Top tips for learning to draw with Linda Birch

Linda Birch - Posted on 21 Mar 2011

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LINDA’S TOP DRAWING TIPS

• Keep your pencils sharp. This is extremely important if you want to make accurate marks. By all means use a pencil sharpener, but preferably sharpen pencils with a craft knife. In this way you can achieve a shaped lead, which is useful for making specific marks. For example, a chisel shape to your pencil is useful for leaf shapes and foliage masses. And you are allowed to use an eraser!
• If you are on a budget, a roll of wallpaper lining paper is excellent for drawing on, and inexpensive. Also you can draw big, which is always good for your drawing.
• Draw what interests you Things we like, we tend to stick at and enjoy.
• Draw with other tools. Try working with a twig and ink to make drawings full of character.
• Don’t worry about what others think. Draw to please yourself. Buy a sketchbook for doodling in and trying things out. Sketchbooks are private, you are not committed to showing anyone if you don’t want to. Jot down thoughts, information and ideas in them. My sketchbooks are the most precious things I have; through the years they have become a visual diary
• Work not talent makes you a better draughtsman. Talent is a gift, but if it is not used it wastes.
• Take your work seriously. Those who know no better will say how relaxing art is. No, it isn’t! It just takes you away from one set of problems and gives you another! But the thrill of getting something right once in a while will keep you going.
• Join a group that includes other beginners. Better still, go on a residential course for beginners. Four days of sustained drawing will improve your skills no end.
• Don’t let either timidity or over-confidence affect you. Build your confidence slowly, and don’t try to run before you learn to walk. Be modest, there is always more to learn, but have confidence in yourself.
• Be aware you are standing on the same road as Rembrandt and Turner – they are just a bit ahead of you! You and anyone else who picks up a pencil to draw is an artist whether you class yourself an amateur or not.
• Remember you will make mistakes! This is how we learn so don’t be discouraged. All you need to learn to see and be able to draw is persistence. Just keep trying.
• Above all, enjoy the journey!

Pencils come in a range from soft to hard. The softer pencils have a B added to the number, for instance HB is the hardest of the soft range followed by B, 2B, 3B, 4B and so on up to 9B. The harder pencils have H added to them: 2H, 3H through to 9H. 9H pencils are really hard, make only pale marks, and tend to make grooves in the paper, but they are useful for very delicate, technically precise drawings. A good set of pencils for drawing would be: HB, 2B, B and 6B
The softer the pencil, the quicker it wears down due to the larger amount of graphite present.
Pencils do not contain lead; the composition is graphite, some clay and a little casein. The harder the pencil means more clay is added, and the softer pencil has more graphite

More hints and tips for drawing by Linda can be found in the May 2011 isuue of Leisure Painter