In order to become skilled at drawing you have to practice. That much is obvious. But many people practice for hours every week and only see minimal results. When this happens it is usually caused by not practicing the right things. As with any skill, you need to find the highest leverage aspects of whatever skill you are trying to achieve, and focus your efforts on those things. In drawing, there are a few of those, but one stands out far above the rest. What is it? Read on.
If you are really serious about becoming good at drawing you absolutely must see what you are looking at. This sounds really simple, but you would be surprised at how many people do not do this very important thing. As an art teacher I have seen it hundreds of times. A fumbling student is looking at something he/she is trying to draw and drawing something entirely different. It's not a matter of artistic skill. It's simply looking without seeing. We do it all the time.
If we analyzed every single thing we looked at we would cease to function from sheer analytic overload. So, our brains (smart as they are) have a solution to this dilemma. We pick up on certain patterns, recognize them, and then move on. For example, we see two eyes, a nose, and a mouth and our brain tells us that this is a face. No big deal. We go on with our lives. We don't have time to look at every face we encounter on a daily basis as something unique. However, when you are attempting to draw a face it becomes absolutely essential to do exactly that!
Every single face is different. Let me repeat that. Every single face is different. This is true with anything. You may draw the same apple every day of the year, but in the end you will have 365 unique apples. Why? Simply because there are so many variables that change every moment. Lighting, shadows, position, perspective, surroundings, aging,...etc. No moment ever repeats itself exactly. A great artist knows this well. And you must learn it too if you are to learn to draw well.
Many people consider themselves bad at drawing, but most of the time they are fine at drawing. The problem is that they are bad at seeing. It's something called schematic drawing, which I may write another article on later, but for now just know that you need to draw what you see, not what you think. This one thing will improve your drawing more than anything else.
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