A pencil on paper. Etchings of drawings: feelings, experiences, and memories. To many, drawing is rather boring, if not tedious and unenjoyable. But, to others, it’s a form of expression. 

Painting, sketching, or creating images through various mediums has been an integral part of our world for over 40,000 years–from crafting story-telling patterns on cave walls in South Africa, to recording events for political or economic purposes in Egypt, the activity is truly universal. Now, many appreciate the practice as a hobby rather than a niche societal role, due to its soothing effects (a consequence proven scientifically). Despite its prevalence as a popular pastime, drawing is no easy task–especially at a professional level–as it often requires precision and adaptability. Though every artist has their own unique style, most follow some general guidelines to ensure their artworks are attention-grabbing and accurate. I’ll be covering some of the most essential art techniques, ranging from human proportions to creating a structured, balanced composition.

First, it’s crucial to gather the required materials for the desired type of artwork. If you want to practice sketching and drawing, a regular 2B pencil and sketchbook will do, but a range of pencils on the graphite scale (a 9H pencil being the lightest and a 9B the heaviest) could be useful. Painting, on the other hand, could steer you in the direction of a few different medium choices, with the most common ones being oil, acrylic, and watercolor paints; picking carefully is important. Oil paints generally have smooth blending ability and layering potential, but can be messy and take a long time to dry. Acrylics are versatile in appearance, but often dry too quickly, preventing easy blending. Finally, watercolor paints appear more transparent and fluid on canvas, and are the fastest to dry, often making mistakes difficult to correct.

The two mediums can also be used in unison, with a harmonious combination of pencil detail and paintwork. This squirrel, for example: the body of the animal is painted with acrylics, while its fur is intricately detailed with pencil.

Next is your composition: whether you want to sketch a human in motion or a still-life scene, structuring the position of your subjects is crucial to creating artwork that is pleasing to the eye. If all your figures or drawings are clumped into one corner of your paper, then the balance of your artwork may be thrown off. Though creating a composition can be fairly intuitive to many, there is a technique to ensure visual equilibrium–the Rule of Thirds. This strategy involves splitting up your square or rectangular canvas into nine equal parts, creating four points where the lines intersect. Placing your main object(s) in or near these intersections and secondary objects at opposing intersections creates an aesthetic and balanced composition. 

Take the image above, for example: each object has its own respective space on the table, and as a result is emphasized in its own unique way. Applying the Rule of Thirds to a painting prevents the composition from being completely clumped in one vertical or horizontal half, making the artwork more dispersed and eye-catching.

One of the most challenging rules of art applies to drawing animals or life–especially humans. Rules of proportions ensure that your sketch is scientifically accurate so your drawing of a human doesn’t accidentally turn into one of an alien– in other words, they’re extremely important. 

When drawing a human body, artists often measure in terms of heads, as doing so allows

for versatile scaling in size. The length of the head can be measured with almost any item: a coin, your nail, or a ruler all work. Variation in scaling doesn’t solely depend on these guidelines of measurements, but they’re useful to refer to as reference:

• The figure is 7.5 heads tall
• The chest is 2 heads’ length from the top of the figure
• The belly button is 3 heads’ length from the top of the figure
• The pubic bone is 4 heads’ length from the top of the figure (and in general, is about the half-way point on the body)
• When the arms are relaxed, the wrists line up with the upper part of the femur
• When the arms are relaxed, the elbows line up with the belly button

There are similar principles for drawing facial features correctly, which involve splitting the face up into pieces and strategically placing the mouth, eyes, and nose based on those divisions. To begin, first create your facial shape– this can be done by combining a circle and a thinner oval, connecting them along their edges, and then sketching a chin below the oval to create a realistic facial structure. Next, to begin planning out proportions, divide the face into three equal sections with two horizontal lines to improve precision. Once this is done, the following proportions may be referred to for guidance:

• The eyes span across the center line (about halfway down the head)
• The space between the eyes should be approximately the width of one eye
• The head’s length should be around five eyes wide–if you originally drew the head too big or too small, the size shouldn’t be difficult to alter–as long as the length is somewhat close to the length of five eyes, your sketch should be relatively accurate
• The tear ducts of the eyes line up with the edges of the nostrils
• The corners of the mouth and the pupils of the eyes are aligned
• The bottom of the ears line up with the bottom of the nose

Using these strategies, facial features can be drawn in a relatively accurate manner. But, what exactly can make them appear as realistic as they do in the picture above? That’s where a new technique–shading–comes into play.

Before jumping into the nuances and techniques of shading, it’s crucial to be able to analyze the way that light falls upon your figure of choice. Take this apple, for instance–a light is shone above it. The strongest part of the light, often dubbed as the highlight of the object, falls on the top right where a seemingly white circle appears. Along a certain axis of the apple, a curved line separates the change from lightness into darkness. A shade falls over the left side of the apple, growing increasingly darker until it reaches its pinnacle, which is the area between the apple and the surface underneath it. Finally, the apple’s shadow extends over the table. Breaking down the levels of shade in an image is necessary to help transition towards the actual shading process.

Once your initial sketch of the apple is complete, an optional yet useful next step is drawing reference lines. Sketching out where you plan to emphasize the darkness versus where you will only press lightly with your pencil is very helpful: it can prevent accidental slip-ups that would require bothersome erasing. 

Lastly, the actual shading takes place. Varying the level of your shade can be achieved by pressing on the pencil with differing amounts of strength; the harder you press, the darker the color. However, there is no single technique for shading–from hatching and stippling, to regular blending, understanding the different shading methods can be useful in bringing your artwork to life.

The first method, hatching, utilizes lines to shade an area in. These lines are usually parallel, evenly spaced, and seem to flow naturally. Sub-categories like cross-hatching–when more than one set of parallel lines overlap at different angles–are also efficient, but understanding the essence of the general technique is vital before diving into the specifics. 

Next is stippling, a technique similar to pointillism (the use of many dots to create an image)–a designated area for shading is filled with meticulously placed dots, creating a complex shade gradient. Though this process is time-consuming and requires patience, it often results in wonderful and unique drawings, and is definitely a fun method to try out!

Blending, the most well-known type of shading, uses a gradient of shades from white to black. This technique can be done by simply coloring in an area with your choice of medium, or it can be achieved with a blending tool, such as a stump. Personally, I enjoy using my finger to blend, as it gives the artwork a raw, unfiltered feeling in the artwork.

Complex shading can add character to a drawing, as demonstrated above–the combined use of blending in the cheekbone and hatching in the hair lends the depicted woman to take on a new layer of depth, establishing a more dynamic sense to the artwork.

Creating compositions, perfecting proportions, and employing realistic shading are just some of the many aspects of art artists must consider when creating their pieces. However, the most important part of each of these techniques is consistent practice–putting in effort is truly the most essential step of progressing in your artistic skills.

Though these techniques are all helpful, it’s important to remember: in art, rules are meant to be broken! Art is a form of expression, not confinement, so each of the guidelines mentioned can be deviated from or completely ignored if desired. However, it’s important to know general rules of art before an artist breaks them, as they often prove to be helpful, especially for beginners.

Creating compositions, perfecting proportions, and employing realistic shading are just some of the many aspects of art artists must consider when creating their pieces. However, the most important part of each of these techniques is consistent practice–putting in effort is truly the most essential step of progressing in your artistic skills.