Most Important Things I've Learned About Drawing

1. If drawing is what you want to do, then you have to do it all the time.

You need to sleep, breathe, and eat drawing, or at least be drawing ideas in your head. I often carry a sketchbook in my purse for emergencies, and I love trying to capture someone's portrait on the MAX before they realize they're being watched.

2. Draw from life.

Your drawings will be infinitely better if you use reference, and live reference is even more of a challenge, because things never really stand still. For drawing portraits and the human figure, life drawing is essential.

3. Use the Grid.

When drawing backgrounds, or rooms, or things of a technical or architectural nature, it's really helpful to use a grid. However,it's important to put the points way off the actual drawing surface, otherwise the perspective will be distorted. This often means taping the paper down, at least until the grid is drawn. It's a pain in the ass, but highly worth it. This will transform a flat, blank white space into something your mind can percieve as a 3d space, thus making it easier to draw in. The lines (if you draw them light) will be most likely smudged out during the course of your drawing, and you can erase the rest when you're finished.

4. Start Small.

This one is a biggie. When you have a picture in mind, sometimes it's hard to get it out just right. It helps to draw thumbnails first(small, rough sketches) until one of these little drawings catches your eye. Sometimes you need to do several pages of thumbnails, if the drawing is very complicated. then you can either redraw it larger, or scan it, blow it up, and work from your actual thumbnail.

5. Use Traditional Media

Digital is great, but there's something gratifyig about being able to do your art anywhere, anytime, any place. I love using photoshop, but I still want to know how to produce art without it, know what I mean? And it's good therapy to use real paints and chalk every once in a while.