Teach Yourself How To Draw

There are many ways to teach yourself how to draw with one of those being the use of common shapes for assistance.

Please don't feel deflated if this particular method doesn't work for you. It's not for everyone but it's good to know all the different ways we can successfully get our images onto paper. Using shapes and outlines is part of the basics of learning to draw.

When you observe whatever it is that you want to draw, mentally convert the general mass of that object into a shape that you recognize.

So, if you were to draw a shoe, the main overall shape is perceived as a triangle.

When you start to put what you see on paper, your pencil will flow along with those preconceived shapes.

Sketch in light guidelines, just like a type of scaffolding, to help your eyes get the correct outline in its place.

Once you have your guidelines (squares, circles, rectangles etc) in place, you can proceed to draw in the actual boundary of your subject, correcting it as you observe the variances between the shape and the object.

This 'teach yourself how to draw' process gives you a sense of structure in drawing.

When we look at anything, we see a complexity of form. So, to get the general look and feel of a subject, define the main outside shape with sure lines and if you want further assistance, you can add more blocks within it.

If you are not confident drawing an object freehand, then using shapes might just be the answer you are looking for. There's no harm in trying it out, is there?

Terminology

When you teach yourself how to draw, part of the process is to learn the common terms used by artists.

The habit of recognizing and drawing shapes to assist an artist is sometimes called blocking-in.

Drawing shapes to identify objects is a really popular method among trainee artists.

Experienced artists also rely on shapes all throughout their careers, it's a very handy trick to get a drawing onto paper easily.

You can block-in by drawing shapes encompassing your subject (the outside) or you can draw shapes within the boundary of its form.

Oval shapes are commonly used to draw the human form and animals but if you tend to round off your forms too much, try using square shapes. This example shows how the artist composed the form of a horse (sourced from a reference book).

I feel there are too many blocks within the horse and that confuses me so I prefer to use big blocks that are shaped roughly to match what I see.

A great benefit of being self-taught is that there are no restrictions, you make up your own set of rules as you go along and you're not forced to comply with another artist's way of thinking and doing.