Any drawing lesson is likely to utilize a building process of difficulty in order to teach the student. This means that the first part of the lesson will be relatively simple, and gradually the rest of the lesson will consist of more difficult drawing techniques. The same will usually occur for a series of lessons; the first few will be easy-to-understand basic principles of drawing certain images, and then will progressively become more difficult.
The first step, whether it’s drawing for kids or for adults, tends to focus on creating the basic structure and shape of the subject matter. So if you are learning how to draw people, for example, then step one will generally consist of rough circular shapes for the head and body, and longer ovals for the legs and arms. To make it easier, often these separate shapes will be joined together and will overlap.
The second step of a drawing lesson is usually when the majority of work occurs. The simple shapes of step one will be partially erased and redrawn with more form and a stronger integration of shapes. The subject matter should now become very obvious, such as is the artist drawing people or apples? A lot of information is put down on paper in this stage and this is where beginners have the most trouble, as they often are unsure of all the techniques they are trying to use.
The final stage is when the pen finally comes out. Up until now the majority of the work was done in pencil, allowing the artist to correct mistakes by erasing. The drawing techniques at this stage need to be mastered as much as possible since erasing is not an option. Detail really comes into play, as the artist outlines all the necessary lines with ink and then erases the pencil drawings, and finally adds shading and other subtle markings to make a complete picture.
A drawing lesson will usually have more steps than just three, but the main movements of a lesson will almost always follow this particular process. You’ll start with the basics of the image, move to manipulating the different shapes, and finally add detail and the last touches required to perfect the drawing. It doesn’t matter if you’re drawing people or landscapes, or anything in between. These are the steps that you will follow and if you are successful, then you’ll produce an image worthy of framing.
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