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What is a drawing?

The term “drawing” is fairly broad, it usually refers to a two-dimensional illustration using either a pencil, colored pencil, charcoal, or any other utensil on paper. A drawing is leaving a mark on a surface with an apparatus. The art of drawing has been around for 30,000, it even predates language. Cane and rock drawings production has been studied as a form of communication and is called the Art of the Upper Paleolithic. Drawings can be created on a variety of surfaces and by a variety of tools. You can learn about drawing from a drawing teacher or tutor.

Why learn to draw?

A lot of artists draw to visualize future art pieces they want to create. They draw to sketch out their ideas and finalize the concept before it takes another art form such as a painting or a sculpture. Drawing on its own is also a form of art. Drawing is one of the building blocks of any artwork. If you are looking to improve your art, either painting, sculptures, or more abstract art forms, you first need to learn to draw. This is why so many aspiring artists turn to tutors to help improve their drawing skills. The hope is that learning to draw helps create a visual understanding of the way lines have to be shaped to create a figure. This makes it easier to mold a sculpture or paint a painting since you have a visual guide on paper. Drawing is also meditative, even if you aren’t going to turn your drawings into paintings or sculptures, it can be a great way to express emotion, relax, and focus your mind. 

Where to find drawing tutors?

Tutors who teach drawing can be found online and at art schools in your area. Art schools and local colleges offer drawing programs for beginners or specialized classes for kids. Enrolling in group classes for drawing skills allows you to meet and interact with fellow art enthusiasts. If you are looking for a more personalized approach, private tutoring is a great way to learn. Hiring a private drawing teacher will give you the tools and skills necessary to improve your drawing. You can find a private tutor anywhere in the US by using a platform like Superprof. Superprof offers students the opportunity to connect with a variety of experienced private teachers throughout different states. You can view their reviews, credentials, experience, and prices right on their profile. Many of the tutors on Superprof offer a free trial so that students have a chance to test the learning environment before they commit. 

How to practice drawing?

Artists usually practice their drawings by sketching as much as possible. You should keep a sketchbook with you at all times so that you can draw the still life around you whenever you feel inspired. Sketching still life and moving objects regularly will help you gradually improve your drawing techniques. Learning to draw with ink, graphite, pen, and other drawing tools will help you better illustrate a variety of textures and tones. An illustrator can also use watercolor, crayons, and chalk when drawing and sketching. There is also an abundance of drawing tutorials online for you to practice with on your own. These step-by-step instructional videos or articles can help with shading techniques, cross-hatching, and rendering. You can learn to draw everything from still-life to manga art. 

Where to get drawing supplies?

Across the US you can find drawing supplies in stores such as Michael’s, Target, and Walmart. Essential drawing supplies include drawing paper, an eraser, colored pencils, and a charcoal pencil. These drawing tools will help you illustrate a variety of textures. Colored pencils will bring life to your drawings and help you bring a variety of color to each of your sketchers. Using other tools such as charcoal pencil can help sharpen your shading and blending skills. If you are a drawing artist that prefers mixed media and would like to introduce virtual drawings to your portfolio you might also want to look into purchasing a stylus. Additional supplies include a sharpener, a ruler, and an easel. These are easily found in an art set.

What are the basic drawing techniques? 

When you first begin to draw, several techniques are critical that beginners learn. One of the first techniques young artists learn is back-and-forth. The back-and-forth is as basic as it gets. With this drawing technique, an artist will move their drawing tool back-and-forth across their preferred surface with a leveled motion. As the artist applies more pressure the darker the drawing will appear.

Hatching is another technique you will likely learn in drawing lessons. Hatching is creating small ticks on your drawing paper. The further away these ticks are from one another the lighter the drawing will be, if you place the ticks closer to one another the image will look darker. An extension of hatching is the cross-hatching technique, with cross-hatching your marks are going to intercept one another, rather than being kept parallel. One of the more fun techniques to work with is scribbling. Scribbling lets you randomly form marks across your page, there does not have to be for your scribbles. On the other side of the spectrum, there is stifling. Stifling is a more meticulous technique used in a drawing. Stifling is the art of making a vast amount of tiny dots on your paper that come together to create an image. The closer you place the dots next to one another the darker your drawing will be. Lastly, many drawing artists will also need to learn the technique of blending. Blending is the idea of smudging and smoothing out the marks left behind by graphite or charcoal. You can blend using your finger, a cloth or a blending stick.