Art is a mysterious thing. There is a whole world of difference between the things we create and the artworks that are the most beautiful and moving to us. This book will show you how to approach art from all angles.
You will be surprised, at the end of this book, at your ability to create art. You will learn how to draw from imagination, from photographs, from nature, and from any other source you can think of. And you will learn how to use your artistic skills for your own pleasure or for creating products that you can sell.
Tricks of the trade
This is not a typical art book full of theory; it contains practical information that will improve your drawing right away. The book is based on 20 years of experience teaching students just like you how to draw and paint at every level – beginning through advanced – using easy-to-understand language with lots of illustrations that simplify even complex concepts.
To make this book as accessible as possible, I have tried to leave out all unnecessary technical terms and explanations and have instead focused on showing what to draw in each step so that all you need to do is copy me.* Each illustration has a description box with important information about what I have done to make it effective for taking you towards your
The drawing of the human body is a very complicated thing to master. You have to be able to draw every bone in the body and you need to know how the muscles move over each bone. Even then, you still need to be able to draw the figure in motion. That is not easy.
If you are looking for an easier subject, try flowers. Flowers can be drawn with just a little bit of practice. The reason is that there are fewer petals on flowers than there are bones in a body. You only have to draw four petals and you can make a flower.
…Drawing really isn’t that hard if you just take it one step at a time.
Art is a highly subjective area and there are no right or wrong answers. The most important thing to remember is that you are the artist, so it is up to you to decide what you want to draw.
There are many artists who, when confronted with their own work, will say, “I’m not really an artist.” This is a very common thing for an artist to think. Anyone can be an artist, and I believe anyone can create great art. It’s just a matter of breaking down the process into easy steps that anyone can do.
The mantra for drawing is always the same: practice, practice, practice. The word “practice” comes from the Latin “practicus” which means “skilled at” rather than just being good at something. That’s what you are doing, you are learning and developing skills. When we use the word “practice” in English it tends to have a more specific meaning, often referring to sports or musical instruments, but that may be because those are areas where it applies so well that it has become part of the lexicon.
The only way to improve your skills is to practice and draw every day. Although you might think that practicing every day will eventually lead to some sort of magical improvement overnight, this is not so. It takes years of dedicated, constant effort to develop and hone new skills (and even more years for those who started out with less talent).
If you want to see improvement, you need to be constantly drawing and constantly pushing yourself further than before. You can’t just draw when you feel like it or when inspiration strikes; you will never see any real results from those moments of genius. You have to draw because that’s what you need to do – it’s your job.*
The first thing to consider is that you want to draw a still life. You want to draw something that isn’t moving, so that you can focus on the shapes, rather than how the thing is moving. The best way to do this would be a flower or some fruit, but those are very difficult to draw in a realistic way. So, the next best thing is an object with lots of lines running through it, such as a bowl or jar. A vase of flowers would be good too, but it has too many curves and not enough straight lines.
Tall thin objects are preferred over short fat ones. If you’re going to use a glass or cup, they need to be tall and thin. You also need to have some white space showing through the object, since drawing over the glass will make it difficult to see what you’re doing.
The next thing is that you need a pencil with 2B lead (the softest,) and an eraser. You can use a hard pencil, but it’s better if you use soft one because the lines won’t show through as much on the other side of the paper and they’ll be easier to erase or lighten up later. If you don’t have one already, get an “art”
Artists combine the visual appeal of paintings with the intellectual appeal of good writing. But art is not a spectator sport. You have to work at it to understand it. If you want to be an artist, you have to practice drawing and painting.
The first step is easy: just look at things and try to draw them. The second step can be harder: find out why what you’ve drawn doesn’t look right. The third step is even harder: learn the techniques that will let you get it right.
Artists need a certain kind of mind, but there is no particular reason why only artists should have that mind.