Improve Your Drawing Ability...Quickly

The most essential tool for creating a nice drawing is the ability to reproduce what you see in the world in your own way.  To "see" a thing in your mind is to be able to see it on a page, physical or digital.  Look at everything, study everything around you, see how it moves or stands still, ask yourself why it IS the way it is.  If you understand something (anatomy, architecture, nature or light) you can reproduce it much better. 

The best way to make your work appealing is to have it connect with something in the "real" world, and this is done by drawing things that are "real."  Of course, reality is everywhere!  Pick something you like to look at and just...draw it! 

A seasoned artist can usually tell when a newer artist has or hasn't used some form of reference, at some point--often times a lack of reference will result in a forced, stilted drawing. You don't HAVE to use an actual model in an actual life drawing class necessarily--people and animals are everywhere--but it's ideal if you can. Trips to the zoo, watching your animal companions; life is everywhere and just waiting for you to interpret it as a drawing!

While the first two tips might seem obvious, and any artist is probably doing these things already, this one might not be so common, but it really helps. 

If you have a specific artist or style you like, particularly when it comes to cartooning, tracing is a great way to start out. 

Like everyone before me and since, I had a difficult time trying to draw Mickey Mouse; there were many nuances that made it difficult to get the character "on model" as we would say at the studios.  I learned by going over and over existing drawings and getting to know the quirks of the character and why the designers did what they did with it.  An example: when drawn, Mickey's ears are placed on his head so that they both show well in a flat drawing but is hard to replicate in 3D; also, Mickey's ears are never completely round, just a *little* bit oblong, in a very specific way.

The same can be true of master works, if you're more interested in fine arts.  At one time, one test requirement to get into the famous California-based art school CalArts was to reproduce, by sketching, a famous existing painting.  It's an excellent way to discover and study the challenges a master artist faced while creating a masterpiece. 

If you're serious about becoming better at drawing it's a good idea to keep a "library" handy; a place, either physical or on a computer, where you can quickly pull up examples of what you're trying to draw--faces, fingers, animals, architecture, things you've collected.  This is well demonstrated in a great, quirky documentary from the 90s, "Crumb," where famous cartoonist R. Crumb displays the library of images he used for his backgrounds and the photographs he culled them from.

This was an interesting piece of advice I got from someone early in my career.  I asked a mentor once, "How do you get your work to look so good?"  She said to me, "I step away from it, come back to it, and if it isn't working...I fix it." 

Just like that?

It's a lot easier in principal than in theory--it takes years to train your eye to what makes some things work and why some things do NOT.  But I have used that advice in all my work since. 

If it doesn't look right, if you aren't happy with it, FIX it, and don't give up until you do.  It WILL improve your ability!

This is probably the toughest thing to do.  No one wants criticism, but it's essential if you want to grow.  Although I believe you learn just as much through success and validation as you do through "failures," you've got to do both; I've yet to meet anyone who was truly an "overnight success." Success always comes at the end of a long trial period of fishing around.

But criticism is essential, that is, if it comes from someone whose opinion you value.  Be wary of showing your work to friends and family who only have your best interests in mind--you want the opinion of a respected, considerate, outsider if you can get it.

One of the best "criticisms" I ever got in life drawing class was, "That's really not very good." 

This was the instructor's honest opinion and it forced me to evaluate how I felt about my own work.  I had to ask myself if I'd achieved what I'd set out to do and, if so, I had to ignore the comment.  If not, I had to accept that there was some validity to it. 

In the end I took a mixture of both and it all helped me on my way to becoming a better artist and more mature adult.

The best way of all to become better at something is to keep doing it, and drawing is no exception!  Most "real" artists I know keep a drawing pad of some kind handy, even if it's a small notebook, so they can draw wherever/whenever.  For years I sketched in my notebooks at work and have recently begun compiling the hundreds of drawings in them into books both for posterity and to share; I'm amazed how many great ideas I've been able to pull out of all those random, quirky sketches I did mindlessly, things I've been able to use later. 

If you really want to get better at drawing the best way is to just keep doing it...but observing some of these tips might just help you push yourself to another level of expertise or personal satisfaction.

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