#drawing warm-up

[oldgirllearnstodraw]

7. Exercise - Doodling

Use as: can be both, but more suited as an exercise

Purposes: - increasing focus and endurance - learning to draw details - helps learning to draw texture (which will be very important later on)

How to: There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:

prepare a template page full of boxes

fill out each box with different forms, patterns, shapes or little drawings 

Tips: - the overhand grip will not work in this case (I believe this at least) stick to the tripod grip - do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the counterclockwise direction) - you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes, but try to keep the patterns in the same size and form as possible - relax!

My humble experience so far: I’m bad at this. I get bored too fast and reall don’t like drawing little details. So basically this is a perfect workout for me! I could imagine this to be a great exercise for many. This does indeep help you focus and endurance, which are both very important if you want to draw good texture (e.g. skin, fur, gras, leaves on a tree...) later. 

With digital drawing tools, this might not be too important, but as soon as you take a pencil and try to draw a picture with a grassfield on half of the canvas you’ll know what I mean. 

I also believe that if you get better in doodling you will also be able to draw faces better, as they tend to have a lots of fine lines wich make the difference between recognizable faces or weird 3-year-old-face-drawing.

Conclusion: A workout for everyone - can work as a warm-up as well, but I’m not relaxed enough for such a tourture ;)

[oldgirllearnstodraw]

4.1 Exercise - Running the track 2

BTW yes this is just an addition to the previous Running the track exercise. So if you don’t want to read the complete text just skip to the my humble experience part for new information.

Use as: can be both, but more suited as a warm-up or exercise for real beginners

Purposes: - learning to draw ovals, circles and straight line or other forms - preparation for drawing circles in one stroke - learning to use different grip variations (all art teacher tutorials urge you to draw with the overhand grip for fluent lines without interruptions)

How to: There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:

prepare a template page full of different length of lines and different sizes of circles and ovals and maybe other forms, or download templates somewhere on the web (I found this one for example on mydrawingtutorials.com)

trace each line, circle, oval and form at least 8 times in each stroke direction (for smaller forms use the tripod grip, for bigger use the overhand grip) (see second pic for a possible result)

Tips: - the overhand grip works way better, the bigger the forms get and most tutors insist that you should only focus on it if you are a beginner or want to improve your sketching skills (I find it hard to do small circles and lines with the overhand grip, so I tend to switch to the tripod grip when the forms get too small, but if you can do it all the way through you should try to stick with it) - do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the clockwise direction) - you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes out of your shoulder - try to trace the lines as good as possible but don’t be too slow, you need to draw all those forms in one stroke if possible

My humble experience so far: My goal is to improve drawing straight lines, circles and ovals. So, I’ve read that you can learn a little by tracing perfect template lines.

As you might know I’ve done this exercise before and didn’t like it at all. Well it’s getting better, but it will never become one of my favorites. But what this second try did for me, was to show me my problematic strokes, which is great. Now I know what I have to focus on in future exercises:

- good with short to medium lines -> need to work on long lines - good from left to right -> need to work on other direction - good with lines top to bottom -> need to work on other direction - good with / diagonal lines-> need to work on \ diagonal lines - good with counterclockwise ovals and circles - need to work on other direction - good with small circles and ovals -> need to work on bigger - good with flat ovals - need to work on more circular ovals and circles

Oh, and the other forms were just a waste of time.

Conclusion: Beginners only workout - will not work for everyone I think

[oldgirllearnstodraw]

4. Exercise - Running the track

Use as: can be both, but more suited as a warm-up or exercise for real beginners

Purposes: - learning to draw ovals, circles and straight line or other forms - preparation for drawing circles in one stroke - learning to use different grip variations (all art teacher tutorials urge you to draw with the overhand grip for fluent lines without interruptions)

How to: There are basically two steps that need to be repeated:

prepare a template page full of different length of lines and different sizes of circles and ovals and maybe other forms (see first pic) - or download one somewher on the web (I found this one for example on mydrawingtutorials.com)

trace each line, circle, oval and form at least 8 times in each stroke direction (for smaller forms use the tripod grip, for bigger use the overhand grip) (see second pic for a possible result)

Tips: - the overhand grip works way better, the bigger the forms get and most tutors insist that you should only focus on it if you are a beginner or want to improve your sketching skills (I find it hard to do small circles and lines with the overhand grip, so I tend to switch to the tripod grip when the forms get too small, but if you can do it all the way through you should try to stick with it) - do the lines in both directions; you will need to be able to do this later! (you can actually see that I make more mistakes in the counterclockwise direction) - you are not drawing a beautiful picture, so don’t focus on perfect forms, focus on fluent strokes out of your shoulder - try to trace the lines as good as possible but don’t be too slow, you need to draw all those forms in one stroke if possible

My humble experience so far: My goal is to improve drawing straight lines, circles and ovals. So, I’ve read that you can learn a little by tracing perfect template lines.

I’ve done this only once, so I wouldn’t give my opinion too much of attention. But if you really want to know, I didn’t like it. It felt like I was limiting myself. And to proof that it had no impact or even impaired my already existing abilities I tried to draw lines and circles freehand right after the exercise and they turned out really bad (see pics 3 and 4).

Maybe I’m just a step further in my learning process. Maybe this workout is something for true beginners only, who really aren’t able to draw a line that resembels a straight line at all. Maybe then, this workout helps. I don’t think I will do this workout often, for me the previous workouts seemed to fit way better.

Conclusion: Beginners only workout - will not work for everyone I think

[mad-ingo-blog-blog]

Pretty girls with laser eyes.