It never ceases to amaze me if you start drawing something, keep a good look at what you draw, step back now and then to get an overview, that that alone is enough to produce a convincing drawing, where everything fits. You’d expect some magical ingredient, like talent, but no, taking the right steps brings you to a successful result.
The only problem is that you need to do it a lot, and then I mean a whole lot. Malcolm Gladwell seems to suggest that you need at least 10,000 hours of intense practice to become good at any skill. If you spend 4 hours a day on drawing, then you’d need 2500 days, or about 7 years to become good at drawing. I currently spend 2 hours a day at drawing. I guess I should put more effort in my hobby if I want to become good at it any time soon.
These two sketches were part of the drawing exercises in the book "Keys to Drawing" by Bert Dodson. The point is to learn to see object from strange perspectives and draw what you see, instead of what you think you see. Draw lines instead of things.
I’m still having problems with proportions and putting details at the correct location. Luckily, I saw browsing through the book, that this subject matter is dealt with.
So while I keep drawing away, slowly working my way t hrough t he book, I’ll get better at drawing. When I’m done, I won’t be a master draftsman, but I will be able to draw things from life much better than I’m able to do at this moment.
So much to do, so little time 