How to Improve Drawing Skills

Drawing is probably the most aesthetic intuition of life. But getting better at drawing is not an easy task. You have to practice for it. To become good at drawing, you have to improve your drawing skills.

You have gained skills in different shapes and lines. You have to know the proper use of pen and pencil. For this, you have to study, and you need to practice. You can watch videos on drawing and try those techniques at home.

All you need is to gain proper knowledge and take the challenge to improve yourself. Drawing is the artistic form of expressing feeling. It means putting your imagination on paper. Then color it up as you like. Sometimes you can only do sketching and create great art.

One of the greatest artists Leonardo de Vinci, once opined that art is like creating your thinking which you would love to share. For example: Monalisa, his great creation, still the research is going on the actual meaning of the smile in Monalisa’s face.

Another great Artist, Joynul Abedin, once applied his art skills to give orders in a restaurant in a foreign country, and that worked. So drawing is very important.

You can improve your drawing not only for the sake of your passion but also for a purpose. You can never know how and when your effort would work. This writing will tell you about some tips to improve your drawing skills. You have to read carefully.

How to Improve Drawing Skills for Beginners

If you are a beginner, you have to try several things to be a better artist. First of all, you have to focus on some primary things. This is the first method to be an artist.

Method-1: Focusing on Primary Things

• Drawing straight lines and curves to improve basic skills: You have to use your pencil to draw straight lines and different curves like circle, oval, square, triangular on paper as much as you can. It will help to improve your skills of drawing different shapes without any kind of compass or scale. It may bring control over drawing.
• Sketching shapes with different lines: You can sketch different shapes with different lines to improve your line quality. Improving line quality means the thickness or smoothness or perfectness of a line when you draw it. To do this you have to take a paper, draw something very like a flower and sketch the shape over again and again. This kind of activity helps you to create a personal style of your drawing.
• Practicing shaping to add depth in drawing: Shaping means to add dark areas to your drawing to make it more realistic and deep. Whenever you sketch different shapes like circle, rectangular, triangle or straight lines, you just put more shading to make the shapes more deep and dimensional as much as you can. When you put more dark lines on your drawing it seems more natural. You can also do cross hatching for this.
• Practicing making continuous lines: Try to draw long and unbroken lines as far as you can. It will help you to develop smoother strokes. 
• Using different drawing materials: You can try different kinds of drawing materials like pen, pencils, markers, charcoal, pastel color, water color, or glass paint or any kind of material to get your preference, to your quality of drawing. By this you can discover your specialty.

Method-2: Drawing Exercises

• Setting timer to draw: You can set a timer for 10 minutes to sketch a particular thing. Just pick up a picture in front of you and set a timer for 10 minutes to draw the picture to observe how quickly you can draw it. It is a kind of self-enforcement to improve your own drawing ability. It helps to improve your focusing point.
•  Tracing over drawing: You can trace a drawing of another artist to get his own style and formulate that into you. You can put a tracing paper over a drawing and trace it. It may help you to improve your drawing style.
• Setting up new challenges: You can set new challenges to draw something new that you have never attempted before. Set yourself in front of a new thing and try to draw that. By this you will easily understand your comfort zone and weaknesses.
•  Drawing from memory: First of all put an image in front you and try to sketch it . Once the sketching is over, then put away the image and the sketch. Now try to recreate the same image as much as you can get from your memory. It will help you to improve your attention level.

Method-3: Building Up Discipline for your Drawing

• Time scheduling: You can make a schedule of a particular time to practice drawing every day. It may help you gain spontaneity in drawing.
• Joining drawing classes: It is the most important thing ever to improve your drawing skills. Having a teaching guide may help you to get your weak points easily. Attending classes may let you observe others’ drawing. This activity will help you be accountable to your work.
• Maintaining a sketch book: You can always keep a sketchbook with you. Whenever you get time just pull out your sketchbook and start quickly drawing whatever you have in your mind.

Drawing Skills and Techniques

You can easily be a good artist by improving some basic drawing skills and following some drawing techniques.

5 Basic Drawing Skills:

1. Understanding edges: You just need to take a picture and observe the drawing carefully to understand that every shape in the drawing has particular sides and depicts a particular landscape. You just need to get this magic.
2. Understanding spaces: Every drawing deserves particular spaces. You cannot just end up the whole drawing messily. You have to understand the proper space in between the objects in your drawing.
3. Light and shadow: These things are used to make your drawing realistic. You can add shadows by making your lines dark and create a light effect by lightening up your shading.
4. Relationship: Every single thing in the drawing is interconnected with one another. You just need to understand the relationships between the objects that you draw. For example: you need to understand the relationship between a square and a triangle to draw a house.
5. The whole: It means to put the above all techniques together and get a nice drawing. For example: The edges are created through light and shadow, then you can understand the space by understanding the relationship between the objects.

Some Techniques to Improve your Drawing, Such as:

• Hatching: It is the fundamental technique to place the lines near each other in the drawing horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. It adds an extra texture to your drawing.
• Contouring lines: It means to create smooth lines to verify distance.
• Feathering: It means to add maximum effects, like jotting down all kinds of shades and lines like the feathers flock in a birds’ body. It creates a soft effect in the picture.
• Loops: You can use different kinds of shapes or lines in a particular distance to change the direction of your drawing.
• Dots: You can put thick dots or dark dots to make a soft illusion in your drawing.
• Dotted line: Dotted lines may give a nice width to your drawing.
• Zigzag lines: You can create an amazing symphony into drawing by applying different lengths of zigzag line.
• Interwoven texture: It creates an effect of woven to make the drawing interesting.
• Basket weave patterns: These strokes create a basket type illusion in the drawing. Whenever you attempt to draw any shades of wall you can apply it. 
• Wavy lines: These are the various shapes of different long strokes. You may apply this to draw the whole of mountains or hills.

Improve Drawing Skills Exercises

There are some basic skill exercises to improve your drawing. Such as:

• Drawing exercise from a different perspective: Drawing from a different perspective means you can draw an object like what your mind thinks not like what it exactly looks. For example: You can draw a person’s face with a smile, but in reality he was sad for something. 
• Negative space drawing: It means you have to draw the spaces around the object. For example: You have drawn the ocean ignoring the ships in it. You have focused on the spaces around the objects.
• Idea generating Drawing: It means quick drawing, just draw up what you have generated in your mind.
• Drawing objects: You can draw different kinds of objects or human figures to improve your skills on drawing different shapes or lines.
• Doodling: You can even draw mindlessly. You can start from a simple thing, then upgrade it to a complex thing. For example: You can start with drawing a flower and end up with drawing a huge flower garden.
• Blind drawing: It means you have drawn something by putting your eyes off of the paper. Basically we practice such exercises to draw the maps.
• 5 minutes drawing: This exercise observes what you can draw within 5 minutes. It helps to improve your consistency.

How to Improve Drawing Skills

How to Improve Drawing Anime?

You have to follow the following steps to draw anime at your beginning. Such as:

• First of all you have to create the basic structure of the face and head of an anime character.
• Then add facial features like eyes, nose and mouth.
• You can use light handed lines to create the hair anime.
• Now it is time to draw the body of the anime, there are some simple tips for drawing the body: a rectangle for the chest, an oval for the hips, and small circles for the shoulders and leg joints.
• It is the final stage of completing your anime, now you get an ultimate shape of your anime. you need to add some detailing like shoes, dresses and other accessories to make your anime nice and elegant.

How to Improve Drawing Anatomy?

If you are a medical student, it is important to draw anatomy; by following some steps, you can be good at drawing anatomy. Such as:

• First of all, you have to find a basic foundation, it means you have to put a real anatomy or a photo in front of you to build up the basic foundation.
• You can develop the gesture drawing skills by adding pose or movement into your figure. For example: You can draw a figure that is in a running position.
• You have to focus on the line of action after getting your structure ready. Now put concentration on the construction. Make every line perfect from head to the toe. The line of action makes the body dynamic and balanced with its weight and appearance.
• Now you have to draw the muscles and bone structure that is important to represent the features of the body.
• Finally you have to draw the shape of arms and legs to complete your drawing.

How to Get Better at Drawing Fast?

You can get better at drawing fast by following some methods, like:

• You can go through a constructional set up. Sketch lines lightly on your perspective drawing to gain control over your hands. If you draw lines lightly then that would be easy to erase and you can get a mess free situation.
• You can follow a model sheet to understand how the shapes are being developed. Each picture needs to observe carefully.
• You can use anatomy books to look over the human and animal subjects.
• Don’t try to copy any drawing, just watch it carefully and simplify it as much as you can.
• Before starting the main drawing you can go through 30 seconds sketching to make your hands flexible.
• Practice shadow lines, shape, or circle as much as you can.
• Always draw in a bright place.
• Pay attention to the light source to watch the falling of shadows.
• You can build up your model by clay and keep that in front of you while drawing.
• Always carry pencils and erasers.

How to Improve Drawing Skills for Fashion Designing?

If you want to be a fashion designer, you have to improve some drawing skills for fashion designing; first of all, you need to have a good sense of colors and shades. For example: You have to know the primary colors, secondary colors, and which colors suit together.

Then, you have to have the proper knowledge to draw by the digital designing app. You need to have a good understanding regarding the space and shape, most importantly about the use of scales, compass, and other accessories. Improve your sketching skills, for this; you can practice every day.

You need to have the ability to recreate any drawing after watching this. Finally, you are being suggested to watch videos on fashion design.

How to Improve Drawing Skills for Architecture

To improve your drawing skills for architecture, you have to follow several techniques, such as:

• You can follow hit go hit technique, it means you have to pick and set your pen on a page in a purposeful manner.
• Don’t push your pen, always pull your pen and try to keep your wrist and elbow into a comfortable angle.
• You can use two pens to draw several lines at the same time. It means you can bind the pens together and get colorful lines.
• You can divide the lines at the corners.
• Always try to sketch each and every single thing rather than tracing. 

Tips on How to Improve Drawing Skills?

• First of all, always be patient in observing things.
• Always try to learn the process of art by watching videos or reading books. It may help you to gain a fundamental set up for drawing.
• Try to get connected with local art galleries and gain new concepts for arts.
• Try to draw each and every single aspect of life like: flowers, food, animals, insects, whatever you look at.
• Attend art workshops.
• Maintain a sketch book.
• Try to gain knowledge about different drawing materials like: pen, pencil, pastel colors, brushes, water colors, charcoals, acrylic paints.
• Do meditation, it may help you to jot down new ideas for the arts.

FAQ

How Long Does it Take to Improve Drawing Skills?

It varies depending on the individual activity of a person. It depends upon the effort; the time spent practicing, the ability, and the aptitude level of an individual.

What Are the 5 Basic Skills of Drawing?

The 5 basic skills of drawing are 

• You have to Know about the edges
• You have to know how to set proportion and sizes
• To know different color schemes.
• Understanding the concept of light and shadow
• Having a clear convenience regarding your drawing perspective.

Is Drawing a Talent or Skill?

Drawing is a skill needed to learn at certain degrees or stages. You need to gain drawing skills to become a good artist. But how quickly you can gain those skills depends on your talent. Otherwise, drawing is a skill, not a talent.

Does Copying Improve Drawing Skills?

Copying can be regarded as a love for art. It is one of the most amazing ways to improve drawing skills. So yes, copying does improve drawing skills very nicely.

How Do You Get Good at Art?

If you want to get good at art, find a suitable art school for you and attend classes. Then try to figure out your comfort zone and weakness by applying different art materials. You must observe things to get the fullest format for your art. You can see different kinds of art to get the style. And finally, you need to practice more and more as much as you can.

What Makes a Good Drawing?

A Drawing with good details makes a good drawing because it makes the drawing eye-catching and attractive and, in some way, it makes the drawing realistic.

Why is Drawing so Hard?

Drawing seems so hard because your brain starts considering the thing as a whole, not as a particular thing when you see any drawing. When you see a human body, you think there are so many complex things to put; you rarely think like this; the human body can be drawn by adding simple triangles, rectangular, and circles. Your eyes are just enabled to create an authentic image.

How Many Hours a Day Should I Practice Drawing?

As a recommendation, you should practice drawing for 5 hours a day to improve your drawing skills effectively. But if you cannot spend hours, spend at least 2 hours per day.

Is Copying Artwork Illegal?

No, Copying artwork is not illegal; it is legal because the original artwork is already established in the public domain. So you can recreate any artwork as you want.

Conclusion

Drawing is the aesthetic harmony to your imagination. You usually draw what you imagine, what you think. The concept is limitless. But to be good at drawing, you need to gain some skills to put some extra ingredients into your work.

This writing has provided you with all the important information regarding drawing and skills. You have to incorporate those points to become good at drawing and make your free time colorful and flawless.

So happy drawing everyone.