Start to Draw (Part 1)

Back in August last year, I started to draw. Why? I just read 'Digital Minimalism' by Cal Newport (a must read imho, go ahead and read it!) and in that book Cal advocates for a digital detox (which I did in July) and replacing all the free time you get back by a new hobby/activity, preferably one where you create something. The endorphin/dopamine rush you get by creating something, is a better high than the endorphin/dopamine rush you get from doom scrolling. So I picked up a totally new hobby, something that I could do from the comfort of my home, at all times, for cheap, and without a screen: enter pencil and paper! We started learning to draw!

So I went out to my local art supply store and picked up a set of pencils, an eraser and a pencil sharpener. I picked up this book: "Learn to draw in 30 days" by Mark Kistler and followed that for a month. It starts out with a simple sphere on day 2, two spheres on day 2, a whole bunch of spheres on day 3, then some cubes, etc, etc. And by the end of the month you draw a human face, a hand and and eye. And you have a sketchbook with 30 drawings, and you know the fundamentals of drawing and shading with pencil. Awesome! I highly recommend this for a total beginner. It encourages you to build a daily habit, of spending 15-30 minutes to draw something, it has easy exercises that build on each other and gradually improve and it's a fun book.

Here's some examples from my sketchbook:

Where to continue from here? Next up I picked up 'Drawing on the right side of the brain' by Betty Edwards (both the book and the workbook), and I'm currently still working my way through it! The science in the book is a bit dated, but the exercises to get your analytical brain to shut up and your creative brain to take over do work! The basic idea is that when you want to draw, let's say an eye, your analytical brain goes: an eye. I know that! It's a round thing with a black circle in it. Here you go! And poof, you draw a circle with another circle in it. This is called symbol drawing. But in reality an eye can be almond shaped, or a triangle, or lemon shaped, depending on the angle where you're looking from. So you need to shut your analytical brain up and let your creative brain take over. The easiest way to do this is to try drawing something upside down. Your analytical brain goes: "yea, no way I'm doing this" and shuts down, and your creative brain can take over and goes: "oh wow, this is an intriguing shape, and this line wobbles a bit like that, and goes on for about this long" and you loose all sense of time and get drawn in to the details of the subject and you draw what you see, instead of what you think you see (the symbols).

Here's some examples of my work from the Drawing on the right side of the brain workbook:

And that's basically all I've done for the last half of last year, learning to draw. I tried a couple things, branched out and filled a few sketchbooks. But most of all: I had fun! And I spend less time on my phone doom scrolling, but instead researched things, learned things, created things!

Some final remarks for fellow starters:

• Draw bigger! When you start out, you don't have the mechanical skill in your fingers to draw tiny details yet. So draw bigger, it encourages you to draw from your elbow/shoulder instead of your wrist, which is what drawing is all about! Paper is cheap, just use printer paper and fill pages and pages and pages!
• Draw a little every day! Build a habit! It's better to draw 10 minutes each day for a week, than to draw 3 hours on a single day. Drawing requires mechanical skill in your hands, neural pathways to form between your eyes and your hand. They form better when you practice regularly!
• Everyone can learn to draw! Drawing is a skill like riding a bike, driving a car. At first you can't do it, then you learn to keep your bike upright, and before you know it, you can drive with your eyes closed and without your hands holding your steering wheel!
• Take your sketchbook everywhere, and draw everything! Buy a little sketchbook and a pen. Bring it everywhere and if you have 5 minutes, draw something you see. Or just draw some boxes, or circles. Doodle a bit, some shapes. Do some value exercises. Try some textures/shading. Draw your coffee mug (I've drawn mine like 100 times already)