How to Master Drawing Skills Without Thinking “Oh, I’m Too Old to Learn”

Fine art is a true passion for many people and it doesn’t really matter at what age you’ve decided to learn it. If this process brings you joy, you only get the benefits of becoming a much more advanceable person. And this is not about gaining material things. Actually, this is about something much more than that. What are we talking about? 

Okay, once you dive deep into learning fine art, everything will start to come near you slowly but steadily. And if you truly love Drawing, then you’ll definitely become a good artist at any age. There’re plenty of great artists who started their art journey later in life and, yet, they created such marvelous art! 

As an example, go online and look up some of the artworks by Louise Bourgeois and Grandma Moses. Aren’t they great? Today, we see their names in the hall of fame of the most talented and prolific artists. And both of these ladies started in their older years! So, don’t worry about anything, master your Drawing Skills, and make your dream come true of becoming an artist.

In this blog post, we’ll give you some tips on how to start learning drawing skills and progress fast and easy. Moreover, the main point is – practice drawing with joy and you’ll get great results in a matter of weeks! 

Tip 1. Don’t kill your enthusiasm with frustration while learning drawing skills

In essence, the hardest part is keeping at it. Making yourself draw to practice, making yourself put that brush or pen to paper, and simply draw. Some people can get so frustrated that they feel like they want to throw things out of the window. And you definitely don’t want to feel like that by any means. So, be happy and enjoy!

There are books, videos, and even local inexpensive art classes that will get you going for learning fine art. Buy a decent sketchbook that you can take with you and, at lunch, draw. If you commute, draw while you get a free minute at work. If you have a free hour after work before dealing with dinner, decompress by drawing! 

Tip 2. Don’t be in a hurry while learning drawing skills

Drawing is a skill you can learn at your own pace and squeeze in at any time around your primary responsibilities, such as your job. But this isn’t a race! You have your whole life to learn, improve, and master the art of drawing. Start with simple geometrical shapes, then move to drawing a face, hand, and whatever object. With some of the step-by-step guides available online and e-learning platforms, you’ll realize that drawing faces, adding details, shadows, and light is easier than you thought. 

Again, do not rush your learning process and don’t be too judgemental about your work! This is important if you do not want to quit the process half of the way. Just keep at learning drawing techniques and fine art. Be patient and wait for gradual improvement. Think of the weight lifting analogy – you can’t measure your biceps every day and notice any real progress. But the more you practice the better you become at it!

Tips 3. Listen to intuition for finding own style while working on drawing skills  

With direct drawing and painting (alla prima), use your imagination and intuition right from the start! For example, ask such important questions like: “Does it feel right? Do I like the way it looks?” That’s how you begin to unravel your intuition and become the creator – by asking the right questions to yourself.

If you desperately strive for realism, then the qualifying rule is how close you can get in drawing compared to what you see in the subject that you’re drawing. However, you might stop for a moment and ask yourself: “Is the restitution of appearances really important to me?” Accuracy takes a lot of repeatable practice, time, and many modifications. These are the inseparable parts of the learning process but are necessary for realism.

Tip 4. Focus on learning subskills while mastering drawing skills

If you want to keep it low cost, work with materials that have the highest availability, which is crayon/paper or pencil/paper. Find free lessons on YouTube and start drawing whatever it is you wish to draw. One of the things to remember is that the more you draw (i.e., the more you practice new skills), the better you’ll become at it. 

Try to focus on refining specific subskills like perspective, drawing faces, objects, etc. If you’re interested in drawing the human body, find a copy of Bridgeman’s Drawing from Life that includes everything about anatomy for artists, position, twisting, and a bit of perspective. 

Finally, don’t assume that because your drawing doesn’t look like a photograph that it’s not good. Fine art is all about expression! This means it involves developing a good feel for the tone and finding creative ways of expression. Remember that your “bad art” might actually be a representation of a unique expression that other people will find beautiful! So, you never know and you might be very pleasantly surprised! So, keep at it until you are satisfied with what you are drawing.

Tip 5. Try the tracing picture method for improving drawing skills

The tracing pictures method helps to improve drawing skills in an easier way. So, take a coloring book that you like and start tracing the same picture a couple of times. Don’t get frustrated though feeling like you are in the first grade all over again. 

This technique is very effective but it works just the same way as any other like typing, piano practice, guitar, etc. In other words, give it some time and enough practice! The more you transfer it with your fingers into your brain, the more your brain automatically formats your fingers. After all, the tracing technique is so much fun because you never know what is going to show up on your paper.  

Don’t stop reading about more methods and explore different approaches used for drawing. See if there are any that look interesting to you. And, as time goes by, most likely you’ll realize that your preferences have changed. Because now you know much more about art and can make better judgments about your own works. But, first, start with what really interests you. All in all, finding answers to your questions about fine art techniques depends not so much on your age rather on your motivation, time, and practice. 

Tip 6. Use references for learning drawing skills

References help with learning when you draw a particular subject as well as breaking it up into different shapes. Breaking the reference down into basic shapes will help you draw it from memory. For example, if you’re drawing an apple, it’s easier to draw a circle than block out the rest of its organic shape with the help of your reference. Then it is to try and draw it straight away.

Copying drawings of masters will help you to understand the elements of art much better. You can begin to see how they resolve problems of foreshortening/perspective issues. It will also help you to become more mindful of nuance in values, edges, etc.

Don’t worry in case you aren’t drawing perfectly from the get-go. Heads up, there will be times when you really love your art and are super proud of it. Just keep practicing and work on your skills daily! 

Tip 7. Focus on drawing different objects and learn how to draw with the right proportions 

As you also practice drawing live objects such as birds, plants, flowers, etc., you will train your eye to convert three-dimensional forms into two. You will get better and better at capturing essentials and knowing what details to eliminate. Eventually, you will discover that less can (indeed) be more. And sometimes it is best to mainly focus upon the big by observing an overall unity, rather than merely approaching the drawing as a process of accumulating details.

The most important thing when learning fine art and drawing techniques is to attend to the whole layout and scale of your subject. Beginners usually start with one small area. Imagine drawing a cat. Beginners usually start with the face and often do a good job. But as the drawing progresses, they often find that it’s too far over to one side. Or that it goes off the edge of the paper. Or things don’t line up because the head is too large and the legs too short, etc. Professional artists get these proportions correct before ever getting to the detail.

Also, don’t forget about shading because this is an important aspect to give life to your drawings. Learn to use various pencils – which one to apply where. Once you know that, you can move on to drawing portraits!

Tip 8. Learn and master your drawing skills with the tutors’ help

If the drawing doesn’t come to you easily, then get help from a professional/experienced art tutor. Or go by watching educational videos on YouTube, read articles, and take fine art courses on e-learning platforms. Find yourself a good teacher in fine art whose personality seems appealing to you and whose artworks you admire. Start taking art lessons from this artist! This is one of the most effective ways to improve your work, eliminate your bad habits in drawing, and increase your self-confidence.

A good teacher can give you constructive criticism and help you make the leap into better work. You’ll learn lots of useful and authentic tips and hints on how to use materials that are new to you which also will stimulate your creativity and improve your drawing skills.

Get ‘how-to-draw” a starter pack from Grinfer with these awesome art courses!

Learn the fundamentals of Drawing

Learn how to easily use the rules of perspective and shading with those shapes. And how to apply them to anything else you draw. This course will guide you step-by-step through all the simple techniques that will teach you how to make your drawing look perfect. Also, this awesome art tutorial shows the most effective ways of developing an original style in drawing, teaches how to experiment, and how to explore your artistic uniqueness. 

Drawing Pencil Portraits – Basic Techniques and More

Learn how to draw and sketch beautiful pencil portraits. In this course, you will be presented with a set of unique exercises which will help you advance your drawing skills even further. After taking this class, you will know what art supplies you need and how to use them effectively. You’ll get all the basics of facial measurements and facial anatomy. You’ll start observing the human face as a 3D object and learn how to draw it with the help of shapes. 

Also, this course teaches all about shading and facial planes, shows how to construct the eye, nose, and lips from scratch. This unique art course also teaches how to render a portrait using a photo reference from measuring to the last detail, and more!

Learn to draw anatomy

Learn how to draw human anatomy with plenty of simple techniques that this course provides. After taking this course, you’ll be able to draw any human character you like!  Take this course and improve your skill in drawing anatomy from simple drawings to more complex anatomy drawings.

Landscape Sketching, Tips and Tricks

Learn how to create a three-point perspective sketch of beautiful landscapes. In this course, you get the clearest and easy-to-understand rules of measurement, composition, schematics, linear perspective, and all the sketching process step-by-step. Moreover, this course provides lots of unique tips and tricks that will save your time and effort! 

By the end of this course, you will learn the cool tricks of measuring and counting with a simple strip of paper. You will learn a perspective grid system, how to build up the orthogonal lines, add human figures and cars to landscape, line language in an imaginary landscape, and more!

Bottom-line

Drawing from scratch involves many important factors including your mindset and willingness to learn. Also, you have to learn how to be patient enough while following instructions, finding a good teacher who can convey the necessary skills in ways that fit well with your particular learning style(s), time, materials, and imagination. 

After all, when it comes to art, one of the most important things that you need to learn is having a child-like heart. If you’ll maintain this attitude, you’ll develop your own unique path after understanding all essential steps in drawing. And having your own unique style would be way cooler than anything else you’ve learned about drawing!

By the way, you can master your drawing skills fast and easily with even more art courses on Grinfer. Our online courses are for anybody who loves fine art, wants to learn fine art from ground zero, broaden knowledge in art, or master skills in fine art even further! Doesn’t really matter what level of art skills you have at the moment. You’ll find an art course that is just right for you. Most of the fine art courses were created by our professional and highly experienced artists for absolute beginners. Moreover, there are plenty of courses designed for the intermediate level and higher. 

Most art courses on Grinfer don’t have any strict prerequisites for enrollment. But if you feel concerned about whether one particular course is for your level or not, you can always check courses’ descriptions and watch “welcome” intros for more information. Or simply access any course that you like during our 3-day free trial! Once your 3-day free trial is over, decide whether it’s your cup of tea or not. If yes, subscribe and continue to master your art skills!

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