“Learn To Draw Like A Child”

In the first post for Learning How To Draw I asked 2 questions…

1. Would you like to be able to draw?
2. Would you like to learn how to draw?

Here are a few more questions…

Can you draw already?

Or, do you think that you can’t draw? If so why?

What stops you learning how to draw as well as you’d like?

Is it because you expect to be able to draw as well as a professional artist?

Well, let me share a secret with you… “A lot of serious professional artists can’t draw”

Say you wanted to draw a still life….

Imagine that the subject is a jug standing in front of a bowl of fruit, on a round table top. It is most likely that you would be disappointed if your finished drawing didn’t look exactly as you see the physical items in front of you. After all, you are trying to make a perfect copy.

Let’s look at things slightly differently. Imagine for a while that the jug is slightly taller than it should be in relation to the bowl of fruit…

Would you be disappointed with the result? Answer: ‘Yes’ or ‘No’

If your answer is YES, then consider the reason why you would feel displeased with the resultant drawing. You are probably a perfectionist. Only an exact copy will do for you.

On the face of it, the perfectionist attitude and approach seems reasonable. Your expectation is that you are trying to achieve visual perfection. Your artwork will be 100% perfect…

BIG MISTAKE!

Alternatively, your answer could be NO!

• Could it be that the size relationship between the real life jug isn’t noticeable?
• Does the jug still look like the jug?
• Does the finished drawing look balanced and attractive to look at?
• Could it be that the balance of the picture has been improved by the ‘mistake’?

If all these questions are positively answered there is 1 final question…

HAVE YOU ENJOYED DRAWING?

Your only aim with your drawing should be to have fun.

Okay, there’s great satisfaction in creating the perfect masterpiece but there is greater pleasure from a picture that shows the artist has enjoyed every moment in its making. An artist’s free hand preparation sketch can show far more energy and life than an overworked finished painting.

A lively drawing can bring out the character and life of the subject, even when there are minor variations and errors.

Now, take a moment out and look back to when you were a small child…

It didn’t matter what you had in your hand. It could be a pencil, a pen or a crayon… you made a mark.

It didn’t matter if you didn’t have paper to draw on… you just made your marks on the wall of your bedroom (or any other flat surface in the house)

More importantly, it didn’t matter what the marks looked like to anyone else other than you. If you said it was a cow or a horse… what you had drawn was a COW and a HORSE.

Better still, as a child, it didn’t matter what color you had in your little hands… the sky could be red, green or yellow, or even BLUE.

It doesn’t mean that you should try to draw childish pictures again but imagine, if you can find that glimmer of the enthusiasm you had as a child… and if you can be as free with your lines, arcs, curves, outlines and shading…

“You can learn to draw like a child”

And with the freedom that you gain learning to draw will come easy.

Do you still want to be a perfectionist, or do you want to have some fun?

See you soon


Michael


p.s. Also, as a child you had imagination. Your imagination was massive… it was as big as the universe. Your imagination was unlimited.

What advantages do you think you’d gain now with such imagination?

Learning How to Draw

How many times have you said to someone… “I can’t draw”?

If so, answer 2 questions…

1. Would you like to be able to draw?
2. Would you like to learn how to draw?
   

Would you be surprised if told you…

“I can easily teach you to draw”

And, do you know…

“You can learn to draw anything you want”

How many times have you heard somebody else say…

• I can’t draw as well as a child at school
• A 3-year old can draw better than me
• A chimpanzee can draw better than I can

It doesn’t matter how bad your drawing is…

Really, I’ve heard it all before. And, what’s more, I’ve heard worse… much worse.

So what if your people look like matchstick figures. Why should you care when an artist like L S Lowry has become world famous, painting pictures of his local town. Here was an Englishman who could easily draw realistic lifelike portraits and figure studies that would blow your mind.

Yet, when he painted the scenes he knew so well, pictures of his home town… he painted ‘Matchstick Men’. The people he saw every day became unrecognizable cartoon like characters.

“Where’s your difficulty?”

You have just said that you can draw a matchstick man. In fact, if you can draw a matchstick man you can easily…

• Draw a matchstick woman
• Daw a matchstick boy or girl
• Draw a matchstick cat and dog
  

So, it’s agreed…

“Yes, you can draw”

Or, do I hear you saying you still aren’t convinced?

You need more persuasion…?

Okay, think about the greatest artist of his time…

It is said that Picasso deliberately tried to paint like a child. Here was an artist who could paint like an adult by the time he was 10 years old. Yet he spent most of the last days of his life trying to find how paint as a child.

Could this be true?

Of course, if he expected that he could learn to draw and paint like a child he was always doomed to failure. He could never succeed. He was a grown man with the repsonsiblilties of a grown man's life. However, if he looked to capture the pure simplicity in a child’s drawing he might find what he wanted…

Did he meet his artistic challenge? That’s for you to tell.

The truth is that he could already draw and paint better than any other human. This still didn’t stop him trying to learn the secrets of thinking and drawing like a child…

So, if you say “You can’t draw as well as a child at school”…

What do think Picasso would say to that? Do you think he would he be jealous of you?

Think about it “You’re lucky… You say you can already draw like this”

You understand simplicity. There is nothing wrong with searching for simplicity in drawing. The best of drawing can be made from just a few quickly drawn lines. In drawing there can be nothing simpler than a matchstick man.

Maybe, you don’t like Picasso. Most likely, you don’t want to paint like a child. You are somebody who really wants to draw something that can easily be recognized.

Perhaps you want to learn how to draw people that look as if they could jump from the page.

For instance, you could want to draw portraits of your children as they grow. If so you’ll need to know…

How to draw faces… how to draw your child’s eyes, nose, ears and mouth. You’ll want them to smile back at you in years to come.

You might want to learn how to draw men and women… your favorite sportsman, or a movie star. You’ll want to learn how to draw arms and legs, hands and feet. You’ll need to understand body forms.

That’s not all… there are thousands of other different things you might want to draw. Imagine that you want to learn how to…

1. Draw a car
2. Draw a dragon or wolf
3. Draw a tree
4. Draw a rose or other flowers
5. Draw a cat or a dog
6. Draw a lion or a tiger
7. Draw a horse or a pig
8. You can learn to draw anything you want.

You can even learn to draw cartoon people. Imagine creating a new Bart Simpson cartoon character.

Or, you could find yourself drawing the next Disney character… the future Lion King.

Maybe you want to draw comics… Superman, Spiderman or Batman.

I’m not going to lie to you… learning to draw isn’t always easy. Learning to draw takes time and effort. Learning to draw requires your time and dedication.

I reckon you can draw. I want to help you learn to draw. And, you know you are ready…

All you have to do is try. It gets easier from this point.

The first mark is the most difficult, so lets get started…

See you soon

Michael