Daily Drawing Practice
The first 30 minutes of your art session at the studios will involve getting help with feedback on your practice and demonstrations to help you level up quicker at home with your drawing.
Download this image of the face proportions and print it A4 to keep in your drawing book to reference.
It is not uncommon for a beginner drawing student to simply draw circles daily for weeks before they start to see the symmetry develop.
Welcome young artist 👩🎨
to STAGE 1
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO ABLE TO DRAW WELL??
Repetition is the mother of skill. We think of these 4 ‘D’ words to remind us how to reach our goals. If you are in primary school, you will find that reading through these online sections with a parent or interested older sibling or friend will be easier.
If you dont have that, watch & listen to the little videos.
DESIRE - You have to want to draw well (derrr!!)
DETERMINATION - find out how from someone who draws well and then practice at least a little every day
DEDICATED MENTOR - When you are developing and levelling up your drawing skills you need advice and feedback from someone who draws how you want to and communicates in a way that you understand. (this is your second most important feedback. The most important is from you, as you learn how to “auto-correct”.
DISCIPLINE - most important of all, have the self-discipline to set goals and do what you need to do to achieve them
DOGGEDNESS - have you seen a dog who wont let go of the ball? You need to be like that with your drawing tools (Pablo Picasso said “I draw like other people bite their nails”) in other words all the time, a regular habit he couldn’t stop if he wanted to.
START DRAWING ADULT FACES - We call them egg heads, and if you take a step by step approach and learn how to auto-correct, you will eventually draw them easily, remember repetition is the key, & auto-correction.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
WHY DO YOU START WITH SIMPLY DRAWING CIRCLES??
You can start any way that works for you, but we find that the “brain training” of repeatedly drawing and perfecting the symmetry of a circle is a simple and easy way to get the process started, from there we draw an egg which is 1 wide to 1.5 height in proportion. this is a good shape to start adding features in proportion to the adult face.
WHAT IF I DON’T REALLY WANT TO DRAW FACES OR FIGURES??
You need to train your eye with something familiar, and lets face it, there are faces everywhere to look at and draw. Drawing faces and figures is all about measuring by eye, once you are happy with these, you can use other geometrical shapes to “construct” animals, 3 D objects, vehicles and all kinds of other things.
WHAT IS A “CANON”?? - in art
This word in art, is referring to an accepted system or method used eg. steps to build a face or a figure, or in painting it can refer to a traditional way of doing something eg. Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Sfumato”, he was the first to totally blend edges to achieve perspective and realism. If you are interested in a bit more basic terminology use in the art world, read some here.
WHAT IF I ONLY HAVE A PENCIL AND PAPER??
You have more that some artists started out with.
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO ABLE TO DRAW WELL??
You need
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO ABLE TO DRAW WELL??
DRAWING STICK FIGURES
There are a few ways to “build” the framework of a human body. We call these “Canons”.
We start with a simple 8-head long stick for the adult. The first challenge is to make 8 equal divisions in a vertical line. Most people advance with repeating a few of these daily.
The chart on the right shows how the proportions change throuh stages of growth, lets get the adult on great first.
🟢 Watch a video - start drawing stick figures
Practice using simple Geometric shapes in proportions, then add details after.
STAGE 2 - DRAWING FACES AND STICK FIGURES
WELCOME TO STAGE 2 - You need to be already easily drawing symmetrical egg shapes in 1 to 1.5 proportions every time and adding in 5 eye-widths across the half way mark (from top to bottom).
Watch this video (click the image) to start adding more features to your faces and shading.
Note how the eyes dont look half-way here (because of the angle of the paper),they are actually, so make sure you are not drawing on too much of an angle to your paper, try to be looking directly at it, or your angles can be out.
Print a grid for hatching & shading practice
Print a guide for drawing eggs and adding features to the adult head
Start a section for drawing mouths
Create a section for practicing eyes
Create a section for practicing ears
Start a new section on drawing noses