Interesting Pencil Sketching Exercises

By Darren WK Chow

First, let's talk a little bit about what makes a good pencil sketching exercise. 

Well, I don't know about you but I personally find shading squares and basic shapes to be the most boring pencil sketch exercises in the world. But you still find them around.

Some pencil sketch tutorials will ask you to shade squares just to get some blending practice. But I find that ineffective and exceedingly boring. And I tell myself there must be a better way to learn pencil sketching.

The problem with shading squares is that squares have no meaning. They don't represent still life, and they don't represent a living thing. Therefore, such exercises don't really stretch the muscles of the artist.

And anything that's not a real challenge isn't going to help anyone become a world class artist. If you're a beginner, you may want to consider some alternative exercises.

What you can do is that you may want to pick just one simple subject that you would like to draw. Don't be too overly ambitious if you're just starting out. Just one good one will do. I suggest choosing something like a soft toy or a plant. These subjects have simple basic forms and shapes and are perfect for sketching exercises.

Next, when you proceed with your drawing, keep in mind that this is just an exercise. So your primary goal is not to create the perfect sketch. Instead, you should constantly remind yourself that since this is just an exercise, you should try as much as you can to experiment. Be adventurous! This is just an exercise, so there's no need to be timid.

Draw all kinds of lines if you can. Experiment with all the different shades of pencils. Use different types of drawing paper and observe what happens. 

This will keep you busy for hours, and in my opinion, even though the approach is a little hap-hazard, it's still much better than just shading squares. No boring squares for you and me. Geez

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com].

Article Source: Interesting Pencil Sketching Exercises

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Pencil Drawing Tutorials

By Darren WK Chow

There are many reasons why you are searching for pencil drawing tutorials. You could be looking to improve your drawing foundation, or you could be looking for more drawing tips that'll help you improve your overall drawing skills.

Whatever your reason may be, you should at all times, be able to recognize good drawing tutorials when you really see them. This article will help you distinguish the good pencil drawing tutorials from the poor ones.

The first thing that you should notice about the tutorial is whether it has a clear objective. What exactly is the tutorial trying to teach you? If the objective is hard to grasp, I can assure you it's not going to be a tutorial that you like. Without a specific goal, it's hard to imagine how the tutorial actually manifests itself.

Also, a good tutorial should only have one specific goal at any one time so as not to confuse or overwhelm the reader.

If it does have a specific goal, the next thing you should be looking out for is whether the problems or challenges are properly defined. How much does the author understand you? The more the author understands you, the better he or she will be able to define the problem.

Only when the problem is clearly defined can we arrive at the right solutions. The defined problems should be in support of the goal. These are roadblocks that need to be overcome. I constantly remind the readers of my Home Study Course of the roadblocks that they'll come across before presenting any solutions.

Sometimes, you may not even be aware of these problems. Here's an example. Do you know that there's a method to capture the proportions of any drawing exactly the way you want it? If you're not aware of it, you won't be seeking to overcome this roadblock.

So a good tutorial with clearly defined problems can really help you out. By the way, the key to nailing proportions is to follow a fixed system. But it's beyond the scope of this article to expand on this.

Coming back to the essence of this article, the final thing that you need to note is that good pencil drawing tutorials should have solutions that are presented in a conversational style.

The conversational style is the most effective communication style. It makes the tutorial easy to read and understand.

So there you have it. Looking for these three elements the next time you're searching for good pencil drawing tutorials.

Darren Chow is the founder and developer of MyArtPassion.com, an online website that offers free drawing lessons, home study courses, and other drawing related resources.

For more free resources like the one you've just read, please visit MyArtPassion.com [http://www.myartpassion.com] for free online drawing lessons [http://www.myartpassion.com].

Article Source: Pencil Drawing Tutorials

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