How to Get Good at Drawing

Drawing is a skill that many people think stems purely from natural talent. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. With a careful eye and plenty of practice, anyone can become a better artist!

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Improving Your Drawings

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^{[1]XExpert SourceKelly Medford
Professional ArtistExpert Interview. 2 July 2019.} Practice, practice, practice. That’s the mantra of famous artists across the world, and practice is the sure-fire way to improve your drawings. Even spending a few minutes a day on sketch engages your brain with your art and helps you learn new techniques.
If you always have a small notebook with you, then you open up the possibility to draw anything – from people on the bus the nature scenes to awe-inspiring city skylines. You need to practice to be a better drawer, so set yourself up to practice anytime.
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3
Purchase a variety of pencils. Pencils come in a variety of ratings that tell you how hard they are and the thickness of the mark. Pencils labeled “H” get progressively harder, and leave fine, faint lines, while those labeled “B” are good for thick, darker lines.
- A decent set of starter pencils, available at any art store, might include a 4H, 3H, 2H, H, HB , B, 2B 3B and 4B.^{[2]XResearch source}
- Play around with your new pencils to test how each one feels. Note the differences in the lines and try to incorporate different pencils into different drawings.
4
Experiment with texture, color, and blending. Use a couple of pages in your sketchbook to experiment with the way your pencils lay down color, how your fingers or tissues blend colors together and how to shade simple spheres. You need to understand how your materials work to improve your drawings and use the right pencil for the right lines.
- Make 3-4 timelines and practice transitions. How can you use each pen to shade the line from completely black to completely white?
5
Take a local art class or study art theory. While many young artists feel like they can teach themselves how to draw, there are a variety of techniques that can only be passed on by an experienced teacher. Spend time practicing perspective, proportions, and drawing from live models. The time spent in an art studio with an art teacher can help you find mistakes and fix them far faster than you could on your own. However, you do not need to go to classes, you can find many different classes online. So if you like to draw in the comfort of your own home, online can be cheap, expensive, or even free.
- Check your local art store, parks department, or community college for local drawing classes.
6
Draw from pictures or other drawings. While you should never trace another artist’s work and claim it as your own, you can learn valuable techniques by copying photos or drawings you admire by hand. Since a picture is already 2-dimensional, you take away the stress of learning perspective and focus solely on the lines and angles.
- Practice recreating classic drawings to learn from the masters – da Vinci was the king of human anatomy, and his drawings have a lot to teach you.
- Never trace – you don’t actually practice drawing, just making lines.
Drawing upside down forces you to forget about trying to make the drawing look right and instead drawing what you actually see. You can get similar results by drawing through a mirror, or practicing with distorted or Photoshopped images.^{[3]XResearch source}
8
Study your source material.^{[4]XExpert SourceKelly Medford
Professional ArtistExpert Interview. 2 July 2019.} Drawing accurate contours requires more than simply looking up an image online. The best artists and art teachers pour over books, real-life examples, and studies to understand the lines they are making. While this depends on the type of drawing you are working on. All artists can benefit from time away from the sketchbook every now and then.
- If you are drawing people, invest in an illustrated book of human anatomy, or sign-up for drawing classes with a live model.
- If you are drawing animals, spend a day with your sketchbook at the zoo or purchase an illustrated textbook on animal anatomy.
- If you are drawing landscapes or city scenes, you should invest in a book about perspective to help you accurately create depth in your drawings.
9
Buy a wooden art doll. These small, standing puppets have a variety of joints that you can move into place and perfect human proportions. As such, they can be useful when trying to draw complex poses. Simply put the doll into the right position and use it to sketch out your drawing, adding the details of your character later.
- If you cannot get a model, use a skeleton from your school’s biology department to learn proportions.
- They also make anatomically correct models of hands, heads, and the skeletal system as well, though they are often more expensive.
- Wooden dolls are a very useful tool for drawing, they are a great and cheap way of learning how to draw the body.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Perfecting Contour Drawing

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1
Know that contour drawing consists only of lines. Contours are the outlines of your drawings. There is no blending or shading yet, just lines. Drawing good contour lines is essential for your final drawing, as this is where you give your drawing its shape and proportions.
- In general, contour lines are the first thing you do in a drawing.
This is often overlooked by beginning artists who dive right into the work, but it is incredibly important to get accurate drawings. For example, if you are drawing a large scene, start with faint lines that break your drawing up into thirds both horizontally and vertically. You should have nine small boxes on your page. These will help you to frame your drawing and put everything where it should be, giving you reference points as you work.
3
Focus on proportions first. Proportion is the difference in size between two objects. If you draw your arms and legs out of proportion, for example, your drawing will look crude and lopsided. Close one eye and line your pencil up with the subject. Your arm should be completely extended. Use your pencil as a ruler and mark the length of the object with your thumb. You can then compare this distance with other objects on your page, or even use your pencil to mark out the specific distance on the page for your drawing.^{[5]XResearch source}
- You can also use your guidelines to help. What “box” of your guidelines does the subject fit into? Do they take up the whole page, or a third of it?
4
Sketch out the basics of each drawing before moving on. There is no worse feeling than getting halfway done with a drawing and realizing that the arm of your character is much too short. Good drawers know how to avoid this by blocking out the drawing beforehand. Use simple shapes to mark the proportions of each object. For example, make an oval for a person’s head, a rounded rectangle for the torso, and longer elbows for each arm and leg. Keep adjusting these blocks until you feel confident in the pose and proportions of each item.^{[6]XResearch source}
- Make sure you make these marks lightly, so that you can easily erase them later.
- Make a small circle or dot for each joint to help you “move” arms and legs into accurate poses.
5
Slowly add in the details to your contours. Add a layer of complexity with each draft. First it is guidelines and stick figures. Then you add in basic shapes and poses. Next, add in permanent lines over your outline, connecting the joints, adding facial features, etc. Think about making the final contour of the body by connecting the joints so that you have a recognizable shape.
- Once you’re happy with your new lines, erase away your light contour marks from underneath the new drawing.
- Work slowly, making each line carefully and erasing when you are unhappy. You need your contour to be accurate in order for the final drawing to improve.
Never start a drawing at the details. Once you’ve finished you basic contours, it’s time to move on to the details. This is where most artists get caught up early on, spending all of their time and energy on the small details while neglecting the larger proportions.
7
Practice perspective to give scenes realistic depth. Perspective is why far away objects appear small and nearby ones appear large. To get accurate drawings, you need to have accurate perspective.^{[7]XExpert SourceKelly Medford
Professional ArtistExpert Interview. 2 July 2019.} One way to practice is to use a perspective point. Think of this as the farthest point on the horizon, like the sun right before it sets. Draw straight lines out from this point to match your drawings – anything closer to the dot is farther away, and thus smaller, and anything away from the dot is close to you.
- Draw two diagonal lines coming away from the dot. Anything that fits between those two lines is the same size in real life, though perspective makes it appear as if they are different.^{[8]XResearch source}

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Perfecting Shading

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1
Know that shading give objects depth. Shading is what makes a drawing pop and prevents it from feeling flat. A big part of the illusion of three-dimensions in good drawings is the shading. But shading is tough to master, especially when you are trying to shade something from your imagination or memory.
- Shading can imply lines as well. Think about the two small ridges between your nose and upper lip. While you could draw lines for them, that would make them unrealistically pronounced. Try shading them in instead, darkening the areas around them lightly to make them “appear” in the middle of the dark patches.
Shadows are created because they are exposed to less light then other parts of the scene. Where the light is coming from, what type of light it is, and even the time of day will all affect your shadows. Shadows are created on opposite sides of the light. For example, if you place a ball down and shine a light on it from the right, the left side of the ball will appear darker. This is where you would shade if you were drawing the ball.
3
Note the edges of the shadow. The edge of the shadow is how quickly it disappears. Think of trying to make a shadow puppet—when your hand is close to the light and the wall, there is a hard edge where your shadow and the light meet; but when your hand is farther away you shadow softly fades into the light. Note however, the all shadows have a slightly soft edge. The difference between shading and contour drawing is the fading at the edges.^{[9]XResearch source}
- Direct light, like spotlights and clear, sunny days, creates dramatic shadows with hard edges.
- Indirect light, light far away lights, multiple lights, or cloudy days, create softer, muted shadows with faded edges.
4
Map your shading before beginning. Make soft, gentle lines around the edges of your shadows before starting them so that you know where you are going to.
- Map out the highlights: where is the light the strongest? Is there any glare?
- Sketch out the shading: where does the shadow on each object start and stop?
- Contour any hard shadows. Are there any dark shapes created by the light, like a person’s shadow in the sun?
Shading is the art of gradually changing the amount of light from one area to the other. Start lightly, shading in the entire object with your lightest pencil strokes. Keep going over the drawing by filling in the darker areas slowly, one shade at a time.
This is the best way to make realistic, gradual shadows on any drawing. Using a tissue, your finger, or light marks with your pencil, blend the darker areas into the lighter ones by rubbing from dark to light. Most pencils will blend only slightly, while drawing with charcoal allows you to dramatically blend your shadows with your fingers.
7
Practice shading simple objects. Set up a basic “still life” to practice shading. Simply place several common, easy to draw objects (a ball, small boxes, water bottles, etc.) under a bright light and turn it on. Draw the contours of the objects, then practice shading them in exactly how you see them.
- As you get more advanced, add in clear objects, complex shapes, or a second light to practice more difficult shading techniques.
- Shade in an old children’s coloring book, which are usually simple contour lines, for advanced practice.
8
Learn the different types of shading. While the most realistic form of shading is an even, gradual blending (“smooth” shading), there are a variety of shading styles for different artists and styles of work. For example, many cartoons use cross-hatching or dots to indicate shading. The basic principle, however, is the same – more marks equals darker shadows. Test our multiple types of shading to find what works best for you.
- Hatching: Single, straight lines create shadows. More lines make darker shadows.^{[10]XExpert SourceKelly Medford
  Professional ArtistExpert Interview. 2 July 2019.}
- Cross-hatching: Crisscrossing diagonal lines make up your shadows. The farther apart the lines are, the lighter the shadow is. This works well when shading something with lines, like hair or fur.
- Stippling: A collection of small, black dots make your shadows. Adding dots makes it look darker, to the point where you may not be able to tell that there are dots on the darker edges.
- Circular Shading: Making small, overlapping circles around with your pencil, you trace out your shadow. The longer you spend in one area overlapping circles, the darker it will become. This is often the best way to shade with colored pencils.^{[11]XResearch source}

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How can I get good at sketching?
Kelly Medford
Professional Artist
Kelly Medford is an American painter based in Rome, Italy. She studied classical painting, drawing and printmaking both in the U.S. and in Italy. She works primarily en plein air on the streets of Rome, and also travels for private international collectors on commission. She founded Sketching Rome Tours in 2012 where she teaches sketchbook journaling to visitors of Rome. Kelly is a graduate of the Florence Academy of Art.
Kelly Medford
Professional Artist
Expert Answer
Practice drawing every day and you'll start seeing improvements. When you draw something, really pay attention to what you're seeing rather than what you think the object looks like so you can add more accurate details.
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How do I gain inspiration to draw something amazing?
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Just use your imagination. Try looking up art, photographs and movies to get your imagination running. Maybe base some of your drawings on something you see in your surroundings, and spice it up in your head to your liking.
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How do I color realistic skin with colored pencils?
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Color the center lightly, and apply a little more pressure as you get closer to the shadow. (opposite of light source). This will create subtle shading for the skin. Try blending different colors to achieve a realistic skin tone.
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Experiment with mistakes. Perhaps a wrong stroke you've made might make the drawing look better later! Compromising with your art, is a good way to discover techniques that will help master your skills in the future.
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Visit an art gallery and check out artists you like online for inspiration.
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When drawing animals, you should start off by drawing the geometric shapes that make the animal up. For example, a giraffe will need a lot of rectangles for the legs and neck, whereas a bird will be more ovals.
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