Drawing is a skill and you can learn it. Just like in any endeavour though you need great teachers and an understanding of what foundational skills you have to master. This article will give you a roadmap on how to learn drawing, going from beginner to intermediate.
You’ll get an overview of the foundational drawing skills and which learning resources (books, online sites) teach them best – in my opinion.
Personally, I loved drawing since a kid. Starting with comics, getting into more realistic art now. What took me by far the most time was finding the learning resources that are the real deal. Teachers, books, sites that actually teach you what you need to know to get good.
This article will spare you the majority of the frustration I experienced, and show you how to learn drawing fast.
Of course it’s impossible to cover a field in one article. What I hope to provide here though is a roadmap that points you to the right concepts, teachers and resources, so that you save yourself some time and kick-start your progression!
Throughout the article you’ll find some of my personal drawings. I’m by no means a master, but hope they show you what’s possible practicing drawing as a hobby in your spare time.
Alright – before getting into the meat of the article, let’s quickly review an important question:
Why learn drawing?
Drawing is an exercise in visual and analytical thinking, combined with technical finesse.
It teaches you to look at something, break it down into its basic visual elements, and then recreate an interpretation of what you see on paper, given the limitations of your material. It’s visual communication.
What I enjoy most about drawing is that it’s an almost meditative practice. It quiets your mind and forces you to focus on one thing for an extended period of time.
The idea of craftsmanship also runs deep in the drawing tradition. You can continuously improve your skills, reaching new heights of technical proficiency.
I recommend you build a list of your favorite drawing masters. Those who draw in a way that truly resonates with you. Whenever you get unmotivated, revisit those drawings, study them and it will spark that inspiration which got you into drawing.
Top 3 online drawing schools
The great drawing teachers that really have mastered the skill most likely don’t live near you. Luckily for all of us there’s something called the internet. That means you can find the very best teachers online.
Here are my top 3 favourite drawing platforms. I know some of them come at a monthly subscription cost – but you can check them out for just a few months and really learn a ton.
These are my all-time favourites after spending years looking for educational material on drawing.
This was the first online drawing school I came across. Matthew Archambault is a great teacher and has a very clean style. I went through his site years ago and learned about so many concepts that I hadn’t heard of before. Modelling factors, S-curves, soft touch and many more. Every couple of months or so I re-subscribe to the site to freshen up on those concepts.
I recommend his YouTube channel as well, so you can see if his videos resonate with you.
I stumbled on this one in the last year. NMA has some amazing teachers, like Chris Legaspi, Steve Huston and many more. They are all masters with different styles but super strong fundamentals.
The advantage is that they have courses on almost any topic. Whether it’s portraiture, figure drawing, sketching on the go, materials, painting or anything else you can think of. That way you can really branch out. Make sure to check them out!
When I first discovered Jeff Watts I really resonated with his very analytical explanation style. He has a great gift for teaching and communicating his ideas. I highly recommend his youtube videos on how to get good at drawing. If you resonate with them, check out the online courses on his website.
How to learn drawing – step by step roadmap
Now that we got a bit inspired and you know about some awesome educational platforms to look into, let’s answer the all-important question “How to learn drawing”?
Step 1: Learn to see
The first step is learning to see. Most beginners don’t draw what they see, but a preconceived symbol they have in their mind.
The best book that will teach you to see is Betty Edwards “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”. You’ll learn about contour drawing, measurements, angles, negative space, values and also about the mental process while drawing. This book really made it click for me when I started out. So As a first step I highly recommend checking it out – It’ll take you from clueless to “aha I get this”, producing some pretty cool drawings.
Step 2: Understand gesture
From there it makes sense to learn more about gesture drawing. This is basically a dynamic way of drawing with the goal to just capture the essence of for example a pose or a face.
Here you can see a few examples:
The goal is to stay lose, and capture the idea of the drawing. Drawing in this way is fast paced, intuitive and allows you to absorb great amounts of visual information in a short period of time. The better you get at the other foundational skills the better your gestures will get, and vice versa.
All the courses I mentioned cover gesture drawing. It’s such a foundational skill you’ll hear about it on most drawing sites. If I had to pick one teacher who teaches it really well it would be Mike Matessi. He has his own take on the concept, which he calls FORCE drawing, but at it’s core he has a gestural style. Check out this video to get a taste.
Step 3: Study construction
Once you got the basic hang of drawing what you see, as well as gesture, it’s time to learn about construction of form in perspective, as well as surface planes.
The idea is simple: All forms can be broken down into 4 basic forms: the box, the spere, the cylinder, and the pyramid.
Out of those forms you can build and construct any complex organic forms, such as a human head.
On a more granular level complex forms have surface planes. The drawing above is a study of the Asaro head, a well-known model which breaks down the human head into its basic surface planes, which illustrates the point.
By learning more about these concepts you’ll be able to create stronger 3D effects in your drawing, which later aids in creating believable shading.
My favorite resource on learning basic construction is free and called https://drawabox.com. It’s a great site teaching you construction drawing through a series of exercises that increase progressively in difficulty.
Beyond drawabox I recommend checking out all books by Andrew Loomis, George Bridgman and Burne Hogarth, which are all well-known for their construction-oriented teaching. Bridgman goes more into the anatomical direction, while Loomis is a bit more accessible for all drawing levels.
Step 4: Dive into Anatomy
Lastly Anatomy. To draw something well you have to understand what that something is made of.
In the case of figure or portrait drawing that means understanding the skull, the skeleton, all major muscle groups, where they insert, what their functions are, and how to draw them as simple shapes or forms.
You won’t outline every anatomical detail in every drawing, but having studied them in a focused way will allow you to visualize them as you draw. That way you can apply your anatomical knowledge to your drawings, making them look and feel more believable.
Studying anatomy is a lifelong pursuit and you’ll never know it all. However just having done a few anatomy studies of all major muscle groups will get you a long way.
Above you see an example of an anatomy study of the foot I made a while ago. To dive deeper into anatomy I recommend the George Bridgman’s books, FORCE: Drawing Human Anatomy by Mike Mattesi, and Classic Human Anatomy by Valerie Winslow.
Clothing thoughts
Alright – we covered all the basics. Studying each of those for a few weeks should really level up your drawing skills. From which point onwards you’ll be able to identify weaknesses and get more specific.
I hope you enjoyed this article – if so stay tuned, as I’ll cover more specific drawing topics in the near future, such as lifestyle, process, materials, favorite books, exercises and more.
Until next time!
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