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Learning DRAWING - an introduction by JANET BRADY

What has happened to the art of drawing? Has using a pencil gone out of fashion?

Drawing as an Art isn't widely explored any more; generally drawing is used for preliminary stages of painting, sculpture and design.

Since a pencil is just another medium, drawing isn't synonymous with only using a pencil. You can draw with anything: graphite stick, charcoal, water-soluble graphite, pen, pen and ink, acrylic ink, pencils, finger, light, an eraser, sand or anything you fancy.

Representational drawing uses all drawing techniques with the added skill of mastering one medium. To do this you use a range of pencils graded from 8H to 8B.

Drawing doesn't have to be just linear; you can use tone and texture. Some of the best drawings are created by not what you draw but what you leave out.

What should I buy?

Going to an Art shop is like a child being let loose in a sweet shop. Go with a list. Or shop online. Don't be romanced into buying the best of everything, but it is worth buying a good brand, e.g. Daler Rowney, Staedlter, Berol.

• A basic set of pencils ranging from 8B to 8H - you don't need every one (try 8B, 6B, 4B 2B B, HB, 2H, 4H and 8H?)
• A Graphite pencil
• Water soluble graphite, small set or buy individual pencils: HB, 4B, 8B.
• A packet of Charcoal - thin sticks. Also a stick of compressed charcoal.
• Fine line indelible pens: 0.2 And 0.5.
• Water soluble felt tip (Berol Fat, 60p)
• A cartridge Paper pad A3 (also look for paper with different surfaces: smooth, shiny, textured, very white, cream. I also love to draw on watercolour paper, Langton, 320gsm Not (not hot pressed)
• A Putty rubber, malleable, can be moulded into a tiny shape - excellent for charcoal work. A standard eraser and a nylon eraser (different erasers make different marks).
• Also a pencil sharpener that sharpens the lead and the wood, not expensive but specialist.
• A small Perspex ruler (see-through) to see your sketch as you are measuring.

Can anyone learn to draw? Yes.

Drawing is a discipline. It is a learned skill; it's all about looking and how to look. By using a handful of skills you can learn to make a representational sketch. Will you like what you draw? To draw well, with expression and originality, will take time. Like anything, if you do it often enough you get better - practice makes perfect. Draw a little every day and your skills will improve.

Draw what you see, not what you think you see.

Most of us in our day-to-day lives use the left side of our brains - when we draw and use our artistic talents we use the right side of our brain. At first our brain complains, it flips back and forth to the left trying to make left-brain sense of a right-brain activity. (You can see which side of your brain is more dominant by taking the dancing ballerina test)

The more you exercise your right brain the easier it becomes to draw and use your artistic talents. One of the simplest exercises to begin with is to draw a symmetrical object, e.g. a wine glass, and break down the sophisticated shape to much simpler shapes: circles, ellipses, tree trunks (the stem) and try to make the left and right side match. It often doesn't: circles are misshapen, and stems are off-centre.

How long should I spend on drawing each day?

Practice makes perfect: the more you draw or sketch the better your visual and hand skills will become. Training your brain to draw what you see with confidence needs frequency. Ten minutes every day for quick sketches. Thirty minutes for a detailed sketch or drawing with tone. Two hours for a really detailed drawing with full tone. Two minutes for a full body life-drawing 'gesture sketch'.

Should I attend a class, go on a course or can I learn to draw by myself?

How you like to learn, what time you have at your disposal and whether you can afford to go on a residential course, will dictate your drawing journey.

• A local course (adult education) is inexpensive and can be all you need. It all depends on how good the teacher is. Learning is typically crammed into a 2-3 hour session once a week, classes can be big and other learners can be more advanced. Differentiated classes are often merged to get the class size big enough to run. At least it gets you started and it means you designate a time to draw.
• A residential course or a full-day course provides more time to really explore the drawing skills that you want. Other learners are usually very supportive and it can be fun to learn in a group. Classes can be smaller so more one-to-one tuition is available. Tutors have more time to demonstrate and explain their skills. Often, after you attend a course, tutors recommend drawing each day, reinforcing the habit of drawing and practice.
• There are some good drawing tuition books available if you like to learn from books and have the discipline to find the time to draw (try Betty Edwards: Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain). Feedback from a book, though, is non-existent.
• With digital technology and the internet there are 'online' courses available. You can buy a course, work on it, feedback your work online to the tutor for comments and advice, and then buy the next tutorial.

Do I need to draw to be able to paint?

It's an interesting question - many people say 'I can't draw but I can paint.' Is this possible? What they are really saying is 'I don't like formal drawing but I can draw with paint and form.' I believe you do need to be able to draw to paint well. This fundamental skill will stand you in good stead for painting. The freedom of drawing with a brush is perhaps less constricting and the expression used with paint much looser.

If you choose to paint in Watercolour I believe it is essential to prepare a drawing first, explore the subject with a drawing then paint it with confidence. The speed with which you need to paint watercolour relies on plenty of preparation.

With Acrylic and Oil you can be less structured with drawing as you can alter your painting with the paint, removing or covering up changes.

What's the difference between a drawing and a sketch?

This is very subjective; one person's sketch is another person's drawing. A sketch can be a scribble taking a few seconds or a very detailed drawing in perhaps a scruffy style. What is the sketch for? Is it a quick memory jotted down in a tiny book? Is it an 'aide-memoire' and inspiration for a more detailed drawing or painting?

Technically the difference is in its character, usually roughly drawn, freely expressed and less finished.

Have a go - learn to draw using these 5 easy steps. Use a biro not a pencil, with no rubbing out!! Rubbing away what you have drawn is a waste of time and effort. Use what you have drawn to assess your skills and how to improve.

• Symbolism Find a familiar object like a stemmed wine glass. Look not only at the whole object but find familiar shapes within it: circles, orbs, ellipses, tree trunks (cylinders), cones. Break it down, and build the whole object by piecing together more familiar, simpler shapes. Houses become boxes, rivers become snakes, and trees look like candyfloss on a stick.
• Guide-lines, structure Use vertical and horizontal tramlines to guide you around your object. Our motor skills for handling a pencil and drawing straight lines without a ruler or circles without a compass are usually weak (wobbly circles looking like lemons, off-centre, the left half and right half of a symmetrical object lopsided and often appearing to be falling over).
• Negative space We can help ourselves with our drawing by looking not only at the object itself but by looking at the space and other objects around it. This is the negative space. Put a wine glass on a bright single-coloured napkin; then draw only the napkin. You will be left with a space that is the shape of the glass or any part of it you can see that is within the boundaries of the napkin. You can place several objects together overlapping so that the relationship of each object helps you to get the shape of the other objects. This can be used in life. Try drawing a few people stood in front of a shop window - draw the window not the people, starting with the large square shape of the window, whatever the angle. The shapes of the people will be there as you draw around then. This is the negative space.
• Measuring You can learn to measure in several ways. One of the easiest is to use a pencil as your measure, making the whole pencil fit the object you want to draw. Back to the shop window - close one eye when measuring, make the pencil fit, vertically, the height of the window; if you're too close bring the pencil towards your face. If you're too far away, get closer or make the pencil fit half of the window. Your drawing will be the size of the pencil you are using to measure. Lay your pencil on your paper and mark the top and bottom of the pencil. Every time you make a measurement go back to the first measurement you took making the pencil fit exactly the height of the object and then take another measurement, keeping your arm on this plane. It's not very accurate as you often move but it works with practice.
• Tone By using tone you can also improve a drawing as we know objects haven't lines around them; one object meets another - these are called edges. Try to draw an object by only using blocks of tone (with no lines - objects aren't just lines). Draw all the reflections in a glass, not its outline, and the glass will appear. Your brain will recognise the shapes and see it's a glass.

When you have finished your first sketch, hold it up vertically next to the stemmed wine-glass and assess your drawing: is it too long, short, or wide? Evaluate what you need to change and draw it again. Use inexpensive photocopy paper as this will allow you to place a second piece on top of the first and trace through the best lines. At first it may take four or five attempts to get it right; this is good practice and will develop your analytical skills and motor skills. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, and don't be too hard on yourself. Repetition is good; remember it's only a piece of paper. When you have finished your sketches lay them out and look at the progress you have made.

Drawing 'en plein air' outside in the open air.

Drawing outside in the big wide world is more challenging than sitting in your kitchen or studio. The amount of detail in front of you is daunting and deciding what to draw the first big step.

What is the weather like? The light is always changing, and this will have some affect on your drawing.

What is the sketch for? Is it just a quick scribble to remember where you've been? Is it a preparatory sketch for a painting? Are you sketching in pen ready to add a wash?

People are very inquisitive; they will always find a way to squeeze behind you, or peer over your shoulder and be bold enough to ask to see what you have drawn. Don't be put off by this -remember you are brave enough to go out and do it.

Don't be too ambitious: close down your choice to a small achievable area. Use a frame to compose your view, or use the view finder in a camera to decide your composition. Take a few photos and go back and compare your sketch to your photo. Often what you have chosen to draw and what you saw in real life is far more exciting and inspirational than a photo. The camera closes down detail, reduces light and reduces scale. Drawing outside is fun.

Recommended reading:
The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards (ISBN0007116454)
A Foundation course in drawing by Peter Stanyer and Terry Rosenberg (ISBN1840135409)
The Complete Book of Drawing Techniques: a Complete Guide for the Artist by Peter Stanyer (ISBN 0572029160)

Janet Brady M Des R.C.A. teaches at Brambles Art Retreat in Devon

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