Learning to sketch

Learning to sketch is probably one of the most engaging, creative, and enticing ways to spend your time. There’s nothing like dragging a pen or pencil, or even a stylus across your medium of choice and letting your imagination flow.

If you’re interested in learning to sketch better, you’re in the right place.

The easiest way to learn to sketch is to get an understanding of the basics of drawing, and to do them over and over again, making up ways to make the exercises more challenging and fun.

Some of the basics you should be familiar with are:

• lines and line types

• shapes

• construction

• proportion

• values and shading

• mark-making

• texture

• design

• perspective

An easy overview for all of these fundamental can be found here: 10 KEY fundamentals for Sketching!

For a simple intro to learning sketching, just take a look at the quick video below to get started:

One of the fastest ways to learn in today’s day and age is through videos, and this one will really help you gain some of the simplest basics necessary to practice whether it’s in your sketchbook or on your computer/tablet.

Learn to sketch beyond the basics

Once you’re comfortable in your sketching, you can start to push yourself by studying to improve your work.

Studying is the act of using fundamentals (like what I showed you in the link above!) to start to get better and better at things like figures, portraits, illustrations, etc…

There are many techniques to play with, ways to make marks on the page, shading, how to hold the pencil, and once you dial in on techniques you like and love, you can start to play with them and develop your own sketching style.

Are sketches considered ‘finished?’

Not usually. If you’re sincere about filling up sketchbooks, there will be pages you consider terrible, maybe even bad enough to rip out. There will be others where the magic happens, and you tend to create something that feels like you can hardly believe you made it.

That being said, sketches are just that— sketches. If you want to learn to finish your sketches, that’s another matter entirely.

You can finish in ink, paint, or just trace the sketch in pencil and do a finished pencil piece, getting rid of all those quick and loose lines in favor of a more polished presentation.

Imagine a house— you put the dry wall up, but you still have to to paint it, put in the finishing fixtures, and make sure everything is up to code.

While there is no" “code” for drawing, a sketch can never fully feel like it’s 100% finished, like every line has intention and purpose. That’s another subject altogether.

That isn’t to say you can’t gain a lot of followers or sell digital or physical products with sketches on them, but a sketch is not an illustration or a fully finished painting. If you are going to work very quickly and sketchy, you’ll have to compile a large number of those together for a book, or create a brand that appeals to people who want sketchy clothes, merchandise, or posters.

Which is entirely doable! Some people will consider the work finished, while others won’t.

In conclusion

Sketching is the MOST FUN part of drawing for many artists. It’s the most freeing and loose. It doesn’t require that one slows down, taking painstaking details and considerations into account to really polish everything up. Many artists don’t have the attention span or discipline to become illustrators or painters, and that’s fine. It all depends on your own personal goals, aesthetics, and approach.

If you’d like to sketch with the greatest chances of success, and learn the basics that will take your art further faster, you can sign up for free lessons here.

Happy sketchings!

-Tay

Whenever you're ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Grow & Sharpen Your Drawing Skills here. (1,800+ students)

2. Build better Paintings and get Commissions here. (500+ students)