Ms. Mize ... I cannot tell you how much your basic drawing quick tips (41, 42, and 43) have changed my drawing life. In my mind, you could not advance to any other form of art (oil, etc.) until you had a good handle on drawing. And, quite frankly, I could not get the "hang" of drawing well. Your quick tips made sense to me, so I followed them religiously, practicing for 15 to 30 minutes each day, two or three times a day. I have done this for over a month. The results have been incredible. I now have great confidence in my drawing ability and I only occasionally look at the drawing while I am drawing. My hand and right side of the brain are communicating beautifully, and I am proud of all my drawings. I feel confident (there's that word again) in sketching the canvas to begin the foundation for my real goal ... becoming a successful oil painter. Thank you so much for your help. God bless you.
I am delighted that these drawing Quick Tips have been so beneficial to you. But your commitment to daily practice is the real key. Without the actual experience of doing practice exercises, the teaching doesn't mean much. Congratulations in your progress and your continued artistic growth.
I agree. My drawing too has greatly improved using this one tip alone. I never looked at the subject while drawing a line, I always looked at the paper! It's amazing to see so much improvement almost instantaneously :0
I had also a huge Improvement with this apparently so simple exercises, mainly because they do not have perfection as goal, I can relax and do it frequently in a casual manner during building the confidence on drawing and the rotine
Thank you so much, I have tried so many how to draw techniques, but your drawing exercises have unlocked my drawing skills and I have finally had that breakthrough I have wanted all my life.
Thank you Diane. This is very helpful. My eyes get too distracted which make my hand follow the wrong thing. And then I think I cannot do this and I feel defeated and I give up. Your tip gives me hope. I am so grateful 🙏🏽
Thank you! Could you please explain why it’s important to go forward and backwards when drawing the line as you recommend in the three tips on drawing? Doesn’t it lead to wrong brushstroke habit later on? Wouldn’t it be better to learn from start to make one decisive mark?
The forward-back-forward exercise is to help you to keep a good rhythm and not hesitate while drawing. Hesitation is caused by doubt and when you doubt yourself, you stiffen your lines. The exercise also helps with hand/eye coordination so long as you allow your eye to guide your hand as you move along the edges of an image.
I'm not sure where to put the dots. Is it ok to look at the paper if you get lost between strokes, or should you never even glance at it until the whole thing is finished?
Since this is an exercise to train your eye, where you put the dots hardly matters so long as the follow along the form of the image. You don't worry about getting lost because it is an exercise, NOT a way to make a drawing. While doing the exercise, your eye NEVER looks at the drawing while the lines are being made. In between, when you pen is not making a line, you can look anywhere you want to. Watch the Quick Tip several times to get the spirit of the exercise. It is not a skill, but a training process.
Could you suggest a way to do this if a person is using this exercise without a white board or a photograph? What would be the best way to do this with a photo or picture online or from real life? Thank you. P.s. I do not have printer at my home.
I read "Drawing on The Right Side of The Brain". That book is by far the best instruction on how to draw, and it has nothing to do with the way you're suggesting a person draws.
Maybe I misunderstood. If this is simply a training exercise, and not a "how to draw" lesson, then it makes sense. But if a person is expected to draw by doing this and not looking at the line you're drawing, then it's a bad idea. Maybe a master artist can draw without looking at the paper, but no one else can. So, if this is just an exercise, and not a way to draw, then fine.
Hi, I was wondering if you would make a video on the following topic. I am having a debate with someone. She is art trained and tells me that there is no point in copying from the flat and one must just draw from life. She says copying from images gives a person false confidence because it is like tracing over another person's ideas. I would love to hear your views. Thanks PS: I find it 'easy' to copy from the flat but get confused when copying from life, difficult to keep my place in the drawing (the horizon line etc).
Socrates, I've heard this argument all my career. My viewpoint is that the first and foremost skill every visual artist needs is drawing. The ability to draw whatever you are looking at, whether from life or from a photo, is the foundation because it enables the hand to do whatever it needs to do to make the visual statement. Beyond that, copying images is not the goal: the goal is to INTERPRET images. Images are our tools of expression. So as artists, we first must learn to SEE them as to their shapes (internal and external), their gesture, how the light on them affects every part of their value and color, etc. So my answer is that we use whatever resource is available to us to enable ourselves to SEE, to interpret what we are seeing and to express how we relate to what we are seeing. I'll put together a Quick Tip as your requested because this is a big one
