Art Fun Cheap

People often think that you need to draw well to enjoy making art. That’s not true. But at the same time, you can have a lot more fun with art if you can draw well enough to please yourself.

How do you learn? Formal academic courses are not necessary. Many people don’t have access to them. More important, they are not always the best way to learn. In college, for example, I found that my art instructors expected everyone to already know how to draw. Our drawing courses were more for practice than anything else.

Learning to draw is not a matter of hand-eye coordination. It’s about learning to really see what you’re looking at. The best way to become good at drawing is to practice. Books and good drawing courses can help, though, in showing you what to look for, and training your eye to really see.

I recommend a self-teaching course that is used by drawing students, teachers, and even professional graphic designers and illustrators who wante to become more versatile and improve their skills. It’s called the The ABC of Art Skills, by Jenny Gibson, a professional illustrator and teacher.

(On the cover, you can see her on the right, standing in front of a larger-than-lifesize mural.)

The course takes you step by step through six professional secrets that Gibson uses in her work as an illustrator and in teaching others. It also comes with a set of drawing and painting reference materials.

On of the great things about this course is that, as a professional illustrator, Gibson can draw, and teach others to draw, in several different styles. Some artists teach only a certain style–theirs–though they may show you examples of other styles.

This seems to me like the best way to get started drawing on your own or to learn to draw better. It would make a great gift for an adult or older child. And it could be a wonderful shared activity for parents and children.