How To Get Better At Drawing
How To

How To Get Better At Drawing |A Comprehensive Beginner’s Guide|

How to get better at drawing, is really a very interesting and attention-grabbing question. Are you also one of those crazy people who want to become an expert in drawing? If yes, you’re going to learn all tips and tricks that will help you to become a pro painter same as Mona Lisa.

How To Get Better At Drawing

The first and foremost thing, I would recommend to all of you who want to get excel in drawing, is! Practice is your weapon. The more you practice this skill the more you become skillful.

Without further ado! Let’s move towards tips and tricks which can turn your drawing from beginner to expert level.

Tip 1: Always Use Fine Paper

Many people use notebook paper for drawing, but these papers are too thin to draw anything fine. These papers can get damaged very easily when you use a marker and your drawing presents a bad look.

For avoiding this misery, I recommend you use a paper of at least 100gm. Here are the names of the best sketchbooks. These sketchbooks can make you a better artist.

  1. Moleskine art sketchbook
  2. Leda art sketchbook
  3. Strathmore 400 sketch Pad
  4. Canson Artist Series Watercolor Pad
  5. Canson Artist Series Universal Sketch Pad

Tip 2: Draw Your Sketch With Soft Hand

This is a serious mistake that people often do when they start drawing. When you start drawing you should not draw so hard. If you do so, you’ll damage your sheet when you erase it. Because in the beginning, you’ll make more mistakes and you need to draw again and again.

Tip 3: Draw With References

Do you know what is the most important tip to know how to get better at drawing? It is drawing with references or using guidelines. Once you learn the references about specific shapes. You’ll become an expert in a short time. Without references, it’ll take time to draw anything perfectly.

Tip 4: Make Outlines Carefully

It is also a very important tip to make your drawing neat. I recommend you to move your sheet to a comfortable position. in this way, you’ll make a perfect outline. This tip can also avoid shaky outlines.

Tip 5: Draw From Real Life

In order to get better at drawing, it is a strategy to draw from real life instead of animation and cartoons. Draw the things you like the most and draw every day. Don’t throw your early practice sheets in the bin and compare your drawing before practice and after practice. You’ll see a visible difference.

Tip 6: Focus on Coloring and Blending

Once you learn how to get better at drawing, the next step is coloring. Basically, coloring completes the drawing. If you don’t use coloring techniques you’ll never be able to become an expert in drawing. You need to learn blending tips. Let me show you two main tips for better coloring and blending.

  1. Use a cotton bud for color blending
  2. Use white color for blending well

Don’t be afraid of coloring, practice coloring. But the problem is, coloring practice can make you out of your budget.

One might ask? 

Coloring practice can be a waste of money. Let me state it clearly.

Coloring practice is not a waste of money at all. You can save money by using affordable colors when you start to practice.

Always focus on getting experts in one medium. For example, at first, you should learn pencil coloring and smooth blending and shading with pencil colors. When you have practiced it then move to the watercolor practice, crayon pencil practice, marker color practice, and so on…

Tip 7: Hold the Sheet carefully while erasing

Always press the paper with your fingers while you are erasing. Be careful that your paper and sketch should not be damaged. Let me show you how:

Always use an eraser of good quality otherwise your bad eraser will turn your paper dark and shabby.

Tip8: Draw on a Smooth Surface

To draw like an expert it is necessary that the paper and the surface on which you place your paper must be a smooth surface. Without a smooth surface, your imaginary sketch will never be drawn on paper. So be very careful about it.

Tip 9: Use Small Lines

Always use small lines instead of long sleeping or standing lines. Because when you try to draw a long line, your hand could be shaken towards the right or left. So, avoid this mistake and save time.

Are you excited to start your practice? 

I know, Your happiness is overloaded now and you are excited to make a start. It is true that I’ve shared with you all the basic and essential tips about how to get better at drawing. Hurry! you can start right now.

Tip 10: Make Your Own Style

Now, it is time to make your own style. When you have done much practice, you can create your own style. It may be a bit difficult in starting but believe me it is going to be very interesting.

Try every day, books and videos are useless without practice. Practice is your weapon and I recommend you never to leave this weapon.

Let’s dive into some deep tips about specific drawings. By using the tips given above you can understand the next tips very easily.

How to Get Better at Drawing Faces

How To Get Better At Drawing

How to get better at drawing faces, might be the next question in your mind when you have known, how to get better at drawing. Some tips for drawing faces are listed below!

Step 1: Know the Face Proportion

At first, know the face proportion. Faces are neither oval nor circular in shape. Consider the face that you want to draw is an oval and then reshape it according to your required face. Practice again and again to draw a fine oval sphere.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Step 2: Make the Jawline

Make a jawline, if it is the face of a woman it can be oval but if it is the face of a man, it’ll be slightly angular.

Step 3: Place the Eyes

Know the position of the eyes. It is considered that eyes are drawn on the upper part of the face but it is not the real case. Draw halves of the face(oval shape) and draw eyes on the slightly up of the midline.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Step 4: Place the Ears

In order to draw the ears, first, draw a straight line just above the eyes. (Remember: you’ll draw a straight line just above the eyes and not above the eyebrows). Now start drawing the ears from that line. Actually, there are no hard and fast rules for drawing the ears because everyone has different sizes of ears. So, you’ll get a better idea of the starting point for drawing the ears.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Step 5: Place the Nose

Once you’ve drawn the ears, you’ll easily find the location of the nose. The nose will be drawn in the middle of the two eyes but equal in length to the ears. Speedy work will not show good results. So, take your time to bring accuracy.

Step 6: Draw the Lips

You are getting near the completion of the face drawing. It is time to draw the lips. To draw lips accurately, first, draw some reference lines. Draw the lips a bit down the nose line. Also, draw two verticle lines from the iris in the eyes towards the mouth. Make lips corner where the verticle lines are touched.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Step 7: Place the Eyebrows

Eyebrow placement on the face is also very interesting as the other parts of the face. Eyebrows are of different shapes. It varies from person to person. No one can explain perfectly how an eyebrow could be drawn.

But, there are some tips, Eyebrow is always wider than the eye. It is thick towards the top of the nose and sharp towards the opposite side. Take a start from the nose side and carry on drawing towards the opposite. Make it sharp and slightly curved.

Step 8: Draw the Hairs

Many people make mistakes at the time of drawing hair. The best way is! the hairs start from the upper part of the head.  The hairline is almost about a quarter to a third from the top of the head to the eyebrows.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Step 9: Difference Between Man and Woman’s face

There is a bit of difference between drawing the face of a man and a woman. In the woman’s face drawing the jawline remains almost oval whereas, in the drawing of the man’s face, it is slightly curved. Men have a wider foreheads than women. In the woman’s face sketch, draw a thin neck than the man.

Here is a crucial point, I think, you must know before drawing the face is, practice each part of the face separately and then try to draw a complete face. Using this technique, you’ll draw a comparatively best face.

When you’ll try to draw the body of a person as an expert, gesture drawing will be your first need. So, let’s move to the next need for drawing people as an expert.

How to Get Better at Drawing Poses

I hope you’ve got all the essential tips about how to get better at drawing. Now, you’ll learn how to get better at drawing poses. It is essential to learn poses drawing before you know how to get better at drawing people.

How To Get Better At Drawing

So, let’s start learning some basic and essential tips about how to get better at drawing poses.

Tip 1: Deep Observation

Observation is the first point on which you need to focus the most. Know the figure and observer your posture keenly. Try to capture the essence of the pose. Your observation will reflect on the sketch. Deep observation brings good results.

Gesture drawing is usually learned from models with nude bodies. In this way, you can observe the human body shapes and angles more correctly. Clothing is an advancement in the drawing of the human body.

Tip 2: Know the Body Proportion

Drawing is not an activity without rules. It has some rules. When you learn those rules you’ll be able to draw poses easily. So, the point is, to know the proportion of the body and start drawing from the shoulders.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Then, gradually draw the other parts of the body. A human body’s length is equal to the eight-head length. I hope you’ll find it easy to become an expert in drawing.

Tip 3: Draw with Line of Rhythm

Draw loosely, draw lightly and draw with lines of rhythm. Do you know what is rhythm? When two different forces are acted upon a body, rhythm is generated. Rhythm lines help you to observe the figure deeply and draw the pose correctly.

Tip 4: Draw the Line of Action/ Gesture Line

Drawing the line of action is also very important for drawing poses correctly. The line of action indicates the movement and flow of the body. These lines are always curved and add personality to your drawing.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Action lines can be more than one in an image.

Tip 5: Think of the Body in Simple Shape

When you start drawing, don’t indulge in complicated things. Take a start from the simple things and simple bodies. It’ll help you grow fast instead of wasting time on complicated tasks. And I hope your practice will take you towards your goal very soon.

Tip 6: Forget About the Details

One big mistake almost all beginners make is, they try to cover all the aspects of a portrait at once. No, It is not the code for success. Be patient and keep struggling. Your only weapon is your practice by following the rules.

So, just focus on the pose of the body when you are practicing how to get better at drawing poses. Draw a line of action again and again. Don’t move towards the whole body formation unless you learned the poses correctly.

This is a set of tips to know how to get better at drawing poses. All these tips are the major points to drawing a perfect pose.

How to Get Better at Drawing Hands

Are you enjoying the process of learning how to get better at drawing?

Of course! yes, it is going to be more interesting ahead. Now, we are going to move toward the drawing of the hands. So, let’s get into it.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Drawing the hands is a bit more tricky. You may find it difficult when you imagine drawing the whole position of the hand at once. But if you consider the drawing of lines and shapes, you’ll certainly find it interesting and easy.

Tip 1: Learn Different Positions of the Palm

The Palm plays a basic role in the drawing of a hand. When you learn the palm shapes correctly you’ll be able to draw the fingers easily. A palm is square in shape from front and back but from the side, it is rectangular in the general concept.

How To Get Better At Drawing

But it is not square or rectangular in actuality. When you start practicing hand drawing, you need to consider the palm as a square for fast improvement. But in deep drawing, it is slightly angular.

Tip 2: Start from the Simple Poses

Always start from the simple poses of the hands. Don’t focus on the complicated drawing of the hands because in the beginning you just have to learn the correct poses of the hands. Try different positions of the hands.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Watch magazines and other pictures and focus on drawing hands in the exact position in which they are. The crucial point: try again and again.

Tip 3: Draw from Life

This tip will work for you like magic. The easiest way to draw a hand from real life is, to draw your left-hand position and then change your hand’s position and draw it. You may find your drawing strange in the beginning but you’ll get a different type of experience. This experience is very essential for getting an expert.

Tip 4: Draw the Thumb

Always keep in mind, the thumb is not a finger. Don’t draw it like a finger. It has a specific shape. If you’ll draw it like a finger it won’t look like a thumb. Make the correct knuckle of the thumb and the correct tip.

Tip 5: Draw the Fingers

You may think!

Why it is so complicated to draw the fingers?

So the answer is here. The fingers are lined up in a curved way. The middle finger is a bit smaller than the palm length and the fingers are flat on the top and curved on the bottom.

How To Get Better At Drawing

You can use the tip of three cylinders to draw a finger. This tip will make finger drawing easy for you beyond your thoughts.

Tip 6: Add Appropriate details

Don’t be afraid to add details of the hand. Add the details as you can add easily. Draw the bones shape of the fingers. Try to draw every knuckle and the place between two knuckles correctly. This is the thing, people ignore sometimes.

One another thing some people find difficult to draw is the place between two fingers where the fingers join the palm. That’s all the rules to draw the hand in a catchy way. So keep following the rules to get better results.

How to Get Better at Drawing People

Have you gone through the tips to get better at basic drawing?

How To Get Better At Drawing

You might think!

How to get better at drawing people. It is basically a mixture of gesture drawing of the body and basic drawing skills. Now, I’ll share with you some other tips to draw the human body realistically.

Tip 1: Observation

Observation is the basis of drawing a human body. I think it is impossible to draw without deep observation. You can’t draw unless you observe deeply. Because you are going to draw a flexible human body not a statue. The sketch must look like a flexible human body. So, deeply observe every angle of the body and move to the next step.

Tip 2: Draw Body Proportion

Drawing the body proportion is a crucial part of drawing correctly. Draw the highlighting lines with a soft hand. First, draw the oval of the head and draw the shoulder line, hip line, and legs. Now, draw the arm lines and necklines to specify these parts.

Tip 3: Draw the Basic Pose

At this step, don’t focus on the details of the body. Just think about the pose of the figure and draw the main lines in a block shape. Draw your simple pose to start drawing. Once you’ve done it. Try to draw the block lines slightly angularly and in the shape of your figure.

Tip 4: Analyze Shading

Shading is also very important when you sketch something. Shades provide proper shape to the drawing. Analyze where the shadow falls naturally. Analyze which part should b highlighted and which should be dark. Shadows can transform your sketch into a real person. So, be conscious of shading.

When you gave it a proper shape, don’t forget to remove the unnecessary lines that you had drawn as a reference.

How to Get Better at Drawing Manga

Manga drawing is a Japanese art style. it is a little bit different from other art styles. But the basics are almost the same.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Somebody can think!

It’ll take months and years to draw a manga like a pro. Yes! it can take. But there are so many techniques you can apply to your drawing that can consume your time. So, let’s learn about them.

Tip 1: Learn Primitives

You need primitives and perspective to draw manga as a beginner. Geometrical shapes help you start drawing manga. Primitives play a big role in the drawing. You can make a complex drawing with the help of a combination of primitives very easily.

How To Get Better At Drawing

In the case of drawing a manga face, don’t observe the face only from the front but analyze from the left and right sides and try to draw every side.

Tip 2: Draw Your Favourite Character

When you start drawing, I recommend you draw your favorite character. You’ll draw such a character with more interest. It may not good but you should keep drawing. Draw the different poses of your drawing, normal pose as well as epic pose.

Tip 3: Differentiate Manga from Other Drawings

Manga drawing is different from other art styles. Prominent big eyes are the main difference. Hairs and hands are also different from other art styles. Keep in mind these things when you draw a manga.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Tip 4: Accept criticism

It is sure that you won’t be able to draw realistically in the beginning. You may have to face criticism. Don’t take this criticism in a negative way. Accept it and focus on your mistakes. You’ll keep growing.

Tip 5: Stay Away From Shortcuts

It is not child’s play to draw like an expert. Don’t try to score the goal within days. There is no shortcut to drawing a creative manga within days. Oh! it is not my intention to discourage you. I want you to aware of the right way to become an artist realistically.

Tip 6: Make Your Own Style

Some people suggest learning from coping and others discourage this method. But I recommend you adopt the way that you find helpful for you. If you can learn from coping, necessarily do it. If you find it a wastage of time and energy, skip it at once.

Tip 7: Make Your Work Amusing

You may lose heart many times while practicing art skills. You may become frustrated. But you’ll be able to do it correctly when you do it with interest because creativity is impossible without interest.

How to Get Better at Drawing Anatomy

Anatomy is a big fish in the ocean of drawing. It covers a huge area of the drawing. In anatomy drawing, you learn the muscle’s position and joints correctly. Shortly, when you learn anatomy skills you can draw a human body in the same position as it is alive.

How To Get Better At Drawing

But no drawing can be good without gestures knowledge. I hope you have learned gesture drawing. Now, let’s move toward the tips and tricks that you can adopt to make anatomy easy.

Tip 1: Gesture’s Importance in anatomy

Gesture drawing is the basis of every drawing. But it is not the alternative to anatomy. Anatomy is an advanced form of gesture. Body poses become more prominent when you draw an anatomic figure.

Tip 2: Don’t Consult the Anatomy Book

Anatomy books will provide you with deep and advanced knowledge and you may not know what to do next. In the beginning, just focus on the prominent muscles of the body. Don’t dive into deep knowledge.

Tip 3: Practice the Simple Forms

In the beginning, always start with simple forms. Though the Skelton and muscles are very complicated they can help you to draw realistically. Take the idea from Skelton and try to draw the muscles.

Tip 4: Don’t Focus So Much on Muscles

Muscles are to indicate the body’s position. When you draw anatomy, Don’t focus too much on the muscles. The muscles’ purpose is to make clear the body’s position. Some beginners try to draw every muscle and in the end, their art looks like a bodybuilder’s sketch.

How To Get Better At Drawing

That’s all the basics to know how to get better at drawing anatomy.

How to Get Better at Drawing Digitally

When you have gotten better at sketching, the next step is drawing digitally. Basically, you need two main things to draw digitally. The first one is the computer and the second one is drawing software.

How To Get Better At Drawing

Adobe Photoshop is a big name in the world of digital drawing. It’s seven days free trial is also available otherwise it is paid software. Let’s have a bird’s eye view of the simple tips to get better at digital drawing.

Tip 1: Draw Regularly

To draw on the computer it is necessary to have a good command of the paper. For this purpose, you need to draw daily because practice makes a man perfect. Never stuck in your comfort zone. Try again….. and again.

Tip 2: Master of figure Drawing

An accurate drawing of humans in different shapes is essential for every artist. Whether it is digital or paper drawing but it is worth more than any other art style. So, keep practicing, learn new things, and search for other people’s work for being an expert in human drawing.

Tip 3: Master of Portrait Skill

Drawing a portrait is also the focal point of every artist. We can’t call anybody an artist unless he excels in his portrait skill.

Tip 4: Use Guidelines

Besides the deep knowledge of this article, consulting from drawing books or watching youtube tutorials can be much helpful and can save you time. The right way is, to watch a youtube tutorial as many times as you want and observe everything deeply. After watching it close the video and draw from your imagination.

Final Words,

I’ve put here a marvelous piece of information about how to get better at drawing skills. You’ll find the answers to the questions that arise in your mind when you hold a pencil and sketchbook in your hand for the first time.

This article is going to be your best companion through your journey of becoming an artist. You can make your drawing amusing by following the rules and techniques given.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Why am I not getting better at drawing?

A. There may be multiple reasons. The most common of them is lack of practice, not awareness of the basic techniques, and poor guidelines.

Q. Can I learn to draw without talent? 

A. Yes, you can learn to draw without natural talent. The effort pays more than the talent. All of you who are determined to learn drawing can learn.

Q. Why are the portraits so hard to draw?

A. When you draw portraits, those are living creatures. You have to draw a living thing. It should reflect that it is a drawing of a living thing. Some people find face drawing so hard because it is the most recognizable part of the body.

Q. How long does it take to master drawing?

A. A common observation is that you can master drawing skills within two years. But it depends on your observation and determination.