How to draw 2

Welcome back to some basic drawing lessons. When you look at this, it seems pretty traditional, and it is! The difference might be how I approach the development of the drawing, and I will try to articulate some points I have not yet seen as clearly stated elsewhere.

Drawing is the expression of form. It is important to have the whole form in mind straight away and not be distracted by detail. That means, to me, that the important lines should be put down first, to indicate the boundaries of the form, but also its "direction" or "movement". Still objects have movement, yes! A pillow is slouching, a tree is stretching towards the sky, a house is reaching upwards/expanding sideways etc. It is important to consider this throughout the drawing. But I am getting ahead of myself. Look at these sketches:

The idea with the box is that you start with the longer, vertical edges, as they are the most "important". You then continue with the shorter sides, and draw on opposite sides of the form, as the numbers show. Indicating the boundaries of the form gives you an idea about the space it occupies and it is a lot easier to continue the drawing. The internal lines come later. This is just a general outline (pun intended) and you should work in a way that feels natural. To me, this sequence of working seems most helpful.

The second drawing is a circle (or any object that involves curves. I start with straight lines, indicating height. I know the width will be the same, so I indicate that next. Measure to make sure. The cross makes sure the points where the circle will touch the straight lines will be in the right place. You then draw each quarter of the circle from one key point to the next, making sure the curve is even. Easy peasy.

This looks very basic but if you combine all the elements here, I think it might help your drawing a lot. With any irregular object, try to find the main lines of the whole form, the height vs. width and work with straight lines rather than curved ones (not an absolute rule, but straight lines makes the drawing more clear and powerful. More on this later.).

I have made this little demonstration to try and show what I mean:

A dinosaur head...I jump from one side of the form to the other in a way that seems natural. The top of the head seemed to represent the longest line, even if it is more irregular in the final drawing. Ignore small variations in the objects at first and look for the big lines and movements in the form (a line can be drawn from one end of the object to the other, without touching the form in between. the important thing is that it makes it easier to continue the drawing). The placement of the eye relates to the placement of the mouth. The rest of the features are indicated, and considered as part of the whole. I might show this more clearly in another drawing.

This all leads into an important and under-communicated concept in drawing called "rythm". I really discovered the importance of rythm a few years ago and it helped my drawings look a lot more "together" and dynamic. More on that later, but it is basically about how one part of the form flows into another, and lines that seem unrelated are really not.

Back to this lesson. Use it for what it's worth. It is meant to be a starting point. All this is described in "Drawing Made Easy" by E.G.Lutz.

As you progress you will do more of this mentally but this is meant as an aid. Hope it helps.

And if you have any comments on this or other posts, feel free to write them :)