How to Have Fun and Embrace Imperfections in Your Drawings
Creating Drawings with Personality: My Dog Did It with His Tail!
If I had to pick a battle in the art world, I would choose to fight for giving priority to self-expression and meaning over technical skills. What I mean by this is that I am not easily moved by perfection. I admire the skills it takes to master any medium but it does not get my juices flowing.
I am more deeply impacted by an imperfect drawing with a strong personal touch or an emotional message. And, if it looks weird or if it surprises me, that is even better!
In this post, I am going to share a few techniques that will help take away the intimidating factor in drawing. Since we are going to draw in such a way that would make it almost impossible to obtain accuracy, we have no choice than to let go of expectations and have fun!
What’s more, if you like the drawings you made with these techniques, consider uploading them to The Big Picture Art Project. For this global art initiative, we welcome all kinds of drawings, including the weird ones with strong personalities!
Now, let’s explore a few drawing techniques. We will start with the ones that still leave you some control, then move on to the more adventurous ones. Enjoy!
Continuous Drawing
If you are about my age, you might remember playing with an Etch a Sketch as a child. If so, you had to draw a path between all the elements of your work — even if they were not connected.
This is the same principle for continuous drawing. You are trying to draw everything without ever lifting your marker from the paper.
Above and below are two examples of continuous drawings, one as a portrait and another as a landscape.
Drawing with Twigs
Here is a fun technique to try: Pick a twig outside, and dip it in a container with Indian Ink. It works well with coffee stirrers as well. You will get an interesting quality of lines by drawing with this way.
Below are a few examples of “twig drawings.”
Drawing with Your Nondominant Hand
If you are like me, this technique is when you realize you are far from being ambidextrous. It is challenging to draw with your nondominant hand, but the results can be charming.
Blind Continuous Drawing
This technique is basically the same approach as continuous drawing except you are not looking at your paper. Instead, you look at your reference only.
If you find it too difficult to make a complex drawing without looking at your paper, just peek occasionally to replace your marker and make sure you are at least not drawing on the table.
Remember to have fun experimenting with these drawing techniques. I like to try them once in a while in my life drawing class to spice things up — and also whenever I start to feel too serious about drawing.
And, if you are looking for more ways to be part of The Big Picture Art Project, check out my other posts filled with drawing techniques:
Have a technical question?
Contact UsJoin the Conversation!