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Sketching & Drawing Lessons

by ianbates1 on July 3, 2014

Table of Contents

Sketching & Drawing Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Intro: Sketching & Drawing Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Step 1: Getting started - Lines, Points, Squares, Circles and Triangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Related Instructables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Advertisements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

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Intro: Sketching & Drawing Lessons
I meet a lot of people in my job who say 'I wish I could draw like that' and they're surprised when I say 'Ok, I can teach you if you want'.

We often assume that drawing is a talent, something we are born with, some people can do it, some people can't.

But this is isn't exactly true; I failed my 'O'Level Art when I was 16. [don't get me wrong I'm not complaining I failed because I wasn't very good] and I didn't draw anything
for a few years, why would I? I wasn't very good. To paraphrase a famous quote 'You don't know you are no good at something you enjoy doing, until someone tells you.'
If I didn't know I was no good I'd have probably kept going and kept getting better. A couple of years later doodling away I realised I loved sketching and drawing and I
wished I hadn't stopped and so I set out to teach myself how to become good at something I'd always wanted to be good at. I ended up becoming a design technology
teacher/lecturer.

I'm going to share here my tips and techniques for developing design drawing and communication skills. I am going to start with some very basic exercises and work
through to more advanced stuff but I'll be honest, there are no short cuts, no quick tricks and no fast tracks, there's only practice, practice, practice.

Good luck, I hope you enjoy this, and don't be afraid to share your work with others.

Step 1: Getting started - Lines, Points, Squares, Circles and Triangles

Don't go out and buy loads of equipment - Buying the best football boots doesn't make you David Beckham!

You will need :

A ballpoint pen (any colour will do)

A piece of paper or An old envelope (This is what junk mail is really for - free paper)

The key to drawing at this stage is

Lines

Points

Squares

Circles

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Triangles

LINES

Straight lines are actually very difficult to draw because the human body is made up of lots of pivot points.

1. Find your line - you will have a natural angle across your body with which you are comfortable. Now imagine wiping some crumbs off the table; look at the angle &
direction of your hand, this is your natural angle.
2. Ghosting - hold you pen the way you would normally. Place your hand on the paper so that the edge of your palm is resting on the paper but the pen is not
touching the paper(no other part of your arm should be resting anywhere). Now sweep the crumbs away [Just like Karate Kid - Wax On Wax Off] do this three or
four times.
3. Now as you are sweeping let the tip of the pen lightly touch the paper.
4. Repeat this for a few minutes.
5. Now try and draw the longest straightest lines you can, see if you can space them the same distance apart each time. Turn the paper and make grids, just
practice, practice, practice.

POINTS

All drawings are basically lines or curves that start and stop at a certain point and once you can do that you are on your way to being able to draw anything.

1. Look at image.2 - re-create this series of points which get further and further apart.
2. Now using ghosting first draw imaginary lines between the points.
3. Now join the lines (it doesn't matter if you start a little early or stop a little late, this is sketching) image.3
4. Now you have some start and stop control fill your sheet with small groups of 5 lines each where the they are all of the same length - image.4
5. If you want to do lines in a different direction don't move your arm - turn the paper instead, this way you are still 'sweeping the crumbs' moving in a way that is
comfortable to you.
6. You can extend this exercise by drawing SQUARES - draw two parallel lines, turn your paper through 90 degrees and draw two more parallel lines across the first
two lines. Now practice, practice, practice.

CIRCLES

Earlier I said the human body is made up of a lot of pivot points, so you would think drawing curves would be easy, it isn't, the curves even from your wrist point are
usually two open to be of any use.

1. Write or draw the letter C. Do you start at the top and move down and anticlockwise or at the bottom and move up and clockwise. This is your natural 'tight curve'
direction.
2. Draw a series of letter Cs - try drawing them a bit bigger than normal and then try drawing them the size of your fist.- image.5
3. Go back over your letter Cs but ghosting this time and instead of a C, complete the circle to the top but keep going round, ghosting a circle.
4. Let your pen touch the paper and sketch in the reminder of the C to make a circle. - image.6
5. Now forget the letter C and just ghost and then sketch a page full of circles. Practice, practice, practice.

PLAYTIME.

Now get some fresh paper and just doodle away sketching and drawing lines squares circles and if you look at image.7 you can add in TRIANGLES. Have fun :)

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http://www.instructables.com/id/Sketching-Drawing-Lessons/
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Comments
1 comments Add Comment

craftclarity says: Jul 3, 2014. 9:02 AM REPLY

This is really good. Gonna start working on my ellipses straightaway. I will heartily encourage you to post more!! Thank you!!

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