Drawing Tips for Beginners: Making Your Own Elegant Graphics

Digital art is exploding in the job market. Sixty-six percent of art jobs that pay over $60,000 have to do with digital art and 40% of those jobs have to do with IT, the internet, marketing, and entertainment. Companies worldwide are seeking digital artists or graphic designers with the skills necessary to create gorgeous creations for their advertisements. However, many others may not have the toolset to make these pieces and must find drawing tips for beginners to kickstart their new career path.

Who knows how much learning this new skill could boost a graphic designer’s annual salary? Since art is in such high demand, the ability to craft unique pieces that fit a client’s requirements could become the primary source of income or a lucrative side project. Additionally, it could simply be a relaxing escape graphic designers and other people use to de-stress after a long day. Either way, both parties need a place to start. Here are a few drawing tips for beginners to get the ball rolling.

Start With the Basics

Contrary to popular belief, advanced tools do not always make an advanced artist. Chances are, those new to art will only fluster themselves by going out and buying all the tools and devices people who have practiced the craft for years own. Artists who are as new as can be to drawing might want to start out with the most base essentials — paper, erasers and pencils. Getting used to art in its original medium can help some get used to how to get forms down accurately.

However, others might want to jump right into digital art. Doing so is perfectly fine, but again, there is no need to go out and buy the most expensive tablet and software. Investing in a good drawing tool will be worthwhile in the end, but don’t feel like it’s necessary to drop hundreds of dollars. Check the reviews of cheaper ones on seller sites and see what other artists say about the quality. If it has a lot of positive reviews with pictures and demonstrations, it’s likely suitable.

Additionally, there are plenty of free applications artists use to avoid the high prices of other software. These apps benefit from being open source, so other people can contribute and ask for additions in future updates. They also often have plenty of tutorials written by other artists to help beginners. A graphic designer may choose to purchase subscriptions to big-name software later, but starting with cost-effective products can help reduce the pressure from beginners.

Experiment With New Techniques

When first looking at a blank template or a reference, a budding artist’s brain might worry about what to do to get the piece started. Say someone is looking to draw something seemingly uncomplicated, like a snail. The mind knows it’s a snail and begins worrying about where to start, how to get everything down so it looks exactly like the reference and ways to ensure everyone knows it’s a snail. This process only leads to the person becoming flustered and anxious.

Instead, try out something new, like turning the picture upside down. That way, the brain can recognize the reference less as something it knows and break it into smaller pieces. This drawing tip for beginners can help reduce the stress one feels when creating their first project. The best way to learn is to go slow and feel everything out as the process unfolds. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect on the first try — artists will constantly learn as they practice and find new techniques to experiment with.

Break Things Down Into Shapes

As demonstrated with the previous method, the amount of detail new artists want to get down on their first run can quickly overwhelm them. To avoid that panic, try breaking things down into shapes. As the artist behind the blog Art By Ro shares, once new artists can see the underlying structure of a complex object as easier-to-draw shapes, they can block out the elements of their art piece much more quickly. So, take everything back to the basics with rectangles and circles.

For example, take the human body. Sure, there are a ton of elements that make up a person, but how could an artist break that figure down into smaller pieces so they can make the sketching process easier? The torso and the pelvic area could become easy-to-draw trapezoids, while the feet, legs, hands, arms and head can start as ovals. However, remember to give the head a few guiding lines to establish which direction the figure is looking.

Take the size of that head and line six up along the side — this is how tall the average person is. The torso and pelvis usually take up about two of the heads, so the remaining three should make up the legs. Utilizing simple shapes can help new artists establish the proportions of people, animals and objects more easily than starting from scratch.

Find a Balance When Using Brushes and Layers

Drawing software will come with a lot of brushes with varying effects artists can use to achieve many distinct looks. It will be very tempting to use all of them on a new piece to get the most possible out of the application. However, one of the best writing tips for beginners is to get used to individual brushes before jumping into using all of them at once. By focusing on a few, the new artist can learn how to use each one properly before branching out.

Layers are also very helpful for tweaking a piece to perfection. They allow artists to adjust certain aspects of their work with ease and make the progression from sketch to finished product much more manageable. But someone just beginning their art journey might use too many, which can get confusing when trying to remember which layer has what component on it. Remember to start with a base layer for sketching, then create a new layer for colors and the next for highlights.

However, feel free to use as many layers as necessary at the beginning to get things figured out. Art software should come with the ability to combine layers to make the process more straightforward, but try to get used to using less as time goes on. Practice does not make perfect — it makes progress. Spend time starting slow and let the process improve as more effort goes into it. Shortcuts and efficiencies will become more evident as time goes on.

Use Drawing Tips for Beginners to Flourish in Digital Art

In the age of digitization, more and more clients desire digital art. Not only is it easier to get a hold of, but there are also possibilities to animate the project or put it in a variety of ad campaigns. Learning this skill could help a graphic designer advance their career and make them that much more marketable, but it takes knowing where to begin to take the first step.

Utilize these drawing tips for beginners to learn how to start in digital art. While this is not an exhaustive list — many tutorials out there may prove useful to the budding artist — it’s a step in the right direction toward progress.