ART GUIDE: Dos and Don'ts for Beginners - Part 2 - "Line drawing" 🥨

Hi everyone!

This is the second post from a series based on observations of my students' exercises on Domestika. 

✍🏼 Remember that my comments and observations usually apply to people who are just starting their adventure with drawing. Therefore, I refer to these tendencies as "mistakes". Not because there is only one way to do art. It's just worth knowing the rules first in order to be able to break them effectively and consciously.

👾 When I complete a series of these posts, I will create a summary to make everything easy to find and follow 😉

You can find Part 1 - here 📎

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〰️ MISTAKE NO 4: LACK OF HIERARCHY

I believe that in drawing portraits it is very important to focus on specific elements. For one artist it will be a facial expression or an interesting light that creates a particular mood. For another - a mysterious emotion hidden in the eyes. Beginning artists often use lines in a chaotic and indecisive way, which is completely natural because they are still looking for the correct proportions or forms. The lines are then very often the same, multiplied and treated with the same importance.

When you treat all lines with the same attention, it becomes more difficult to guide the viewer's gaze in any particular direction. The lines overlap creating a visual mess. The drawing lacks depth - it appears more flat.

To avoid this effect, you can use smoother paper, a hard pencil and a kneaded eraser. A hard pencil (e.g. HB) is much easier to erase, especially from smooth paper. Do not press the pencil too hard, try to create searching lines with a light hand. When you find the proportions you're satisfied with, roll the kneaded eraser over the drawing to take off some graphite. Then choose which elements will be the key points and draw them with the softer, more black pencil (2B or softer). If you want to add more precise lines - use a mechanical pencil.

This way your drawing will be organized and you will be able to decide what the viewer should pay special attention to in your story. Drawing is often a way of communication and story telling ✍️ 

〰️ MISTAKE NO 5: REGULAR, CLOSED CONTOURS

A regular, closed contour can be used in art successfully, but it's important to be aware of the style it creates. A closed, regular outline usually gives a very graphic effect - it can be used in a minimalistic poster, a comic or in a coloring book. It gives a stylized, cartoonish look. 

Drawing with different contours (or lack of them in some places), gives the effect that is more natural - such as can be observed in nature. The light reflected from an object, often blurs their contours. 

I see this tendency most often when beginning artists draw the lips (including me a few years ago) . The shape of the mouth is very often difficult to find, so when we finally draw it, we make a very fine line around it. But the lips are very subtle and they don't have such clear contours, unless they're outlined with a lip-liner. That's why it's worth breaking the lines where we see a small tonal contrast, if you want to make your drawing look more realistic. 

Our brains have the ability to close shapes that our eyes see, so you don't have to draw the entire outline to show the object. Unless you want to, and it's your conscious stylistic decision 😉 

〰️ MISTAKE NO 5: FLAT PATTERNS OF LINES AND CROSSED LINES

Another very common mistake, is creating lines and crossed lines on undefined planes. This type of shading can make even a well-drawn portrait flat or deformed. Hatching and cross hatching doesn't have to be only about showing shadows and light. It can follow the form of any object.  

Most often I see that the problem is the shading of the cheeks and forehead - the areas with very subtle curves. Try to practice following the form with lines on small objects - preferably on round ones where it is difficult to see the planes.

Contrast within one tonal group drags too much attention. If something is dark - show that it's dark. If you do this with strong and far apart lines, the plane becomes confusing. It contains both: shadow (very dark lines) and light (the squares between the lines) so it drags a lot of attention and it's not clear if it's dark or light 👀

If you are just starting to learn how to shade portraits, try to use very soft lines at small distances. It will give you more control. You can add more layers of such hatching without creating a confusing mess.

Remember that there are exceptions to every rule. Great artists know how to break the rules skillfully. So remember that these "mistakes" are usually made by beginners who don't know yet what they want and how to show it. So use the above rules as indicators, not necessarily strict rules 😉 Remember to do what makes you happy and draw as you enjoy!

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Thats all for today, I'm going to play SpongeBob now 🧽🙃🍔 Byeeee!

Gaby