Where to Start

Drawing skills can be developed if you start from simple and slowly progress to the more complex techniques. Begin with drawing lines and shapes. The basic straight lines and basic shapes like square, triangle, a circle or an oval. There is no short cut to it. The more you practice these simple shapes the better you will be in drawing.

Objectives

By practicing and mastering basic drawing skills you will be able to create clean lines that is crucial to making great drawings. There are cheaper drawing paper that can be purchased at the book shops. They are ideal for you to practice your drawing skill. Once you have mastered the skill of drawing the basic lines you will notice that your stroke are much smoother than when you first begin.

See how smooth the line is drawn in the video. Watch carefully how I draw the line. Smooth even pressure on the pencil and no jerky stroke. Try not to lift the pencil off the paper when drawing a line. Making a line by short connecting strokes aren't going to help make clean lines.


Practice

Draw freehand horizontal lines and vertical lines. Draw the lines using different pressure to see the different tones. Also practice drawing the basic shapes.

Introduction to Drawing

Drawing is a visual representation of what we see. It is a duplication of our vision in form of lines and shades that we put on the paper. Drawing is the most versatile form of art that one can acquire. It can be done almost anywhere. Even underwater!

In this chapter I will discuss the basics of drawing including material, where to start, shapes and the basic strokes. I will progress from simple to complex techniques. Anyone can start drawing by having a piece of paper and a pencil. Here is this section I created a list of material I use for drawing.

Drawing Material

· Drawing Paper

· Pencils

· Eraser

· Sharpener

· Fixative

Drawing Paper

Drawing paper comes in many sizes and weight. Some are single sheet and others are in blocks of ten to thirty sheets. The sizes range from A0 down to the smallest A5. The sizes that is commonly use is A3 (297mm x 420mm) and A4 (148mm x 210mm). I would prefer to work on A3 or similar size paper even for small drawings. This gives plenty of space around the drawing that can later be cropped to suitable size. Drawing paper also comes in different grades or weight. The ideal grade of paper for drawing is 135gsm to 240gsm. I would prefer to draw on paper that is 135gsm or 165gsm. Lighter paper can be use for sketching practice. Drawing blocks normally come glue binding or ring binding.

Pencil

There are many grades of drawing pencils. The grade determines the hardness of the lead and how it marks the paper. Softer grades produce darker and bolder marks. I would use pencils ranging from B, 2B, 4B and 6B. Other than pencils I also draw with Graphite, Charcoal and Ink.

Eraser and Sharpener

Cheap dust free eraser is good enough for most drawing work. I use eraser to create highlights, tidy up smears and erase mistakes. I also carry a sharpener to keep my pencil sharp for the job.

Fixative

A can of aerosol fixative is handy. It prevents the drawing from getting smeared. A coat of ‘fixer’ is enough to set the drawing to the paper before storing. Some people use hair spray as a cheaper alternative. Hair spray does the same job but some contains chemicals that can cause the paper to turn yellowish over a period of time. Select fixative spray that is ‘CFC Free’ or Ozone friendly.

Introduction

This blog is created to facilitate a comprehensive online art class. The lessons are divided into four modules:

Drawing Techniques
Watercolour Painting Techniques
Acrylic Painting Techniques
Oil Painting Techniques

Each module contains three of four chapters:

1. Introduction
2. Tools and Materials
3. Techniques
4. Exercises (not available online to accomplish this you must communicate with the artist/tutor and obtain the DVD for each subject).
   

The first lesson on drawing is schedule to be on this blog on Monday (23rd. August 2010). Consecutive lesson shall be online on this blog on the following Monday. Therefore the lessons are considered a weekly issue. Subsequently by the end of each chapter the lessons shall be reviewed and any submission of work by the students will also be displayed.

This class is open to all. Children as well as adults who wish to explore their artistic side are welcome to join the Master Art Class.