The Drawing Website

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. ~Edwin Land

You've made it to the finish line!

So you're tired of drawing stick figures and you want to draw something that's...well, more interesting.

You want to start doing "real" drawings that LOOK like something.

Well, I've got good news for you. If you've stuck with it and made it this far, you're ready to start drawing stuff you didn't think you'd be able to before.

Here's where all your time and work pay off.  By the time your done with this lesson, you'll be able to create your own drawings and characters, just like I promised...IF you've put some Kung Fu into the process, and have been practicing.

You've got almost all the knowledge you need to do it.  All you need to know now, is what I tell you below.

So let's get to it.

Flat Shapes are Foundational to Drawing

EVERYTHING that you will EVER draw, can be broken down into a flat, two dimensional shape. <= CLICK TO RETWEET

EVERYTHING.

Beginning drawing books often start you off drawing Spheres, Cubes, and Cylinders.  ALL those things are good things to know how to draw, but not yet.

Why?

Because each one of those "three dimensional" shapes are made out of TWO dimensional shapes. In fact, they AREN'T "three dimensional" shapes at all, they are STILL two dimensional shapes that SEEM to be "three dimensional."

Let's call a Spade a Spade here.

Our drawings are always going to be two dimensional. We  can only give the illusion of being three dimensional.

Mastering control of flat 2d shapes will help you out immensely.

The Magic of Flat Shapes

Flat shapes are very versatile even without being three dimensional.  You can do wonders with them alone.

Careers have been made by artists who don't go beyond working with flat two dimensional shapes.

It's impossible for me to show you ALL the ways they can be used in drawing, SO I've chosen ONE way to use them in this post.  Perhaps as this site grows, we can investigate the other ways.

For now, let's concentrate on how to make fun cartoon characters using flat shapes.

Shapes and Design

Remember in Lesson 3 when I wrote about the harmony between Contrast and Balance? Well, when it comes to creating characters with flat shapes, this principle still applies.

If you've forgotten what I wrote or if you've simply skipped the post, I recommend you go back and read or reread it. The following is an extension of that lesson.

Remember the shapes we practiced drawing in Lesson 2?  Well, it's time to use them again.

Just like with the stick figures, when we create a character from these three shapes, it's all about creating contrast with the spacing of the proportions.

Figure 1.

BUT, now that we have shapes, there are two more elements to think about:

1. Spacing contrast and
2. Size contrast.

Spacing contrast - Means you make sure you space out the shapes in interesting way. Trying to avoid spacing that is too balanced which would make the design dull.

Size contrast - Simply means your trying to put shapes of different sizes next to each other to create interest.

So let's break down all the components including the two new ones:

Figure 2.

In Figure 2 we can see on the right how the proportions break up in a balanced yet contrasted way.

In point 1, the face favors the bottom half of the head shape and is not perfectly centered.  Also even the mouth itself favors one side of the face to another.  All the features are also very close together rather than being spaced evenly apart.

In points 2 and 3 we see an example of size contrast. The size of the circle shaped head is larger than the rectangle of the body which it's connected to.  The body is not only proportionally smaller, it's also smaller in width.

Points 3, 4, and 5 also contrast. Notice the length of the arm and hand are longer the body, and obviously thinner.

Point 4 and 5 contrast, not only in size but also in shape.  Now, this isn't something you that is done all the time but sometimes, a round shape next to a hard edged shape is a good mix and contrasts well too.

Point 6. The spacing of the legs here is something well worth pointing out.  They are NOT evenly spaced out. By which I mean I favored the outer part of the body to attach them to rather then where the green arrows are actually located.  The reason for this is, again, to add interest.

Alright now let's take a look at yet another example:

Figure 3.

Let's break this guy down:

Figure 4.

In Figure 4 we see how the head, neck, body and legs, are broken down and contrast against each other by seeing the break down on the right.

On the left, we see how the square shape of his face and body proportions contrast with the leg proportions.

In point 1, we see how his face favors the top of the head and his features are all in a very concentrated space.

Points 2, shows us the interest that is caused by not only making sure the legs are proportionally shorter but that they're also much smaller in width. The contrast is large shape vs. small shape.

In point 3, we see that the ear is not placed right in the middle of the side of the head but favors beings slightly lower.

Now, in point 4 we see the hands and arms but unlike the hands and arms on Figure 1, it's a triangle and a square.  I kinda don't like the way it looks. I prefer the triangle and circle combination.  Perhaps it's because the hand shapes in Figure 1, sharp edge shape vs. rounded shape, contrast more than two hard edged shapes in Figure 3. This might be a matter of personal taste though.

An Example of These Shapes in Real Productions

I asked fellow artist Evan Lewis to help show you examples of how these shapes have been used in actual animated productions.

There was a little kid's show called WOW WOW WUBZY. The characters were very appealing and they were all made of basic shapes.

Here's some designs Evan made up, using the "Wubzy style":

Figure 5

As you can see in Figure 5, the characters are flat, two dimensional, and cute.

Let's break them down to their component parts:

Figure 6.

In Figure 6, you can see BOTH characters are made out of basic shapes. The one on the left is made mostly of squares and rectangle with the edges rounded off while the character on the right is mostly circle and ovals.

The character of the left's proportions are subtly different. While the main overall length from the top of the ears to the neck are more clearly contrasted to the the rest of the body down to his feet.

The character on the right is even clearer. Large body length and short feet length.  Large body shape, small legs and feet size.

Now it's Your Turn

Your exercise is simple, draw some characters.

Remember this grid from Lesson 3? Time to use it again just like you did then:

Simply left click and press the "Save Link As..." button to save it to your computer. Then print it out and start drawing on it.

Like this:

If you don't want to use the grid, that's okay. Just remember to keep track and measure your proportions the way I showed you in the "Pro Tips" on Lesson 4.

Here's some examples of what you might come up with.  Instead of me, doing the example, we can see how another draftsman approaches the exercise.

Here's what Evan did doing this exercise:

Notice how Evan drew it all in ballpoint pen on regular line paper.

You can do this anywhere.

Also notice that you can see he did some light under drawing with the pen before he committed to putting down a dark final line.

At this point, you can draw! Better then most of the people you know!

Have fun.

Enjoy your new ability.

Trouble?

Q: YEAH! You said I'd be able to draw by this point but everything I do STILL looks crumby! You haven't helped me at all!

A: How much time did you spend on each exercise? Ten minutes? Thirty? A week?  Do the exercises until you get it.  Don't just do lip service to them.  That's how you fail. If you aren't being serious enough about getting it, you won't. You aren't putting in the Kung Fu.

Repetition is key. Do these things until they become second nature and then, suddenly, people will say to you,

"Wow, you're SO talented!" Which will probably make you want to slap yourself upside the head. If they only knew.

Pro Tip

Let's get a bit ahead of ourselves here.

When I was in high school, I made a discovery during Summer School that changed the way I designed my cartoon characters. I discovered the secret behind making my designs go from amateur designs to professional looking designs.

Here it is, for you to take advantage of. Are you ready?

Do everything I wrote about above, only...make up the shapes.

That's it. Simply make up some interesting shapes. Suddenly your cartoons will look like they've jumped to the next level. Because they have.

I will write more about this in a later Level.  For now, that's my tip for you. Give it a try.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning simple character design questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about simple character design? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." ~Scott Adams <= CLICK TO TWEET

Getting it Perfect the First Time

You can't seem to get it down the first time. You know what you want but you don't know how to get there.

You understand the concepts being taught. You're trying to apply them. You're doing the exercises but you're getting frustrated.

The truth is, when you put down a line to draw a face, a circle, or a stick figure body, you either don't know where it will end up when your done, or you do know, but it just ends up somewhere else.

That blank page has no "foot holds". You wish you had an "anchor" or SOMETHING to guide you, so that you know where to place your pencil as you draw.

Well, that's where tracing comes in.

What's that? You thought tracing was bad?

Well, it CAN be. It depends on how you use it.

In this lesson, you'll learn how to use tracing to refine your drawings and your control over what happens on the page. By the time we're done, you'll know how to set down the guides that will help you control the most complicated types of drawing.

How the Professionals Trace

I know of very few professional draftsmen who can just pick up a pencil, start in one corner of the page, and magically have a finished art piece in one pass.  Those guys are the legends.

That's not us...at least...not yet.

The majority of professional, do what is called an "under drawing".

An "under drawing" is a rough pass, or trial run for a drawing.  Like a rough draft in writing. It's not meant to be perfect by any means.

The purpose of the under drawing is to explore the direction you want to take the drawing and solve any problems the drawing asks you to solve.  It's meant to be sloppy and imperfect.  It's there so you're final drawing looks good.

Most beginners never do this.  Have you been doing it? I didn't think so.

So what does this have to do with tracing?

Well, once the under drawing is done, you then draw over your under drawing, either directly, or on top with another piece of paper, "tracing" the final lines of your drawing.

There are two kinds of tracing, the bad kind and the good kind.

• The bad kind is what most people do. They take, say, a drawing, put some tracing paper over it and mindlessly follow the lines of the original drawing underneath. The end product looks like a wobbly, ugly version of the original drawing.
• The good kind is what draftsmen do.  They take that same drawing and the same tracing paper and REDRAW the original drawing underneath, using it as a guide and making confident line CHOICES. The result is a new confident drawing based on the original.

"Good tracing" is in fact, not quite tracing but redrawing. Since it's redrawing, you make conscious choices as you go. By doing so, you end up, not only refining your drawing but also your drawing skills.

When you redraw over your under drawing, you're actually choosing what final line you want from the rough mess of lines you've put on the page. The outcome SHOULD look like a drawing you finished effortlessly.

Let me show you what I mean.

Here's Some Examples From This Very Site

Okay, so remember this drawing from the "Start here" page?:

Figure 1

This is how I approached the drawing.

First I drew a really rough gesture drawing of the pose (Figure 2). I'll explain gesture drawings in a later drawing level. The point is, the final Figure 1 drawing didn't just appear fully formed. I first drew the scribbly mess that is seen in Figure 2, to get it started:

Figure 2

Once I'd gotten all the shapes and lines approximately where I wanted them I refined the drawing by drawing over it . In Figure 3 you can see what I did. I recolored the rough from Figure 2 blue, so you can tell it apart from my more refined rough:

Figure 3

Having redrawn and refined the character, I decided it was time for the final line. I took the rough I drew in Figure 3 and drew over it:

Figure 4

Figure 4 is the result.  Notice I was basically "tracing" or redrawing and refining my drawing in order to get the final result. At this point, it was more about what lines to choose and what to leave out than anything else.

Let's take a look at another example.

In Figure 5, we have the other drawing from the "Start Here" page:

Figure 5

But in Figure 6, we can see where I actually started:

Figure 6

As you can see in Figure 6, my first pass was a big mess. I was just scribbling, trying to get the shapes down where I need them to go.

Once that was done, I went and redrew on top of the scribbly mess, refining the drawing a bit more:

Figure 7

As you can see in Figure 7, I did a lot of adjusting and redefining.  It's still rough and imperfect.  I wasn't being "precious" with the drawing in anyway.

Once I was satisfied with what I had, I went in drew over the rough for the final pass:

Figure 8

Figure 8 was all about "tracing" or redrawing and refining.  Once again, this process is about choosing the right lines to keep, while throwing out unnecessary lines.

"BUT...," I hear you saying, "golly gee, it's all swell and jolly to do that with your fancy pants drawing, but how does that apply to MY drawings? I mean, I'm only drawing stick figures here."

That's a good question. Take a look at Figure 9:

Figure 9

Yup this is the rough I drew for the STICK FIGURE drawing I used at the head of the "Stick figures with style" post.

Even THIS drawing didn't come fully formed. I drew a rough under drawing for it so I could work it out. THEN I drew over it:

Figure 10

You can see in Figure 10 how I refine even a drawing as simple as a stick figure.

The result is the drawing in Figure 11:

Figure 11

Had I not just shown you what I did, you would have thought I effortlessly drew it.

I get paid to draw for a living and this is how I approach drawing.

You want more control over your final drawings? You want your drawing to start looking effortless? It's time you start putting down some under drawings.

Baby Steps

Your Exercise...

I know this seems new, and daunting and crazy...

Don't worry. Take a deep breath, we'll take this nice and easy. I've broken this down into steps.

The goal of these steps is to get you to start drawing your own things this way. First you simply need to practice getting some control and learning to make good line choices:

• Step 1. Learn to do the "good" kind of tracing
• Step 2. Learn to make good line choices
• Step 3. Try it out on your own drawings

Step 1. Learn to do the "good" kind of tracing

Below I've posted three characters. Your exercise is simple:

Trace them.

BUT, don't simply trace them, try to redraw them. Recreate them as you trace over them.

In order to do that, here's what I want you to do.

1. Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
2. Save it to your computer.
3. Print out the image,
4. Get some REALLY low quality printer paper (they are very transparent) and trace over the drawing.

Like this:

But I've got THICK paper I can't see through, so I want to use tracing paper or better yet NO tracing paper!

Okay, that's what's why I also made THIS set of images:

These characters are specifically designed so you can simply draw over them directly.

Here's how you do it:

1. Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
2. Save it to your computer.
3. Print out the image,
4. Trace over it using tracing paper or...
5. Trace directly onto the printed image.

Like this with the tracing paper:

Or like this directly on it:

(Yeah I got a bit sloppy with my lines on that last video. Sorry, I had the camera in one hand and was drawing with the other.)

Once you've done this, find other things to trace. Coloring books or comic books are best but anything you find is good.  Practice not simply tracing but redrawing the drawings your are tracing.  Use the drawings as a guide more than anything else.

Step 2. Learn to make good line choices

These next set of images are the actual under drawings that I used to make the cleaned up characters above:

You've gotten a chance to practice your lines, now it's time to test what you've learned.

Draw a final clean drawing from the rough drawings above.

This exercise is meant to help you learn to make line choices.  It doesn't need to look like what I drew above, it has to look like what YOU want it to look like.

Choose a line to make. See how it turns out.  It's okay if it ends up looking odd. The point of the exercise it to learn to make line choices.

Okay so here what you do:

1. Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
2. Save it to your computer.
3. Print out the image,
4. Get some REALLY low quality printer paper (they are very transparent) and trace over the drawing.

Like this:

What's up with the flip?

Well, the paper was transparent but not transparent enough. I started flipping in order to get a better idea of what the rough looked like under the page.  As I flipped it helped me decide where I wanted to put my line.

I taped the two pages together to make sure my paper didn't move around when I flipped it.

Just like in Step 1, I also created a version you can use tracing paper or draw on:

1. Download the images by right clicking on the image and pressing the "Save Link As..." button.
2. Save it to your computer.
3. Print out the image,
4. Trace over it using tracing paper or...
5. Trace directly onto the printed image.

Like this, with tracing paper:

without tracing paper:

You can try cleaning the roughs up, over and over to practice if you want. Ultimately, the what you want to end up doing is...

Step 3. Try it out on your own drawings

Take everything you've learned so far and apply it here.  Draw some rough stick figures and clean them up.

Go crazy and get messy. Remember, an under drawing is NOT the final drawing, it's simply a stepping stone that guides you to the final drawing.

Here's some tips on how to practice doing this.

Tip 1:

Draw your under drawing, VERY lightly onto your paper.  Be messy but put very little pressure on the pencil.

Once you have the under drawing the way you want it, go back in and pick out the lines you want by making darker "final" lines over your under drawing.

Like this:

Tip 2:

If you're having trouble drawing a LIGHT under drawing, then simply draw the under drawing as dark as you want to.

When it's time to do the "final" line, use a ball point pen.

The drawback to doing it this way is that if you make a mistake with your final line, you won't be able to erase it.

The good thing about doing it this way is that, once your done, you can erase the under drawing and you'll end up with a nice, clean final line.

Here's an example:

Tip 3:

This is what most pros do.

Get a Col-Erase Colored Pencils and draw your under drawing using that.Col-Erase Colored Pencils are special colored pencils that you can erase. You don't NEED one right now. I'm just presenting it as an option here in case you happen to have some around. (The links above are affiliate links).

Once you've got the under drawing the way you want it, draw over the color lines with a regular pencil.

If the color line is too dark, get an eraser and "dim down" the lines a bit so they aren't so dark.

Here's an example:

So there you have it.

This is new and different. It will take a while for you to get used to it.  The more you do it, the easier it will get.  Once you're used to it, you'll wonder how you could have done without it.

Trouble?

Q: Yeah, I can't get a clean line. It's all wobbly. I know what I want and can almost get it but it's just not coming out right. Any way you can help me out?

A: Here's a little something I learned from a friend of mine who did clean up at Disney. Work WITH the natural pivots of your body, not against them. Here's what I mean:

Your wrist is a natural pivot point. It's like a limited compass. Your elbow is ALSO a natural pivot point.

Knowing this you can then position your PAPER and your drawing in such a way that when you make a mark, your working WITH those natural pivots. You'll find that your lines will come out looking better for doing so.

Here let me show you:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qildN-ajx4U

Don't be afraid to move your paper around.

Pro Tip

Professional draftsmen are obsessed with seeing other professional's rough drawing.  Most of us would rather see that than their finished work.

An under drawing is a window of how a draftsman solves drawing problems.  By seeing those rough drawings, we hope to get tips and tricks WE could use to solve OUR drawing problems.

Now that you know what you know, you might want to start paying more attention to rough drawings as well.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning under drawing or tracing questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about under drawing or tracing? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

The grace to be a beginner is always the best prayer for an artist. The beginner's humility and openness lead to exploration. Exploration leads to accomplishment. All of it begins at the beginning, with the first small and scary step. ~Julia Cameron

The Secret Weapons of Good Drawings

Go ahead, try me.

I know what you're thinking,

"To even start drawing, I have to have all those tools that artists have. I don't even know what I need.  What should I buy? How is it used.  I don't know about pencils and papers and pens. It seems so expensive. I don't have the money to be able to learn to draw."

Draftsmen walk around with, "The Arsenal."  You know the one. It's a special little art box or bag where, when opened, you see all kinds of strange pencils, markers, pens, brushes and even razor blades. These are weapons the draftsmen use to practice their art.

Not too far from that, is "The Tome".  You know it by it's more common name, "The Sketchbook".  The book of secrets all artists carry around and whip out when the whim attacks.

Here, I will tell you the secret weapons that all draftsmen use to do what they need to do.  You will learn the answer to what you should use to get good at drawing.

Behold The Ultimate Drawing Weapons

The mystery revealed.

Below is a list of ALL the tools you REALLY need to learn to start drawing.  Each one of the tools below is also an affiliate link. Yes, I get a percentage of the tools you buy through the links and it will make me rich, RICH I TELL YA! BWAAH HA HA HA!

BEHOLD the super expensiveness of learning to draw. Here are the tools you need to buy:

1. Regular Pencils- Like the ones you used in school.  Or just look around the house for ANY pencil you use to write with.  It will be fine. If you have a mechanical pencil, that's fine too.
2. Pencil Sharpener- To sharpen your pencils with.
3. An Eraser- The pink kind will do for now. If your pencils have erasers, use those but sometimes they run down too fast. There are better erasers out there than the pink ones but really it doesn't matter for you right now. As long as it erases without smugging everything, it's cool!
4. Some Ballpoint Pens- The cheaper the better.  They feel like pencils and control like pencils, but you can't erase. They're my favorite to sketch with.  You really don't need anything fancy.
5. Paper-If it's blank it's good. If it's NOT blank, it's STILL good.  Newspaper? Fine. Line Paper? Fine. Yellow notepads? Fine. Sticky note? Fine. Construction Paper? Fine. It doesn't matter. If you can draw on it. It's fine.

As you can see, I was being sarcastic when I said this was expensive.  Whatever you have around the house that you use to write with, can also be used to draw with. You DON'T need fancy drawing supplies.

Use what you have on hand. You don't have to buy anything.

If you REALLY want to, you can buy using my affiliate links.

Okay, having said ALL THAT...I WILL be talking about color later on. This means you might want to get a hold of something to color with in order to do the exercises

What you might need is: Crayons, Water colors, or Color pencils.

None of those things should be very expensive to get (if you live in the U.S., you can get this stuff at a dollars store). Just make sure that they have the colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Orange and Purple.

I will mention Color pencils in the "tracing" lesson so, just a heads up.  You don't NEED them but they are an option.

If you plan to take this serious and you're planning to do the Lvl 1 stuff after you're done with Lvl 0, you can purchase the tools I recommend at THAT level.  Be careful not to jump the gun!

There isn't a reason to, at this point.

The Myth of Tools

Here's the truth: It's not the tools used that makes a good drawing- it's the skill of the draftsman.  <=CLICK TO RETWEET

Give a great draftsman a box of crayons and his drawings will still be awesome.

My Kung Fu teacher once did a weekend workshop where he simply taught general, "less flowery" self defense. In that workshop we learned all kinds a very practical things. Including. how to protect ourselves with a rolled up magazine and how to use a pack of bubble gum as a weapon.

No joke.

Ever watch Jackie Chan movies? Ever notice that when he gets in a fight in those movies and doesn't have a weapon, he uses anything that's on hand? Chairs, decorative antlers, shopping carts, pool sticks, a refrigerator door, a rope with a horseshoe on it, an umbrella, a ladder...etc. Those aren't weapons until he uses them like one.

What did the great Renaissance masters have? Markers? Brush pens? Mechanical pencils?

No, they just had crummy brushes, paints they made themselves, quills and ink and rudimentary pencils. Yet, with these tools they did so much.

The point is, don't worry about the tools. Don't worry about getting the perfect set of really expensive pencils and a fancy sketchbook. The first thing you need to do is get used to making the pencils and pens do what you need them to do.

You can worry about getting better equipment once you feel comfortable enough with your drawing that you feel you're ready for more.

Your Exercise

Go around your home and look for any pens, pencils and paper that you can find.  These  are your drawing supplies.  Use them to start drawing.

Pro Tip

ONLY buy expensive paper when you're actually going to use it for finished drawing. For the most part, find the cheapest paper you can find and draw on that.  You're going to be drawing a LOT and none of it will be all that pretty.  The more fancy the paper, the more precious you will become with what you do. Don't be precious. Simply draw and know you'll probably throw away that paper and your drawings when you're done.

You'll end up learning more when you're under less pressure to do something fancy on fancy paper.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning drawing tools related questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about some pencils, brush, paper, pen? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

LINK TO LESSON 1

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for." -- Georgia O'Keeffe

Confidence is a huge factor in the quality of your work. A lack of confidence will show your drawings. Confidence comes with practice, and at this point drawing stops being scary, intimidating or embarrassing. You simply do it.

Let me tell you a little secret about drawing: you'll never be perfect at drawing.  You will simply be more practiced.  <= CLICK TO TWEET

Those around you who are "less practiced" will see your work and think how perfect it is, but you'll know that it took practice to get there--and you'll need more of it to get even better.

Hopefully you're feeling a lot more confident about your work after the last exercise. But I think it's time to step it up a bit. It's time to for your drawings to become much more impressive.

The following lesson will increase your confidence when you draw. It will also serve as a slight introduction to design, which is the next lesson after this one.

Shapes are like Words

As all writing is made out of words, so all drawings are made out of shapes. Usually the shapes are modified versions of three basic shapes:

• Squares
• Circles
• Triangles

These shapes are as fundamental as the three basic lines I wrote about in the lesson 1.

Though more advanced drawing techniques try to create an illusion of volume and form, that's all it is, an illusion.  As artists, we work with flat, two dimensional shapes.

No matter what level of drawing skill you have, you'll be drawing some sort of modified version of these shapes. It's best to get used to drawing them now.

These shapes are also useful because of what they symbolize culturally. Depending on the culture, they tend to trigger certain subconscious feelings. Knowing what they are helps the you choose what shapes to use in  a drawing in order to get certain subconscious emotional reaction to your work.

Here's a very quick run down of  SOME  of their meaning in the western world. This is by no means an exhaustive list:

• Squares symbolize - Stability, honesty, order, rationality, formality, earthbound, dullness. conformity, peacefulness, solidity, security, equality.
• Circles symbolize - The world, feminine, protection, endurance, softness, eternity, perfection, community, integrity, safety, connection, energy, power, comfort, sensuality, love, God.
• Triangles symbolize - Stability AND instability, action, aggression, law, science, religion, The Trinity, masculinity, direction, danger, dynamism, conflict, strength, motion.

An Example of How these Shapes Used

Examples of these basic shapes can be seen in all graphic design around you. A lot of good art can be done with these basic shapes alone. It's not about how simple the shapes are but how creative you can be with them.

The power symbol is simply a circle with a gap and line going in it.

A target is just a bunch of circles.

Simple circle with line going through it can say quite a lot.

You see these in kinds of devices.  The pause button is a square with to rectangles (modified squares).

And the rewind button is just a square with two triangles.

Caution symbol is a triangle with an upside down triangle, and a circle.  Notice it's a triangle and what triangles sometimes represent.

Here's  a more "complicated" icon. An arrow. It's a square with a triangle next to it only the connecting lines are erased.

Your First Exercise - Draw Patterns

You can either do this exercise first of the second exercise first. It doesn't matter. Do which ever seems most fun.

One fun way to practice drawing these shapes is, to not just simply draw them, but come up with fun patterns with them.

At first, you may not know what patterns to do. That's okay. You can go on the internet and google up some ideas.

But don't worry, I've already done that for you. Here's me copying some patterns I found. Feel free to copy them. Once you've done that, you may try to find some yourself. Better yet, come up with some unique patterns yourself.  Who know, maybe you can come up with one that might be sell-able.

Pattern making is an art onto itself.

The idea here is to have fun while practicing.

Okay, so let's begin with some squares (and rectangles). Let's start with a plain old checker board:

Just like the exercise in Part 1, you can practice drawing these patterns anywhere, as long as you have something to draw on and something to draw with.

Your Second Exercise - Create Symbols

Just like patterns, symbols are everywhere. In road signs, on cars, at church, on clothes, on superheroes,...EVERYWHERE.

A fun thing to do is to look around for symbols that are made up of the basic shapes we're learning about and copy them.

Better yet, take the three shapes and create your own. Once you copy enough, the ideas kinda start coming on their own.

Just mess around and have fun.

Here's some example I did. Feel free to copy them or modify them to come up with something new:

These exercises are totally mobile. You can do them anywhere anytime, just for fun.

Who knows, you might come up with a great company logo messing around with these shapes.

Remember, doing these exercises is simply an excuse to practice drawing. The more you do that better, faster and more confident you get.

Trouble?

Q:  My drawings are just not working. Nothing I draw looks like what I'm copying. Nothing I draw looks like what is in my head! What's wrong with me?

A:  Let me tell you a secret. You'll never be perfect at drawing these shapes. You'll simply get better as you do them.

I don't know of any artist that is perfectly happy with any drawing he does. Our drawings never meet our more ambitious expectations. Now that you are becoming a draftsman, you will need to find that place of peace inside yourself that allows you to fail with joy.

It's okay to NOT draw perfect, enjoy the process. THAT is your reward. Eventually, your drawings will start to behave and you will begin getting what you want on the page more often than not. For now, relax, draw and have fun.

Pro Tip

If you find yourself starting to get bored with these exercises, start drawing pictures with these three shapes. Draw faces on them, create environments, modify them to get the look you want,...stuff like that.

These shapes and their more advanced "siblings", as they are or modified, are the foundation of pretty much every drawing you see.

Questions?

I can't help you if you don't ask.

Are you having trouble with anything written about shapes?  Let me know.

What's your burning drawing questions?

Is there something you've always wanted to know about drawing? Ask.

I'll give you my best answer and, who know,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to  receive more information via e-mail. You'll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

LINK TO LESSON 3

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication"

--Leonardo Da Vinci <=CLICK TO TWEET

There truly is no reason to be embarrassed about your drawing skills, especially since you've been drawing all this time and never knew it.

In this post, you'll learn to become confident and control what you put down on a page.

Imagine you're at the dinner table and you pick up a napkin, take out a pen, and begin to doodle. Your dinner companions take a look at what you're doing and are actually impressed:

"That's cool, I can't even draw a straight line!"

By the time you're done with this lesson, you'll be able to produce some pretty cool drawings and your friends will never even realize you're practicing.

Won't that be something? Are you ready to begin?

Let's get to it.

Drawing is like Writing

Handwriting is basically drawing symbols on a page.

The art of calligraphy really makes this statement even more obvious.

You've been practicing writing for so many years that it's become second nature. You put the symbols (a.k.a letters) on the page in order to create words, which are themselves symbols.

The truth is, just as words can be broken down into the letters that make them up, drawings can be broken down into the "letters" or symbols that create them.

The symbols just happen to be much more elaborate which can make them look complicated, but all drawings can be broken down into much more basic components.

The simple A, B, Cs of Drawing

All good drawing is made up of three kinds of lines:

• Straights
• "C" curves
• "S" curves

You know how to do everyone one of these lines. You've been doing them for years without really noticing.

When you write a date with dashes or slashes, you're drawing little straight lines. You even do it when you write a check after you hand write a dollar amount and put a straight line at the end.

Anytime you write a "C" you're drawing a "C" curve.

The same goes with "S"s and "S" curves. The only real difference is the length or size of these lines.

The trick to drawing is simply deciding what line you're going to use and where.

When drawing a cartoon, when drawing from life, when drawing ANYTHING, before you put down any kind of stroke, consciously decide which line you're going to put down.

This is counter intuitive at first, but the point is to make you aware of it so that you can get used to it. Once you do this enough times, it will become second nature, just like when you write words.

An Example of How Lines are Used

Animated cartoons are some of the best ways to see these types of lines applied.

In the 90s, there were a few popular superhero cartoons that used what is now called the "Bruce Timm style". This style is one of the best styles to see the lines I've just mentioned applied.

Here's a sample of what the style was like and how the lines can be seen:

Because cartoons have to simplified so much, they lend themselves to the study of lines.

Your Exercise

Here's an exercise you can do anywhere that will help you gain confidence and help you get the right hand-eye coordination.

Draw a box or a rectangle (really the shape doesn't matter), then simply draw straight lines inside the shape, in any direction you want. Do as many as you want.

Something like this:

Looks like an abstract piece of modern art doesn't it?

If you get tired of doing these, you can start doing it with the "C" curves:

Or the "S" curves:

Hey, you can even use all three lines in combination:

Darken in some of the shapes:

Or even add color:

Do these exercises until you feel comfortable doing them and believe you can move on to the next thing.  This will be different for everyone.  You are the best judge of your progress.

The point is to have fun while you get comfortable putting lines on paper and making them do what YOU want them to do. In the end, you even end up with some cool drawings. Drawings you can show off to your friends. It's a win, win.

The beauty of this exercise is that you can do it anywhere. During a boring meeting, at lunch, while you watch TV, when you're on the phone, during a boring class, while you're driving...well maybe not then but still, it's versatile.

There really isn't an excuse. It's easy and fun, so try it out.

Trouble?

Q: My lines looks all shaky and ugly. Your lines look nice. What am I doing wrong?

A: It's an problem of speed and confidence.  When you write, do you have shaky lines? No, they just look like letters.  It's because you're confident in your execution. The same goes with drawing. When you were little and learning to write, you letter looked just as shaky.  The more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get and the faster you will allow yourself to draw the lines.

It's like doing pushups. At first you can only do so many, but the more you do it, the more you could do, and the better you are at doing them.

Pro tip

Pay very close attention to this exercise. It may very well be the key to unlocking the secrets of composition, in a more advanced level of drawing.

Questions?

I can't help you if you don't ask.

Are you having trouble with anything written about lines?  Let me know.

What's your burning drawing questions?

Is there something you've always wanted to know about drawing? Ask.

I'll give you my best answer and, who know,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You'll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.