Drawing for Beginners: Be a Successful Artist by Mastering These Core Drawing Concepts!

This lesson, in drawing for beginners, is an overview of key concepts that will enable you to create professional and convincing drawings! In detail, we will target the concept of sketching, perspective, values, and color.

I think it's best to start with an analogy. For instance, no one is an artist when they are born the same way that no one is a gymnast when they are born.

The idea is that you have to study and practice your art the same way a gymnast studies the process of complex flips before he or she attempts to do it!

That means getting your frame of mind of focusing on end product to focusing on the creation process. This is the first step for learning how to draw for beginners!

Drawing for beginners: sketching

Learning how to draw starts with a sketch! Whether you are a beginner or a professional, there is no doubt that a good sketch will save time as well as prepare your composition to be transformed into a finished product!

There are two primary types of sketches: gesture sketches and contour sketches. All artists will use these sketches to present an idea to their clients!

How is it useful? Well, a gesture sketch presents an idea sketched out quickly. Its main advantage is that it creates flow and dynamic motion of your composition or subject.

A contour sketch, on the other hand, presents a visual outline of your composition. Sometimes, it can be as clear and precise as a technical drawing. Other times, it is just there to present quick detail work that you can use later.

Throughout the site, you will be using a lot of gesture or contour sketches in the lessons. Practice it and become a successful artist that is able to quickly transfer an idea on paper!

Excellent resource:

Drawing for beginners: perspective

I know of very few artists that do not understand perspective! It is such an important part of an artist's skill set that there is an entire section of it devoted to this concept on this site!

How important? Well, a proper perspective can make or break your entire composition. Even for simple drawings like character designs, there's always some degree of perspective.

My lessons will teach you all the way up to five-point perspective. While you may not need to go beyond three-point perspective, the option is out there incase you need it!

For most clients, your ability to draw proper landscapes, and enclosed space, or a section of an area, is an important factor to whether or not you get the project.

Therefore, knowledge of perspective will allow you to create landscapes and build a good portfolio that attracts clients. Of course, we all want that because it translates to extra income!

Drawing for beginners: values

Just like sketching and perspective, values will play an important part in developing your core drawing skills. By definition, it is the relative darkness or lightness of a color.

For drawing, it makes the difference between something that looks flat and something that stands out!

To determine the proper values, you need to keep in mind two things: The first is that objects that are far away will have a dull value while objects that are close have a more intense value.

The second is based on the position of the light source. That is, objects that are close to the light will have color values that are close the color of the light source. Obviously, this diminishes as the object decreases its distance from the light source.

If it's confusing at first, don't worry, this site will focus on values with each lesson. You'll get it before you know it as it is a concept that will bring out the professional artist in you!

Excellent resource:

Drawing for beginners: coloring

How will you know what colors to use? It's not easy trying to figure out the best color combinations for your drawings. That's why knowing as much you can about color theory will be an advantage.

Having the right colors is an asset to any artist because it allows the proper mood that you want to present. As clients usually want a particular mood, you want to make sure that you can deliver the request.

The later lessons on this site will focus on:

• Triadic colors
• Complementary colors
• Analogous colors
• Monochromatic colors
• Color balance and color theories

Understanding these core concepts, you should be able to create an excellent portfolio that will impress clients because it shows that you are competent to know what you need to do to get the project done!

All in all, art styles come and go. But these basic art concepts listed will never change because it allows us to present the world around us convincingly!

For example, Neanderthals tried to capture the very essence of the food they hunt by showing animals with the proper proportions.

At the pinnacle of the Renaissance, understanding the body and the world became an aesthetic subject which these core drawing concepts play a huge role in!

Even now, we still depend on these drawing concepts in the digital world. Basically, learning through realism is timeless! This is the right approach to learning how to draw for beginners like you!

Once more, be active in learning your craft, be motivated, be persistent in your learning of these basic core skills, and you will find that artistic talent that everyone praises and respects!

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