Whilst you are starting to be trained in drawing online you need to make sure that the subjects you choose to draw are challenging enough to develop your skills but not so hard that you get discouraged. So one of the queries troubling those who study drawing online is "What topics should I select to study drawing?"
The response: Start trying to draw familiar objects. But draw them in uncommon methods. Even your shoe is a good thing to begin with!
You should also strive to first draw singular things which you have in your front rather than attempting a full street scene on the first day. Gadgets like kitchen paraphernalia and the various small pieces of tit-bits you find in your pockets or hand bag such as keys, lighters and cosmetics are also good drawing subjects. Instruments, flowers, furniture, shoes and a range of natural items are also good subjects.
What about Drawing Statuettes?
A remark on statuettes as these seem to be very popular subjects for beginning artists: It is not a first-class idea to draw statuettes as you will lose a lot of detailing and you are effectively doing a drawing of a molding which was actually received from a picture. Consequently your drawing will be pretty unrelated from the initial subject. Disappointing drawings are the result, if you can not get hold of the statuette-like niceties of your subject like the surface structure, light blemishes on the exterior etc.
Sketching from life vs. Sketching from Photographs
Drawing from life normally results better. You should in fact draw from life as regularly as you can, there is no alternative.
But the majorities of beginner artists fail and are let down when starting to draw from life right from the commencement. Hence get trained in drawing from photographs to get ready for deeper levels of drawing.
To overcome common shortcomings of average photographs, try to take the photograph yourself. So you'll have a sense for the scene and connect emotionally to the subject.
Gain knowledge of Drawing from Life
Once you've made some progress drawing from photographs, it's time to take the next step: start drawing from life.
It's the most significant thing to rehearse once you have obtained the basic proficiency. That means you should always attempt to draw something that is in front of you.
When doing this it is always a decent idea to draw things from an unusual angle so that you are forced to observe the object intently rather than just relying on your memory.
As well try to follow the nature of object to the skill you want to learn. If you are practicing your line drawing then a fuzzy toy is not going to be very helpful!
For example your own hands are a fascinating subject for studying as well as simple enough to initiate - and they are always readily available!
More Practices to Learn Drawing
There are a lot of exercises you can do to get better at your drawing and there is surely not enough space here for listing all of them. But presented below are some of the guidelines:
- Try drawing different objects using different media and different techniques. No drawing practice is ever wasted and the new media will certainly help you to observe your object in a different way.
- If you more often than not draw very slowly, try drawing faster, and vice versa.
- If you normally draw tiny and tight then try drawing big and loose.
- Challenge and extend yourself and you will find that your normal drawing style will be better.
- You might also like to draw an object that is moving, like a person or an animal, as this will help you to do fast observations and to record them fast as the subject goes on.
And Most Significant ...
The most essential thing for which there is no replacement to learn drawing online is exercise! Practice, practice, practice... When it is about drawing there is no substitution for good old elbow grease.
Are you one of those people who can barely hold a pencil in their hand? Is your most adventurous artistic skill an half drawn stick figure? Read this article and you'll find the most professional and effective online resources to make you a better drawer, guaranteed!
If you are like me you just love drawing. I have been scouting the internet for you searching for the BEST of the BEST websites offering free drawing lessons, tutorials, articles, communities and resources that will enrich enormously your drawing skills.
In selecting these resources I have taken care to look also for the general quality of the website presentation and the quality and depth of the tutorials. I hope you enjoy this journey in the fantastic world of drawing on the internet.
Drawspace
Drawspace is certainly one of the most authoritative website on the internet in relation to drawing resources. If you are serious about learning how to draw (but also if you are not) you want to check this Website. It literally drips with free high quality tutorials organized in different categories, according to their difficulty level, to suit your skill level.
You'll find here basic lessons that will teach you how to play with pencils and advanced lessons that will inspire you to explore complex shadows and compositions.
The site is extremely well organized and all the info is easily reachable in a few click and as plus they have an active forum frequented by an active community that loves to share and help. They are also offering drawing lessons for a fee if you are keen. We highly recommend this Drawspace!
DeviantART
This is THE art community on the internet, it's just huge. This website is simply beautiful. It allows you to create a FREE account and share with simplicity your drawings or paintings or photographs or sculptures. Really the only limit is your imagination.
The community is rich and diverse and new pictures are uploaded constantly. This richness and diversity is the real strength of DeviantART. You'll be able to find here feedback for your art, make new friends, sell prints and gadgets with your art on (at a fee) and explore the artworks and skills of other artists.
You can easily create collections of artworks, follow specific artists or promote yourself in this ever growing art market/community. If you have never been been on deviantArt it is absolutely worth the jump!
The Drawing Factory is an excellent source of material, step by step tutorials, video tutorials to kick start you in the world of drawing. This website presents the material in an effective and fun way and its step by step tutorials are easy to follow from home.
The Drawing Factory covers a wide range of subjects in its tutorials from realistic ones to more cartoonish and also includes basic tutorials to learn the ABC of drawing. So if you are a just starting out drawing or even if you are a medium to advanced drawer you'll find here bread for your artist teeth.
How to draw Cartoons Online
This is one of our favorite websites for aspiring cartoon artists. How to Draw Cartoons Online is a stunning and inspiring website that offers TONS of incredible drawing-value for FREE! It focuses on Cartoon drawing so you won't find realistic stuff here however what's here is really content of great quality.
I think one of its major strengths is the personal style of the Author, Jeff Scarterfield who is able to Cartonize effortlessly anything from vegetables to sea animals. He is also very good at teaching how to Cartoonize things using a simple, clean and effective, step by step approach that should allow even the newbiest of the newbies to come out of one of his tutorials with a pretty decent drawing!
DragoArt
Possibly the biggest collection of drawing tutorials available. You'll find here more than a thousand tutorials for all tastes that will certainly get your drawing hand hitchy!
This website is one of the best resources on the net for Cartoon drawing, it is highly loved and highly recommended, you just have to check it out.
iDrawGirls
Seattle based Xia Taptara keeps updating this website with lot of useful video instruction and tutorials. Particularly useful to digital artists and concept artists the website focuses on human figure and character/creature drawing plus concept art. So lots of inspiring material!
Only Pencil
Only Pencil presents many pencil tutorials realized with a specific technique developed by the Author. Tutorials are focussed on animals, hairs and are extremely realistic.
The techniques used is explained in detail in the numerous tutorials and video lessons and they are certainly amazing skills to add to your drawing arsenal. Level is from medium to advanced however as a complete novice is really interesting to see where pencil drawing can take you once you can master it!
Pencil
In this site you'll find an elegant and effective application that will allow you to draw and animate really simply. Creating an animation is one of the most effective exercises to improve your drawing skills because it will force you to look at your subject from different angles and perspective.
Novice drawers (and even advanced ones) can get pretty lazy and stick with the 3 - 4 poses they have learnt by hart and they can draw fast and effectively but there is nothing worse than that if you really want to improve. So go on, animate and experiment with your drawing!
Rate My Drawings
These next two websites seem more like drawing communities but if used effectively can be an incredibly useful tool to improve your drawing skills. They both offer an online interface where you can draw, paint and save your drawings within your account. The cool thing is that you can then share these drawing with the community and everyone can see them, rate them and even watch a movie replaying the exact way you created your drawing.
This is a fantastic tool to learn from other artists become a better drawer yourself!
Queeky
The idea behind this website is very simple, login then draw and share! They offer to their user a powerful tool similar to Photoshop, if you like, to draw online. So you can jump in and start drawing straight away. The magic is that every single pencil/brush stroke is recorded by the system and other users can see not only your final drawing, but also the entire drawing process!!
I think this is a fantastic source of ideas and inspiration and can be fun and educational to watch how other artists have created their masterpieces! The only drawback is that to fully enjoy the experience you need a stylus and a graphic tablet. You can still draw with the mouse obviously but is not the same thing.
One of the major problems coming up when you want to finish your drawing, maybe coloring it is to lay color down. With so many different colors and hues and shades how do you know what color goes with what? How do you know if your color choice is not going to kill, metaphorically speaking, your audience. Well this website comes in your help by explaining the basis of color theory in an easy and very understandable way.
You'll get the magic formulas that will allow you to chose colors according to the more pleasing combinations or even, if you want to, to break the rules and create staggering composition to excite your audiences.
Sketch Theater
Sketch Theatre exists for one express purpose â€" to expose young people to the myriad career opportunities available to creative individuals. There are scores of you out there who love to draw, make things and express yourself. Whether you are interested in drawing comic books, entertainment design (sets, props, creatures, etc), fashion, animation, creating films or making music.
It does it by showing in a sleek website the video of such artists featured while sketching and drawing. Inspirational and fun.
Manga University
Manga University aims at teaching you how to draw manga and it does it with a collection of fine tutorials and video lessons. If you are into Manga this is one of the best places to go on the net!
EmptyEasel
At EmptyEasel our goal is to publish helpful information for both new and professional artistsâ€"without any of the vague or confusing "artspeak" common to the art world. And they deliver on that. There is a wealth of useful AND organized info in here. From drawing tutorials to business suggestions if you want to develop a career as an artist. Digg in!
DueysDrawings.com
Brian Dueys is a very fine pencil artist who is not shy of sharing his knowledge and experience through beautifully written and exquisitely useful tutorials. The website is a pearl when it comes to learning pencil drawing and his skills are second to none. So if you are thinking to learn how to be good with pencil this is a very good place to start out!
Cartoon Block
Artist and animator Evan Burse has create a fun and entertaining YouTube channel when is adding very nicely done basic how to draw tutorials. He is very good and the tutorials are all about notorious cartoon characters that you might want to try to draw for sure.
He is also very good at explaining the drawing process and it's overall one of the best FREE to watch channels on YouTube about how to draw lessons!
About.com
You can learn how to draw. It's easier than you think. Start here with these free learn how to draw lessons. This Learn to Draw lesson hub will guide you through each step of the process, so make it your home page for easy reference. Work through each article in each section, doing the exercises and trying out the ideas. Don't skip the exercises - they are like scales for musicians and will help you learn to draw much faster.
Drawing Day is a worldwide drawing event encouraging everyone to drop everything and draw for the sake of art. It's just a great idea like you needed another good reason to start drawing right? It's good to see so many people enjoying this art and being part of the fun so take a pencil and start drawing!
Anatomy on the internet
So you want to learn how to draw beautiful and believable characters but you do not want to learn Anatomy right? WRONG! You need to learn a little bit of anatomy if you want to be able to draw characters and people from your imagination. Anatomy is the basic knowledge upon you can build your drawing skills using your creativity and inventiveness.
This website offers a huge variety of books on the subject. Some are old some are newer but all are artistically interesting. You can find here anatomy drawings that if studied carefully will make you a better drawing machine!
Art Pad
What better way to finish this compilation with a beautifully written digital canvas online? ArtPad is not complex or complete by any means but is sleek and it is relaxing to draw on it. The authors somehow captured a little the feeling of a real canvas. You can save and share your painting and watch other people paintings as well. Have fun!
About the Author
Vincenzo is the founder and main Author of the Website The Drawing Factory - www.drawing-factory.com - where he has create an online place where people can learn how to draw through video lessons, articles and Step by Step tutorials.
