisation of the nose.
2. You draw a line right across in the middle of the oval shape, also this line should be slightly curved to give you that two-dimensional effect as well. This will be the guideline for the eyes and also the top part of where the ears begin.
3. The next step is splitting the oval shape section into three equal sections below the central guideline for the eyes. First line below the eye guideline will be where nose ends. The bottom line is roughly where the mouth will be and where the ears end (don’t forget the ears are oval shaped too, drawing the shapes from the top of the central line of the eyes down to the bottom line).
And that is the simple method of creating a basic OUTLINE for a face of a person or wild life.
REMEMBER: Don’t forget for certain wild life, you might need to elongate the oval shape to coincide with the way an animal head is. For example, a horse’s head and so on.
Now we move on to the body to complete the portrait or figure drawing in the outline stage
1. The neck would roughly need a small oval shape depending how the subject is positioned (when I said that, it might not need a neck because of how the head is positioned, hiding the neck in other words).
2. Next is the torso, draw a large oval shape, curve it depending how the subject is positioned (don’t make the subject look FAT unless of course the subject is). You must get the proportions in the right order from where you are standing or sitting. For example, you don’t want the head to be too big resting on the shoulders of the torso. If you make a mistake, erase it out and start again… it happens.
3. Followed by the arms, the top part of the arm will be shorter than the bottom part of the arm below the elbow by drawing oval shapes again.
REMEMBER: If you’re drawing a portrait you don’t have to include all the length of the arms but it all
depends on how you want your subject portrayed.
4. Then the hands are drawn in a round shape for the palms; sausage shapes for the fingers, it all depends on how the hands are positioned open or closed.
5. Now we move on to the legs and feet in a similar fashion. Drawing oval shapes and positioning them in the right place. The thighs will be shorter above the knees but fatter and the feet oval shapes along with the toes if bare.
And that is your basic OUTLINE in figure drawing to build on.
If you keep to this sort of method of layout, you will never go wrong, you probably will make mistakes along the way… but don’t we all?
What you do next is to put in the fine detail and then the shading.
REMEMBER: The OUTLINE is a guideline. You rub out the lines of the outline as you go along until you create your picture. When you see a likeness or shape forming then you halfway there in completing a good piece of work.
When you draw, draw with passion, in other words, enjoy what you are doing and the finish result will be fulfilling.
REMEMBER: Once you have mastered the construction of a figure or wild life, guidelines will no longer be required. Guidelines are for beginners who haven’t been born with that magical stroke, but needs the guidance to know how to draw for the first time. Another thing I would like to add, we all land up with our own unique way of drawing something that we love to draw.
TIPS: Use a mirror for different expressions and positions of the face. And different positions of the body, arms, and legs. You can purchase from a good art shop, a miniature model for the use of movement.
Look out for my next informative article on ART on fine detail and shading. Plus how to go about drawing a landscape for the first time.
All the best in your new venture.
