Importance of drawing in the work of an artist

It would be foolish to deny the importance of drawing skills in the work of an artist. Yet during the evaluation of someone’s artwork, I see mistakes in this area all too often. This blog is designed to help artists avoid most common mistakes.

What is the drawing?

Drawing consists of three basic skills. In the matter of importance, it consists of composition skills, proportions and perspective knowledge. Usually masters are skillful in all three areas to the point that it does not stand in the way of creative process. Think of it as an alphabet. Poets create poems using it as a tool without thinking about each letter, just as composers create symphonies without thinking about the scales it consists of.

Instead of dwelling outright in the area of composition, let me introduce you to the academic method of basic drawing. Rather than learning how to draw cars, animals and people, this method is saying that it is enough to understand how to draw primitive forms to draw anything you want. Using this method, even the line drawings get that magical three-dimensional quality. Instead of copying the outlines of the objects such as in Dr. 1, we need to be prepared to draw it as a number of primitives as seen in Dr.2

Dr. 1	Dr. 2

Even more, this method allows you to deal with shades and cast shadows later in the process:

Dr. 3

So far we covered some simple forms but the same method is used on more complicated ones:

Dr. 4	Dr. 5

I use this method all the time when drawing cars, boats etc.

To create compelling composition I need to add, move or delete the cars, people and trees. Knowing how to draw them convincingly and not relying on a photograph much in these areas is key. That gives me the power to adjust my view the way I like it. Special attention should be paid to drawing people. But that will be covered in the next blog.