Drawing Exercises to build a solid foundation!
If you are a beginner in drawing, you might ask yourself, HOW and WHERE do I start? It can be quite intimidating. Even though I don’t draw and paint realistically, it is so helpful to have some knowledge about drawing and be able to draw from imagination or modify it to my liking. To help you on your journey I created a series of posts about drawing fundamentals that I will complete in time. You will find videos and some fun exercises to practice. Drawing is such a great passion! ARE YOU READY ?
Everyone can learn how to draw!
Hard work beats talent, when talent isn’t working hard!
Let’s build a solid Drawing Foundation
Drawing needs practice, so do not get frustrated when it takes a bit of time. Stick to it and calm your mind by saying: ‘I can’t wait to see how well I will be drawing just in a few months!
These exercises are here for you to understand some basic knowledge. It will help you even if you aim for a more loose or expressive style. Rules are here to be understood but also broken. Have fun.
- Let's build a solid Drawing Foundation
- Drawing exercise 1: Breaking everything down into familiar shapes
- Drawing exercise 2: Contour drawing
- Drawing exercise 3: Let's have fun practicing outlines
- Drawing exercise 4: Draw what you SEE not what you KNOW
- Drawing exercise 5: Ink pen drawings
- Drawing exercice 5: Drawing texture
- Drawing exercise 6: All about Values
- Drawing exercise 7 – Shading with a water soluble ink pen
- Keep me informed about drawing posts
Drawing exercise 1:
Breaking everything down into familiar shapes
We all know how to draw an oval, circle, square, or rectangle. In this lesson, we will break down our subject into the shapes that work best. We need to forget what we are drawing and simply look at shapes.
This is my gorgeous cat Timy, posing for us today!
Go to Lesson – How to start a drawing
Drawing exercise 2:
Contour drawing
Another way to draw is to concentrate on the outlines and observe them with care.
What is next to the glass jar?.. is the lemon touching the line of the glass behind?
There is a simple way to go about this. We will NOT draw and finish one object after the other but study and compare the relation between them and link them before they are completely drawn.
You will see what I am talking about. Blogpost includes video and drawing exercises.
Go to lesson : Outline drawings! Two tips that will help you improve!
Drawing exercise 3:
Let’s have fun practicing outlines
There are some drawing exercises that are so PRECIOUS to me, because they are bringing me back, over and over to a CREATIVE way of drawing with wonky expressive lines! It has a lot to do with letting go and developing your EYE-HAND connection.
Blind drawing
Do not look at all at your drawing but keep your eyes during the whole exercise on your subject. Observe all the details and slowly move your hand over the page. Just fantastic for observation! …and I LOVE the spontaneous outcome!
Go to the lesson: Outline drawings! Two tips that will help you improve!
A line is not just a line
A line can say so much! Explore your materials
Go to the full lesson : Outline drawings! Two tips that will help you improve!
Drawing exercise 4:
Draw what you SEE not what you KNOW
Let’s trick your bossy brain
It is amazing how our brain works. We are used to seeing things in a certain way. Mugs from above, houses from the front, etc. The moment your mug stays on a shelf, way above your eye-line, you do NOT see INSIDE THE CUP and still, your brain will insist that you should draw the inside.
Mus as we are used to see them 
A mug that is above our eye-line does not show any ellipses
You actually would draw so much better if you don’t listen to your brain and simply DRAW WHAT YOU SEE!
Join me for the following drawing exercise: We will draw an image that is upside down. Believe me, you will do GREAT!
Go to the full lesson: Upside down drawing – Let’s trick your bossy brain!
Drawing exercise 5: Ink pen drawings
When using an ink pen, we simply work in lines, also to create depth or shadows. But for the time being, let’s play with some basic strokes to render ordinary objects interesting!
What ink fine liner should I use?
There is a vast choice of ink fine line pens on the market and many great brands are proposing them. Most of them are waterproof but they also exist water-soluble. Depending if you would like to use watercolor on top you can make your choice.
If you can get a set with different size tips, that is great! It will allow you to play with different size strokes.
In case you are a bit on a tight budget even with one you will be able to greater wonderful dawings! (If I only had one I would buy a 0.5mm)
Go to full lesson: Simple ink drawings to get you started!
Drawing exercice 5: Drawing texture
Drawing texture renders our drawings so much more expressive. My favorite tools for it are charcoal and fine line pens. I love to find different ways to render texture not necessarily very realistic but a translation of what I see.
Go to full lesson: Drawing texture in an easy way about texture hop over to:
Drawing exercise 6: All about Values
What are values?
Values are the lightness or darkness of the colors of a painting or drawing. If you take any color picture and modify it into a black and white picture you can see the different values.
Imagine drawing or painting this. Are the red leaves as dark as the green? and how dark is the wood or the negative space in between the leaves?
Here we got the results. While working from an image we can also make adjustments. For example why not going lighter with the negative space in between the leaves, or make the red petals much darker? Hop over to the blog post and join me for some drawing exercises.
While drawing in 4-5 values we often paint in 7-10 different values.
Go to full lesson: What on earth are values?
Drawing exercise 7 – Shading with a water soluble ink pen
I used to get so annoyed when using accidentally a water-soluble pen and my lines started bleeding black while applying watercolors!!! Uffhh.. But I finally figured out how to take advantage of this characteristic!
While using a water-soluble medium, draw your lines and then activate them with some water and a brush. It is an easy and fun way to add shading.
What mediums can I use?
Anything that is water-soluble. Color pencils, Neocolor II, Stabilo aquarellable, the regular ink fountain pens are mostly water-soluble.
Watersoluble fountain pen drawing 
Using the water soluble pen for shading
To find out more go to the full blog post and check out the video tutorial: Making the most out of water-soluble pens for sketching
I will keep adding once in a while more lessons. If you want to be notified about new drawing tips sign up. (I will not send it to all blog subscribers, since not everyone would be interested)