Understanding Drawing - Where Should I Be Starting A Drawing?

By Author: Ruediger Schmidt
Total Articles: 35
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Lately I was asked a query that seems frequent among beginning artists who just begin to learn drawing: "how and where to begin a drawing??" Don't be misled into thinking this is a too simple and silly question. Though the answer may be apparent, I've seen a lot of artists that are unsuccessful because they don't pursue these principles.

Once artists come up with a new drawing without an organized and structured format they can fail. Not that I believe much in structures and strict rules. Follow some really simple and obvious rules when starting a new drawing will make your work much easier.

Why do you want to draw?

First question yourself not only what you feel like drawing but also why do you want to draw it? What is the message you're trying to give the viewer? Knowing the communication you're trying to express to your targeted people is a crucial first step. For example, imagine that you want to draw the picture of a dog then ask yourself why? Is it to explain how adorable he is? Is it to explain how clever a hunter he is? To demonstrate how unsafe he is? Is it in reminiscence of him?

Having understood ...
... what to communicate the next step is to consider how you can use the elements and techniques to convey it. You can use perspective, dark and shadows, colors, composition, add different details, use different drawing techniques etc.

Next you should endeavor to find out where your picture is going by making lots of small thumbnail sketches. Try various ways to create the drawing, see what actually looks good and what doesn't. Draw these sketches very fast. The belief is to put the whole composition into place, so you don't need to spend time adding a lot of niceties on them.

It's sometimes very difficult, even for professional artists, not to jump ahead and start on the final picture before things are really thought through. But this scenario often ends with that attempt going into the bin once you've realized that your first proposal didn't actuate the way you'd first considered. So it's an extremely good idea to use the initial steps when starting a drawing as it will save you a lot of work in the long run.

Getting started drawing

You have finished sketching your artwork you like to translate in a full-blown drawing? Then it's time to move forward. This point in time it is not about speed but beauty you want to attempt for. 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 approach the different parts of your drawing ideally. All in all there are just two simple rules:

Start with light tones, proceed to darker tones

This lets you to rectify little mistakes you've made at the beginning as the darker tones can cover up any of your faults.

Start with less details and focus on details later

In most cases the drawings are ruined by distorted proportions, perspective and composition. Now start first by arranging the total drawing without details just in faint lines. This makes certain you'll bring in all errors in perspective and proportion early in the process. If something goes really awful then, you can make a fresh start without making too much work loss. And all lesser mistakes still can be fixed easily as there are only faint lines and no details in place.

Even if you are knowledgeable and sketching for years, it won't be wrong to ponder on these guidelines once more. Actually I'm forgetting these guidelines too often - and bringing in errors into my drawings that could have been prevented. And you'll observe these guidelines are even more helpful, if you've just set out to learn drawing.
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