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As the fine art teacher and the founder of the Drawing Art Academy, I have met many fine art students around the World who had some erroneous beliefs about drawing. Their points of view sometimes reflected their drawing techniques knowledge gaps; however, in most cases flawed thoughts originated from by semi-professional art teachers who are not good fine artists themselves.
In the last 100 years the world has seen a gradual but steady decline in traditional fine art skills. This is mainly because of the direction contemporary art is developing. No longer good drawing skills are essential for making a career in art. Who needs a drawing skills if a plastic bag full of rubbish can be called a piece of art if its placed against the wall in some contemporary fine art gallery.
Nevertheless, I am very glad that so many students in various countries are ego to study the realistic fine art. The appreciation of beauty and celebration of the millennium old traditions of the fine art are still in demand. I am very happy that you are interested in traditional drawing techniques and want to improve your drawing skills.
Why should you be listening to me today?
Before you discover the 12 Biggest Mistakes to Avoid in Drawing, I shall say a few words about my fine art background to establish why you should listen to what I am about to reveal.
My fine art education comes from intensively studying easel drawing and painting for 15 years from the age of nine. I have drawn and painted for as long as I can remember myself. I was fortunate to get very professional fine artists as my art teachers. My fine art education combines three separate 5-year courses – Fine Art School where I studied Drawing, Painting, History of Art, Decorative Arts, and Sculpture. Then I took a 5-year course at the Academy of Art, department of Easel Painting and Drawing. And finally, I spent 5 more years obtaining the university degree, and becoming a professional fine art teacher.
Since then fine art has been an essential part of my professional life. My artworks found their home in collections in the USA, Canada, UK, Finland, Holland, Germany, Poland, France, Spain, and many other countries. This lifestyle involved extensive traveling; finally I settled down in the UK.
My creative career found a new application in digital-, industrial-, graphic- design and marketing. I had some extraordinary accomplishments: within a small company trading as Digital Dream, I was creating the primary design of entry-level digital cameras, its packaging, marketing materials, and web applications. In two years we took 60.2% of the European market share. It means that I designed every six out of 10 digital cameras, sold in Western Europe under £150. This includes the world’s only Official James Bond Digital Camera JB1. As a bonus, I also designed the Official James Bond Digital Brand Style. Thereafter my creative career went on to movie marketing and web design, and then to celebrity brands design and promotions. Working with one of the most influential man on this planet, Simon Fuller on his clients and brands I was designing for David and Victoria Beckham, Claudia Schiffer, Spice Girls, Pop and American Idol and many other sport, TV, music, fashion, and entertainment brands and projects. Later I was helping to design for and promote many other music names, including Madonna, Jay-Z, Depeche Mode, and others.
I have listed some design projects above not to massage my ego nor impress you, but to make a very important observation that in every endeavor the drawing skills and practical knowledge of fine art greatly helped me. The ability to express myself creatively in those projects, and deliver the best design would be very limited without the foundation of every art – Strong Drawing Skills.
I never stop painting and drawing. The amount of artworks I did since coming to the UK had declined due to full-time employment; however the skill of drawing is for life.
Today, due to a non-disclosure agreements I am using an art name Vladimir London. Presently I am teaching fine art students over the Internet as it helps to provide value to so many people around the globe who would not be able to benefit from me otherwise. No more of my personal time nor countries borders limit the way students can learn skills and techniques of drawing and painting.
Once you have learned how to draw, you have this wonderful gift for the rest of your life.
Now, I will explain the 12 erroneous ideas that every drawing master must be aware of.
This goes to the philosophical question “What is the Fine ART?” If your idea is that art is something shocking, completely useless that can be labelled with a ridiculously high price tag for no other reason than “you don’t understand it, because it’s art,” then I have to agree, no drawing skills will help here. It is heartbreaking that the saying has developed in last few years: “He’s not a contemporary artist, he can draw.”
You have to make a decision, either you value centuries-old traditions of beauty and attractiveness of art. If, in your opinion, art has some purpose to glorify, stylize or truthfully portray the real world around us or your own inner imaginary world and ideas, then drawing is the key skill to help you achieve this purpose.
Drawing is an imperative foundation of various arts – painting, sculpture, decorative arts, architecture, industrial, and graphical design, etc. Possessing strong drawing skills is a necessary component to being a master of your creative profession.
Imagine a musician who did not bother to learn notes nor practice harmonies. Would you instantly recognize by listening to his cacophony that he isn’t a professional musician? Or how about a doctor, who did not spend enough time learning basic skills of his profession and decided to operate on a live person? Would you be happy to be his patient? Would you board an airplane knowing that the pilot did not study what it takes to be a pilot? You may say, but in art no human life is in danger. That is true, but it is not an excuse for fine artists not to study the original drawing skills.
If you want to be a fine artist, you must develop your creative skills by getting the most out of drawing education to be free to create your art without any limitations.
In the Drawing Art Academy, we focus the educational process on delivering to you, as a fine art student, the fundamental and most necessary drawing techniques, so you could improve your drawing skills even if you have never drawn before.
Do not get me wrong here; the ability to express yourself in fine art is crucial for a fine artists. This is what makes you unique in art and therefore is essential element of your creative career. However, you do not want to handicap yourself and severely limit your creative abilities by not having the necessary drawing skills.
Answer honestly to yourself the following question: “If you want to make a great piece of art, but your hands cannot draw creative ideas you have in your head, would it limit your ability to make the intended artwork?”
Did you have such situations when you imagined something really great and creative, you started to draw your ideas and after a while you realize that result is nowhere near what you wanted to create? It might be still a good artwork, and people around you wowed by it, but deep inside you know that the results is inferior to your imaginary picture.
Would it be great to have an ability to express yourself in art with the freedom of craftsmanship that strong drawing skills enable you?
I had discussions with many students who were getting the only ‘express yourself’ art education. Some of them were advocating such educational approach, whereas others were concerned that year after year they did not master what it takes to become a skillful fine artist.
The truth is, not many fine art institutions teaching how to draw these days, most of them are just providing such guidance as “be creative and express yourself” without giving the craft skills how to do so. This goes back to the fact that so many art teachers are not professional artists themselves, they did not get the drawing skills from their teachers and nowadays passing even less skills to next generations. If a student is lucky to have a natural talent, he might have a chance to become a skilful fine artist. What about the rest?
Fortunately, the fine art is based on basic skills like drawing that can be learned, practiced, and mastered. Here’s the big discovery – drawing skills can be mastered by anyone who has desire and will to do so. No matter what age or sex you are, left or right handed, your race, your religion – none of these matters if you want to become a better drawing master. You can learn how to draw starting today. Even if you have been drawing poorly all your life or have not drawn since childhood, you still can take the drawing course from a professional drawing teacher and improve dramatically your drawing skills.
As a student of the Drawing Art Academy you will discover how to improve your drawing skills so you will be able to draw what you want, how you want.
I started drawing at an early age. Yet the only formal training I had was 4 semesters of drawing in college. Now I am a middle school art teacher and I am inspired to catch up on lost time from so many years of doing no art other than photography. This year I pushed myself to do on artwork a day this year and have only 9 more artworks to go to meet my goal. I can see a lot of improvement in my drawing, but I know I have a long way to go to be satisfied with my technical skills.
I want to learn to draw just like the old masters, so detailed and real.
I’m already a very good artist. I’ve drawn with pencil all my life yet there is a level in the classical drawing that I haven’t reached. What is it that sets the classical method of picking up graphite and putting it to paper that creates the depth of reality that is missing in many art pieces today? People may think it looks like the photo but there is something missing.
So many contemporary artists are chasing creativity rather than learning drawing first. No wonder why art galleries are filled with sh*t
Not all galleries, I have one near my place where the owner takes only decent artworks to exhibit
Very interesting course.
God yes!
The highjacking of such terms as ‘modern art’ and ‘contemporary art’ by the ugly anti-art that has been thrust in our faces for the past 70 years (which is twice as long as I’ve been around) is a joke.
No one should recognise such self-congratulatory, arrogant and inaccurate terms! It is tragic to think what great art may have lost due to never being made, because budding artists were conned into deeming aesthetic and tradition-rooted and skillfully executed art somehow obsolete.
Fortunately much art of that nature continued to be produced over the years anyway, despite precious little recognition from the ‘modernist’ dominated gallery and academy system, where the lunatics could fairly be said to have taken over the asylum.
As a child I was made fun of by various relations and family friends as my parents always said, ‘ do things properly or leave it alone ! ‘, consequently in my naivety I tried to do exactly that with everything. Of course I now realise that they were wanting me to appreciate what was real and honest. When I was a school teacher I obviously wanted my pupils to be able to express themselves but working at skills was far more important. Many staff did not agree, they were obsessed with children experimenting and expressing themselves, missing the essential discipline which comes with practising skills.
Drawing is a skill which needs to be practised and developed and is essential for excellent art work whatever that Art work might be. As my father used to say, ‘ Don’t put the cart before the horse.’ I have taken several art courses but not one has taught classical drawing although there has been vague references to form, light, shade and perspective. I am enjoying every minute of this course and wish it had been available years ago. My parents would be so amused now I think. It is sad to think that lots of modern’ or ‘contemporary ‘ Art is pseudo, pretentious, cosmetic, fashionable, over-priced and incomprehensible.
pseudo