How can I manage my pencil strokes?

Questions from David, Drawing Academy student

“I’ve been enrolled in the Drawing Academy for some time now and I’ve watched your lessons over and over to refresh my knowledge of how to draw certain things. I’ve improved so much. Now, because of that improvement, I tend to rush my portrait drawings. Its not out of boredom either, I just get excited and want to see the end results. That said, when I do this I tend to make mistakes. How can I manage my pencil strokes? And will painting help me train my hand patience and to do small find details?

And I’ve been getting into minimal drawing portraits as well. And is it okay to make self portraits from looking in the mirror or from memory?”

Hi David,

Many thanks for your update and staying in touch.

It is natural to speed up drawing when you have better skills.

Subconsciously you now think about other tasks when you draw and want to skip steps that are time consuming. That is positive, it means you are making progress. It is also good that you see your mistakes, so you could work on them and try to avoid in a future. With time and practice, you will eliminate mistakes you see today.

It doesn’t mean that you will achieve perfection though. At your new skills level, you will be placing tougher tasks and will see and work on a higher level of mistakes that are above your comprehension at this time. This is a never ending cycle – with better skills you embark on tougher projects and making mistakes is just part of the journey.

Yes, it is good to make various scale drawings – small sketches and larger & longer artworks. Making self-portraits is also a great way to study. Work both from mirror and then from memory.

Best regards,
Vladimir