Learning to Draw

Learning to draw

Learning to draw can be great fun - or ubelivable bore. To a large extent it depends on you - what attitude you bring to the task. If you treat it as a gift, as precious time for discovering a new world, for learning how to see the world differently - then it will be a joy for you. Every skill, everything we learn has periods of excitement, fast progress, great expectations. But all skills, all learnings have also times when nothing new seems to be happening. Times when we are working hard, practicing, yet seem to make no progress whatsoever. It is during these times that you need to remember that boring, unrewarding moments are ALWAYS followed by excitement, progress, and reaching new levels of skill. So keep at it!

Below we share with you some of the best materials for learning how to draw.
Enjoy, keep going, have fun!

Important - drawing materials contain variety of chemicals. Unless you are using Crayons made in the US or Europe, you should assume that other drawing implements or erasers should not be given to kids younger than 5 yrs old. Since these kids are older, we do not track where pencils, erasers, paper were manufactured.

Kimon Nicolaides wrote The Natural Way to Draw as if it were THE work of his life. It is recognized as the best ever book for learning how to draw. We tend to agree, but with a caveat. It requires a lot of dedication. The book is written for highly self-motivated adults. There is very little immediate reinforcement - you have to stoke your own fire. Below is the book and accessories necessary for practice. Pencil set (includes charcoal, sharpeners, erasers), newsprint for sketching and practice, drawing paper for high quality drawings.

	Now, for the rest of us, here are 4 books that do a really good job, and they assume no skill on your part. Betty Edwards turns off a lot of people (including us) with her left-brain/right-brain talk. This theory was hot when the book was originally written. Today, 40 years later, the left-brain/right-brain division is considered, at best, a hypothesis. Most research psychologists consider it pseudo-scientific junk. However, if you can overlook this, the book itself does a very good job of teaching beginners how to look at the world, and how to portray it on a piece of paper.
	Drawing for Older Children & Teens does as good a job as Edwards of teaching how to draw - without the psychological mumbo-jumbo, but instead with a lot of creativity and sheer fun. Considered by many to be perfect complement to The New Drawing on the Right Side of Brain.
	The Practice and Science of Drawing is just that - straighforward, gives you the tools and techniques. Considered a classic among "how to draw" books, it starts with basics and progresses through increasingly more demanding exercises - it encourages lots of practice - and that's how you learn to draw - by drawing!
	Ruskin's Elements of Drawing is a classic. Without doubt the least "instructional" of the books, yet there are plenty of exercises, and if one sticks with the program - the results are there to see.

If you work through any of the books above, you will not only see tremendous progress in the quality of your drawings, but will also be ready to try some of the things in these books - amazing what one can do with just pencil and paper.