Since you'll be spending some time in front of your
computer drawing pictures, I'd recommend turning off
your screensaver, and if your monitor shuts itself off
after a time, disable that feature as well. If you don't
print out these exercises (and you don't have to) you
don't want to look up and all of a sudden you're looking
at your screensaver. It's gonna ruin the "drawing mood"
you'll be in.
Let's pause here and think a little bit about what
drawing is. Drawing is Art. Ok, so what is Art? Art is
human expression of human thought. There are many forms
of Art, and Drawing is one of those forms. Drawing stems
from the inadequacy of another form of art - the written
or spoken word. When words can't convey what you want to
express, then you draw what you want express. And I
think that drawing was and is, used as a universal
language. You don't need to speak Italian or French for
your drawing to be understood in France or Italy. And
even though drawing is a language, it does have
limitations. The biggest limitation is that we're
loosing the third dimension. The drawing surface (paper,
cloth, concrete, a computer monitor...) will display
only height and width. Since you can't dig into the
surface of your drawing plane, you can't physically
convey depth. Drawing is translating the three
dimensional world around you into two dimensions and
creating the illusion of depth. I think some
people say that they can't draw because they think that
when they draw they must create something that everybody
will think is "Art". And when they create something that
they themselves don't define as "Art" they think they
have failed and they say that they "can't draw". Every
drawing is Art because it's a human expression of a
human thought. A drawing is not "bad" - it just didn't
turn out as you had originally intended. Art is in the
eye of the Beholder. Let's Draw!
Let's start with a few exercises that you may have done
in grade school. These exercises are meant to show you
how to move back and forth from your two modes of
thinking. And just because you may have done them in
grade school doesn't mean they are "elementary", so wipe
that aloof look off your face!
Basic Drawing Concepts
There are a few things that your "artistic" mind needs
to know about so you can start drawing. Your brain
already knows this stuff subconsciously, but I'm just
pointing it out to your conscious mind so you can
develop these skills. The skills or concepts that we'll
be exploring are: line, shape, proportion and
perspective, light and shadow, and finally, the whole of
the finished drawing. You'll have each of these elements
in mind as you draw, but they will become almost
immediate and involuntary as you get better and more
comfortable with drawing. Just as when you have
several things in mind while you drive a car - your foot
on the accelerator, one eye on the car behind you, one
on the car in front of you - these thoughts are so
subconscious that you don't even know you're having
them. Some of these concepts you already know, like line
and shape, but you may not know them in an artistic
sense yet. These skills also build upon each other,
meaning that, understanding what lines are and what they do
will lead to the understanding of shapes and negative
spaces, which will lead to the perception of depth and
proportion, which naturally leads to the understanding
and use of light and shadow, which will help you to see
the drawing as a whole composition in the confines of
the drawing surface. Whew! Don't worry, it's really not
that complicated, I just thought it sounded good. |
