The Foundation of Good Art

If you really, REALLY want to improve your artwork, you need to understand the foundation of good art. I’m not talking about composition, value, and rendering. I’m talking about something much more basic than that.

Good drawing skills.

The Foundation of Good Art

If you can look at something and are able to translate that object into a drawing, then it doesn’t matter what tools you use. You can create a likeness using a burnt out match stick on a brown paper grocery sack.

Artist Sarah Becktel said something very close to that in a recent interview with John Middick on the Sharpened Artist Podcast. If you haven’t yet listened to that interview, I encourage you to do so. John and Sarah talked about a lot of important topics, so you will learn something.

But I want to share something that I’ve always known, often forgotten, and was reminded of again last summer.

The Importance of Good Drawing Skills

Knowing how to draw freehand—to look at something and make an accurate drawing of it—seems to be a lost art these days. The trend is toward fast and easy, and there’s nothing fast or easy about learning to draw.

I know. I’ve tried.

I’ve also fallen out of the drawing habit.

Has my artwork suffered? In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. For example, the most recent portrait I did began as a tracing. I had to do some freehand drawing to correct photographic distortion, but it was minimal. I had to get the portrait done in the time allowed and in the midst of an already full calendar. So I traced.

There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just another tool.

But I missed the opportunity to really get to know that horse by working my way through the many phases of drawing him by hand. And that’s my loss.

Getting Back to Drawing Freehand

In 2021, I was did two challenges. The first was issued by a friend who listened to my struggles to find time and enthusiasm for drawing. After sympathizing with all my woes, she told me to “just draw something.” She wanted to see my drawing when we met the following week.

So I took a handful of pencils and a few small pieces of paper when we took a cat to the vet, and I sketched while waiting in the car. I sketched later in the day, too, and ended up with two nice sketches of trees. They weren’t masterpieces, but they turned out well.

Fast forward to July 2021…

In mid-July 2021, I heard another podcast from Sharpened Artist. This one was titled Creating Art Authentic to You. Among other things, the hosts talked about sketching.

I remembered the sketches I’d done early that year and decided to try sketching again. To make it more formal, I decided to challenge myself to regular sketching. You can read all about that here.

I met my goal of doing one sketch every day six days a week for the rest of the year, and finished 2021 with a total of 207 sketches. Were they masterpieces? No. At least not all of them.

But I could see an improvement in my ability to create values, and the look of realism with just marks on paper. Most of the time with only one color.

So when I heard Sarah Becktel’s comment, it resonated. She’s right. If you don’t have the ability to look at something and translate it to paper, all of the best colored pencils and paper on the market won’t help you create better art.

So What Can You Do?

The solution is simple. Not easy and not fast, but simple. Start drawing.

You can do a sketching habit like I did or you can do something different. The key is that you do something.

I’d suggest getting an art journal or a spiral bound sketch pad. Something to help you keep your drawings together and in chronological order.

Then draw as often as possible. Every day is best, but if you are really short on time, two or three times a week is better than not at all.

I used to carry a 5×7 inch spiral-bound drawing pad and a few drawing tools (pencil stubs, pens, etc.) in my purse. If we went somewhere and I had to wait in the car (or chose to wait in the car,) I had the tools for drawing. Most of the time, I drew whatever was in front of me, up to and including the utility connections on the back of a store!

I haven’t carried a drawing pad for quite some time, so maybe it’s time I get a new one. Then we can improve our drawing skills together.

The Foundation of Good Art

That’s my opinion.

What’s yours?

If you’d like guided instruction in learning better drawing skills, I can highly recommend John Middick’s Sharpened Artist Academy*. The Beginner’s Colored Pencil Course is a great place to start, but there are also other courses available. For more advanced artists, John offers a colored pencil mentoring program.

Whether you practice drawing on your own, or find a guided course, I do hope you’ll take the time to work on your drawing skills. Knowing how to draw freehand the way you want to draw provides artistic freedom impossible with even the best reference photos.

It’s time all of us started making good use of that freedom.

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