5 essential techniques to progress in drawing!

In this article, taken from the content of my Evasion Dessin magazine, made to help you progress at your own pace each month, I tell you about five essential techniques!

By mastering them, your drawings will suddenly come to life!

✨ The outline :

The outline is THE drawing technique that you absolutely must master. It consists of drawing the contours of the object or the person you want to represent. Many artists are “against” contour lines, but I think they are wrong. The outline is what will determine the shape and it is the basis of any accurate and realistic representation. One day, yes, you will be able to move away from it, but if you are a beginner, the contours are important!

✨ The proportions :

Ah…the famous proportions! You will often hear about it! And yes, mastering them will allow you to draw a face, a body or an object while respecting their dimensions and shapes! If you find your drawings are distorted or look awful, it's often a problem with proportion. Proportions are based on theories and they can be measured: it is practically an exact science that allows us to represent reality!

✨ The outlook :

If you feel that your drawings are flat or lack depth, it's the perspective that you need to work on. It's used to make what you're drawing look like it's at a certain distance and in a certain environment! It is used a lot in landscape drawings for example! But contrary to some popular belief, perspective is also very useful in portraits, especially for faces in three-quarter view. It's because of perspective that the farthest half of the face looks smaller than the other!

✨ Shading :

The shading is what will allow you to give volume to what you want to draw. But above all, it's what will give a 3D impression to your drawing and create realistic effects. Shading comes from a good understanding of shadow and light! It is a more advanced technique which must generally come after a good mastery of the previous ones, because it is a shame to spend hours doing a nice shading on an ill-proportioned drawing!

✨ Mixing colors :

Mixing colors will allow you to create different shades and tints in your drawing. This technique is also used to give depth and dimension to the objects and people you draw. Color is also an advanced technique and requires good proportions and shading as a prerequisite! But know that drawing in color is really fun and satisfying!

 Of course, there are many others, but these 5 techniques are absolutely essential to progress!

It's no coincidence that they are discussed over the months in my Evasion Dessin magazine that you can discover by clicking here!

Remember that it is normal to learn the techniques gradually because it does not happen overnight!

See you soon!

Florence xx