Can four stage drawing improve your skills? Try it and see!

Today I’m going to share a method that can greatly improve the quality of your drawings, but may feel a bit strange at first. So if you’d like to join in, first you will need to find something to draw. It’s good to choose something small and fairly simple, and it needs to be a physical object you can hold and observe, perhaps a single piece of fruit?

Here is what I’ll be attempting to draw:

Stage 1:

Once you have a chosen subject, the fun can begin, first divide your sketching page into 4 sections by horizontal and vertical line halfway across/down the page. In the first square, we will do our first drawing. Here there are no rules, just take 5 minutes and free draw the object. This drawing almost serves as a baseline reference so you can learn with each stage of this process. Don’t worry if this drawing isn’t one you are happy with, hopefully by step 4 you’ll be able to look and see your progress. It’s okay to take a moment and look at your drawing and evaluate it before moving to the next drawing.

Please don’t laugh but here’s my stage one result:

Stage 2:

For our second drawing in the next square things are going to get a bit interesting. This time we are going to do a blind contour drawing. What does that mean? It means for this 5 minute sketch, while we are allowed to look at the object, and lift our pencil from the page, we are not allowed to look at the page at all while we draw. No peeking, just focus on the object you are drawing, and take 5 minutes to do a blind contour. Don’t worry if this drawing looks a total mess, the goal at this stage isn’t about the accuracy of the drawing, it’s about really focusing on seeing the object you are drawing. When you are done, you may even notice you have a better perspective on some mistakes you may have made in your first drawing.

Oh goodness what a mess! Blind contour indeed:

Stage 3:

Alright time for our third drawing, don’t worry you can look at the page for this one, but now you aren’t allowed to lift your pencil from your paper because it’s time to work in the third square of our page and do a continuous line drawing. That may mean you have to trace back over what you’ve already drawn but it’s important not to lift your pencil from the paper. You could say this step helps you focus on proportions and connections as you draw, you may even find this drawing looks better than your first thanks to what you’ve learned in your first 2 sketches. So take 5 minutes again, don’t lift your pencil, and draw once more!

Stage 4:

That brings us to the fourth square and our last step, time to make your finished drawing, so just like your first free drawing, no rules, just draw. Hopefully you’ll have things you noticed and learned from your first 3 drawings that will help make this last 5 minutes more effective!

Here you go, my final result:

Overall if you do try this 4 stage drawing technique, while your final drawing may not be perfect, hopefully you will be able to see how you improved, and may feel motivated to try it again. You can also use 4 separate sheets of paper of course, and increase the time you spend with each stage as the complexity of your drawing increases.

Believe it or not these blind contour and continuous line drawing methods are a common tool for beginner artists just learning, but are still used by experienced artists as well. I hope you will take some time to give it a try, I know the first time I did I was shocked at the results!

• Do you like to draw or do you find you get intimidated looking at a blank page?

• If you draw, do you have any other tips or tricks to improve your skill?

• So, will you try drawing in four stages? If you do, I hope you will share your results! If you are stuck for an idea maybe pull out a cup or mug and draw that!

https://forms.gle/tSRzfxpQJvvYpZXh6 Feedback & Ideas Form, Share your ideas!

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