“Did you know… You create lines, circles and arcs every day?”

“What?” You will ask.

Alternatively, you will just think I am being ridiculous and be thinking “Rubbish… this man’s a fool!”

I repeat…

“You draw lines, circles and arcs every day”

It is true…

• It might not be every single day you create the lines and circle shapes
• You could be using a computer instead of a pen or pencil
• You will be amazed that you create the kind of shapes you need to draw every day.

Almost every one who will be reading this Blog will create hundreds of lines, circles and arcs almost every day of their life.

Knowing this will help improve your drawing skills quickly…


For the last 2 posts, How To Draw A Circle and How To Draw A Straight Line you have been finding simple ways to draw straight lines, circles and arcs using everyday items that you can easily find around you.


The real challenge of drawing is to be able to draw freehand.

Imagine that…

• You can draw freehand any straight line of any length you want
• You can draw a good circle whenever you want
• You can draw a curved arc… or a string of arcs
  

But you do this already.

Did You know… “You were taught how to draw straight lines, circles and arcs from a very early age…”

“You were taught how to write”



How can this help you draw well?



Look at my name… ‘Michael’


Here you see a combination of straight lines and arcs. The only thing missing is a circle. Look through the rest of the words on this page and count how many circles you see.

When you write with a pencil, fountain pen, ball pen or felt tip pen you create a sequence of lines, arcs and circles…

To you… “This is so easy”


You don’t even think about the expert drawing skills you are already using. You are confident that you can write and you don’t need to think about the techniques involved in creating your writing…

“You just write”

Using letters of an alphabet…

1. You form words and sentences
2. You construct messages using these words and sentences
3. You create wonderful stories using these same letters, words and sentences

You draw lines, circles and arcs every day to create the amazing pictures in other peoples minds…

• It could be a recipe for a magnificent dinner
• It could be directions leading to a holiday destination… the seaside or a walk in the hills
• It could be a house improvement guide to create dream home

Your writing will use your imagination and bring out your ideas…

And, best of all, you will create the same lines, circles and arcs that you use to draw like an artist.

Remember this…

1. It doesn’t matter if your straight lines are curved (if your ‘M’ has round tops like ‘m’)
2. It doesn’t matter if your ‘O’ isn’t an exact round circle
3. It doesn’t matter if your letters flow smoothly into the next stylish letter

When you are writing… You just write… and your words are understood. The story in your words is understood.

You are already an artist…

• You use the tools of an artist
• You draw lines the same as an artist
• You draw arcs and circles the way an artist does
• You use your imagination to construct the words… as an artist constructs shapes to form a picture.

You are already an artist!



Here’s today’s challenge…


Write down each letter of the alphabet. Recognize the components lines, circles and arcs being used. This isn’t quite as simple as you’d imagine.

Consider the letter ‘A’…

As a capital it looks like ‘A’. you don’t use capital letters for most of the words you write…normally it looks like ‘a’

Each are exactly the same but the capital uses only straight lines.

Now, try looking at the letters in different text fonts (each letter ‘A’ shown is capitalized)…




Each letter is very different from the next.

Think for a while… you have been creating shapes using art techniques for most of your life…

If you already freehand create lines, circles and arcs every day with your writing, the question is…

“How difficult can drawing really be?”


See you soon

Michael

p.s. you never know, as you improve your drawing techniques your writing could get a whole lot better too - mine has.

“How To Draw A Circle”

Okay, since the last posting you’ve spent all your time finding different ways to draw straight lines. I’m sure you’ve been having a wonderful time.

You could have thought that drawing straight lines was difficult. In practice it has been easy for you… Apart from the occasional slip of the pencil, drawing straight lines with straight edges has made it simple.

The only difficulty you will have is to draw a freehand straight line without the aid of a straight edge. This won’t surprise you too much… it’s like jumping from an airplane without a parachute… only the landing is just a little less painful.

We’ll come back to the subject of freehand lines (and curves) in a future posting.

Now its time to think about circles and arcs using the same tricks…

“How many things can you find in your house that have a round shape?”

1. Coffee jars
2. Wine bottles
3. Tin cans
4. Vacuum cleaner hoses and fitments
5. Broom sticks
6. Door handles (door knobs)
7. Pencils and crayons
8. DVDs and CDs

You can easily add to this list. There are endless items that are round shaped. Each round shape can be used to draw a line around to create circles. With a variety of different household items you can quickly draw any number of different sized circles.

As a child, I remember there was a toy called ‘Spirograph’ that used different circles with gear teeth and holes for pens to point through that gave intricate patterns and designs… it kept me quiet for hours… great fun.

But, you don’t have to spend a single penny. There are hundreds of things you can draw a line around. You don’t need to use clever toys. You don’t have to buy expensive designer equipment to draw circles.

I know this will sound dumb… Using any round object gives you exactly the same possibilities that high cost drawing tools give you.

Provided you have imagination, you can create complex and wonderful designs using items that you use every day.

Here’s your challenge for today…

Using a few different sized kitchen items (bottles and jars) try to create some intricate designs…

• Circles inside circles
• Circles that intersect (cross) other circles
• Circles inside circles combined with circles that intersect
• Circles that combine into flowing links and chains

Let your imagination go wild while you create your designs… don’t worry if you don’t get anything remarkable. My bet is that you will surprise yourself with incredible patterns and flowing shapes.

The idea is that you will be confident that you can draw a good circle any time you want.

If you want to make things more challenging try to create a design with just one circular item alone…

I’d like to see your results.

See you soon

Michael

p.s. Don’t forget… an arc is nothing more than part of a circle… so nothing dramatic here.