"To learn to draw is to draw and draw and draw." - Andrew Loomis
Many Malaysians are drawn to creative hobbies, which shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise given our unique art and cultural heritage! It’s not just older folks who are looking to preserve the beauty of various art forms, though. Have you noticed the increasing number of teens and young adults who are interested in pursuing the art industry?
It’s not just about creating a career out of art. Creative hobbies like knitting and painting stem from an interest, and they can also be relaxing and rewarding for the budding artist.
Drawing is one of the most accessible and beautiful ways to get into art, and you can enjoy practising drawing from the comfort of your home.
If you’re interested in picking up drawing, here’s how you can learn to draw without breaking the bank.
What are the basics of drawing?
Drawing is the art of using marks to produce images on a surface. This art - often requiring skilled techniques in using materials like ink, charcoal, graphite or crayons - is usually done on paper, although you can also draw on surfaces like cloth, ceramics and glass.
Due to reasons like sustainability efforts and access to a variety of drawing tools, a lot of artists are moving towards digital art and honing their drawing skills on their tablets.
One of the most popular things that people like to draw are portraits, which are artistic representations of a person or a group of people. The most famous drawing in art history, The Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, was created during the Renaissance period and depicts how the human body can be proportioned according to mathematical ratios.
It is said that people enjoy drawing portraits of others (or even themselves!) as humans are innately drawn to faces and want to seek connection.
And no, there are many, many things you can draw besides portraits!
Flowers, birds, pets, or the mug of coffee on your table… pretty much anything can be an inspiration for one to pick up their tools and begin drawing!
Here are four basic skills every artist needs to know in drawing:
- Recognising edges: breaking down every shape as a collection of edges or sides
- Recognising space: differentiating the space occupied/ not occupied by the subject of your drawing
- Knowing light and shadow: understanding light source and how it affects the subject of your drawing
- Observation skills: viewing the subject of your drawing accurately but also maintaining a creative lens throughout the process
Do you feel you are already equipped with these basic drawing skills? You could be one of the many young Malaysians fueled with enthusiasm for the creative industry!
What is the best site to learn drawing?
Now, let’s get into some ways you can learn to draw for free.
The first place most of us go when trying to learn a new skill for free is the internet. The web is full of great resources for helping you to learn how to draw and paint.
Various free resources out there are great for helping budding artists learn how to use pencils, oil paints, pastels, etc. While some do offer paid content, there are thousands of resources for learning to draw that are free and accessible to all. These sites can be effective if you use everything they have to offer and practise regularly.
The advantage of learning to draw online using these resources is that you can choose when and how you learn. You can take as much or as little time as you need with each tutorial and start learning. You just need to choose the right time.
However, sometimes the right time never comes, and you may find yourself constantly putting off learning to draw. This is why sometimes it helps to set aside a specific time of the day to practise your drawing skills. For instance, you could dedicate 15 minutes every day after dinner to teach yourself to draw a portrait, which could also serve as a fantastic way to relax before bed.
Here are some great sites for learning to draw online:
- Sketch A Day
- Ctrl+Paint
- Drawing Now
- Drawing Coach
- SketchCrawl
- Drawspace
- The Drawing Website
There are even sites where you can be taught by somebody at your own pace. You can ask your tutor questions about drawing and painting and get advice on particular techniques like hatching and cross-hatching, for example. Most of these sites can be used to learn the basics of drawing and even to improve your skills in certain techniques.
How to get free drawing lessons
In addition to all the sites where you can learn how to draw, there are other ways you can learn to draw without spending any money. How about looking for artists who are offering free drawing lessons?
Find artists on social media
Scrolling through social media is a great way to find artists and people who’ll teach you how to draw. There are plenty of artists on Instagram, for example, who share their work with their followers. You can get inspiration from these works or even use them to practise drawing.
As someone who is just starting out their drawing journey, you can learn a lot from artists on social media, especially with stories and videos posted by these artists explaining their drawing techniques and how they work. You can learn about their artistic process and discover the best ways to use popular drawing techniques.
Instagram isn’t the only social network that you can use to discover art: Pinterest is another fantastic platform where you can search for specific images that inspire your art. You can find all sorts of illustrations, paintings, drawings, and tutorials for learning to draw on Pinterest.
If you are someone who is on social media often, then you’ll likely have a Facebook account. Consider heading to Facebook and joining groups that focus on drawing. These Facebook groups often focus on a particular theme or type of drawing, so you can quickly find the art style that you’re interested in.
Join an art club
To get better at drawing, you can also join a club or group of artists. Some artists get together regularly to draw. This might include hiking and drawing landscapes, for example. Some get together closer to home and help each other learn how to draw and give each other advice and inspiration.
If you are a student, you can consider being a part of your school or university’s art club and hone your drawing skills from there. You will have the chance to work under the guidance of an art teacher and learn from other students who may be more experienced in drawing techniques like sketching and stippling. Again, being a member of the club is free!
Source for books on drawing
If you prefer to work alone, there are also books on learning to draw that you can read as though you are taking free lessons on drawing. Another great thing is that you don’t always have to buy a new book to learn drawing. What about sourcing out drawing books that you can borrow from your local library? After all, there are books on everything.
Here are some of the best drawing books:
- Keys to Drawing by Bert Dodson
- The Natural Way to Draw by Kimon Nicolaides
- Perspective Made Easy by Ernest Norling
- Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis
Whether it's still life, oil painting, ceramics, or just basic drawing, you'd be surprised how many people out there are teaching these skills through social media, clubs and even through books they have successfully published.
Find out more about learning to draw for free.
What free drawing app should I use?
Apps are also a great way of learning how to draw for free. While you do have to pay for some apps, most of them offer a limited free version.
Learning how to draw with apps can be effective if you practise regularly. You’ll want to use the apps at least once a week if you want to see any progress. There are apps for learning how to draw anatomy, landscapes, etc. and you can get them on smartphones and tablets. This means you can learn to draw wherever you are.
To start learning how to draw, there are a few apps to get you started. They are great for taking your first steps into the world of drawing. You can learn how to draw portraits, eyes, noses, mouths, etc., the fundamentals (proportion, colours, etc.), and everything else you need to start creating your desired art.
Here are some free drawing apps you can try to improve your skills in drawing.
WeDraw
If you’re interested in video game characters or manga, you should get the WeDraw app. You can learn to draw characters like Sonic and Naruto! One fantastic feature of this app is that it will show you how to draw these characters step by step. You’ll be able to quickly pick up drawing techniques after a few sessions of character drawing.
Just follow the instructions to recreate your favourite anime, cartoon or manga characters.
How to Draw
The same is true with How to Draw. What you can learn with this app is more varied than the previous app we mentioned. Whether it's drawing people, animals, or dragons, anything is possible with this app.
However, we do want to point out that this app targets those who are drawing for beginners. So if you are already reaching the intermediate level of drawing, you may want to look for other apps that challenge your drawing abilities.
What to Draw
Even the most seasoned artists may feel bored after practising the same drawing technique for weeks and may want to try their hand at different art styles. If you’re struggling to find inspiration, you can always have a look at What to Draw.
When you want to draw something but have no idea of what you want to draw, you can use this app to select from drawing themes like Horror, Western, Space and Medieval Fantasy. You will receive interesting phrases and suggestions to get your creative juices flowing! Beat the artist’s block easily.
Finally, if you want to draw digitally, you can always use programmes and apps like Sketchbook, Adobe Fresco, or Procreate. These are great ways to access a variety of drawing materials for free: digital pencils, rubbers, charcoal, pens, pastels, felt-tip pens… you’ll have everything you need at no cost, all within your fingertips.
Find out more about the best apps for learning to draw.
How can I learn to draw by myself?
Learning to draw for free probably means that you’re going to be on your own. If you’re struggling to find inspiration, there are plenty of things you can do to learn techniques or improve your drawing skills at home.
Practise drawing the objects and people around you
Sometimes, the biggest inspiration can come from what is right in front of you. You’ll be surprised at the various objects and items around your house or community that could challenge your artistic skills!
To start, you can learn how to draw an apple. Its simple shape, which you are already familiar with, will help you to work on form and you can improve on the techniques for light and shadows at the same time. This can be useful for improving your existing drawing skills.
You can also do a few sketches of the objects around you. How about sitting on the bench on your street or grabbing a bus to look for sketching inspirations? This is a great way to relax in your neighbourhood and you won’t spend have to spend too much time on your drawing. After all, things in your neighbourhood tend to move so you won’t have long to make a perfect sketch. Still, you can take it as a challenge!
Other than that, you can draw portraits of close friends and family. What you need to do is carefully observe your subject and do your best to get the proportions right. After you are done, you can even offer the person your drawing of them as a gift.
To master all of these techniques, you’ll need to practise regularly. Try and set aside 10 to 15 minutes each day to practise.
Learn to draw using perspective
You can also learn how to draw perspective on your own. A lot of beginner artists get excited about picking up popular drawing techniques like hatching and stippling, but forget that many objects and things require perspective to take on a realistic impression of what is being drawn. In other instances, perspective can also offer a dramatic effect on drawings!
Perspective is a way to represent 3D objects on a 2D medium. This concept appeared quite late in the history of art and it wasn’t until the Renaissance era that artists started to employ perspective in their works.
To help you understand perspective, you should use a vanishing point. A great way to start would be with an urban landscape. Think of cities, with their straight roads and buildings, that can be used as case studies for perspective. How about starting with the iconic Petronas Twin Towers which have a clear vanishing point?
Master the different colours
A good artist will also need to master colour, even if they just love to sketch or draw simple illustrations. Be it gouache, watercolour, acrylic, coloured pencil, or felt-tip, colours play an important role in enhancing the quality of your drawings. Knowing which colours are complimentary can help you choose the right colours for the right situations.
One way to master the different colours is to educate yourself on colour theory, which is the study of how colours work together (and even how they affect our emotions and perceptions!). With colour theory, you can easily pick colours that go well together and set the mood or tone for your work.
Say you have just completed a portrait of yourself. What colours can you add to your drawing to give it life or showcase your personality?
Find out more about how to get better at drawing.
Learn to draw with a tutor
If you'd like a personal drawing class, consider getting help with drawing with a professional artist who can teach you the A to Z of drawing.
We’ll get to the part where this is free in a bit.
When looking for an art tutor, you'll need to think about what kind of tutorial will be best for you and your learning style. Most artists will be teaching their students in one of these three modes: face-to-face tutorials, online tutorials, and group tutorials. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of effectiveness so make sure you choose the right type.
Face-to-face tutorials tend to be the most effective at teaching students how to draw; online tutorials are good for those who can't find tutors locally but they tend to be better for theoretical subjects in art rather than hands-on practice; and finally, group tutorials lack the personalised approach offered by the other two but can offer motivation to practise drawing as you’ll have other students to support your drawing journey.
Now, how can you learn with an art tutor for free?
Have you ever considered service swapping?
If you’re in luck, you may be able to find a professional artist who is willing to teach you because they are a friend, family member or an acquaintance of someone you know. That should give you the advantage of swapping favours or exchanging skills with your art tutor. For example, you could learn to draw for an hour with your art tutor and then teach them how to play tennis if you are good at it.
The downside of learning from someone you know is that the quality of lessons may not be guaranteed, and let’s face it… it could be awkward getting drawing lessons from someone know but are not close to!
So before you choose your tutor, remember that many of the tutors on Superprof will offer free tutoring for the first hour, so you can discuss what you're after and see if they're right for you!
What are the benefits of taking drawing lessons on Superprof?
What if you were told that you could take a free drawing lesson with a talented artist?
You don’t have to look any further because you can take your first drawing lesson for free when you sign up with Superprof!
By making use of this free drawing lesson, you can assess whether you have chosen the right artist to learn drawing from while still having an awesome experience of picking up drawing techniques from an experienced art tutor.
Not to say that this is the only benefit you will get from learning with an art teacher on Superprof, though. By taking drawing lessons on Superprof, you can:
- Learn how to draw online from professional artists and illustrators around the world
- Have your art teacher travel to your home to teach you drawing in person
- Choose between having one-to-one tutoring or group lessons (depending on your preference)
- Pay for affordable drawing lessons, from as low as RM20 per hour
- Schedule lessons according to your convenience and timing
There are over 5,000 tutors who are offering drawing lessons on Superprof! Learn from professional artists who have taught students in Paris, Toronto, London, Kuala Lumpur, Edinburgh and more… you can become a globalised artist who is skilled at drawing, just by learning with a Superprof drawing tutor.
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