How To Draw: Tips And Advice For Beginners To Make Cool Drawings

Drawing is one of the most popular artistic expressions humanity has ever experienced. By definition everyone can draw; an individual just requires some guidance to get the best out of his efforts and create the pieces he wants to create.
How To Draw - Drawing Realistic Eyes And Different Sketches

Getting better at drawing

Maybe you like animal drawings or cartoon drawings. Perhaps you only want to learn how to draw Batman (don’t we all do?)! When you develop drawing skills it is important to acknowledge the many factors that will impact your own development. Some of these factors are practice, time, willpower, and perseverance. Who knows? Maybe in a short period of time, we will be able to see your awesome drawings on Deviantart!
 
The power to draw is not something the Universe gives only to some people when they’re born. Anyone can develop the ability to draw and the motivation will inevitably make them better at it. Sometimes even to a professional level from which many artists delight and inspire us with their work. The most important thing to remember is: don’t you ever think you cannot draw!
Here we’ve compiled a few tips we believe might turn out helpful when you are beginning to learn how to draw.
 How To Draw - Freddie Mercury Drawing And Elvis Presley Drawing - Sketches
 

1. Deciding what to draw

Looking for things to draw? When you are at the very beginning of your journey to learn how to draw, you have to decide what you want to draw first. Maybe you have very ambitious ideas and you are not looking to draw a stickman, but in order to grow as an artist, you’ll need to manage the basic shapes first. It is possible to decompose almost everything to its basic shapes; try to draw these shapes that are easier to draw and then start to make the bigger picture out of the basic drawing. This will help you exercise your speed at drawing.
Try to draw real objects, it’s much harder to draw from a picture than a real three-dimensional object because of observation; you get a way richer visual image from a 3D object. That’s right, observation is going to be a great ally during your development, so pick a real object like a bottle (e.g.) and begin your practice with it. With time your eye is going to get sharper and you’ll learn to see more details. Practice your drawings at different times of the day so the light changes and you can observe and draw different variants of the image. With some effort, you’ll get to introduce more and more detail into your drawings till you reach a new step and begin to make more complex drawings. It is very useful to get some drawing references.
Important: Pick easy drawings. There are many cool easy drawings to try, but let them be real objects (search for drawing ideas if you need to).

 

How To Draw - Sketches Of People And Things

 

 

2. Select your pencils

The drawing pencil(s) you use is very important. If it is too hard or too soft you might be unable to achieve the optimal version of your drawing. You can improve your versatility by having a richer variety of pencils.
Getting a full set of pencils will allow you to have maximum control over all of the aspects of your drawings.
How To Draw - Tools To Draw - Pencils And Kits

3. Observation

How to draw a rose? See the details, practice drawing them, discover more details, improve your drawing; that’s how observation is crucial for your learning process. Most people try to draw things the way they should look instead of the way they really do look. Once again, the most remarkable advice while learning to draw is observation. If you look at what you draw you’re doing a good job. Take notice of proportions and details, those are the things that will measure your capability. The more details you can add and the better proportions, you’ll get better and better drawings. This is why drawing from memory is not an easy thing to do as it doesn’t offer as much visual information as drawing things we are looking at. Shadows, details, shapes, there are many things that are hard to replicate even when you’re looking at them. You could try to make them up, but drawings will lose some reality. Even when you would like to draw magical creatures or ghosts or other things you could not replicate in reality you should draw from observation; that’s why a tree with a face can look so alive, because the person who draws it replicated a real human expression into it. Observe things, draw them and merge them; create new things out of things you can already draw.

How To Draw - Showing A Drawing Technique Called Hatching

 

 

4. Be flexible

Be versatile, this will allow you to create interesting and dynamic drawings. Experiment with your set of pencils and hold them at different angles to create different sorts of effects, play with your equipment, have fun with it and create new things. Remember that once you start a drawing you should finish it with the same style, this is a very important rule to keep your drawing harmonious.

Do you want to learn how to paint?

How To Draw - Drawing A Man's Face Technique

 

 

5. Use guides and grids to keep proportions

You must learn how to keep the alignment of facial and body features of the people you are looking at. The angle from which you are looking at them will play an important role in this. Using grids to guide the person to keep proportions of the features is a very good way to avoid ending up with a distorted face. These grids will help you better locate the placement of features from the same angles and at the proper distance, such as where to place the eyes (e.g.). It is important to pay attention at the head proportion before deciding and marking the rest of the features because sometimes we concentrate too much on a certain feature like the nose (e.g.) and draw it too big compared to the rest of the face. Remember, observation is your best friend.

Even when everybody is different, most of us have the same standard proportions. So things like understanding the divisions of the face and the shapes of foreheads of both children and adults will allow you to improve dramatically. If you draw from a picture, using grids will result in very accurate results. This way you can achieve really good looking artworks with more precision and detail. 

How To Draw - Different Sketches With Grids To Keep Proportions

 

 

6. Pick details wisely

Don’t bite more than you can chew; you might be ambitious, but that might ruin your overall results. Don’t try to draw every scale on a fish; the artist should pick which details are going into the piece to suit the aesthetics of the artwork. 

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How To Draw - Sketching A Beard - Drawing Technique Called Hatching - Realistic Example


 

7. Practice

This is the best advice anyone will give a student in anything. Whenever you want to develop a skill you must practice to achieve a higher level of mastery. Always have with you a sketchbook wherever you go and try to draw anything new you see, try different textures, different shades, a different style or focus. Quickly draw things; sketch everything you can. This is a great way to learn faster because you can do many different drawings. You are yet to discover what you are capable of.

How To Draw - Sketches Of Girls In A Realistic And A Cartoon Technique

 

 

8. Put yourself into your drawing

In order to become a real artist, there’s something that you must have, a way to insert your own soul into a drawing. Even when you draw realistic artworks. They can always have your signature in the way you perform details and the focus you give to the piece. You are the one who decides.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, learn from them, compare your current work with the previous so you can acknowledge your improvements. All mistakes, big or small, can be fixed. The most important thing is to be aware of them and hold the will to overcome them. Be self-critical, have fun, and most importantly: practice, practice, practice!

Follow us on Instagram to get art inspiration. Remember, you can do anything if you work hard enough!

 

How To Draw - Owen Wilson Sketch and Danny Trejo Drawing - Showing Creativity 

 

 

We want to give special thanks to the artists of these amazing drawings
@Maloart and @Pamanrez

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