How to Draw

Alfred Daniels
 How to Draw

Adapted from Painting and Drawing

by
Alfred Daniels

Published by Two Spuds Inc., Dieppe, New Brunswick, Canada

© 2006 Two Spuds Inc.

Painting and Drawing was originally published by Gramercy Publishing Company, New York.
© 1961 Alfred Daniels.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by electronic or any
other means, without permission in writing from the publishers.
 Table of Contents
1. Before We Begin......................................................................................................................... 2
Learning to See ....................................................................................................................... 3
2. What You’ll Need—Drawing Materials ................................................................................. 5
Drawing Media....................................................................................................................... 5
Graphite............................................................................................................................ 5
Charcoal and Related Media.......................................................................................... 7
Fixing .............................................................................................................................. 10
Pen and Ink .................................................................................................................... 10
Brush and Ink................................................................................................................. 11
Paper ...................................................................................................................................... 12
Supports................................................................................................................................. 14
Erasers.................................................................................................................................... 15
Take Care of Your Equipment ............................................................................................ 16
3. Getting to Know ….................................................................................................................. 17
Your Tools—Exercise 1........................................................................................................ 17
The Picture Plane—Exercise 2 ............................................................................................ 19
Shapes—Exercise 3............................................................................................................... 20
Light and Dark—Exercise 4 ................................................................................................ 21
Composition.......................................................................................................................... 24
Planes .............................................................................................................................. 25
Exercise 5 ........................................................................................................................ 26
Perspective ..................................................................................................................... 29
Proportion ...................................................................................................................... 30
Balance ............................................................................................................................ 31
Movement ...................................................................................................................... 33
Space ............................................................................................................................... 34
Getting Started ...................................................................................................................... 37
4. Making Choices ....................................................................................................................... 38
Drawing with Line ............................................................................................................... 38
Drawing with Tone and Color—Exercise 6 ...................................................................... 40
Is It Finished? ........................................................................................................................ 42
Inspiration ............................................................................................................................. 43
A Few Tips............................................................................................................................. 44
5. Sketching................................................................................................................................... 45
Using a Viewfinder .............................................................................................................. 47
Accuracy ................................................................................................................................ 48
Relationships......................................................................................................................... 50
Foreground, Middle, Background .............................................................................. 50
General to Specific......................................................................................................... 50
Perspective ..................................................................................................................... 51
Viewpoint ....................................................................................................................... 52
Drawing People .................................................................................................................... 53
Now Is It Finished? .............................................................................................................. 55
In Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 56
Appendix ...................................................................................................................................... 58

How to Draw 1
 Chapter 1
Before We Begin
Drawing is fun. Sure, it may be a little difficult. But so what? We draw for
the enjoyment it brings. If you’re only concerned with doing it “well” you
may feel so inadequate that you won’t do it at all. And look at all the
pleasure you’ll miss.

Most things we do regularly feel easy, even if they’re actually complex. If

we knew how complicated it is to take one simple breath, we might give
up and suffocate. Yet breathing comes so easily to us we do it without
thinking. Drawing is the same way—easier than we think. All we need to
know is what tools to use and how our tools behave when we use them.
Drawing is a skill—anyone can master it. All it takes is practice.

How to Draw 2
This book talks about the kinds of equipment you’ll need and how to use
them, as well as suggested exercises and thoughts on different ways of
seeing. But there are no firm rules about anything. These are just
guidelines to help you get started learning to draw. Let your own
inclination be the best judge of what is most useful to you. If you’re going
to express yourself, you’ll break all the rules anyway—and you should.

Riverside, brush drawing, by Alfred Daniels.

Learning to See

Mastering the materials is the easy part of drawing. Forgetting everything

you know (or think you know) is the hard part.

When you draw, you have to let go of everything you know about any
object or figure. Whatever you know about a tree, a house, a table, a
person—it doesn’t matter. What you see is the only thing that matters.

How to Draw 3
Perhaps you find the outlines of things or people to be what strikes you
most. Artists like you usually prefer line drawing, whether in pencil or
pen. Other artists see volume, solidity. If you’re one of them, you might
want to start with charcoal or another soft medium to shade the world of
your picture.

In this book, we’ll address drawing from life, for the most part. But these
principals apply to abstract art as well, or to anything drawn from your
imagination.

Remember, your drawings belong to you—from start to finish. Use this

book to help you get started but always feel free to go your own way.

How to Draw 4
 Chapter 2
What You’ll Need
Drawing only requires some very simple tools. Here is a sampling of
what’s available. Try out your options and discover which medium works
best for you. (“Medium” just means whatever you are making a mark
with: pencil, charcoal, etc.) One quick tip: remember that drawing is not
writing. Many artists prefer to hold their drawing medium in an overhand
grasp rather than the underhand grasp used for writing. This gives you a
lot of control over the instrument, especially for shading.

Drawing Media

GRAPHITE
Graphite comes in sticks or in the traditional pencil. Drawing pencils range
from very hard (6H) to very soft (8B). HB (generally equivalent to a
number 2 writing pencil) is in the middle of this range. For drawing, you
should use a pencil in the B range: 2, 3 and 4B are good for beginners.

How to Draw 5
Pencils are handy to carry with you and can be bought anywhere. They are
the most convenient and most readily available drawing tool there is.
Graphite has some drawbacks: the range of tone for graphite is narrow,
with no deep blacks, it’s shiny when overworked and smudges easily. But
for the workaday roughing out of ideas for composition, for beginning a
watercolor or painting, tracing, or in combination with pen and ink, or just
for whipping out when you see something you want to sketch, they are
invaluable.

Most brands of pencils available in art supply stores or catalogs give good
results. They vary a little in quality, but experience will help you choose
the one you like best. Always keep your pencils well sharpened. You can
use anything from a small, handheld sharpener to an electric desktop
model.

Graphite sticks are good for sketching and shading, giving more drawing
options than pencils. They come in an assortment of grades (soft, medium
and hard) and sizes (3" or 1/4").

How to Draw 6
CHARCOAL AND RELATED MEDIA
Charcoal, conté crayon and carbon pencils all make dense black lines, have
a wide tonal range and, on grey or tinted papers with the additional use of
white chalk, reach a degree of richness no other drawing medium can give.
They work well for inside or outside drawing, and combine well with
watercolor or pen and ink, achieving quick, lively results.

CHARCOAL
Charcoal is delightful to use, easy to erase, but very messy, especially
when overworked. Charcoal, like pencil, is graded into hard and soft
sticks, and also into thin and thick sticks. You can purchase charcoal in
boxes that contain a variety of grades and thicknesses, or buy individual
sticks to give you exactly what you’re looking for. You can also buy
charcoal pencils that are similar to the loose sticks, except that you can’t
use the sides for shading.

How to Draw 7
CONTÉ CRAYON
Conté crayons are hard, slightly waxy pastels that are smooth and rich in
pigment. They are graded into hard, medium and soft, and give a richer
tone and line than either charcoal or pencil. Conté is a durable medium,
difficult to erase but less liable to injury and smudging, as well as easier to
fix.

“The Duchess of Suffolk.” conté and brush. Hans Holbein.

Conté is available in short, square sticks or in pencil form. Traditional

conté is black, white and various shades of brown (often called sanguine).
Some conté pencils are manufactured in a wider variety of colors. Pencils
are cleaner to use but, being brittle, conté is not easy to sharpen. Use a
razor blade or knife to sharpen conté pencils; be sure to sharpen away
from your body and be careful not to cut your fingers.

How to Draw 8
CARBON PENCILS
Carbon pencils combine the fine grain and precision of pencils with the
velvety blacks of charcoal. They sharpen well, are not too messy to use and
only require the lightest of fixing. They give good rich tones and can be
used in combination with all the other black media, including watercolor
and pen and ink. They are highly recommended for both studio and
outdoor work. Carbon pencils come if four textures, ranging from B (the
hardest) to 6B (softest).

CHALKS PASTELS
Black, grey, and white chalks (or “soft”) pastels are alternatives to
charcoal. They can be used in combination with charcoal and excel on grey
or other tinted, toothed papers (see “Papers” below). Chalk pastels can be
found in sets of shades of grey only or in a wide variety of colors. Chalks
in shades of grey are terrific for learning about shading and tone. Then
move on to colored chalk pastels for fun and vibrant drawing.

Use a light hand when fixing pastels. Colors can change a little in tone if
too much fixative is used.
(NOTE: You will find one of the best selections and most competitive
prices for your drawing supplies here – Drawing Supplies

How to Draw 9
FIXING
Conté crayons, carbon pencils, and especially charcoal and chalk pastels
must all be fixed on the paper or they will smudge—both on the picture
itself and on anything it touches. You can purchase a commercial fixative
in any art supply store, or simply use unscented hair spray.
Adhesives for Fixing Drawings
In a very well ventilated space, spray the fixative lightly and evenly over
the entire drawing, starting and ending each pass beyond the edge of the
paper. Let it dry and test an unobtrusive spot to see if any medium still
comes off. If so, lightly spray again. Two sprayings are usually enough, but
sometimes a denser drawing may need more. Charcoal will always need at
least two fixings, being more powdery than either conté or carbon.

PEN AND INK

You can draw with any kind of pen:
ball point, roller ball, felt tip. Fine
point Sharpies make wonderful, very
black lines. Try out your favorite pens
in your sketchbook, then move on to
paper. Shading is accomplished with
lines, cross hatching or washes (see
Brush and Ink below).

Classic nib pens, with their expressive and varied lines, dipped in India
ink, or technical pens (such as a Rapidograph®) are both favored by pen-
and-ink artists. These types of pens are harder to learn. They can be
difficult and unforgiving, so wait until you are more experienced with
other types of pens, as well as pencil, before beginning to experiment with
these.
Drawing Supplies
How to Draw 10
BRUSH AND INK
Brush? Isn’t that painting? Well, yes and no. Brushes have long been used
with ink to make beautiful line drawings: everything from intricate,
detailed images to the simplest drawings that capture the essence of your
subject with just a few brief strokes.

When you first get started, it’s a good idea to lightly sketch a few of your
lines in pencil. At the art store, look for calligraphy brushes with pointed
tips, as well as rounded brushes for washes.

How to Draw 11
 Paper

DRAWING PAPERS
Different drawing media require different papers. The best quality paper is
100 percent cotton rag, but anything labeled “archival” will last longer
than you will, as long as you take care of it. Rag or archival paper should
be used for “finished” drawings. Sketching should be done on something
less expensive, like a sketch book or newsprint.

Charcoal, conté, carbon pencil and chalk pastel all work best on a toothed
paper: one with a textured surface designed to catch and hold powdery
drawing media. These include a variety of white, off-white or colored
papers, sold loose or in large pads. But charcoal is also terrific on
newsprint, which is inexpensive and great for sketching. Smoother
drawing paper works well for graphite, conté, carbon pencil, and pen and
ink.

Art supply stores also have specialty papers, such as rice paper, handmade
paper, or watercolor paper. Look around, feel the papers and find the ones
that appeal to you. Specialty papers are usually sold by the sheet and can
get pricey. Drawing Papers

How to Draw 12
SKETCHBOOK
You must have a sketchbook. If you want to learn to draw, a sketchbook is
not optional. These come in a wide variety of sizes. Try a small, a medium
and a large to see which you’re most comfortable with. Take it with you
everywhere and sketch whenever you can. We’ll talk more about sketching
in chapter five.

Get great deals on - Sketch Books

How to Draw 13
 Supports

DRAWING BOARDS
Drawing boards are great in the studio or outdoors. They should be light
weight and thin, but not flexible. Drawing boards are available in a variety
of sizes and materials, from simple, inexpensive masonite panels you can
find in a home supply store, to drawing boards from art supply stores with
high tech surfaces, adjustable stands, clips and handles.

Use drafting tape to hold your paper to the surface. Drafting tape looks
like masking tape but peels away cleanly. A small piece across each corner
is all you need. Bulldog clips will also keep your paper in place.

Propping a board on a chair

Buy the best drawing board you can afford and look after it. Don’t use it
for cutting on and keep it clean. Always keep the surface smooth—you
must have a smooth surface underneath your paper.

How to Draw 14
EASELS
You don’t need an easel to draw, but if you want one, get a simple, three-
legged easel that can be folded up and used for outdoor work as well as
indoor. Just prop your drawing board on it. If you can’t afford to buy an
easel, you can draw quite well resting your drawing board on the back of a
chair or setting it on a table top.

Erasers

To erase graphite, use a pink eraser (like a Pink Pearl®) or a gum eraser
(like an Art Gum®). There are also vinyl erasers, electric erasers, ink
erasers, but for graphite, these two old standbys are all you need.

To erase charcoal, use a kneaded eraser. When you open the package,
knead the eraser well before use. Then knead it after using to clean it. A
good, soft kneaded eraser can also be twisted into points to erase small
areas.

Bear in mind that unless the mark is very light, it’s hard to erase a mistake
without ruining your drawing. Something is always going to show. Better
to find a way to work the “mistake” into the picture. Erasers are best used
for pulling white space back out of a shaded area, such as a highlight on a
person’s face.

Easels and Erasers

How to Draw 15
 Take Care of Your Equipment

Taking good care of your equipment means it will last longer and will be
there when you need it. When you’re done drawing, stack your paper
neatly and put your drawing away in a folder or portfolio. Keep your
conté crayons, chalks and charcoal in a box with a lid. You can use an
artist’s storage box, a tackle box, a plastic sandwich-keeper with a lid, or
any recycled box you like. Pencils and dip pens (clean the nibs first) should
be stored with their points up in old coffee cans. Markers or felt tip pens
should be stored with their caps on and points down to keep them from
drying out.

How to Draw 16
 Chapter 3
Getting to Know …

Your Tools—Exercise 1

What is drawing? Most simply, drawing is making marks. So let’s do that.

Tape a sheet of white paper to your drawing board. Use a piece of charcoal
to draw some lines. Make these lines all over the page in any arrangement
you like. Use the point. Use the side of the charcoal. Then try a conté
crayon and a carbon pencil on different sheets of paper and notice the
difference between them. Try out the different grades of charcoal as well.
What do you notice?

Next, try to gradate your charcoal from darkest dark to lightest light. To
gradate a tone, don’t lift your charcoal off the paper. Gently scribble back
and forth, pressing a little lighter or a little harder. Try it again with a piece
of white. You’ll see the bigger range of tone you can get with the com-
bination of the two media.

Using charcoal on a piece of white paper,

draw a small square on the top left-hand
side of the paper. Fill it in carefully until it
is a good, dark black. Then draw another
square (it doesn’t have to be too accurate)
the same size in the bottom right-hand
corner.
Shape changing exercise.

How to Draw 17
Turn the square, by gradually changing each successive shape, into a
circle. Fill in each change of shape with less black each time so that by the
time you have arrived at a circle shape the tone is grey. Then turn the circle
back into the rectangle at the bottom right-hand corner of your paper,
getting denser in tone once more

Now you’ve introduced yourself to the three basic elements of drawing:

line, tone, and shape, which—with the fourth element, space—make up
the basis of all pictorial art. Line, tone (or light and dark, shading, or
chiaroscuro), and shape are the basic way we see things and, with color
and space, make up our visual perception of the world.

How to Draw 18
 The Picture Plane—Exercise 2

What artists call the “picture plane” is just the surface of the paper or
canvas, that two-dimensional space—part physical, part mental—where
the drawing exists.

The next exercise is all about turning three-dimensional reality into a two-
dimensional drawing.

Drawing through a window pane

Sit facing a window (not too close) with your board, paper, and pencil or
graphite stick. It doesn’t matter what the scene is. Choose a view through
one of the windowpanes, using the rectangle of the window or individual
pane as your frame. First, draw (approximately) the rectangle made by the
windowpane. Using only lines (no shading), draw exactly what you see
within that rectangle. Notice where the shapes you are drawing meet the
edge of the window frame. Try closing one eye to help flatten the space.
You can also use drafting tape to define new rectangles on your window.

How to Draw 19
 Shapes—Exercise 3

Contour drawing is a great way to learn to trust your eye and your hand.
Set out a few objects on a table. Without looking at your paper, draw the
outlines of the objects with one continuous line. Does it look like a mess?
Good! That means you didn’t cheat.

After practicing the contour drawings several times (you can do many of
these on the same sheet of paper), draw the objects again—outlines only—
but this time, you can look at your paper. By doing a few contour
drawings first, your hand already has a feel for what your eye is seeing
before you even attempt a “finished” drawing.

Avoid this common mistake: When an object has two sides that are parallel
in three-dimensional space, the lines representing them need to be parallel
in the two-dimensional space of your page.

How to Draw 20
 Light and Dark—Exercise 4

Tone is the degree of light or dark on, or of, any object or space. You can
see the tone of something better if you half close your eyes and squint at it.
This helps you see where the darks and lights are.

Light falling on a round object

Outdoors, light constantly changes and is dispersed over a wide area.

Inside, the changes are not so noticeable because they come from
stationary sources—lamps or windows. Therefore it is perhaps easier to
understand the way that daylight acts from inside.

There are three things to remember about light falling on a solid object:

• The part nearest to the light is getting the full amount.

• As the object turns from the light it becomes darker.
• As the object continues turning it picks up reflected light.

How to Draw 21
Watch for these changes as you practice drawing. It will help you to
understand the solidity of objects and the space around them. And as you
have already practiced gradating tone you will be able to apply that
knowledge to the gradations of natural light. Use charcoal or black chalk
with white chalk to register the changes noticeably.

“Dubrovnik” by Alfred Daniels

Try another window view, this time adding the lights and darks. Squinting
your eyes (or taking off your glasses if you’re near-sighted) can help
eliminate details and help you see only tone.

Now try these exercises again with a felt-tip pen. Notice how gradations of
tone are produced differently with a pen than with pencil or charcoal. Try
cross-hatching and scribbling as ways to shade with pen. Washes are used
for shading with pen and ink or with brush and ink.

How to Draw 22
Trust your eyes and your pencil in checking the varying angles you see to
achieve distance and space.

Summing up, then, planes and perspectives are means of creating space in
your picture, through light and line. In diffuse light (such as on a cloudy
day, when the light seems to be coming from everywhere) or unequal
light, the edges of an object disappear into the surrounding background. It
is good to note these subtle changes, because they help to create the effect
of space around an object.

How to Draw 23
 Composition

Composition is all about relationships: the relationship of one shape to

another, one line to another, one color to another, one texture to another,
and the relationship of all of those things to the picture plane—the
rectangular page on which you are drawing. One way to find those
relationships is to reduce your subject to its simplest shapes—cone, cube,
cylinder, pyramid. Most physical objects in nature have some sort of shape
that you can grasp and put down on paper, including shadows and clouds.
Look for the shapes and the lines, don’t worry about what it “is.”

“The Sheep of His Pasture.”

Wood engraving by Edward Calvert (1803–1883)

Making art is about discovering solutions to problems. If you are drawing

from life, some of those problems can be: how to express movement,
solidity (mass), or space, how to express emotion, how to balance images
so that they are stable but not static. Your job as an artist is to find your
own answers to these questions. But you have help from all the artists who
have come before you.

How to Draw 24
Looking—really looking—at the works of other artists will not only let you
appreciate their work more, it will help you to understand how a
successful picture is put together and how to do it yourself.

Movement, for instance, can be expressed by the use of flowing lines and
shapes across the paper, by directing the eye across the picture plane.

Movement

Weight, solidity and mass can be stressed by simplifying the shapes and
eliminating detail or by accentuating the planes around a form.

PLANES
Planes are the sides of objects. A box has six sides or six planes (four sides,
top, and bottom). When viewed from one corner you observe three planes:
two sides and the top. A head is more complicated, because the planes
vary more in size and shape. But the principle is the same. A head has four
sides, a top and a bottom, just like a box (although the bottom plane,
underneath the chin, is much smaller).

How to Draw 25
 Seeing geometry in a complicated shape

In a good side light, the planes of any object can clearly be seen. Planes
facing the light will catch all the light available, and those that turn from
the light, much less.

Planes that turn sharply can be clearly defined. Tone can help define less
geometric objects like trees, heads, fabrics etc.

Defining planes by line and tone

How to Draw 26
EXERCISE 5
Look at a small box, like a matchbox. It holds all the secrets of planes
within it.

Place a matchbox in lighting from many sources and notice how these
simple planes alter and change.

Draw the matchbox with one light from the side. Then add another light
at another angle and draw it again. Include the shadows that fall on the
table top. Then add a third light and draw it again. What changes do you
see? What differences between focused light and diffuse light do you
notice?

How to Draw 27
 “Still Life with Green Melon” (c. 1900-1906) byPaul Cézanne
Graphite and watercolor on paper. Private collection

The French post-impressionist painter Paul Cezanne spent a lifetime

studying planes. He based most of his ideas on the way planes change
according to the light. For this he used strokes of pure color to define the
planes. When you first look at his paintings, if they seem too bright and
diffused, half close your eyes and they will appear as solid as a rock and
full of space and air. Before Cezanne, landscape artists like Constable
represented the planes seen by tone only, and the color was subdued to
that end.

How to Draw 28
PERSPECTIVE
Perspective is only another way of seeing light and space, though a much
more mechanical way. Simply stated, perspective is a depiction of the way
objects appear larger in the foreground and smaller in the background. If
the side of a building is a simple rectangle, then you’ll draw it as two
straight, vertical lines: a long line represents the near side and a shorter
line represents the far side. Join these two vertical lines, top and bottom,
with two angled lines and the plane seems to go into the picture. Check the
angles made by the top and bottom lines with your pencil and transfer
them to your paper. The angles should be equal.

Simple perspective

How to Draw 29
PROPORTION
Proportion means a ratio: how much to how little. Notice the relative sizes
of what you are drawing. As with everything in drawing, the more you
practice, the more proportion will become second nature to you.
Proportion is especially important when you’re drawing a human figure.
People know instinctively when a figure “just looks wrong.”

There are some standards that can help you know if your figure of a
person is in proportion. For instance, the human body can be divided into
eight sections, each equal to the size of the head. Leonardo daVinci’s
“Vetruvian Man” is a well-known study of the proportion of the human
figure.

“Vetruvian Man.” Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519).

See the appendix for a translation of the text.

How to Draw 30
BALANCE
Nature is wonderfully balanced, never boring or monotonous. Your
drawing should be, too. Here are two hints to keep your composition fresh
and interesting. These are just guidelines; plenty of artists break these rules
to great effect. But you have to understand a rule before you can break it
successfully.

Try not to repeat the same shape too often and watch out for too much
symmetry. Balance is more interesting when it’s asymmetrical. As you
look at the work of other artists, notice how they often place the most
important shape not in the center of the picture, but a little to one side,
creating triangles. This creates a tension with the edge of the picture plane.

Symmetrical division Unsymmetrical division

Put horizon lines, or any strong horizontal, either above or below the
center of the canvas. The two unequal shapes are more intriguing than if
they were the same size. The same is true of verticals.

When you look at the work of other artists, try to find the major lines and
directions in the painting or drawing. Look for the general shapes:
rectangles, triangles, circles.

How to Draw 31
Let’s examine the work of some old masters to see how they approached
these problems:

Analysis of “Courtyard of a House in Delft”

by Pieter de Hooch (1629–1683). National Gallery, London
You can find this painting online atwww.nationalgallery.org.uk

In “Courtyard of a House in Delft,” Pieter de Hooch places the figures of

the maid-servant and the child off center. The open doorway into a
passage is also off center and creates a stopping place for the eye on the left
side of the picture. Another figure can be seen through the door and the
shape of the shutter on the left is repeated by the open door within the
passageway, but in reverse to avoid monotony. On the right, the dark area
is a nicely broken geometric series of shapes that contrast with the verticals
seen through the doorway and passageway. The strongly diagonal pole
leads the eye down, and a broom in the lower right corner brings the eye

How to Draw 32
back into the picture again. De Hooch repeats simple, geometric shapes
again and again, sometimes larger or smaller, or reversed in tone or shape.

MOVEMENT
To create the illusion or idea of movement, we can use bold, flowing lines
or shapes across the picture plane, or move the viewer’s eye around the
picture by the placement of accents and shapes.

Analysis of “The Deposition”

by Ugolino di Nerio (c. 1260–1339),. National Gallery, London.
You can find this painting online atwww.nationalgallery.org.uk

In the painting “The Deposition” by early Renaissance artist Ugolino di

Nerio there is little or no depth to draw the eye away from the central
dramatic theme. The displacement of the figure is perfectly balanced and
the eye moves from the bottom of the picture on the right, around, up and
along the heads, then down and around again, finally coming up through
the cross and the body of Christ, and around again.

How to Draw 33
Triangles abound showing strong rhythm and movement here, and
though at first it looks like a simple, uncomplicated picture, it is actually
both simple and complicated at the same time.

SPACE
Space can be expressed by perspective, by color and by relating larger
shapes to smaller ones. Color can be reduced to just a few, carefully
selected hues or expanded to include a huge variety.

Space: using large and small shapes

When you look at a scene, a person or a still life, you’ll be looking with a
different eye and from a different point of view. You’ll be looking more
selectively. You’ll be choosing those elements that will be useful and
effective for your drawing. This is where sketching comes in. This is your
record of images and notes that you can use to build your final picture.

How to Draw 34
Since three-dimensional space doesn’t exist on the picture plane, artists use
perspective, shading, size, etc. to create the illusion of depth. Space and the
painting of space have occupied artists throughout history. Paolo Uccello
(1397–1475), an Italian Renaissance painter, was said to have devoted most
of his working life to the problems of space and perspective. But in “The
Rout of San Romano,” a painting with great movement, action and superb
composition, the space is almost completely flat.

“The Rout of San Romano”

by Paolo Uccello c. 1456. National Gallery, London.
You can find this painting in color online at www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Other works, like “St. George and the Dragon” (which can be found online
at www.nationalgallery.org.uk) show his discoveries about depth.

How to Draw 35
More important than the space in this Uccello is the grand flowing
movement that takes the eye around, until you can almost imagine the
noise and clatter, the shouts and cries of the soldiers, the neighing of the
horses and so on.

It is also interesting to observe the way Uccello has packed the left-hand
side of the canvas with lances and helmets, so that there seems to be a
considerable army clustered there. The effect is one of confusion and
activity. The only real fighting is being done by the three horsemen on the
right. There is only one dead soldier. The soldiers in the background seem
to be playing games. Without blood, horror, or great depth, Uccello has
given us a powerful picture of war in the fifteenth century. All the qualities
of the battle are here, nothing has really been left out. The secret lies in the
wonderful way in which he has related this gigantic scene to the confines
of his paints and canvas.

How to Draw 36
 Getting Started

To make a picture function, each part must connect with every other and
finally with the rectangle of the picture plane itself. Trust your eye. We all
know when something “looks right” and when it doesn’t. Unfortunately
this valuable instinct is often overwhelmed by prejudice or bad habits of
thinking. After you have done a few drawings, however, you’ll learn to
trust yourself to assess your shapes and arrangements spontaneously and
correctly.

You’ll also see how the simple placing of unequal rectangles, triangles,
simple directions and movements help balance, unify, and give
authenticity and truth to your drawing. With experience you’ll come to
arrange your pictures naturally to suit your subject, breaking or adapting
the laws of nature as you feel inclined.

Making art is all about exploration and discovery. Sometimes you’ll

discover something wonderful. Go ahead and frame it. Sometimes you’ll
discover something disastrous. But don’t throw it away. Analyze your
“mistakes” and learn from them. You never know what you might find!

How to Draw 37
 Chapter 4
Making Choices

Drawing with Line

You won’t always want to do a full-bodied tonal drawing. A simple line

drawing is a quick and handy way to express an idea or to put down
something you have seen and remembered. It is also useful for doing
sketches of people who won’t keep still and of capturing the fleeting ebb
and flow of life outdoors.

Brush drawing of a woman by Hokusai.

How to Draw 38
But we don’t really see things in line as there are no lines in nature. Three-
dimensional forms have no edges. Lines are inventions of our minds to
mark the point where our eye moves from one object to another.

Varied lines—thin and thick lines, textures, patterns—all help to give a

drawing vitality. You can make textures with a felt-tip pen or a pencil
quite easily and you can vary the contours of forms, scribble and smudge
with your finger to give an interesting variation of line.

Pen line textures

A rich dark in a line drawing can give a sense of color, without the use of
shading or actual color.

The secret to line drawing is in what you leave out and not what you put
in. Find and emphasize the important shapes and the significant detail.
Leave out the less important ones. Experiment with all sorts of ways to
eliminate what you don’t need. The object of a good line drawing is to be
as simple as possible, and it will take a little practice to be able to select the
lines you want.

How to Draw 39
 Drawing with Tone and Color
Exercise 6

Everything in the world has color—often referred to as “local color.” And

colors have their own degree of lightness or darkness that is independent
of the light that falls on them. So we have to pay attention to both the light
that falls on an object and the color of the object itself. When you’re
drawing, you can choose to leave out the tone of the color or you can
incorporate it. Dark brown hair or dark clothes on a figure can be made
dark even though they are in full light. How you render local color is
entirely up to you.

Illustration from The Development of English Costume

by Margot Hamilton Hill.
Using black and white to render color.

How to Draw 40
You can, of course, also render color with color. Chalk pastels, markers or
color pencils are wonderful media for drawing.

Choose a scene or a still life for your subject. Then make three separate
drawings of it:
• one in black ink or pencil
• one in black ink or pencil with a little local color added with markers
or color pencils,
• and the last one in full color.

How to Draw 41
 Is It Finished?

How finished should your drawing be? Again, this is up to you. A

drawing can be “finished” with just a few simple lines, or entail a high
degree of detail and take up the entire page, or anything in between.

How to Draw 42
 Inspiration

Look at the drawings of other artists, particularly masters like Rembrandt.

Don’t just look at the subject matter, look at how it was made. What kind
of paper is it on? What medium was used—charcoal, pencil, silver point?
Does the artist primarily use lines or shading? Or both? How is the
drawing composed? What is emphasized? What is de-emphasized? How
does the image fit within the picture plane?

All artists are inspired in some way by the art of others. Keep an open
mind toward drawing that seems very different from what you’re used to.
It may be able to offer you something you need. Often, works that seem to
be the opposite of what you like are the ones that help you grow in
understanding your own work and the work of others.

Warrior by Hokusai. (1760-1849)

Hokusai drew, painted and made woodcuts throughout his long life. But most of all he
loved to draw. When he died it is reported that he was still holding a brush and regretted
he had not been given five more years to live, saying sorrowfully, “I might have become
a great artist.”

How to Draw 43
 A Few Tips

There are no firm rules about what you should or shouldn’t do when
drawing. If you find any, break them as soon as possible. You stand far
more chance of surviving as an artist if you do. But here are a few tips that
may come in useful when you start drawing.

1. Don’t be in a hurry to begin. Make yourself comfortable. Relax, and

have a good look at what you’re going to draw. Half close your eyes,
cock your head to one side, then the other. Get a feel for the scene
before you begin.

2. Don’t be intimidated by a clean sheet of paper. Put a little smudge on it,

just to get going. Show it who’s boss.

3. Accept your own style and vision. Don’t try to be like some other artist
you have seen and admired. You won’t be able to draw like that artist
anyway. You are yourself, separate and distinct, unique. Draw
confidently from that knowledge and you will always enjoy the
process.

“Distant View of Newcastle” by Thomas Bewick (1753-1828)

How to Draw 44
 Chapter 5
Sketching

When you first go out to sketch or draw outdoors, stay away from
crowded places. You don’t want to attract a crowd of people looking over
your shoulder and making comments, however well meant. When you are
more confident about drawing, you’ll be able to chat with strangers (or
ignore them) without it affecting your drawing. Look for places with easy
access, places to sit down comfortably and not be too conspicuous, so you
can concentrate on sketching without being self-conscious.

How to Draw 45
When drawing in strong sunshine, try to get under some shade. Strong sun
on your paper will not only distort your tones but the glare can be hard on
your eyes. If there’s no shade, wear a hat with a brim and even a light-
colored pair of sunglasses. Sit with your back to the sun so your shadow
falls across the paper.

What should you draw? Whatever you choose. Indoors, outdoors, parts of
your favorite room or café, trees in the park, people on the bus or subway,
dirty dishes on the table, clean dishes in the drainer, your brother
watching television, whatever strikes your fancy.

“Two Durham Dyers” by Thomas Bewick (1753-1828)

Once you prejudice yourself with a fixed idea of what the “right” subject
is, you’ll never find it and you’ll miss opportunities for other subjects.
Your ability to create will dry up. For a human being, creation is natural;
finding subjects should be just as natural. Picasso said, “I do not seek. I
find.” This is certainly good advice for sketching. Turn a corner and be
surprised by what you see. Be taken unawares by odd pockets of life. We
are always seeking the obvious. But the surprise will make the most

How to Draw 46
interesting picture. Nothing is ugly. Nothing is beautiful. Try sketching
something that you would ordinarily turn away from or ignore. Let
drawing give you a new way to see the world.

So when you find a subject that you feel will make a good picture, go
ahead and tackle it. Don’t be concerned with the judgments, real or
imagined, of other people. Let them draw their own pictures. This one is
yours. Concern yourself only with the use of your media and tools. Let
your hands speak through them and keep those critical faculties quiet.

You will find that you get great satisfaction from sketching. You’ll discover
many things you weren’t aware of before. A whole new world will unfold
itself for you. You’ll be seeing more and more each time you go out. Your
confidence will grow and you will really be fulfilling yourself.

Using a Viewfinder

Once you’ve settled on a subject, move around it, see it from different
angles. Some artists find it handy to
use a viewfinder. This can be as
simple as a small piece of mat
board with a rectangular hole cut in
it. (Mat board is the hard, smooth
board using in framing pictures.) A
viewfinder can help you define
your scene, eliminate what you
don’t need, and get a feel for the
tones, where the darks and the
lights are falling.

How to Draw 47
 Accuracy

There is no such thing as accuracy of vision. In the first place, every person
sees differently. And nature is constantly moving and changing all the
time. What we see rapidly alters from minute to minute. All we can do is
to compromise between the movement of life and the static nature of our
rectangular picture plane. We can only aim at distilling the character of
what we can observe or feel.

Many people mistakenly think that accuracy, or getting things “right” is

one of the aims of an artist. But, in fact, as the artist, you create your own
world on the page. You get to decide what’s right. Since accuracy in an

How to Draw 48
ever-changing, ever-moving, ever-complex nature is impossible anyway,
don’t even pursue it.

If you think those islands would look better on the left than on the right,
move them. If you think that tree would look better in the foreground than
the background, put it there. It’s your picture.

How to Draw 49
 Relationships

FOREGROUND, MIDDLE AND BACKGROUND

Look at your scene and think about what’s in the foreground, what’s in the
middle distance, and what’s in the background. Think about which of
these will be the main focus of your sketch. How will you emphasize it?
What will you leave out in order to emphasize other aspects of the scene?
When you’re looking at something in real life, you don’t notice all things
equally at the same time. What moment are you going to capture?

GENERAL TO SPECIFIC
Go for the large shapes first. Use your viewfinder if you need a little help.
Go for the tree first, not the leaves or the texture of the bark. Plot this large
shape first and you will be less likely to miss the character. A stone wall is
made up of tiny shapes. Get the shape as a whole first; leave the individual
stones until last. First grasp the large shapes, relating them to one another
boldly and lightly, then reinforce them with the detail, the small shapes,
later. Starting with small details will give you a picture that looks
unnatural and out of proportion.

How to Draw 50
 “Wuthering Heights.”
Pen-and-ink drawing by Brian Alderidge.
In this study, foreground, middle and background are clearly shown. So also are
pen textures, perspective, and the use of natural surroundings to create
atmosphere. It is an excellent example of direct observation and artistic license.

PERSPECTIVE
Don’t worry too much about perspective. Use your viewfinder to assess
any sloping angles on buildings, streets and roads. If you draw what you
see (rather than what you think you know), it will most likely not only
look in perspective, but be in perspective. Get used to noticing how angles
change with a new viewpoint. Notice how things look different when you
are high up and when you are down low. If you pay attention to these
changes you will understand perspective in actual practice.

How to Draw 51
VIEWPOINT
Your viewpoint affects the angles of
your drawing. If you’re high up,
you’ll see more background because
you’re looking down onto the scene.
If you are set low, you’ll be looking
up at it. This may sound obvious,
but it’s amazing, when we first start
sketching, how easy it is to forget the
obvious.

High viewpoint.

In selecting your viewpoint don’t be timid about letting any object, a tree
or a lamp-post, sit right in front of your vision. An object, close to you, that
you have to see around or through,
makes an excellent foreground,
and can create an interesting lead
into the middle distance. Draw the
sky with just a little bit of ground
at the bottom. Draw the ground
with only a tiny strip of sky or no
sky at all.
Low viewpoint

A line of road that shoots away into the centre of the picture gives
movement. Avoid monotonous viewpoints where all the angles are either
horizontal or perpendicular. Look for angles that move down or up:
movements that are completely natural to how we see, but can be difficult
to pin down into a small rectangle.

How to Draw 52
 Drawing People

Drawing people outside of the studio can be difficult because they don’t
keep still. It’s possible to go into a crowded place with a small sketch-book
and discreetly draw people as they move about. But it’s not easy. It needs
an iron nerve and a good eye.

Start with quick, scribbled sketches. Just catch the general impression of
how the person is sitting, standing or moving. These are called “gesture
drawings.” With practice you’ll learn to choose only the lines, shapes or
tones that are most important to you to capture the scene.

Ball-point pen sketch by Fredrick Dimming

How to Draw 53
You can also learn to train your memory. It’s easier to draw an image just
after seeing it. The longer you wait, the weaker the impression becomes.
Train yourself to look at people and observe what they do. First, just let the
image soak in without analyzing it. Then, without referring back to the
subject, try and jot down what you remember while it’s still fresh in your
mind. With practice you’ll get better and better at it until you find you’re
remembering things easily.

Ball-point pen sketch by Fredrick Dimming

How to Draw 54
 Now Is It Finished?

A drawing is complete when you have nothing more to add to it. It is

finished when you feel you have done enough. It’s as simple as that. But
how do you know when you’re done? Try these sketchbook exercises to
figure out when you think enough is enough.

1. Fill your page completely, top to bottom and side to side. Before you
can confidently leave out, you must overdo what you put in. Put in
everything, starting with the big general shapes and going to the
fine details.

2. Draw the same scene again, but put in as little as you possibly can
and still recognize the subject matter. If you can do this, then you
know what’s truly important for your picture.

Never tear a picture out of your sketchbook if you can help it. Keep each
sketchbook intact. If you want a particular scene framed, do another
version of it from the original sketch. When you fill up one sketchbook, get
another one. Always have a sketchbook going.

It’s rarely possible to devote hours to one work outdoors. Rain,

disturbances, limited time—all interfere with working outside. But you can
still produce a finished work. Start with quick lively sketches that catch the
essence of the scene. Take some notes to help you remember what you
want to finish later. Do lots of rough studies of a scene, plus one or two
careful details and a few written observations. Then, when you get home,
assemble the material into a completely new picture.

How to Draw 55
 Chapter 6
In Conclusion
Drawing will help you acquire an appreciation of other art work. Visit art
galleries and museums of all kinds to see what other artists are doing.
Reproductions are another way to look at artwork, though even the best
can’t really compare to the real thing, especially in terms of color.
Bookstores and libraries always have books with excellent color plates of
art of all kinds and styles. Lots of art can be seen online as well.

You can learn more about composition from reproductions by simply

placing a piece of tracing paper over the image and freely copying them in
your own style. During this practice, ideas and misconceptions about them
will change. You will be understanding them. Tracing over them will help
you in other ways as well. Through your own experience you will get
inside the picture and really get to know it. You’ll also develop ideas to
enhance your own work.

How to Draw 56
The more you draw, the more you’ll find that you better appreciate other
fields of art: architecture, sculpture, pottery, illustration, textile design,
interiors, furniture, posters, etc. The principles contained in drawing are
also contained in these other forms of art. Later you may want to try your
hand at etching, lithography, block printing. Here, too, you’ll find that
your practice in drawing will stand you in good stead.

Whether you want to add a little watercolor to your drawing or expand

what you’ve learned here into oil or acrylic painting, be sure to get a copy
of How to Paint, also from Two Spuds Inc., for an introduction to the
subject of painting that will help you discover your own way as an artist.

Drawing Supplies
How to Draw 57

Appendix

Text accompanying Leonardo DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man”

Vitruvius, the architect, says in his work on architecture that the measurements of
the human body are distributed by Nature as follows that is that 4 fingers make 1
palm, and 4 palms make 1 foot, 6 palms make 1 cubit; 4 cubits make a man’s
height. And 4 cubits make one pace and 24 palms make a man; and these measures
he used in his buildings. If you open your legs so much as to decrease your height
1/14 and spread and raise your arms till your middle fingers touch the level of the
top of your head you must know that the centre of the outspread limbs will be in
the navel and the space between the legs will be an equilateral triangle.

The length of a man’s outspread arms is equal to his height.

From the roots of the hair to the bottom of the chin is the tenth of a man’s height;
from the bottom of the chin to the top of his head is one eighth of his height; from
the top of the breast to the top of his head will be one sixth of a man. From the top
of the breast to the roots of the hair will be the seventh part of the whole man.
From the nipples to the top of the head will be the fourth part of a man. The
greatest width of the shoulders contains in itself the fourth part of the man. From
the elbow to the tip of the hand will be the fifth part of a man; and from the elbow
to the angle of the armpit will be the eighth part of the man. The whole hand will
be the tenth part of the man; the beginning of the genitals marks the middle of the
man. The foot is the seventh part of the man. From the sole of the foot to below the
knee will be the fourth part of the man. From below the knee to the beginning of
the genitals will be the fourth part of the man. The distance from the bottom of the
chin to the nose and from the roots of the hair to the eyebrows is, in each case the
same, and like the ear, a third of the face.

The preceding is the complete translation of the text accompanying

Leonardo DaVinci’s “Vitruvian Man.” It is actually a translation of
Vitruvius, as Leonardo’s drawing was originally an illustration for a book
on the works of Vitruvius.

The Notebooks of Leonardo DaVinci

Vol. 1 (of a 2 vol. set in paperback) pp. 182-3
Dover, ISBN 0-486-22572-0
From www.geoman.com/Vitruvius.html

How to Draw 58