Hi I just started drawing a few days ago and I read the book drawing on the right side of the brain. Is there another book i should be reading?

My drawings are ok but I am having real trouble with getting down shades so they look real?

Also am having trouble with relative sizes of the objects, sometimes there out of position or size?

Also what type of paper should I be using. Ive just been using regular printer paper with a 4b pencil?

Also is there a better way to keep my pencils sharp than a sharpener?

Love the site, and thanks for your help

first of all ... I do not read too many books on drawing ...I found almost everything I needed to know here at DS ...check out the lessons Brenda offers there is help in every area you need help in .

Paper I just asked a question on paper so I am no expert but I must add that we have a awsome artist here amoung our many and he does portraits on printer paper ..and they are just breath takinging beautiful .

I do not use a electric shapener due to it gives me a shaper point and does not eat up my pencil .

Practice makes almost darn perfect lol so I recommend you practice alot at drawing everything you can ...erasers are a wonderful thing

Good questions. You are not alone! Books were fine for me, but I got to a point where was book smart and still couldn't draw. I'd say set the books down and start drawing! Draw the lessons on this site before you pay for another book.

Practice! that's how you learn proportion, shading and composition (and keep practicing!)

If you have a few extra dollars get yourself a few more pencils (maybe a 2h and an hb to complement your 4b). I practice on what ever paper I have in front of me (most the time I throw my practice art in a pile and rarely look at it again), but if you want to spend more money on paper, then get some acid free stuff so it won't fade away.

good luck! and remember "keep drawing until you get what you want out of each piece".

Good luck.

Hi I just started drawing a few days ago and I read the book drawing on the right side of the brain. Is there another book i should be reading?
Personally I don't read books on drawing, maybe one or two for an art final project but nothing more than that. If you want to read and learn a bit more just go look around the library and you should find some stuff that can give some good points ... but a book can't teach you everything :3


My drawings are ok but I am having real trouble with getting down shades so they look real?
If you have the opportunity to take an art class then go for it, it will definately help. However, if you can't there is always practice. Look at objects and draw them using only shading to understand how light hits objects. Stuff I did in artclass alot was make a circle, cube and cone and then shade them with hatching, cross hatching and stipling.


and remember to draw what you see, not what you know :3


Also am having trouble with relative sizes of the objects, sometimes there out of position or size?

When looking at objects that you are drawing use your thumb or a pencil to measure approximate sizes (like in movies when they hold up a thumb and then look at the page) to help you get the sizes right. You can also use a grid to make things easier, be putting it in a paint program and putting a grid over the image.

Also what type of paper should I be using. Ive just been using regular printer paper with a 4b pencil?Also is there a better way to keep my pencils sharp than a sharpener?

I use regular printer paper with an HB mechanical pencil. The mechanical pencil is nice because it is aways sharp and you don't have to sharpen it :3 Really what paper you use depends on what you like and what you are using ... obviously watercolours would work better on whatercolour paper, and ink works better on bristol board, if you find new paper to experiment on then try it out and see if you like it. Otherwise printer paper is fine

Feint made one of the most important points in my opinion: to draw what you see, not what you know.

Thanks for all your replies, I guess ill just keep practicing, isnt the grid thing kindof cheating though, ive done it before in art class when i was in gradeschool and it turned out pretty well, but it seems like kindof a crutch.

I hear what you're saying about the grid method. I do believe Davinci used a grid to do many of his paintings so if you want to call him a cheater...
In my opinion, use any method that will make you feel comfortable. When you excel at using a grid, move on to freehand. I think you should use anything that will aide in your enjoyment with art. That way, you won't become too discouraged and give up.
As to keeping pencils sharp they sell sand paper boards that you can use to sharpen your tip without taking away wood from the pencil. The mechanical pencil is an option too.

There are tons of tricks to getting things the right size, including the lines for perspective, grid drawing and measuring ... just use the grid for now and you'll get better at looking at objects and drawing them the proper size. If you do the grids enough you will probably even be able to do a light sketch of a grid on paper and look at real life and distinguish the points using your imagination :3

Use everything you learn in artclass, it helps, alot! xD

another thing my teacher did, that helped me with sizeing, is sketching fridays where we took charcoal and paper and we would sketch to music. 5 minutes for blind contours (only looking at the image), 1 minute contours (only doing the outline), 10 minute full sketches .... we had a setup of various objects and people and after awhile you could get down the basic sizes of objects, the basic shapes and everything within the time limits. Maybe try testing yourself like that and following the lines of the objects to create the proper sizes :3 (hopefully this makes sense to you)