How to Draw

Begin by considering the remarkable history of drawing, a history that has produced knowledge, methodology, and techniques that are readily learnable. Assess common misconceptions about talent and genius; discover how learning to see analytically and abstractly helps us draw; and try your first drawing exercise, retracing what our ancestors drew 80,000 years ago.

Here, investigate drawing materials you'll use throughout your lessons. Learn about artists' graphite pencils, charcoal, brush and ink, and drafting and measuring tools. Then learn how to set up your work area, and how to place both yourself and your subject vis-a-vis your drawing board or easel.

Explore essential first drawing exercises and learn how you will apply the skills developed here to much more complex subjects. Grasp how the curriculum - spanning the many pieces making up the "grammar" of drawing, such as composition, proportion, perspective, value, texture, and color - fits together, providing you with the knowledge and ability to explore your own creative vision.

Learn about contour line, which describes the outer edges of objects, and construction line, which helps you build the objects you draw. Discover how to draw individual objects by constructing them from basic geometric shapes. Also learn about aggregate shape, which unites a drawing's disparate individual elements.

Now investigate cross-contour line (which can transform flat shape into a volumetric solid), oblique or foreshortened shapes, and their relation to geometric solids - principles that allow you to make objects appear three-dimensional. Also grasp the relation of figure to ground within a drawing, and practice drawing three-dimensional still lifes.

Explore the vital concept of negative shape, the shapes existing between the positive shapes representing the objects on the page. Study how artists conceive of negative shape and use it in constructing their compositions. In still life exercises, practice intentionally drawing both "positive" object shapes and the "negative" shapes between them.