Hi Guys,

In this post I want to discuss my personal journey over the last few years learning to draw and paint. I’m learning from books and online resources, but I have not enrolled in a course. There are areas where I have made steady progress, and then there are areas where I’m almost at a standstill and have made not much improvement. Along the way I’ve also learnt to do a few things differently. I want to record this and share it with you and a future me.

Fundamentals

When I started learning, I had no background in drawing except that I used to doodle a lot. Initially when I started, I jumped quickly to complex topics like composition while drawing complex subjects. For a few weeks I didn’t make much progress, and then after reading some more - I decided to start from the very basics.

Books like those from Loomis - Fun with a Pencil are excellent books for getting started. I also did several exercises from drawabox.com. There are several getting started books on perspective - I think the best is How to Draw by Scott Robertson.

I’ve made rapid progress in drawing fundamentals like line, shape, form, light and shadow since the time I started almost 2 years ago.

However I still struggle to create entire compositions, or designs from imagination. I struggle to simplify a complex scene properly. Not all my simple drawings are very successful either. In portrait drawing and figure drawing I’m very much still a novice.

And I’ve barely started digital drawing and struggle a lot here. So although there are encouraging signs, I have a long way to go.

In a subsequent post, I’ll probably show examples of where I think I’ve improved, and the areas where I’m not good at all.

I leave you with a picture of Moorish tessellations at Alhambra, which inspired M. C. Escher.

Have a great week,

Abhishek (art noob)