This Article is about Learning How to Draw a guide for Drawing Step by Step

 In this article a reader can learn how to draw anything, I'll show you how you can go from blank paper or board to a finished product anyone would be proud of.     Reasons for doing this article learning how to draw, are simple, I truly believe by learning how to draw, most readers will be transformed from someone who just looks at artwork and admires it, to a person who actually creates artwork.

 Getting Started Learning How to Draw Step by Step

 Step 1) Materials: Pencils, blank paper or board, preferably white, unless you have a reason for using colored. I say this because white tends to show up the pencil lines much better, so allows for much more detail to be displayed. An eraser, this one is obvious, when learning how to draw most are going to make plenty of mistakes. Lastly a ruler, this will make sense later in the article.

Step 2) Subject matter: This can be anything of your choosing, maybe start simple for the first while, then move on to more difficult works. Drawing step by step, is just that, take it one step at a time no hurry.

Step 3) Setup: What is the setup, well this is what I call the framework of your picture. How this is accomplished is using a grid, constructed by measuring and then drawing in lines that intersect to make squares on the blank piece of paper or board you want your picture to be created on. 

Why use the grid system ?, this is a good question and I for one use it all the time. When anyone first starts off learning how to draw, the number one thing they want is, well, for the artwork at the end of the process to look like something they can say, hey I like that, or this turned out awesomely.

Thats not going to happen if, you can't use proper proportion within your drawing. This is probably the number one reason anyone gives up and says I'm not good at drawing.     I should however expand on this notion of proportion for anyone not being familiar with it. All this really means in the end is that what you draw has the shape, size and structure of whatever it is you wanted to copy.

 Lets be perfectly honest here on this topic of copying something shall we, no one and I repeat no one creates something from nothing. If they haven't seen it somewhere, they can't draw it, so every creation, is a copy to some degree or other.

This doesn't mean they trace it and copy it exactly, nor does it mean they look at it when drawing, some do have the ability to draw from they're heads, but they're still in essence copying, just from they're heads.     What does all this mean to anyone who just wants to learn to draw step by step, well, don't ever let anyone tell you, you cant' copy something, it's just not true. What is true is that you can't copy something done by another and then take credit for it, nor profit from something you've copied from another.     Keep in mind one thing here, the purpose of this article is to help the person who doesn't know how to draw, or even how to get started. In the case where you take a photo of something then print it out to use as your subject, in no way are you copying anyone else's work .     OK so we find ourselves something we want to copy, this is done to help a beginner learn how to see shapes, sizes of those shapes and where they belong within the picture

 I'd suggest finding something like a picture of a tree if your interested in nature, why a picture and not a real tree you might ask, the picture is stable and wont move for one. Pictures can be transported easily from one location to another a live tree can not. Lastly you can construct a grid on the picture, not so with a live tree, with this grid system you can also enlarge your final work from that of the picture.          

The Grid System totally Explained

Anyone who's ever gone to school and I'd assume thats most readers, I'm sure at least once, has come across what is called a grid. Simply put, it consists of straight lines that intersect to form squares.

Why squares you might ask and not rectangles ?, well, squares are by nature completely symmetrical, every side of a square is proportional and equal to every other side, making it the perfect tool to help the human eye see and measure against.     The most important thing to keep in mind when applying this method, is to make sure the amount of squares used on the original equal exactly the amount used on the copy( blank paper or board ).

In this way a person can take what they see from the original and transfer it to the copy. Even enlarge it if they like, by using larger squares on the copy then is on the original.

OK so we have a grid setup on the original and also on the copy( paper or board ). What now ?.

Learning how to draw is like riding a bike, you first have to just jump on and hope you don't fall off in the process, the real difference is that learning how to draw can never hurt you unlike a fall.     Start off with the outline of say that tree you have a picture of, ( I only use a tree as an example ), it could be anything.

Once you have the out line in place, check it against the straight lines in the grid, this will help you to see exactly where each shape intersects the lines in the grid, which in turn helps with the size as well.      I know, following a guild and doing something are two different things, so by jumping in right away then looking at the guild again, you can more readily understand whats being taught here.

After the outline is in place, now it's time to work within it on the detail, again always compare what you draw, example: a shape within the subject matter, to the straight lines of the grid square, this will help you place your detail properly  .

Learning how to draw should be enjoyable, not cause stress, so remember to have fun creating. If you make mistakes, use the eraser, thats what It's for, don't be afraid to admit your not perfect, no one is.

Hopefully by now you have an outline and detail within it, now what ?, shading your drawing will now help it to look real, three dimensional in nature. How this is achieved is by use of shadows and highlights.

 Shadows and Highlights

For anyone not sure of the importance of these two, concepts, they can make or break a drawing. If done correctly a drawing thats flat in nature will suddenly become three dimensional.

What does this really mean ?, anything that has three dimensions, has length, height and width. How does that relate to something looking real in the context of adding shadows and highlights ?, if you consider a light source, example, the sun, then shadows and highlights placed in the right spots helps to create the illusion something has real three dimensional shape.

 Learning How to Draw using Shadows and Highlights

Lets put our attention back onto the drawing now, outline is done and detail is also done. First thing to consider at this point is where we want our light source to be placed within the picture. where ever you decide is fine but keep in mind everything else in your picture will be affected by this choice.     For examples sake, lets place our light source in the upper right corner of our picture. What this means for our picture is, all highlights will point directly toward this point of light source, where as the shadows of the picture will be toward the opposite corner.     The difference between highlights and shadows are, highlights are the lightest tone of pencil on the artwork, shadows on the other hand are the darkest.     Begin with the darkest areas first and work your way to the highlights, middle sections are by they're very nature a middle tone so make them that.

How many tones can be created is really unlimited, the harder you push on the pencil, the darker that area becomes, don't push so hard you break it or scratch the paper or board though.      I'd suggest trying for six to ten different tones of pencil in your drawing, you could use more of course and actually the more you use the more realistic your picture will look in the end.

I only used the example of six to ten to give my reader a starting point, when i create a picture i can use as many as hundreds of different tones not to mention colors if I'm expanding and not just using pencil. If you look carefully at the original your using, I'm sure you'll notice that it already has it's own highlights and shadows. This you can use to help figure where you want to place them within your own work. In closing I'd like to say, learning to draw is something I've always taken on as a challenge myself, the longer i spent at it the better I became. It's like anything else in life, practice makes perfect, this is very true also when learning how to draw. 

 I hope very much this article has helped anyone wishing to learn how to draw , other topics to do with artwork like, how to draw flowers, drawing step by step the advanced guild or learning how to draw using ink and pastels, both chalk and oil, are in the works. Thanks for reading my article on learning how to draw I wish you all the best in your creations.