Learn To Draw - Where Should I Be Starting A Sketching?

By Author: Ruediger Schmidt
Total Articles: 35
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Some time back I was asked a question that looks frequent among starter artists who just begin to learn drawing: "how and where to start a drawing??" Don't be misled into thinking this is easy and impractical question. Although the answer may seem obvious, I've observed too many artists that do not succeed because they don't follow these guidelines.

Once artists approach a new drawing unorganized and unstructured they can fail. Not that I consider in much of structures and stern rules. Follow some really simple and obvious rules when starting a new drawing will make your life much easier.

What urges you to draw?

First question yourself not only what you feel like drawing but also why do you desire to draw it? What is the communication you're trying to convey with the viewer? Knowing the message you're trying to convey to your audience is a crucial first step. For example, visualize that you wish to draw a picture of a dog then inquire yourself why? Is it to show how cute he is? Is it to illustrate how skillful a hunter he is? To demonstrate how unsafe he is? Is it in remembrance of him?

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... Having understood what to communicate the next step is to how you can use the elements and techniques you have to put across the message. You can employ perspective, dark and shadows, colors, composition, add different details, use diverse drawing techniques etc.

After this you should attempt to figure out where your picture is going by illustrating lots of small thumbnail sketches. Try different ways to create the drawing, see what really works and what will not work. Make these sketches quickly. The belief is to put the whole composition into place, so you don't need to waste time adding a lot of fine points to them.

It's often very tough, even for professional artists, not to jump ahead and start on the final picture before things are really thought through. But this situation often ends with that effort going into the drain once you've realized that your first plan didn't materialize the way you'd first contemplated. So it's a very good idea to use the first few steps when starting a drawing as it will prevent a lot of labor in the long run.

Beginning with drawing

You have completed with sketching a composition you like to develop in a full-blown drawing? Then it's time to get started. This time it is not how fast you can draw but how beautiful your drawing is that you want to endeavor. And there are some guidelines that will help you to craft the beautiful drawing you want to create- without too many attempts going to waste.

It's all about the order in which to come up to the different parts of your drawing ideally. In a nutshell there are just two straightforward rules:

Start with light tones, proceed to darker tones

This allows you to fix small mistakes you've done early in the beginning as the darker tones can hide any of your mistakes.

Begin with little details and get into more details later

In the majority of cases the drawings get waste by indistinct size, perspective and composition. Now start first by arranging the total drawing with no details, just in faint lines. This makes sure you'll introduce all errors in perspective and proportion early in the process. If something goes really awful then, you can re-start without losing too much labor. All less significant errors still can be fixed easily as there are only faint lines and no details in place.

Even if you are experienced and drawing for years, it will be perfect for you to refresh your mind about these tips once all over again. As a matter of fact, I'm forgetting these guiding principles frequently - and bringing in errors into my drawings that could have been prevented. And you'll observe these guidelines are even more practical, if you've just initiated to become skilled at drawing.
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