The 3 Keys You Need To Draw Anything

Have you ever started a drawing on paper, and as you moved along in your drawing, noticed that you ran out of paper—like the thing you were drawing didn’t quite fit on the paper the way you wanted it to? Or have you ever drawn something that just looked totally wonky and disproportionate? When you learn these three keys, you’ll be able to draw anything the way you want.

THE THREE KEYS YOU NEED TO DRAW ANYTHING ARE...

1. THE ABILITY TO IDENTIFY AND TRANSLATE SIMPLE SHAPES.

When you look at something—anything, a person, an object, a landscape—you need to be able to identify the simple shape that make up the thing and then translate that onto paper. What do I mean by this? When you look at an apple, if you could describe that apple as looking mostly like either a square, a circle, or a triangle, which would you choose? You would most likely say it looked like a circle or even a square.

Now, an apple is a very simple object, you’ve got the body which is a circle, and a stem which is a thin rectangle, or just a line. The act of connecting that apple to the simplest shape you can think of is the skill you’re trying to cultivate here.

So let’s try something more complex, like say a flamingo. What simple shape(s) make up that flamingo? You might say a few different shapes make up that flamingo, like maybe a circle for the head, a circle for the body, throw some rectangles in there for the neck and a triangle for the beak. It gets a little more complex because there is more than one shape being translated here. I also want to note that there’s no ONE WAY to translate the shapes you see. If you look at the images above, I’ve translated a few things into shapes using two different interpretations. Neither of the ways is wrong or right, they just are one interpretation. The simplification of things into shapes is the skill you’re working to cultivate. This is what it means to identify and translate simple shapes.

The second key to being able to draw anything is…

2. THE AWARENESS AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CHANGING PENCIL PRESSURE.

Typically when you first pick up a pencil, ideally as a child, you aren’t aware of the concept of pencil pressure. You just sort of put the pencil on the paper and make marks. A lot of it is dependent on the excitement of the child—an excited child tends to draw more forcefully without restraint, and a calmer child might draw lighter and with less wild abandon. As soon as you become aware of this act of pushing a pencil into paper at varying pressures you can begin to use the awareness of that pressure to your advantage.

In the image above, you can see that the simple shapes made from our first key are used as a guide. They’ve been drawn very lightly so that you can use them like a placement marker to know where to put your actual drawing. When you draw your actual drawing you can begin to use harder pressure and make a darker line.

The third and last key to knowing how to draw anything is…

3. THE DISCIPLINE TO MAKE DRAWING A CONSTANT PRACTICE

I know this one seems like an obvious thing, but I can’t stress it enough. When you start drawing, it’s easy to compare yourself to others and get discouraged because your drawings don’t look the way you think they should. Every artist started out with “wonky” looking drawings—and some people like the “wonky” look, I know I do!

As an artist of twenty years, I can say that my drawing has always grown and changed with my practice. It is a continuously evolving thing that requires constant effort. Every time you draw something your drawing muscle gets a little stronger.

Thanks so much for reading! Now let me ask you, did this help you at all? If you try this yourself, I’d love to know how it turned out!

With lots of love!