Basic Training
LESSON THREE
What are drawing drills?
Drawing drills are simple, yet technical, exercises that will help you develop a precision skill set and help improve your drawing abilities over time. Initially, drawing drills are going to be a big part of your focus mostly because, although simple in nature, they do take time and practice to master. You should be practicing these drills at the start of every drawing session, and will lead to improved drawing skills over time. At the very beginning of your drawing journey you may want to spend a good amount of your practice time on your drills. As your abilities improve you can ween this down to the first couple minutes of your drawing session as an easy way to warm up.
Preparation
Before you begin, take a moment to prepare your space. These exercises require a lot of practice, so I recommend using inexpensive paper; newsprint is still a great option, but you can also use something like an old newspaper. Remember we’re trying to avoid worrying about “wasting” your materials.
Make sure your workspace gives you room to move, as your setup should allow your arm to move freely from the elbow and shoulder, not your wrist. Refer back to the last lesson about movement and grip, keep these fundamentals in mind as you begin.
As you move forward, make sure to complete the quests on your quest sheet before narrowing your focus. Each exercise has a purpose, and experiencing them all will give you a solid foundation. Once you’ve worked through everything, you can limit your practice to just one exercise per session.
What is a Confident Line?
Confident lines are ones that are smooth and controlled. Lines can be bold and assertive or short but decisive; they can be long and wispy, even ethereal… yet, your goal is to create smooth and controlled confident lines. In the early stages of practice, you should prioritize confidence over accuracy, although accuracy is of course desired, it is second to only confidence.
While these drills are important it is imperative that you DO NOT obsess over them. They don’t need to be mastered before you continue learning. Just take some time to understand and practice them at the start of your drawing session and they will help you to improve your mastery one day at a time. Art is not about perfection, we as humans rarely ever achieve perfection. Art is about communicating an idea or a story. Our goal here, is to be a more effective storyteller - not a perfectionist.
Common Mistakes:
Squigglies: you may find your lines meandering across the page, carving paths that wiggle when what you really want is a smooth current. This indicates that you are indecisive or unsure of yourself and you are moving too slowly. Swift, confident lines live somewhere between squiggly uncertainty, and an uncontrolled torrent.
Uncontrolled: if you’re not dealing with squiggly lines, you might find that your lines are over directed or unmanageable; you might struggle to meet your mark, or your lines start and end with long, unintended tails. This indicates that you are going a little too hard and moving too quickly. Slow down and pay attention to where you start and end your lines.
Hairy Lines: are the pinnacle sign of a timid artist. Lines that are meant to be long and fluid are instead made up of dozens of short, ugly strokes. It seems safer to add small strokes that should, theoretically, give you more control, but this results in an unappealing line. This only emphasizes your lack of confidence in both yourself, and the subject matter.
Gapping: occurs when your circle fails to meet the outer edges of the established plane at the horizontal and vertical centers. Make sure that you are making use of the entire square, without squishing the circle against the edges.
Squishing: the opposite of a gap is when your circle instead makes too much contact with the edges of your plane, resting up beside it. Only four points of the circle should come in contact with the sides of the plane.
Flattening: if you are managing to avoid all of the previous mistakes, but the curves between your four points appear flat or deflated, you will need to reach deeper into the corners, creating clean rounded curves.
Overcompensating: alternatively, you may be overcompensating the curves of your circle, digging too deep into the four corners, creating a ‘U’ shape rather than a ‘C’ shape. Wrangle your lines in and focus on a clean curve.
It may seem tricky, trying avoiding so many mistakes at the same time; you can instead focus on just one issue, before tackling another. Don’t give up, we would never desire absolute perfection just do the best you can at any given moment.
Solutions:
Warming Up: a lot of students will jump right into their studies without limbering up first. It seems silly since you aren’t playing a full body sport, nor are you exerting much energy. However, your hands need just as much preparation as any other part of your body. It takes around ten minutes to get into the flow, so doing some stretching and warm up exercises before you start will help expedite that process.
Speed and Decisiveness: are all you need to create confident lines. You need to find that Goldilocks Zone where the speed at which you draw, helps to facilitate confidence, but not at a speed that causes you to lose control.
Quarter It: If necessary, you can start by drawing your circle one quarter at a time. By dividing your circle up into multiple shorter strokes, you are avoiding opportunities to make mistakes. With a shorter stroke you will have more precision over where you start and end your lines.
Aim and Target: In the “Connect the Dots” Drawing Drill I mentioned looking at where you want your line to go rather than where your hand and pencil currently are. In fact, ignore your hand completely and train your eyes solely on the target, or where you intend for that line to end.
Reference Points: Creating reference points can help you achieve more accuracy and confidence when drawing. Rather than shooting wildly into the dark, measuring out a specific distance or finishing point can help.
Ghosting: In the ”Cross the Dot” Drawing Drill I talked about ghosting your lines, which suggests practicing the line by playing out the gesture, without actually touching the page. This way you think about what you are trying to achieve with your line and improve on the motion before committing to it.
Circling: drawing circles can be difficult, and I would never ask for perfection here, so, first ghost the circle you want to draw. Then, rather than trying to achieve the circle in one stroke, feel free to circle around a few times and somewhere within that organized mess will be a more accurate circle that you can either draw over, or erase around.
And Finally, Allow Yourself to Fail.
Opening your mind and allowing yourself to fail, possibly on purpose, is a highly desired skill for artists. Although this may seem antithetical, allowing yourself to make mistakes creates opportunities to learn and grow. Many of us can often feel like failures if we cannot immediately pick up a skill and do it successfully, however, being open to new thoughts and ideas allows you to explore your abilities in ways you may never expect.