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Getting started in figure drawing

Recommended tools:

Tons of any type of paper (the larger the better)

A blunt 2B or softer (2B or higher) pencil

Desk or drawing board where your arm will be able to make large circular movements freely without obstruction. (Computer desk's keyboard shelf may be too small and low)

The freehand style of skecthing:

The freehand style of sketching is different from the way most people draw. If you ask a non-artist to draw a circle, they will try to draw one circle with one line, slowly and calculated, at an attempt to make a perfect circle. The freehand style of sketching is the opposite:

First, hold the pencil two to three inches away from the tip. Then, draw circles on top of each other really fast, over and over till it starts to look like there is a good circle some where in there.

The same applies to ellipses.

To draw straight lines, hold your pencil far away from the tip, then you practice "gliding" over the piece of paper" to see if you got your start and finishing points right, then you land the tip and drag the pencil lightly over the paper. If you twitch or miss the end point of the intended line, try again.

The same applies to "S" curves.

Before you start drawing humans and animals:

We strongly suggest you practice drawing ellipses, circles and straight lines. To do this, spend an hour each day ( we know it is a lot but highly effective) drawing these before you start your art work. The way most proffessionals practice this warm up procedure is they take a large sheet of white paper and start filling it with circles ( using the freehand sketching style), one overlapping the next by a half an inch. They fill the sheet with about 1000 circles, then they move to ellipses.


click here to see larger example

They then go to straight lines, where they try to make completly horizontal lines, right next to each other (yet without touching) and then verticle and diagonal lines.


click here to see larger example

To order both books on drawing men, women and animals click here. (60 day money back guarantee)

Written and Illustrated by Cristiano Nogueira
Copyright ©1999 Cristiano Nogueira
Comments, questions, problems, contact Cristiano Nogueira
at
abcd@cflash.com
or call (773) 263 7474

Advanced Learning Systems,
1969 W Evergreen,
Chicago IL 60622

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