Barebone Basics of Drawing

"Drawing is a process: taking in information about a subject, analyzing it, and setting it down on paper." --Peter Gray

If you've just gotten the idea to learn to draw, these are some ideas to keep in mind. It'll make the learning process easier. If you've drawn for awhile you may have come across these ideas, but I know it took me about two years to realize a few of these things, no matter how obvious they may seem to other people.

Drawing is a Process

Like all creative endeavors there will be periods of "divine inspiration" but the people that know their craft are able to do it whether they feel like it or not. Meaning, anyone can learn to draw. You may never be famous at it. Don't feel bad. There are tons of talented people that no one ever hears about. It doesn't mean they aren't happy with what they do, or that they don't etch out a living.

The process starts with familiarizing yourself with the basics, like lighting and composition. Find pieces of art that you find fascinating. Study them closely. Look at life and study it closely. There is a lot of planning involved in drawing that you might not suspect. Artists often do sketches, studying their subject from various angles or sources before they make "the big work".

References are not a Crutch

Even professional artists use references. I don't know why this fact escaped me for so many years. A lot of it comes from watching talented people play. People exist that can make all sorts of beauty straight from their mind. They can etch the Mona Lisa in twenty minutes. What you don't see is that most of these people have drawn a lot. They've put in hundreds of hours fine tuning their craft.

I read this: (art tutorial) which says that if you draw something five to ten times you begin to build a model in your mind. I have an artist friend who has told me if you really want to learn proportions, take a source with the correct proportions and trace it seventeen times. You are essentially training your hand to draw correctly.

It's like grammar. How do you know what sounds like proper grammar? You had lessons in school for years, endless papers and articles were written, endless revision of the teacher correcting your writing and spoken word. As an adult, you just know. Hence, if you want to be able to draw from your mind, you have to train it to know right from wrong. You do this with practice.

Practice

Master artists have practiced their whole lives. They are obsessed. Whether you want to master or not, be prepared to practice for a long while before you see results. Just because you've been drawing for seven months and still aren't "good" doesn't mean anything.

Also, be aware that every mind learns at its own pace. It'll take awhile before all the tips and principals of art sink in. I remember being in a class using clay. The teacher asked us if we'd ever used the medium before and there was a classmate who'd never touched it in her life. What she made however was awesome, as oppose to me (also never having used the medium) who make a duck that would have made an eight year old proud. However, she knew art. She had the models in her head already. She knew form and shading and had the 3D models of many things already programed into her mind. She also had an artist for a mother, which brings me to the next point.

Networking/ support base

There is nothing more valuable than being able to make a friend with your same interests. You will learn faster because you will have two minds working toward the same goal: being better at drawing. You can chat about the various techniques, books, research, other artists,etc. It'll also take you further because if you both enjoy the process and research then you'll both have more motivation to continue. Friendly competition doesn't hurt either. Not to mention having someone else you trust to bounce ideas off of.

Realism

In school, in books, in all sorts of exercises they'll have you draw still lifes. Even with a still life, remember there is no way to replicate life exactly. There are some ultra-realistic artists out there. This is a good thing to strive towards. However, even they translate the reality to some extent. All art (and not just visual art) is realism, not realistic. You are approximating and conveying what you are seeing to others. The greatest example of this is when one of my teachers looked at my attempted still life and said "here, a swatch of blue here will be good". I looked at the still life really hard and said in frustration "but there isn't any blue there."

The idea was to convey shadow, and a technique to convey shadow is often done in blue and purple. A person viewing the painting knows it's a shadow and it fits well into their minds. Even though the reality is there's no blue, realism allows for all sorts of things to be there. The mind is an awesome contraption, it can recognize things simplified, stylized, and otherwise distorted. Hence, you have freedom to play with reality, even in a still life.

Beginning quote came from the following source:

Gray, Peter The Complete Guide to Drawing and Illustration: a practical and inspirational course for artists of all abilities , Arcturus Publishing Limited, London 2009.