– LESSON 1: STARTING LINE –

So, before we begin our art journey with this first official lesson, I want to give a quick overview of what to expect as we move forward. I don’t want to give any impression that these methods that we’ll be discussing now and in the future are the end-all of art practice and learning. In fact, with a simple understanding of history, we know that progress doesn’t seem to stop, ever-evolving the complexity of our world. There is no indication that I’ve seen of that ending soon, or ever. So, art is no different in my eyes; there will always be more to build on in method, practice, and mindset; and there will never be an end. If that doesn’t make you flinch, then you are indeed in the right place. On that note, I do not believe there to be one supreme method, medium, style, or school of thought in art. Human beings are flawed and never will be all-knowing, and thus our systems must continually evolve with us. Therefore, the best each of us can do is present our own pieces of the puzzle; this is simply my piece. I hope for it to be a humble aid and jetpack of inspiration on your journey.

This is the first method in our beginning steps toward drawing from imagination. The line. The line is the most rudimentary border between the blank page and your artwork. When it comes to making art, the stick figure is considered the most rudimentary of human depictions to draw. Many think of the term rudimentary as lower or below, but a synonym for rudimentary, if one were to check Webster, is fundamental. It is the foundation, and infinite shelve-space, of our visual library. If we cannot master a simple line, we cannot hope to create the masterpieces we most likely envision in our heads. But the way to exercise this understanding is much richer than drawing a stick figure. As the line, literally and conceptually, is fundamental to our art skills, these initial exercises can and should be used as warmups each time we sit down to draw as well. 

METHOD 1: STROKE AND WEIGHT

These are the two main elements that influence of our line (that we have control over). This tends to be consistent for both drawing and painting for the most part. But for the sake of simplicity, we’ll be focusing specifically on pencil drawing, or sketching here (physical and digital). The main aim in these exercise methods is cleanliness, we will worry about specific textures and styles later. As the saying goes: “You must know the rules to break them.” What I mean when I say a “clean line” is in the example of straight lines below; the bottom one marked “sloppy” is because of its lack of consistency in direction, with the top two improving in that regard as they go up.

This is what I refer to when I say “stroke”; it is the ability of our hands to keep consistent direction while moving our tools, illustrated in this straight-line example. Our strokes will not always be straight lines, but they will always require consistency, for the sake of accurately communicating our vision. The straight line just happens to be one of the most difficult things to draw consistently, and this makes it an excellent exercise to train control over not just our tools, but what is holding them.

EXERCISE 1: “GROWING LINE”

The growing line exercise is the simplest start for such an endeavor. As shown in the example below, each dashed line in between the solid lines indicates the path of the next stroke. 

As I stated earlier, I strongly believe this specific exercise is tantamount to use as a warm-up, as often as possible, as it will build the mind-muscle connection you need with your tools to create effortlessly. Remember, our ultimate goal here is to draw from the imagination. Harnessing the boundless expanse that makes up your creativity will be difficult enough without worrying about cleanliness, so best to master it in the smoothest way possible. It is also quite physically efficient to use as a warm-up, as it will literally warm-up the muscles of the hand and forearm, strengthening their neuromuscular connection. Practice them at every angle, and each of those angles’ opposites. Right, left, up, down, diagonally, from right to left, and left to right. Once we’ve gained some confidence with the straight lines, we can begin to try our hands at circular lines, or “C curves” as they’re called in the art world; then naturally “S curves” will join the repertoire as well (curve types, and their vast applications, will be addressed in more detail in later lessons).

As shown above, at this point we can recognize the flexing of our creative muscles already in the process! (That’s a hidden key here; Creativity is not gate-kept behind skill level, but it is exponentially elevated by it.) As shown in the iPad and sketchbook examples below, we can bend, curve, and cut these lines in a parallel fashion, while continuing the same movement pattern of the “growing line” exercise. It is very good to do this in all forms; our Creativity must be allowed to breathe every time we touch a pencil, brush, tool, etc, otherwise, these exercises will quickly become mundane and feel more like work than anything else.

EXERCISE 2: “SHADIENT” 

On that note, I’m sure you’ll notice the sort of shaded spots that tend to come partnered with the growing line examples, especially in these sketchbook pages; these are our line weight exercises. As the second foundational element of drawing, weight is directly connected to shading, i.e. the accurate depiction of light and texture on a drawn object. The term “weight” in this case is meant a lot more literally, as in how hard the pencil (in this example) is pressed into the page; this will change the darkness of said stroke, and thus establish differences in light value. This spectrum of light value is not only good to have physically memorized but just as much mentally. Here are examples of “shadient” practice in its simplest form:

WRITER’S NOTE: I will not be going too much into the more academic terminology we often hear and see in art, for one, because there is plenty of it out there, explained with great depth. I intend to use a more intuitive, bottom up approach in this art journey to improve the likelihood of its internalization. However, I will make note, on occasion, of specific observable universal rules that academia often points too. One of which is the idea that light naturally drops in value exponentially (meaning white light will turn to black faster than the opposite). This will be demonstrated naturally in our practice of this exercise, without much conscious intent as shown here, proving the validity of this rule. 

Below is one more example for you, from a sketchbook of mine. Here you’ll see another demonstration of a typical “warm up” that I go through. I will explain the warm up concept in greater depth in the near future, but here you’ll see the bit of freedom that can be taken in how one goes through these methods and exercises. This, however, will only be the very tip of the iceberg.

As mentioned previously, just like the “growing line” exercise, these “shadient” exercises are the flipside of our proverbial warm-up coin. We must do them together with each practice session, no matter how high our skill level gets; and eventually these exercises, like the many we will go over in the near future, will begin to evolve with us. Here, with these extremely simple exercises, we will begin to lay the cornerstones for the necessary skills to move forward. We must walk before we run, but fortunately, running will come sooner than one might think.