7 Simple Tricks to Quickly Correcting your Drawings

When you are drawing, you're likely to notice how extraordinarily fast you can get caught up in seeing your drawing as correct when it is NOT. It's like we go blind to our own work after just a few minutes of pencil draw. As a beginning or intermediate artist, you already know what I'm talking about.

And it's not just me, I see this problem with my art students over and over.

Unfortunately, we get so fixated on what we have drawn that we get stuck and need better ways of how to FIX our drawings!

Maybe it's that we settle for good enough too quickly and easily. Whatever the reason, it's a simple fact that there's gotta be some simple tools for making the job easier.

Yep, here's your answer.

If you've ever seen someone else draw, you've likely noticed how fast your brain can see "something" out of proportion on their drawing that they might have missed. That "snapshot analysis" that you just made is exactly the same trick you can apply to yourself to improve your drawings.

But how?

The trick is to see your drawing in different ways--to literally fool your brain into seeing it new all of the time. Then you can become your own critic and allow your brain to lose its fixation on the current view. You must "uncommit" yourself and your perception of own drawing repeatedly.

Here's 7 ways that your drawing can become "new" over and over so you can spot errant lines in that same instant way that you can snapshot-see it in others.

1) Walk away for awhile.
Yes, literally walk away from your drawing for a short time, like 1-2 minutes (don't just close your eyes). This gets your brain to forget where it's stuck by laying new information over the brain. Then when you come back, stay back from it and reassess your work from a distance. You'll see things you just missed. (Make sure you keep your eye in the same line-of-sight as it was while you were drawing).

2) Step back often.
Many times, just stepping back from your drawing will shrink both subject and drawing and let the eye diagnose differences more easily. (Again, keep your line of sight).

3) Turn the original and drawing both upside down.
OK, obviously you can do this only if you are drawing from a photo or another painting. But getting it into an upside down state is VERY effective in seeing things new without changing perspective.

4) Turn the original and drawing on their sides.
Guess what? You have 2 sides you can do this with and each view makes the drawing "new".

5) Use a reducing glass.
These are the opposite of magnifying glasses because they shrink the image on your paper. This makes for a great way of making what's on your paper equal in size to the subject you are drawing, OR makes the arrangement smaller relative to your drawing--in either case making them the same size for comparison certainly makse your job easier in getting the drawing accurate.

6) Use a mirror.
Turn around and face the opposite direction of your drawing and subject. Place a small mirror on your shoulder in the same line of sight that would be if you could put your eye into the mirror, looking at the subject. This reverses the image and will instantly show faulty lines and angles. If you've never tried this you'll find it rather amazing.

7) Side-by-Side: Place your drawing on the display stand next to the arrangement. This puts the drawing and the arrangment very close together and allows the eye to gauge proportions far more accurately.

Summary: as you draw, keep the goal of constantly refreshing your brain from getting stuck on the lines you have already put down on your paper. Then, as you get better with practice, these tricks eventually won't be necessary, as constant practice gives your eye the ability to see your drawing new almost continuously.

Remember to practice, practice, and of course did I say?, practice.

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Comments

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 at 10:54 AM, by ronald
it works wen walking away but some ay keep looking at your subject more often then your paper do you think it'll work the same as when walking away.

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 at 8:21 PM, by Paul Wagner
True, up to a point. But even your subject will begin to have the same effect. Better to take breaks frequently.

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