*** UNDER CONSTRUCTION ***
( A very basic drawing tutorial ! )
You may or may not be impressed with my artwork
- if you're not particularly struck with it you may be wondering who I
am to tell anyone else how to draw. Well, although I
don't have the polish that I could have if I'd practiced every day all
my life, I do have a grade one pass in art from senior high school (the
highest grade you could get in that particular exam), and have tried different
ways of drawing throughout my life. Best of all, I am offering
to share with you what I can without asking for a penny of your money (unlike
the many pages you come across on a 'how to draw' search that just send
you to a book order form). If you can beat that offer, you go for
it! :-)
Back when the Bluth Brothers company was still around, I wrote to Don Bluth's brother James and asked him a question that has haunted me for years, and if you're reading this you have probably asked the very same question
"Is it possible to learn how to draw?"
His response was 'yes - that it is a mechanical
skill that can be learned by practice, like any other mechanical skill'.
I agree with him - in part. Drawing
is a mechanical skill, obvioulsy, but more besides. You may not know
this, but some artists paint with brushes held in their mouths or held
by their feet. Wherever the magic key is that lets someone enter
the world of artistic creation, it is not in a person's hands.
Much of drawing is observation, memory and experimentation - plus confidence that you can do it if you try (which is probably true for just about everyone). Perspective is important too, and can be a little complicated, but if you are drawing something you can see for practice such as a photograph or the view from your window the perspective will already be set out for you.
Anyway, let us begin!
First I want you to do somthing for me. Find a good pen that doesn't make you sit up and beg before it will make a mark on the paper, and write the word "BOATS" (block capitals) in your best handwriting. Try to keep each letter the same hight and width as the others and each letters height in alignment. If you don't manage it, try again until you do. No rush, just try it until you get it right. Doctor Evil isn't going to kill you if you don't get it right in the next 90 seconds - you have in fact the rest of your life to get it right, so take your time.
Once you've finished you will observe that
you have just drawn two elipses (the cures in the letter "B"), a pretty
nifty circle ("O"), two lines converging together at an angle ("A"),
two straight lines, one going across, the other up and down ("T"), and two
semi-circles in opposite directions forming a curved line ("S").
Pretty much everything in the whole world that you'll ever see is made
up of these lines or similar, and you've just drawn them by carefully writing the
word "BOATS" ! :) Well then - if you can write these lines you
can draw them too right? Write "BOATS" out in bigger letters this
time.... then a little bigger, but still with the same care.
if you struggle, use graph paper or paper marked out in squares (such as
maths books used in schools) to help you hold a line and keep the sizes
of the letters the same. This will get you used to drawing these
important shapes, and give you the confidence to know that you can do it.
If it helps move the paper around so that you don't have to reach across
your work (handy for avoiding smudges). This will probably be the
most helpful when drawing a curved line.
OK then - we've got that first part out of the way. You now know that you have the mechanical skill in your hands to draw. You're probably no Picasso but don't let that take away your faith that you will get better, even if you think you're hopeless and kidding yourself (which you know isn't true because you can write "BOATS", right?! :-) ) . I'll bet you even Picasso had a waste paper bin full of stuff he'd drawn that he didn't like or just didn't turn out right. Everyone has to practice, sometimes fail and try again - or even be brave enough to restart right from the beginning. X-ray images of many "old masters" paintings show multiple drawings underneath that were drawn out, didn't look right and were corrected or entirely rejected. If there is a person out there in the world that doesn't have to pracitce at all and produces perfect faultless drawings every time I'll gladly wear a T-shirt with their face printed on it for a week! :-) Anyway, let us move on. The first thing you need is the correct materials. Don't listen to people who say that a bad workman blames his tools - the correct tool is vital, and your choice WILL affect your results.... and bad results will leave your confidence shattered at this stage.
Get a nice sketch pad that has fairly thick paper with a rough texture (this will be more expensive than normal refill pad paper, but it IS worth spending the extra for the help and eraser-tolerance that good paper will give you. Remember, at this stage it's all about confidence and impressing YOURSELF. You MUST believe that you can do it - and you can do it better than you think you can, I guarantee it - or you will just give up in five minutes). The rough texture of the paper will help you to make pencil lines without having to press as hard. The paper will act like the rough surface of a blackboard (chalkboard) - if the board was smooth the chalk wouldn't draw a line, but the roughness of the board helps scrape off the chalk into a line. The thickness of the paper will also allow you to erase lines without worrying about putting a hole in the paper after the first couple of tries.
Next you need an assortment of erasers and different pencil grades. At this stage pick ones with a "B" in their code. This would include HB, B, 2B (or not 2B! sorry - couldn't resist it) etc up to 6B, but you can probably stop at 2B. You are trying to get hold of a pencil that will make a good visible line with almost no pressure applied and that doesn't smudge when you rub your finger across it (smudging has its uses, but not right now). What you are aiming for is being able to draw practice lines without making grooves in the paper. If you make grooves you won't be able to erase bad lines properly, as the grooves will always show, and even if you do, the next time you draw a better line in the same area your pencil could be captured in the groove like a record player needle in a vinyl record groove and you'll just redraw the bad line.
Finally get hold of a still from an animated film of a simple cartoon character. A newspaper cartoon might be OK, but is probably too stylised. You want something nice and simple with clear lines. Pick a big picture too - not something the size of a postage stamp! :) Many agree that copying a previous drawing is a good way to learn how to draw, but try to observe how the drawing was built up. Most things in life, and especially animation, can be reduced to basic shapes like circles and ovals etc. If you can get hold of a cartoon character's "model sheet" you'll see that the professionals build up the characters based on underlying simple shapes and lines. They don't just draw them faultlessly onto the paper in one go. If you can get hold of production drawings (Disney sell a lot of "art of" books for their later films with production material inside) try to look under the main lines for basic shapes and facial guidelines faintly drawn or drawn in a different colour (usually red or blue). Remember you are aiming to learn how to draw, not learning how to copy for the rest of your life.
*** If you only ever learn to copy you
will only ever be able to copy! ***
Further Reading:
How to Draw Section of Tealin's Harry Potter page.
This is one of the best amateur "how to draw" pages I've ever seen on the net. It's let down a little by all the Tripod pop-up ads - and the fact that it's way too brief, but I highly recommend you take a minute to visit this site.
This page was created Thursday 16 January 2003