Thread: Link to page draw thing... what?

Can anyone give me a link to a website that will teach me to draw... good??

Hey Jerky,

I must admit I'm a bit sketchy on the idea of learning how to draw good by simply following some steps on a website. However, I can give you a link to where you will be able to see what good drawing and design looks like. Of course, you could say that art is subjective, but there is such a thing as good technique and design - and those two ingredients are essential in what you refer to as learning how to draw "good".

If you want a step-by-step site, I did a search on Google and came up with these:

Creative Spotlite
Portrait drawing
Learn to Draw

I'm sure there's a billion more out there - but it's really up to you to find them. Only you know exactly what it is you'd like to draw: people, faces, landscape, cartoons, still life, etc.

Good luck!

Not a link, but a suggestion: Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain". The book is stone brilliant and incredibly effective - producing instant results.

It can be had just about anywhere books are sold, including any book vendor on the 'net.

Also not a link, but a suggestion:

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE! Go outside and draw whatever you see. I used to take a sketchpad with me whenever I went to work. On quiet days, I’d speed-draw the people walking by. I also draw people I see in magazines a lot. Also, as risqué as it sounds, Google the word “nudes” or “classic nudes”. You’ll get a lot of porn, but you’ll also get a lot of artistic sites dedicated to the human body. Study those. Hell, even the porn sites can be educational. Take a close look at the colors and lighting and how the shadows fall on the skin.

As far as teaching you how to draw well, there isn’t much that can help. Teachers, books, and online tutorials can only coach you so much. The rest is learned by picking up a pencil and diving in, and not being afraid of the results. This isn’t verbatim, but Bob Ross once said this on one of his shows and it stuck in my head since then: “If you’re ever completely satisfied with a piece, then you may as well quit. Art is all about learning as you go.”

I should elaborate on Edwards' book a bit, perhaps - because it is isn't an "artist in a bottle". What it IS is a simple set of exercises to get you to start drawing what you see rather than the symbols your brain uses to represent what you see.

Example... without looking at anything draw an eye.

Unless you are a studied artist, what you just drew is what you have learned to be a representation of an eye. Drawing an eye isn't hard... but it can be very difficult to learn to SEE an eye and draw it - putting aside that symbolic representation.

Betty Edwards teaches how to get past that... and once you do, the change in your drawings is astonishing.

i recommend measuring objects with your pencil held out at arms length in order to keep everything in proportion

Originally posted by pj


Example... without looking at anything draw an eye.

Unless you are a studied artist, what you just drew is what you have learned to be a representation of an eye. Drawing an eye isn't hard... but it can be very difficult to learn to SEE an eye and draw it - putting aside that symbolic representation.

Betty Edwards teaches how to get past that... and once you do, the change in your drawings is astonishing.

wait wait wait... do you mean the book teaches you to SEE an eye on the page? Like a hallucination?? Cool.

No... not quite. It teaches you NOT to draw the symbol(s) you have likely spent your whole life using to represent an eye. Putting this aside allows you to see the eye before you for what it is... and draw THAT instead.

The point is that we all develop a symbology that interferes with our ability to see unless it is deliberately set aside. Trying to draw things from memory, (like an eye or whatever,) reveals those symbols. It is very difficult NOT to draw those symbols even when we are looking at the real thing unless we are aware of them and have a way to dismiss them.

In the end, we all have the capacity to see things for what they are and draw them with some sort of accuracy. Most of us don't do that simply because we aren't aware of how our own brains work. This is the most common hurdle to be cleared by people who say they "can't draw." Yes, they can. Once that hurdle is cleared, then the artistry can be developed. Learning the nuances of light and shade and negative space and composition are kind of pointless before that first breakthrough though.