The #1 Secret to Drawing

who does not want to be able to draw and do it well the problem is that most people believe that they cannot draw although they would love to be able to do it well the good news is that

drawing

is a skill that anyone can learn and develop and, like any other skill, Drawing requires a little knowledge and practice. Now the practice is up to you, but in this video I will give you some important knowledge that can dramatically affect your

drawing

ability. with virtual instructor.com and in this video I am going to share with you what I believe is the number one

secret

to drawing and once you accept the

secret

and apply it to your practice, your entire perspective on drawing could change dramatically for many people .

I think drawing is about making marks and yes this is true, you have to make marks to make a drawing but there is so much more to it than just making marks. Our drawings are the result of making marks on a surface, but the real essence of the drawing is about What's going on here between your ears? Michelangelo is quoted as saying that a man or woman paints with his brain, not with his hands, so what the hell does that mean? It means that our brain is actually more involved in the drawing process than our hands and what part. of our brains are more involved, well let's see if we can figure this out, so we're going to do some drawing exercises and to get the full effect, feel free to pause the video before continuing with the next drawing exercise.

I need a sheet of paper and a pencil for our first drawing exercise. I would like you to draw a hammer. You know, a hammer you'd use to drive some nails. Just an old hammer of your imagination. Don't watch anything to create this first drawing now is a good time to pause the video so your drawing can continue. I'll wait, okay, now that you've done your drawing. I will make my drawing of a hammer using only lines from my imagination, come on Hammer. It has a metal end that is used to drive nails and then of course a wooden handle here is a look at my hammer taken purely from imagination with zero percent observation.

Well, now have this drawing at hand, but put it aside for now. to create another drawing, but this time we are going to have some restrictions. This time we will see a hammer. Now I'll use a reference photo and it will be on the screen for you, but if you want. use the same photographic reference. I'll leave a link in the description below and it will take you to a page where you can access the photo reference yourself. Now for this drawing we will see the photographic reference but you cannot look at it. your drawing paper Yes, you heard right, you can't look at your drawing paper, we will only see the reference photo and not the drawing, but wait, there is more, we will create this drawing using only one line, this means that once we place the pencil to the drawing surface we cannot lift it again the objective here is to choose a place to start looking at the hammer and try to move your hand with your pencil at the same speed and angle at which your eyes move over the reference this It's called drawing a blonde contour line, don't worry about how your drawing will look, just focus on observing and moving your hand with the pencil, now is a good time to pause the video so your drawing continues.

I'll wait, okay? It's my turn to create the drawing try not to laugh well I'll start here with the tip of my hammer and I'm not looking at the drawing paper I've already placed my pencil on the drawing paper and I'm trying to I move my eyes at the same speed as the that I move my pencil over the surface. Remember I'm not looking at the drawing paper. I only move my eyes at the same speed as I move my pencil on the paper. Of course, you're watching this and you're watching my drawing develop, and although some of the wands look a little like a hammer, they don't look very controlled, in fact, it looks like I'm creating this drawing in a school. bus in the middle of an earthquake, so what we have now are two drawings, one from our imagination without any observations and another that was created purely with one hundred percent observation, the drawing accurately is somewhere between these two drawings and now here is the big secret drawing. at least 50 percent of observational drawing is about what is seen and recording what we see in the form of marks, think about it, we can't take a photo of something without pointing a camera at it, we can't draw something accurately without looking at it now , come on create a final drawing and we will use the same reference photo, but this time we can look at the reference photo and we can look at our drawing paper and yes, this time we can also take our pencil, this time we will concentrate. in moving back and forth with our eyes from the reference photo to the drawing paper continually making comparisons with what we see in the reference and what we see on the paper, so we will spend about half our time looking and the another Halfway through our time making marks now is a good time to pause the video to keep your drawing going.

I will wait and now create my drawing using 50 observations. Okay, now we have some freedom we can look at. our reference and we can look at the drawing paper and of course now we can also take our pencil, so now we are making comparisons between what we see on the reference and the marks that we are making on the drawing paper, in fact, it is a continuous process of going back and forth with our eyes between the reference photo and the drawing paper all the answers are there waiting for us in the reference photo all we have to do is see them and place them in the correct location on the drawing paper and This is the essence of drawing, it's all about observation, as you can see here, the hammer drawing I'm creating looks much more like a hammer than our blonde contour line drawing, so of course once I I have.

With my basic lines in place, I can come back with a darker, bolder line, of course establishing the actual contour line drawing of the hammer and now that's a much more accurate drawing, so there you have it. The number one secret to drawing is that drawing is at least 50 observation it's about what's going on between your ears a little more than just making marks on the surface and when you practice your drawing you should also practice your observation skills because ultimately , drawing is about observation. Thank you very much for watching this video, I hope. You enjoyed it.

I hope you were able to learn a few things here and there. If you're new to the channel, be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell to be notified when we post new videos like this. If you want to take your drawing and painting skills to another level, I suggest you check out the membership program at virtualinstructor.com, which includes a variety of drawing and painting courses on a variety of drawing and painting mediums and topics that we also have weekly. live lessons that are all recorded and stored in our vault, weekly critiques as part of member minutes, and a year-long curriculum for visual arts teachers.

If you would like to learn more about our program and start your free trial today, I will leave you a link. in the description below thank you again for watching this video and as always I wish you all the best in your artistic success.