Parks - Drawing secrets revealed: basics

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Id like to dedicate this book to all those people out there who never believed they had the talent or skill to draw or paint and who didnt have anyone to tell them otherwise. I wrote this book for you. I have seen time and again hopeful new artists who have dipped a tremulous toe in the water and learned that not only will they not drown, but they can learn to swim with the big fish. The art world at its best is a community, and the best artists are the ones who can see beauty even in the roughest attempts by those who are at least trying. If you wish you could draw and wonder if you could learn, this book is my response: Yes, you can.

Its a common misconception that you have to be born with artistic talent or that only creative people can draw or paint. But in fact, drawing is a discipline just like any other, requiring learning skills and practicing techniques. And your keen desire to draw gives you the aptitude you need to study those skills and diligently practice the techniques Im going to teach you. When youve practiced them consistently, youll really start to feel pride in your ability to draw. Suddenly people will say, I didnt know you were so talented!

To tell you the truth, I dont think anyone can be truly finished with learning to drawmost of the best artists say they are still learning, and every effort, whether its great or not so good, is a learning process for them. Thats how we improve. But that feeling of accomplishment that comes over you when what you draw matches what you seethat is what you can begin to achieve with this book.

With this book, I hope to make you aware of what you can accomplish as an artist in the realm of graphite and charcoal. And if at some point you are interested in moving on to painting with color mediums, youll notice how your paintings improve because of your solid drawing skills. I have noticed in many painting workshops that students struggle because they are essentially trying to learn two challenging disciplinesdrawing and paintingat the same time and they feel like failures because they cant get the desired results. So they assume they arent good artists when really, theyve just put the cart before the horse. Learn your drawing skills first, then develop your painting skills.

Some students will nullify good drawing skills and say they are painting impressionistically, but the Impressionists were excellent draftsmen; they had extensive training in drawing faces, figures and landscapes. It was their paint strokes that were impressionistic, but those artists werent sloppy when constructing their compositions. Monets figures werent disjointed, Degass ballerinas and horses still obeyed the laws of perspective, and Manet and Renoir could draft a well-drawn face.

Many drawing books that claim to be aimed at beginners incorporate way too much information with lots of bells and whistles and a plethora of advanced techniques and materials. The developing artists are left overwhelmed and dont know where to start. Im not going to inundate you with every technique, material, color medium and approach because, lets face it, art is a vast continent and you can exhaust yourself trying to cover all the terrain. What Ive tried to do with this book is to hone that artistic topography into an exciting but manageable vista that will allow you to master the foundational concepts you need to embark on any artistic genre or medium that snares your interest.

More than just teaching you how to draw any one particular thing, the purpose of this book is to teach you how to draw anything you see. Anything. That requires a systematic, methodical approach to lay a solid foundation with each concept building on the previous. If you take the time to learn and practice the concepts in this book diligently, youll find yourself able to draw pretty much anything you see around you, no matter how complicated, because you will know how to strip a composition down to its basics and then build on that.

Happy Drawing!

Sarah Parks

CHINESE STATUE

Charcoal on paper

11" 812" (28cm 22cm)

If youre like most new artists, you see a beautiful finished sketch or drawing and you think, I want to do that! But you may have no idea just how that was achieved. A host of questions need to be answered to be able to create something like that yourself, but how do you know what questions to ask? And where do you go for the answers? Few of us want to search a hundred different sources just to get a foundation of understanding.

And what if youre a more experienced artist who has been drawing and painting for years? You may often look at a lovely drawing or painting and have that mixture of awe, inspiration and... frustration. When you look at your own work and can see how far youve come but theres still something missing, thats when you pick up a book like this.

If youre a little more experienced than an absolute beginner, dont think theres nothing for you here. In this chapter you may find a few new tips you havent encountered before that might just bridge that gap between what youve accomplished so far and what youre yearning to create in the future. And if you are an absolute beginner, you dont want to miss a page!

PERSIAN CAT

Graphite on paper

11" 812" (28cm 22cm)

The first material you probably think of is a graphite pencil. Its true that really all you need for drawing is a pencil, an eraser and a piece of paper. However, as you explore this exciting world of art and all the marvelous possibilities in drawing, youre going to want to stretch your wings. This section is a great starter kit.