Anyone can learn how to draw.
I usually get some raised eyebrows when I make that statement. Skeptical
parents shake their heads and say, “Not me. I can’t even draw a straight
line.”
“Neither can I,” I respond. “When I want to draw a straight line, I use a
ruler.”
Then I repeat, “Anyone can learn how to draw.”
Drawing is a learned skill. I didn’t say that anyone can be a great artist.
That requires not only skill, but talent. And talent cannot be taught.
The skill of drawing, however, can be taught, and it’s easier than you
might think. The trick is in training the student to draw what she sees,
not what she thinks should be there.
Here are five exercises to help you teach your children how to draw what
they see. Think of these as artistic “calisthenics” for the hand, eye and
brain.
1. Draw an object without looking at your paper.
This is called blind contour drawing. As the students practice drawing the
contour (outline) of an object without looking at the paper, a slow
transformation takes place. Their initial efforts will predictably look
like scribbles, but over time their blind drawings begin to improve.
Right-handed setup for blind contour drawing.
(Reverse the object and paper for left-handed students.)
To do a blind contour drawing, follow these steps:
-
Place the drawing paper off to your right side rather than in front
of you. A sketchbook or tablet will work best here, as it will be
less likely to slide around.
-
Position a simple household object (e.g., a coffee mug) in front
and to your left. This makes it necessary to turn your head away
from the paper.
-
Place your pencil on the paper, and do not remove it until the
drawing is finished.
-
Focus your eyes on a single point on the object, and then slowly
trace the outline of the object with your eyes.
-
As your eyes follow the outside edge (contour) of the object, move
your pencil in the same direction. Imagine that your hand and your
eyes are connected, so that what your eyes see, your hand draws.
-
Do not lift your pencil or look at your paper until you have
completely traced the outline of the object.
2. Do a modified contour drawing.
After you have practiced blind contour drawing and become comfortable with
the process, it’s time to move to the next step: modified contour drawing.
This exercise is similar to the first, except that you are allowed to
glance back and forth briefly between the paper and the object. You should
still spend about 95 percent of your time looking at the object you are
drawing, but you are allowed to glance at your paper long enough to make
sure your hand and pencil are not drifting off course.
These two drills can be frustrating at first, but they are extremely
powerful. They teach students to slow down and observe. Another exercise
that is helpful for learning observation is upside down drawing.
3. Turn a photograph or line drawing upside down and copy it.
When I’m doing this exercise with students, I usually prefer to have them
start by working from a line drawing of a familiar object. You can find
plenty of line drawings online as clip art or in coloring books.
Choose a relatively simple image, and copy the drawing right-side-up. After
you have finished, invert the image and copy it a second time. Focus on
drawing the outline or the contour of the image. Don’t think “dog” or “cat”
or whatever object you are drawing. Instead, focus only on the lines.
Turn an image upside down and draw it.
4. Draw negative space.
Another powerful drawing calisthenic is negative space drawing. Instead of
drawing the object itself, the artist observes and draws the space in and
around the object.
I discovered negative space drawing when I was a boy. I was infatuated with
Superman and wanted desperately to draw the famous letter “S” that was
emblazoned on Superman’s chest. But no matter how hard I tried, it never
came out looking right. Then one day I noticed that because the letter S
was enclosed in a diamond-shaped shield, the background was made up of
several distinct shapes. I decided to draw the shapes around the S rather
than the letter itself. I discovered that when I drew the shapes
accurately, I also drew Superman’s “S” shield accurately. That’s negative
space drawing in a nutshell.
To get started on negative space drawing, try copying the letter D in the
image below. But rather than trying to draw the letter, focus on the orange
shapes that surround the letter, and draw those. As with the previous
exercise, don’t think about drawing a letter. Think, rather, about copying
a shape.
Draw the letter D by drawing the shapes around it.
5. Draw with a grid.
Our last drawing exercise is grid drawing. To do this, you lay a grid over
an image you want to draw, and lightly draw a grid of the same proportions
onto your paper. If you don’t want to draw the grid directly on your
source, draw it on a piece of clear acetate or a page protector. Another
alternative would be to add a grid directly to the image with a photo
editor.
After you have drawn your grids, copy the source photo, square by square.
By focusing on a single square rather than the entire image, you will apply
the same skills you learned in the previous exercises. You will merely be
drawing shapes and lines.
Here is a picture of my dog Skeeter with a grid superimposed. Draw a grid
with the same number of vertical and horizontal squares, and copy it square
by square. As with the other exercises, you may be surprised at how well
you do.
Copy this photo with the aid of a grid.
Drawing is a learned skill, and anyone can learn how to do it. All you have
to do is train your brain, eyes and hands to work together. Once you do,
you will be able to draw what you see and draw it accurately.
Copyright 2018, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, the trade publication for homeschool moms. Originally
appeared in the Summer 2015 issue of The Old Schoolhouse ® Magazine (TheOldSchoolhouse.com).
