How to Draw in 3 Steps. (Seriously)

There is no secret to drawing. None. In fact, everyone can draw. It’s like this quote from this board game Othello, “A minute to learn a lifetime to master.”  Yeah, kinda like that. One of my pet peeves is hearing my friends and students say “I can’t draw”.  Nonsense. YES, YOU CAN.  I’ll prove it. Get a pencil and a piece of paper…

1. Everything you see can be broken up into simple shapes. Everything. A friend of mine at work saw me drawing a slice of lemon and she said she tried to draw that and it was awful. I told her to break it down into shapes.  Allow me to show you…

This lemon can be broken down into simple shapes.  What do you see?  I see one large semi-circle.  Then I see a line that follows the white rine.  The little lemon segments look like triangles. In example 1, I traced the image to demonstrate how to break down the shape. Give it a go.

2.  Now you have the idea of the shape of the lemon.  Now try it on your own.  Draw the semi-circle, the line that shows the rine and the triangles for the lemon segments.  Don’t worry the lines don’t have to be straight, that’s what makes it more like a lemon.  I rounded the edges of the triangles and added some little sketch lines within the lemon flowerets to make look juicy.

3. Next, give your drawing a little color.  Use whatever you’d like, markers, pens, pencils etc.  Use the source image for color information and watch your drawing really POP!

Ok, this super-duper, oversimplified drawing method may seem a little unconventional. However, you need to start somewhere, and this is a good beginning.  Once you learn how to break down images into shapes, you can move onto types of lines, sketching, value, and more advanced techniques.  Like I said, everyone can draw.  It is a process of training the brain to visualize and translate what we see on paper. “It takes a Minute to learn, a Lifetime to master” Othello couldn’t have said it better.

Keep in mind, whether you simplify an image into shapes (which is art style on its own) or redraw it and make it more realistic, you are still drawing and it is awesome! So, go grab your pencils and paper and get drawing!  If you’d like more mini tutorials on drawing techniques let me know.  Have a beautiful day.

Artfully yours,

Andi