Drawing with your eye instead of your mind

Most people at some time or another wish they could draw. Some give up after a few failed attempts. Some never even try, figuring you either have an innate talent or you don't. Everyone understands that for most skills, you need training and practice and in due time you can master them. For some reason, people think drawing doesn't fall into that category, and it does.

What does it mean to draw with your eye and not with your mind? Our mind distorts things. For example, our mind tells us that our eyes are at the top of the oval called our face. Beginning artists will often put the eyes way too high. That's because our mind is fascinated with eyes and gives them way more importance that the forehead or the hair line. In truth (go ahead and measure) our eyes are about in the middle of our face. Beginners also tend to make the eyes way too big for the same reason. Try drawing a face without the eyes, and add the eyes last and you'll see what I mean.

Be aware of negative space. If you are drawing a person standing in a field, the person is the positive space, and the area around them is the negative space. If you draw the negative space first, what's left will look more like the person than if you drew the person first. In other words, if you get the negative space right, everything else will fall into place.

Drawing is based on keen observation. You need a working knowledge of linear perspective, aerial perspective, human and animal anatomy, botany, and the tools of the trade to become an accomplished artist.

For those that say, "I can't even draw a straight line," I hand them a ruler. Work smart, not hard.

Here are some ideas for drawing practice:

Gesture drawings: These are quick sketches done while 'people watching' to just get the action down fast. Work quickly and try to capture people walking, running, reading, diving, playing golf, etc. It is hard to draw well this way, so don't over critique yourself.

Give yourself from 3 to 5 minutes for each drawing.

Continuous Line Drawing: Take a blank sheet of paper. Put your pencil or pen in one spot. Look at what you are drawing. Keep your eyes on the object, not on the paper, and start drawing. Creep your eyes around the object like an ant walking over a statue and draw as you go, making your drawing one continuous line.

Mirror Drawing: Take a drawing you did that you are pleased with and redraw it's mirror image.

Upside Down Drawing: Do the same thing again, with the original upside down.

Overcome white paper syndrome. That's when you stare at a piece of pristine white paper and become afraid to mess it up. Try drawing with a white Prismacolor pencil on dark paper. Or use oil pastels on dark paper. Then instead of the paper always being the highlight, it becomes the mid-tone and you can add the highlights with light colors and the shadows with dark colors.

Take a sketchbook with you wherever you go. Or keep a diary and sketch journal. Some journals have lined pages on one side for writing, with blank pages on the other side for drawing.

Try different mediums. There are watercolor pencils that look just like plain colored pencils, but when dampened turn into watercolor type effects. Try 100% graphite pencils. They have no wood, just a tube of graphite and a delicious thick line. Try oil pastels. Try charcoal pencils (use a fixative to keep smearing to a minimum). Try thick and thin pens, Sharpie markers, dip pens, quill pens. Keep track of what you liked and what you didn't like.

Most pencil erasers suck. Get yourself a fresh kneaded eraser. These look like little gray or colored squares. Give it a pinch. A fresh one will be a bit squishy. If it's hard, it sat in the art store too long.

Use the eraser to erase mistakes, but also use it as a highlighter to add a gleam to an eye or a shine to a dull overworked part of the drawing.

Drawing is one of those things where the more you do it, the better you will get. Books are nice but can't replace actual regular and frequent practice. And if you quit drawing when you were 7, you will draw just like your 7 year old self drew. You don't automatically get better with age. You get better with effort, recognizing your mistakes, and correcting them.

Never give up. The rewards at the end are great.