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By Adamduncan
What is Good Drawing?
'Anyone can learn to draw, just as anyone can learn to speak or write. Drawing is a perfectly ordinary way of communicating information.'- Ian Simpson from 'Drawing, Seeing and Observation.'
As I stated at the beginning of the article I won't be going through a specific process (the one that I've always used, has always worked for me etc.) and show you 'how to draw.' Drawing is a complex process and you will need to be patient with yourself, let yourself make mistakes. It's easy to learn but nigh on impossible to master, which is the beauty of it.
When I started writing this article, I didn't want it to be purely about pencil effects and techniques. I believe that there is so much more to the subject. Unfortunately, this article was getting bigger and bigger so I have cut out a large proportion of the information (tone, composition, confidence, scale, drawing from life and its application in creating an image and so on..). Creating a good drawing is just like creating a good painting or a good piece of digital artwork. The key to competent drawing lies in composition, confidence, balance (of the image, not the artist) and most importantly your own personal input (can't stress this enough) and motivation. These are the most important aspects of drawing because drawings change. To make a good drawing you will always need these but you don't always need to know about tone, anatomy or perspective. If you make a good abstract drawing, a good stylized drawing or a good realist drawing it will always have these properties.
I've found that there is so much to talk about within just the subject of drawing, that I am only going to cover a fraction of it in this article. The aspects of drawing that I am going to look at are balance, line and mark making.
As I have already emphasized, drawing is very personal. In the article I am drawing on (no very bad pun intended) my own learning experience. If you prefer to learn another way, then do that. You're going to learn more if you enjoy the process. I'm not telling you how to draw, I'm just giving my opinions on drawing and giving you ideas on how to progress.
Balance
Balance, this seems to be the most abstract word that I've chosen to describe drawing so I have decided to start there. The most important balance in a drawing is the balance you create using marks. This makes no sense whatsoever yet but hopefully it will as you continue to read. I am basically talking about one aspect of composition that incorporates the marks you use to make the image.
Lets begin with tone and line. In the real world there is no line, lines are man-made. You get lines on a piece of paper or on a computer screen but even those lines are an illusion. Looking closely at them you see they aren't actually lines but a collection of pixels or a mark of graphite. What I want you to do is hold your hand out infront of you. Now look at the contours of your hand (what you perceive to be the line around it). There is no dark line tracing around it, it is a 3D object, if there was a line around it would have to be continually morphing. What you do get are areas of differing colour and tone. Even the folds of skin and the marks across your skin are not actually lines but they are patches of colour or an indentation in your hand creating a shadow. I'm going to be concentrating on black and white images here, so as far as we are concerned there are different areas of tone but no line.
Now again look at something man-made, say your computer screen or desk. Now move around your desk or computer screen. Tones change, the perceived shape of the object changes. Shine a spotlight on it in a darkened room and you may not be able to see the edge of the monitor. Tones change, forms change, shapes change but lines do not because there are no lines. Look at objects, do any of them have a dark line around them (not just an edge in shadow because that would be tone)? That is what a lot of people draw.
Which, of course, there is nothing wrong with. I use line in a lot of my drawings. It is a wonderful drawing method which gives the artist the ability to describe what she/he is seeing or what she/he wants to draw. Lines can be easily manipulated and can create very attractive and expressive drawings.
It is important that you understand the difference between line and tone because there is a distinct difference. This leads me back to the balance of the image. The first balance, that I am going to talk about, is the balance between line and tone. They are both methods of description, they both show form, shape and depth in different ways and as a result they contradict each other
This isn't to say you should stick to one and never use the other, pick the best method for a particular image. This also isn't to say you should never use both in one image, however to create a more effective image you must strike a balance. An easy way of doing this is to make one dominant (i.e. most of the picture is in line with some light pencil shading or most of the image is tonal but with some line to pick out details). Alternatively you could play with composition (e.g. making one area of the image tonal as a focal point and making the rest a line drawing). There are any number of ways of achieving this balance and you do not have to give up line or tone. However, remember two things. Firstly, remember that there is a difference between the two (you could play on this). Secondly, remember you are probably not going to get it right first time, second time or third, it takes practice and perseverance.
Contents of Article
I have broken this article down into several smaller chunks in order to make it easier to navigate.
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| |  | Sketching With A Pencil: For Those Who Are Just Beginning
Hamilton explains, in a fine text accompanied by many simple sketches and finished drawings, how to sketch. He succeeds in encouraging development of competence and increasing satisfaction for amateur artists using the simple materials of paper, pencil, and eraser. Concentrates on fundamentals: how to hold a pencil and compose a drawing; and creating the illusions of depth and distance. |
| |  | Pencil Sketching, 2nd Edition (Paperback)
The complete, classic guide to the art of pencil sketching. So many art books give long-winded descriptions of what to do, and even how to do it, yet they fail to capture the essence of what makes a drawing good. Wang concentrates on simple elements and rules of thumb, providing a wealth of wisdom in a few words and pictures. |  |
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Anon.
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