How to draw well

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This article was co-written by Kelly Medford. Kelly Medford is an American painter living in Rome, Italy. She majored in classical painting, drawing and printmaking in the US and Italy. She mainly works on the streets in Rome and also travels for international collectors organizations. She is the founder of Sketching Rome Tours, where she teaches visitors to The Eternal City how to use sketchbooks. Kelly graduated from the Florence Academy of Art.

There are 10 references cited in this article that you can view at the bottom of the page.

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Drawing is a skill many people think must have an innate talent. Actually that’s not true! With observation and lots of practice, anyone can draw better.

Table of Contents

Improve your drawing skills

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Draw every day. Practice, practice, practice. It’s the mantra of every artist in the world, and practice is a surefire way to make your paintings better. Even just spending a few minutes a day drawing helps your brain work with art and learn new techniques.

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Take your sketchbook with you everywhere. If you always have a notebook with you, you’re likely to draw everything – from bus mates, nature scenes to breathtaking city skylines. You need practice to be a good painter, so program yourself to practice every day.

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Buy a variety of pencils. Pencils come in a variety of styles with different grades that tell you about hardness and strength. Pencils labeled “H” are stiffer, drawing neat but light strokes, while pencils labeled “B” will give thicker, bolder strokes.

A standard beginner set of pencils is available at most art stores, a set that can include 4H, 3H, 2H, H, HB , B, 2B 3B and 4B pencils. ^{[1] X Research Source}
Try each new pencil to feel it. Note the differences in the lines and try to combine different pencils in one drawing.

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Experiment with textures, colors, and blends. Use a few pages of your sketchbook to experience how it feels when pencils paint on paper, how fingers or paper towels blend, and when drawing a simple sphere. You need to understand how textures work to improve your painting and use the right pencils for the right strokes.

Draw about 3-4 straight lines and practice drawing bold and light. How each pencil is used to shade a straight line from dark to fade.

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Take a drawing class or learn art theory. Although many young artists feel they can learn to draw on their own, there are many techniques that can only be passed on by experienced teachers. Spend some time practicing perspective, proportions, and drawing real models. Spending time in a studio with an art teacher can help you find mistakes and correct them faster than studying on your own. However, you don’t have to go to class, there are many online courses out there. If you’re more comfortable drawing at home, online classes have cheap, expensive, or even free classes.

Check art supplies stores, art societies, or universities for drawing classes.

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Draw according to the sample photo or other picture. You shouldn’t paint over another artist’s picture and say it’s yours, but you can learn valuable techniques by hand-drawing their or other pictures. Because the sample image is a two-dimensional image, there is less pressure to learn perspective and can focus on strokes and angles. ^{[2] X Research Source}

Practice by redrawing classic paintings to learn from the masters – da Vinci is the king of anatomy, and his paintings have many things you can learn.
Don’t overdraw – you don’t practice anything, you just draw lines.

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Reverse painting. Drawing from the opposite direction forces you to forget about trying to make the picture look reasonable, and instead learn to draw what you see. You can achieve similar results by drawing in a mirror, or practicing with distorted images or editing Photoshop. ^{[3] X Research Sources}

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Learn from resources. Drawing precise lines requires more than just looking at sample photos online. The best artists and art teachers invest in books, real life examples, and research to understand what they draw. This depends on the type of art you are pursuing. So far, all artists have benefited from leaving the drawing book and studying elsewhere.

If you draw people, invest in an illustrated book on human anatomy, or sign up for a course that includes drawing real models.
If you draw animals, spend a day taking your notebook to the zoo or buying an illustrated book on animal anatomy.
If you’re painting landscapes or cities, invest in a perspective book so you can create the correct depth of field.

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Buy a wooden mannequin. These small, standing dolls have many joints for you to style and perfect human proportions. This makes them very useful for drawing complex poses. Just put the doll in the right position and then sketch the drawing based on that, then add the details for the character later.

If you can’t buy a doll, you can use a temporary bone model in the school biology room to learn about proportions.
Anatomically accurate models of the hands, head, and skeletal system are also made, but these are more expensive.
Wooden dolls are useful tools for drawing, they are a great and cheap way to practice drawing the human body.

Walk to perfection

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Remember that drawing strokes is only drawing strokes. That’s the outline only, there is no polishing but only strokes. Drawing beautiful strokes is essential for the finished picture, because it is the step that determines the shape and proportions of the drawing.

In general, drawing strokes is the first thing you do when you draw.

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Draw grid. This step is often overlooked by artists who are new to the profession and often jump right in, but it is important that the drawing is accurate. For example, if you are painting a large landscape, start with faint lines that divide the picture into 3 parts both horizontally and vertically. That is, your picture will be divided into 9 cells. This step helps you frame the picture and arrange the objects in it, as well as the points of reference when drawing.

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Focus on the ratio first. Scale is the difference in size between two objects. For example, if you draw hands and feet in the wrong proportions, the picture will look rough and skewed. Close one eye and compare the pencil to the object. Straight pencil handle. Use a pencil as a ruler and mark the length of the object with your thumb. You can then compare this size with other objects in the picture, or use a pencil to mark certain distances on the drawing page. ^{[4] X Research Sources}

You can use the grid of 9 lines to compare the proportions. Which frame does the object you draw fit into? Do they take up the entire page or just a third?

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Sketch out the basic part of the picture before moving on to the next step. There’s no worse feeling than when you’re in the middle of a painting when you realize your character’s arms are too short. Good painters know how to avoid this by sketching the picture first. Use simple shapes to mark the proportions of each object. For example, the oval is the head, the rounded quad is the upper half of the body, and the long blocks for the arms and legs. Continue adjusting these blocks until you are confident in your posture and proportions. ^{[5] X Research Sources}

Remember to outline with light strokes so you can erase later.
Draw small circles or dots at each joint so that the pattern “moves” the arms and legs into the correct posture.

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Slowly add details to the sketch. With each draft we add more complex details. The first is the drawing grid and the stick figure. Then you add basic shapes and poses. Next, make the finishing touches, join the joints, draw the faces…etc. Think of the finishing touches by joining the joints for a recognizable figure.

Once you are satisfied with the main line, erase the outline below.
Work slowly, drawing carefully each line and erasing if you’re not satisfied. You need precise strokes for the finished product to improve.

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Draw from the largest object to the smallest. Never draw from small details. Once you have finished drawing the big stroke, you can take care of the small details. This is the mistake artists often make when they are new to learning, spending all their time and attention on the small details and forgetting the big proportions.

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Practice perspective so the landscape has real depth. Perspective is why distant objects are smaller than near ones. To draw correctly, you need the right perspective. One way to practice perspective is to use perspective points. Think of this point as the furthest point on the horizon, like the sun before setting. From this point draw lines based on your painting – whatever is closer to the perspective point is further away, hence they are smaller, and what is further away from the perspective point is closer to you.

From the perspective dot, draw two diagonal lines. Anything drawn within those two diagonals is about the same size in real life, it’s just that the perspective makes them appear different. ^{[6] X Research Sources}

Good polish

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You should know that polishing gives depth to an object. Shading is what makes a picture stand out, not flatten. An important part of creating a three-dimensional feel for a good drawing is shading. It’s hard to master the shading technique, especially when you’re trying to shade by imagination or memory.

Shading can also act as a stroke representation. Take a look at the two ridges of the nose and upper lip, you can show them with brushstrokes, but they still don’t look real. Try polishing those places, gently darkening the area around them, immediately the bridge of the nose and the lip line will “show up”.

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Think about the light source. Shadows are created because there is less light in that place than elsewhere in the scene. Think about where the light is coming from, what kind of light it is, and even the time of day that affects shadows. Shadows are created in the area opposite to light. For example, if you place a sphere and light it from the right, the left side will be darker. That is the area that needs to be shaded when drawing the sphere.

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Notice the edge of the shadow. The shadow border is where the shadow disappears. Let’s simulate the shadow on the wall – when your hand is close to the light source and the wall, there is a sharp junction between the dark and the light; but if you put your hand away, the shadow of the hand gently blends into the light. Notice that every shadow has a rather soft border. The difference between shading and drawing is whether the contour fades or not. ^{[7] X Research Sources}

Direct light, such as spotlights and light on clear sunny days, both create harsh shadows with sharp edges.
Indirect light, distant light, multiple light sources, or shade, will create shadows with faded edges.

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Draw the shadow out before the final fill. Draw thin, light lines around the edge of the shadow to define the position of the shadow.

Map out the location of the light: where is the light strongest? Is there any bright spot?
Shadow outline: where does each object’s shadow start and end?
Go for sharp shadows. Is there a silhouette made of light, like a human figure in the sun?

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Focus on transitions. Shading is the art of gradually transferring light from one place to another. Start lightly shading the subject with the lightest pencil strokes. Then continue the drawing by filling in the darkest areas, one by one.

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Blending shadows. This is the best way to create realistic shadows for every drawing. Using a tissue, or fingers, or lightly paint with a pencil, gradually blend the darker areas with the lighter areas by rubbing from dark to light. Most pencils only blend a little softly, but drawing with graphite allows you to blend in more intense shadows with your fingers.

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Advice

Just go wrong. Sometimes a wrong stroke can make a picture look better! Make compromises with your paintings, it’s a great way to discover new techniques that will help you master your skills in the future.
Visit art galleries and browse artists online for inspiration.
When drawing animals, you should start by sketching the shapes that make up the whole animal. For example, a giraffe is made up of many quads for its legs and neck, while a bird is oval in shape.
Don’t judge too soon. Wait until the next day and look at your paintings again to see how they look now.
Be confident in what you draw and avoid comparing yourself to others. They are different from you and you are different from them.
Have fun drawing, avoid anger or frustration.

Things you need

Pencil
Paper or drawing book

Steps

Improve your drawing skills

Walk to perfection

Good polish

Advice

Things you need

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