Begin Drawing Today!

If you want to learn to draw, you've come to the right place. The drawing lessons on this site are designed to help you draw what you see. You'll find step-by-step tutorials, starting with simple objects and exercises. You aren't behind - the drawing lessons are always available, so there is no rush. Just start wherever, whenever you like!

Materials - What Do You Need?
You can get started on the first exercises with any old paper (printer paper will be fine) and a number 2 pencil, but you'll want to get a pad of drawing paper, some different grades of pencil, and a good eraser.
Read Before You Buy - Graphite Pencils, Drawing Equipment, and find out about Drawing Paper before taking a trip to your art store.

Keep In Touch:
You might like to subscribe to the Drawing Newsletter, to keep updated with the latest additions to the site. (Its free and fast...) The drawing forum, is a great place to keep in touch with other artists, share your work and ask those curly questions.

Beginner's Drawing Lessons

The key to learning to draw is using your eyes. As children, we draw stick-figures which are symbols for people. We know a face is roughly round and has a smiley mouth. But when we want to start drawing realistically, we have to draw what we see instead - we discover that faces aren't really round, and that eyes are actually in the middle of the head, not towards the top. Even if you are interested in abstract art, learning to draw will help you achieve the effects you are looking for.

Ready to get started? Here are the first drawing lessons. We begin with simple exercises, and later we'll practice developing observational skills. What's important at this stage is getting a feel for following the shape with your eyes and pencil.

Tips:
- Don't be disheartened with 'failures'. How many times will someone fall over learning to rollerblade?
- Practice often. You need to train your hand and eye.
- Don't think of everything as a masterpiece. Exercises might just be scribbles, but will help your technique. Think of a musician playing scales.
- Enjoy! Draw subjects you like, and have fun!

Trying Out Your Art Supplies

The Aim of this drawing exercise is to explore the qualities of your drawing materials. You can also learn something about the sort of marks you naturally make.

What You Need: Sketch paper and number 2 'B' pencil. If you have other grades of pencil, repeat the exercise for each one.

What To Do: Use a page of your sketchbook and just have a scribble! Try round loopy marks, ziz-zags, light lines, heavy dark lines. Try shading from light to dark and back again. Try all of your pencils and pens. Make some different marks and then drag your eraser across them. Which pencils erase well? Which smudge? Do they make an impression on the paper? How glossy is the graphite? It can be handy to make a note of which pencil makes which mark. Your page might look something like the example above.

Review:You might not think much of these marks, but now you are on your way to becoming an artist. Experimenting with materials is something all artists do - you'll get to know how each medium behaves when it's just on a piece of sketch paper, not halfway through a major piece - and happy accidents are often the inspiration for great works of art.

Consider the quality of the marks you have made. Are they vigorous or gentle? Have you wandered over the page, or ordered your patterns neatly? These qualities will be present in your drawing, and are worth thinking about.

What Is Contour Drawing?

The first thing we do when beginning to draw is contour drawing, which is another name for drawing the outline. With contour drawing, we are focusing on the edges - the outside of an object or the line made by a fold or pattern. The line that goes across an object, hinting at the form, is called a cross-contour. Don't get fooled into using the line to draw light and dark. The WEIGHT of a line, that is, how dark and thick it is, will make it jump out from the paper (if it is a strong, dark line) or sink into the paper (if it is light or thin). This is useful when you are trying to give the impression of something being closer or further away.

When you look at an object, the shapes you see vary depending on your point of view. Take a simple mug, for instance - you know it has a perfectly cylindrical shape, with a circle top and bottom and sides that go straight up. But look at the cup on the table - the circles seem a little squashed, and if you are look from a higher angle, so that the top of the cup is nearly circular, the sides seem to taper.

When you are drawing an object, you need to select a viewpoint and stick to it. This means setting the object down, and sitting so that you can look from your object to your paper with minimal movement. You want to always have your head in the same place whenever you look at the object. In this way, the shapes will always look the same. A small movement can make a surprisingly big difference once you start drawing details.

Contour Drawing Exercise

Contour drawing uses the 'taking a line for a walk' approach, picking a spot and continuing until the drawing is complete. Along the way, the relative sizes, shapes and directions of lines are noted and copied, a bit at a time. Take your time in the beginning, as the first parts of the drawing establish scale for the whole drawing. A common mistake is to run the picture off the page, having started too large or in the wrong place. If this happens, don't worry - either finish off, use another part of the page for a drawing, or start afresh.

The Aim:Practice contour drawing with simple objects.

What You Need: A4 or bigger sketch paper, HB or B pencil, or a pen, and some small objects.

What to Do:Choose a small kitchen or office object, whatever you have handy. Pieces of fruit, and natural objects such as plants or leaves, are the easiest. Making your drawing the same size as the object is helpful when you are learning. Place very small objects close to your page, bigger things a little further away. Just pick a point on an edge of the object and continue along with your eyes, letting your hand copy the shape on the paper. If there is a strong line, such as a fold or crease across the object, draw that too. Sometimes it helps to squint your eyes so you can see the 'silhouette' of the object. This is the basic shape you are trying to capture.

Review:Don't worry too much if the shapes aren't perfect. Think of these drawings as a warm-up exercise - there is no right or wrong. At this stage, all you want to do is practice getting your hand and eye to do the same thing, judging the size and shape of the edges you can see. If you feel you are ready to be critical, place your drawing close to the object, and consider whether the shapes you can see match those you have drawn. Are the proportions right? Have you included all the details, or did you skip the tricky bits?

Going Further: Try doing a larg-scale contour drawing of a complex object. On large paper, you are forced to use your whole arm to draw, which helps you to 'loosen up'.

Learn to Draw - A Simple Still Life

Step-By-Step Pencil Drawing

A piece of fruit is a perfect first subject - I've chosen a pear, as its shape is more interesting than an apple. The dotted lines show how cross-contours move around the pear (imagine slices throught the middle). Subtly indicating this in the shading will help give a 3-dimensional effect. Be sure to click the image to see the next steps

The Aim: Create a pencil drawing of a piece of fruit, with a combination of simple contour drawing and shading.

What You Need:An interesting piece of fruit, a sketchbook or drawing paper, an HB or B pencil, and a 2b or 4b pencil. Erasers optional!

What to Do:
Step 1 - Contour (Outline) Drawing If you aren't sure where begin, hold the pear against your page to see how it will fit.

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Place it on the table in front of you. Using your HB or B, start near the top of the fruit, and draw the outline, following with your eyes slowly along the outside of the shape. Don't worry about erasing mistakes at this stage - just redraw the line you want or keep going.

Step 2 - Shading
Now begin shading. Note where the light shines giving a highlight - avoid this area - and shade the mid tones and the darkest shadow areas. Gradually build up the tone with light, fast pencil movements. I might erase mistakes at this time.

Step 3 - Building the Form
Continue to build the tone up over the whole shape, lightly bringing the tone up to the lighter areas. I try to avoid erasing at this stage, as it tends to smudge.

Step 4 - Finishing the Drawing
When you see a dark area, don't be afraid to use a dark tone. Shadowed areas may be quite black. You will need the softer(2B and 4B) pencils for darker tones. Look over the whole drawing and compare it to your subject, Sometimes a little 'artists licence' might be used to emphasise shadows and improve the form. My example is much lighter than the photograph.

Tips:
- A strong light source gives a better range of tones.
- Some artists like to blend (smudge) tones, but while you are learning to control tone, it is better to leave pencil marks. With practice your shading will get more even.
- Don't worry too much about 'mistakes'. A few stray lines can add interest and life to a sketch.

Blind Contour Drawing

A Classic Drawing Exercise

What should it look like? - Blind Contour Drawing Examples

Blind Contour drawing is a favourite with drawing teachers to develop hand-eye communication. Contour drawing is essentially outline drawing, and blind contour drawing means drawing the outline of the subject without looking at the paper. The end result doesn't matter - what is important is carefully observing the subject.

I prefer to slightly stretch the meaning of 'contour' to include lines generally, so that from time to time the line will wander across the form and back out again, capturing little details along the way. In this exercise, avoid lifting the pencil from the paper so that the line is as continuous as possible, and most importantly, DON'T PEEK! If need be, work with your sketchbook under the table. If drawing on loose paper, you may need to tape it in place.

The Aim: Practice following contours with hand and eye.

What You Need: A4 sketch paper and pencil or pen.

What to Do:Now, just draw your hand! Place the pencil near the bottom of the page, then looking at the edge of the wrist, begin to follow the line, going very slowly and steadily. Try to make your pencil follow every slight curve and bump. When you get to a crease, follow it in then back out to the side and carry on. Don't rush. Concentrate on observing every little detail.

Review: When you've gone all around the hand, stop and look at the end results. Funny? But look how some areas of your drawing are amazingly accurate. Sure, the large areas might be out of proportion to each other, but you will notice that some parts are far better drawn than when you were looking at the paper!

Going Further:You can also try this exercise with other objects - leafy plants or furniture. People and animals can be pretty funny too, and it is great observational practice.

blind contour drawing exercise

An example of Blind Contour Drawing

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Common Drawing Errors and How to Fix Them

Learning to draw is a gradual process, and like any skill, everyone makes mistakes along the way. Unfortunately, drawing is often self-taught, which means you continue making mistakes much longer than when a teacher is available to point you in the right direction. Here are the 10 most common mistakes beginners make when they learn to draw. Some big, some small, all fixable. Check and see whether these errors crop up in your drawings, and get some tips on fixing them.

1. Drawing With a Hard Pencil.
If you have no very dark shadows and the whole picture is rather pale, check your pencil. Are you using a Number2 (HB) pencil? These are too hard to draw with (though they are handy for light shading). Get a B, 2B and 4B for darker values. Read more about pencil grades.

2. Portraits from Flash Photography.
This is the major cause of beginner drawing problems. Using flash photography flattens the features, giving you nothing to work with. When the person is facing you, it is very hard to see the modeling of the face, as the perspective vanishes behind their head, and add a cheesy snapshot grin and you make life very hard! Have the person turning slightly to one side so you can model their face, with natural lighting to give good skintones, and a natural expression to show their real personality.

3. Incorrect Head Proportions.
Because of the way we focus on a person's features, we usually draw them too big and squash the rest of the head. Learn about the correct head proportions

4. Twisted Features.
Because we are used to looking at a person straight-on, we naturally try to make their features look level when we draw them. If their head is on an angle, this results in strange distortions in the picture. Sketch guidelines first to ensure that the features are on the same angle as the rest of the face.

5. Pet Drawings from Human Eye Level
When you take a photograph standing up, you are looking down at your pet. They have to look up, and you end up with their head seeming much bigger than their body, and a rather odd expression on their face. Have someone distract them so they aren't staring down the lens, and squat down so the camera is at their head level, and you'll get a much better reference photo.

6. Being Afraid of Black.
Often when shading, the shadows don't go past dark gray. If your value range is restricted to in some cases half what it ought to be, you are limiting the modelling and depth in your drawing. Put a piece of black paper at the corner of your drawing, and don't be afraid to go dark. Really dark. Improve your range of tone.

7. Outlining in Value Drawings
When value drawing, you are creating an illusion with areas of tonal value. When you use a hard drawn line to define an edge, you disrupt this illusion. Let edges be defined by two different areas of tonal value meeting. Read more about Value Drawing.

8. Drawing on the Wrong Paper.
If your drawing is pale, it might be the paper. Some cheap papers have a sheen on the surface that is too smooth to grab the particles off the pencil. A thick notepad has too much 'give' under the pencil to allow you to apply enough pressure. Try a basic photocopy/office paper, or check the art store for cheap sketch paper. Place a piece of card under a couple of sheets to give a firmer surface. If you are trying to do even shading, some sketch papers can be too coarse, giving an uneven texture. Try a hot-pressed Bristol board or similar smooth drawing paper. Find out more about paper

9. Scribbled Foliage
Don't use circular scribbles to draw foliage. Use more convex shaped scumbling - like crescent shapes and scribbly calligraphic marks - to draw the shadows in and around clusters of foliage, and your trees will look much more realistic.

10. Wiry, Pencil-Line Hair and Grass
If you draw every hair or blade of grass as a pencil line, you'll end up with a horrible, wiry, unnatural mess. Use feathery pencil-strokes to draw the shadows and dark foliage behind areas of grass - just like drawing short hair in this drawing hair tutorial.

Introduction to Drawing Part 1 - Page 1: Getting Started