The long way to drawing knowledge

[Miticu]

Hello to all,

I have decided to open this thread as a way to show my progres in learning to draw. As what I know is very litlle many of my frawings will suck but many of you encouraged me and reasured me that this is a regular thing, so from tomorrow I will start posting, each day, every single work/dudle/work/sketch and anything else.

I have staked up on paper, drawing books and basic tools so I am on my way to experience the greatnes of art. :yayca:

Any support/recomandations and/or critics are more than welcomed.

Thank you.

[Miticu]

Here is my first sketch of the day. It is a battery charger that i picked up and symply drew it. I could call it my first attempt at shading objects.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/Miticu/scan.gif

[Overclocked]

I think you're going to be in for a longer ride than you expect. Art is something your constantly learning. Let me give you a few tips many artists and teachers gave me when I started.

1) Practice training your mind and eyes to draw precisely what they see. One way to do this is to do Blind Contour and Modified Contour drawings. These are just a few exercises you do, and I wouldn't post them if you do them. The idea is to look at an object while not looking at your page at all. Let your eyes slowly follow the lines and shapes of the object exactly while slowly drawing in unison with the movement of your eyes. This works best with objects with significant line qualities. Don't expect the finished product to look like anything. It'll most likely just be a bunch of scribbly lines until you get some practice, but it helps you get past the mind's use of symbols, where people by default draw an oval for eyes, a circle for the mouth, etc.

Modified Contour is very similar, expect you are allowed to look at the page occasionally to find your place if you're a bit lost. Do not draw while you're looking at the page, though. Just find your place again, and look away from the page before drawing again. It helps if you position yourself in a way that makes it hard to be tempted to peak at your sketchbook.

2) Get a pad of tracing paper and trace stuff. This trains your hand in making the right marks with the pencil. Don't worry about shading yet. Focus on line drawing first for tracing exercises. Find some drawings from artists you like, lay the tracing paper on top (or Layout paper, as long as it's thin enough to see through), and trace the drawing. Again, this is a practice exercise and should not be displayed as original work. It gives you a feel for volume, shape, and proportion. Don't be afraid to trace the same drawing several times to get better at it. Once you feel comfortable, try copying the drawing just by looking at it rather than tracing it. Discouraged by how that drawing came out? Go back to tracing a few times and then try copying it freehand again.

3) Once you feel confident enough, try copying more drawings by looking rather than tracing. Once you feel some improvement in your drawing skills, keep drawing from life.

Drawing from life is great for learning, but very difficult for someone who's just starting to draw. It can be hard to translate a 3D object onto a 2D surface without understanding perspective or foreshortening. The exercises I've listed are tools to help prepare you for eventually working on drawings from life.

Some other advice I could offer is "Don't get frustrated". Drawing takes a lot of work and practice to get significant progress. If you're not feeling frustrated, then you aren't learning anything. As the great Michaelangelo said, "Before I learned patience, I learned frustration." Anyways, good luck!

[Miticu]

Thank you very much for your great advice, I am realy gong to try out all the ways that you have told me.
And as for the thing with me being on for a very long time, I already know that.