Many people want to know where to begin with my drawing lessons, but the truth is that they weren’t written in any order with the exception of the Line Drawing Lessons One through Four plus Drawing From Life With Expressive Line. They are listed below. I suggest starting with those lessons because they will give you a good basic set of drawing skills.
The rest of the lessons will fill in the gaps that are missing and none of them need to be learned in any particular order.
- Line Drawing Part One – How To Use A Viewfinder – Make a simple frame viewfinder and learn how to use it to draw accurately.
- Line Drawing Part Two – Draw From Life With A Viewfinder – Use a viewfinder to take the first steps into drawing from life.
- Line Drawing Part Three – Draw From Life Using Sight Size – Draw from life using classic freehand style.
- Line Drawing Part Four – Enlarge or Reduce While Drawing From Life – Learn how to enlarge or reduce the drawing from where you are, instead of moving closer or father away. The lazy person’s guide to sight size drawing. :)
- Drawing From Life With Expressive Line – Draw the world with line that expresses what you see and feel.
- Drawing Exercise – Circles And Lines From My Sketch Book – A line drawing challenge that sharpens your life drawing skills.
- Three Dimensional Pyramids with Gradations – Make three dimensional form with pencil gradations. Use three different pencil grades to shade pyramids and create realistic depth.
- Shade a Ball – Learn to shade a simple ball with an easy side of pencil technique.
- 30 Days To Drawing Success – If you want to increase your drawing know-how or revive it, drawing for 30 days in a row seems to work for everyone and for every skill level. This is how I do it.
- Shading For Beginners, A Pyramid, Half Sphere, And Cylinder – Learn to shade these basic shapes with a flat pencil tip that creates a consistent texture throughout this drawing. There’s a video that goes with this lesson.
- From 2D Design To 3D Shape With A Pencil And A Plan – Nice and easy gradation makes this 2D design rise up into 3D form.
- Texture Hatching Technique – Draw this pine cone by erasing from and hatching into the mid range value.
- Draw a Spring Beauty Wild Flower – Make a line drawing of a wild flower using simple shapes.
- First Steps In The Art Of Pencil Drawing – A beginners guide to the art of graphite pencil drawing including the type of pencils to buy and basic instruction on how to use a drawing grid.
- Draw Simple Flowers – Draw simple flowers with circles and ovals as guides.
- Mindless Drawing – Daydreaming is a good thing, but shading makes it awesome!
- Organic Form Gradation – use pencil gradations and attention to lighting to create three dimensional organic form.
- Step by Step Draw Along – Draw Your Coffee Mug – Draw your mug in seven steps with a few simple drawing tools.
- Create Three Dimensional Form with Value – How to draw modeled form with value by drawing a still life.
- Draw a Scallop Shell in Six Steps – Learn how to sculpt form by erasing highlights and adding shadows to a “base” value.
- Draw a Shiny Ornament in Six Steps – Shiny ornaments have lots of reflections which are challenging but fun to draw. This drawing lesson shows you how to draw them in simple steps.
- Draw a Rosebud – Step by step instruction on how to draw a simple rosebud with graphite pencil.
- Draw A Cat In Four Steps (more or less) -Follow along as I sketch a friend’s cat. Instructions and a slide show.
- Drawing With Masks – Surround part of the drawing with a mask to get details and values under control.
- Draw a Horse – This online drawing lesson is fully illustrated and my realistic technique is explained in detail.
- Sketch a Yarn Ball – Turn a sphere into a yarn ball.
- Draw An Open Rose – Learn a combined shading technique that builds on basic shading to draw this realistic rose.
- Shaded Graphite Mandala – Explore the boundlessness of ordinary pencil drawing.
- Draw Realistic Tree Bark Textures – Learn to draw smooth and rough tree bark texture in simple steps.
- Drawing (Painting) With Powdered Graphite – Use powdered graphite that you make yourself to create an egg shape.
- Drawing Exercise – Circles And Lines From My Sketch Book – This exercise strengthens your ability to visualize abstract shape and see geometric relationships.
- How To Use A Value Scale and Value Cards – Printable scale and cards.
- Red Horses, Green Fields, and Why Artists Have to Lie – It’s all about value.
- Key – What It Is, Why It Matters To Your Drawings, And How To Change It (Part One)
- Key – What It Is, Why It Matters To Your Drawings, And How To Change It (Part Two)
- Two True Lines – Use your pencil as a tool to find horizontal and vertical lines, plus a couple of other tricks that’ll help you draw accurately.
- Beginning Drawing Practice – Gradation – Draw a Gradation while learning pencil control.
- Beginning Drawing Practice – Smooth Hatching – This drawing exercise teaches you control over your pencil and eraser.
- Beginning Line Drawing – Make a line drawing and use it in many creative ways.
- Blind Contour Drawing – Blind contour drawing is a classic way to warm up before you draw.
- Three Shapes – I shade a pyramid, a half sphere, and a column.
- Still Life Study of Apples – I shade three apples from life.
- Three Pears Line Drawing – I use my pencil and thumb to measure and make a line drawing from life.
- Three Pears – Drawn from life, concentration on shading the pears from the line drawing.
- How To Use A View Finder – Here’s how I use a view finder to find a good composition, and then transfer the basic line drawing to paper.
- All Videos
My Drawings
I offer insight into my own drawing style and I’m honest about missteps too.
- Broken Shell In Graphite Pencil – I draw a broken shell that symbolizes hidden strength.
- Begonia With Mixed Textures – I draw a begonia with both blended and non-blended hatching and do not care for the result.
- Winter Leaf – I create a winter leaf portrait.
- Late Autumn Leaf – I draw a colorful autumn leaf trio in grayscale with only moderate success.
- Lilac Leaves – After a long search and a reluctant muse, I draw big lilac leaves around tiny buds.
- Redbud Leaves In Michigan – In this slightly wonky composition, I practice working on Fabrino Artistico Hotpress watercolor paper instead of my usual Arches.
- Begonia Leaf Drawing – I use my non-blended method to draw these begonia leaves, right down to the tiny dot detail that covers the main leaf.
- Begonia Drawing – An odd looking composition inspires me to draw this begonia.
- Succulent Drawing In Graphite – I draw this small succulent with only two pencils and a brush.
- Dried Leaf Study in Graphite – I use my non-blended method to created a three dimensional study of a leaf. I talk about how values fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and how important hard and soft edges are.
- A Shell Study In Graphite – I use my brush blending technique to create a shell study. I talk about how to light a small still life and discuss form and detail.
- Autumn Leaf With Raindrops In Graphite – To celebrate a very wet autumn, I draw a leaf with raindrops.
- Mixed Leaves And An Artistic Slump – I draw more of my beloved foliage while wondering if I should pursue abstract art.
- Begonia Blossom In Graphite – I draw a bright orange flower in graphite and am not too disappointed in the result.
- Redbud Leaves in Summer – A larger than normal drawing for me that turned out rather flat.
- Xerographica Drawing In Graphite – I draw my huge Xerographica air-plant with swooping and curling leaves.
- Grape Leaves in Graphite – These grape leaves were drawn in my new non-blended method that I’m experimenting with more and more. Also, I used different paper and pencils than normal and the world didn’t turn upside down!
- Bee On Begonia – This bee caught my eye last summer and I snapped an in-focus reference photo that I was proud of. This year I finally decided that I liked the composition well enough to draw it.
- Redbud Leaves While Riding The Waves Of My Bipolar Mind – I drew Redbud leaves in a completely new style while spinning through a Bipolar hypomanic episode. Eventually, I came back down to earth, and the art isn’t bad.
- Hosta Leaf In Autumn – A drawing that kept me me dancing, down to the very last pencil stroke, trying to balance pattern, detail, and form!
- Imperfect Rose Drawing – I draw a scarred rose from my reference photo, talk about being an INFP, and how I feel my way through a drawing in the same way I feel my way though life.
- Two Begonias Drawn In Graphite – I choose two begonias to draw through emotion, then immediately panic when there isn’t enough detail to draw them as I usually do. Thankfully, my intuition steps in at the last moment to save the day. Whew!
- Peony Flower In Graphite – I draw a peony from a photo reference and tell you how I soften edges, darken backgrounds evenly, and discuss the importance of value.
- Dogwood Flower Drawing – I show you how I draw a dogwood flower from a photo reference and explain eraser and hatching techniques that I’ve developed over the years.
- The Whales Have Taken Flight – High flyers and low drifters, we wish them all a good journey on the Isle of Carol.
- Sea Shell (Junonia) Grid Drawing – I used a grid drawing app to get started, and then went crazy tying to draw all the detail on this shell.
- Talking With Doodles And Other Things That Make Life More Fun – What’s more fun than playing with doodles? Nothing!
- Doodled Olives From Outer Space! (Unstuffed) – In spite of the possibility of universal collapse, here’s how I created hollow spheres in space.
- Figure Drawing for Artists Who Don’t Have a Figure – Figure drawing strategies for artists who don’t have a model.
- How to Make and Use Powdered Graphite – Powdered or loose graphite (the same stuff that pencil leads are made of) can be applied to a drawing with a brush.
- Quick Sketching – I create form with shadow and light in three steps.
- Drawing Texture Technique on Queen Ann’s Lace – my “layered” technique for building very detailed textures.
- The Secret Of Small Art – why I love to make small drawings.
- How I Draw – my art making process.
- The Memory Of Aspen Leaves In Autumn – Sweet smelling round leaves that I draw from memory.
- Smiling Huskberries – Botanical drawings of the Huskberry, which is found only on the Isle of Carol
- Wrapped Pears Beyond The Edge – I discover there’s more to this drawing when I look past the edge.
- Tongue Shellfish From The Isle of Carol – I highlight the odd Tongue Shellfish and how I drew it.
- Coral Tresses Graphite Drawing – A quirky drawing of very odd coral with lots of texture and twists and turns.
- Ink And Graphite On The Easel – What worked, what didn’t, and what might! I love combining ink with graphite.
- How Do You Plan A Drawing – I’m not much of a planner. I’m more of a finder. I either find my drawings around me or in my head. Nevertheless, I do my best to explain how to plan them. Whew!
- Three Grim Spring Drawings – It’s spring again, and my mind turns to the macabre.
- Buddy The Art Cat – A step by step drawing of the cat who guarded my pencils and stole my erasers for 12 precious years on earth. He now continues his guardianship in spirit, and I’m pretty sure he’s still stealing my erasers.