As the Drawing Academy tutor, I’m often asked what skills a proficient artist must have.
I’ll go over a few of the abilities that will enable you to fully express your creative abilities in this presentation.
The views I express in this presentation are those of myself. You are more than welcome to express your opinions by leaving comments on this page, whether you agree or disagree with them.
The following are, in my opinion, the top twelve abilities for a fine artist:
1. Realistic drawing
The ability to realistically depict anything one sees, thinks, or imagines is the most important talent a fine artist must possess.
The history of realistic drawing is extraordinarily rich. More than 32,000 years ago, the first skilled, realistic artwork ever known to man was produced. These incredible examples of realism in art can be found on the cave walls in Southern France. Not every contemporary living artist is capable of accurately and thoroughly recreating wild animals from memory.
Through various historical eras, such as Greek and Roman art, the Renaissance and Baroque, as well as later art schools in Europe and other parts of the world, realistic drawing has continued to advance.
Realistic drawing skills are a must-have if you want to develop as a talented fine artist. Because of this, every lesson in the Drawing Academy course shows you how to draw realistically.
2. Constructive drawing
The foundation of drawing is the constructive drawing principle. This idea enables artists to depict what they are aware of or can conjure up in their minds. This talent enables a fine artist to “build” objects in a piece of art so that they appear plausible and convincing.
There are many guidelines for constructive drawing, such as representing objects as transparent and using fictitious guidelines (like axes of symmetry, perspective lines, and proportions lines).
These guidelines, which are thoroughly explained in the Drawing Academy video lessons, can be used to draw anything, including figurative art and portraits, as well as animals, plants, still lifes, landscapes, and buildings.
3. Ability to draw from life
Many artists I’ve encountered admit they are only good at copying; they are incompetent when it comes to life drawing. This results from the incorrect methods used to teach students how to draw. Many artists never learn how to draw from life; instead, they simply copy from photos or pictures. In the video presentation “Drawing from Photos vs. Drawing from Life,” I go over the cognitive process that causes the brain to become more wired for copying than for drawing.
What gives a person the ability to draw from life? Even though I list it as having just one skill, it actually combines a number of different skills. It includes skills in three-dimensional thinking, constructive drawing, distance and proportion judgement, perspective understanding, and constructive drawing.
Understanding human anatomy and the proportions of the human head, face, and body are also necessary skills when drawing human figures from life. A later date will be set aside specifically for some of these skills because of their importance.
You can learn how to draw from nature, how to depict animals, plants, and architecture, as well as how to draw live portraits and figurative artwork, in the Drawing Academy. Although the entire process is shown in these video lessons from start to finish, I advise students not to copy what they see but rather to absorb the information and use it to create drawings inspired by real life and the natural world.
4. Drawing from memory
and imagination
I am also aware of other artists who can draw from life but have difficulty drawing from memory or their imagination. How could someone who can draw from life not be able to draw a straightforward human figure without a model initially perplexed me. The reason is that they are unfamiliar with perspective drawing, human anatomy, and constructive drawing. Without having a true understanding of what is going on underneath the model’s skin, these artists can only accurately copy what they see when drawing from life.
Good artists depict what they are familiar with. Your ability to draw from memory and imagination will improve as a result of learning the fundamental drawing rules, principles, and techniques, which you can find in the lessons at Drawing Academy.
5. Knowledge of art materials and their
skillful use
A fine artist definitely needs to know about art supplies and be able to make the most of them.
Have you ever witnessed a professional golfer holding their club improperly? I didn’t. So why do so many artists seem to lack proper pencil holding technique?
I find it strange that there are more art products available than ever before, but the quality of the art is declining.
Have you ever purchased art supplies in the anticipation that they would be the secret to producing a masterpiece? Was the artwork as impressive as you had hoped?
The secret that art supply companies don’t want you to know is that it’s your abilities, not their products, that will make the artwork great.
Of course, having good pencils, paints, brushes, and the like is helpful. But you and your abilities are the secret ingredient. First, spend money on your art education.
6. Knowledge of the rules of perspective
Perspective conventions predate the history of art. You must master the principles of perspective if you want to become a master artist.
I provide presentations on one-, two-, three-, and four-point perspective as well as an explanation of aerial perspective, perceptive perspective, and photo perspective in the Drawing Academy video lessons and bonuses.
It is impossible to accurately depict three-dimensional reality on a flat surface without distortion. In order for objects and the relationships between them to appear realistically, perspective helps to reduce this distortion as well as deal with relative proportions and foreshortening.
7. Knowledge of golden proportions
It is fascinating to think about how the Golden Ratio governs everything in the universe. In nature, life, and art, golden ratios appear. Understanding them enables you to create beautiful artwork that is both realistic and lifelike.
There are explanations for why particular things, people, and works of art appear to be beautiful. They are all in perfect proportion. You must be aware of the golden ratios if your goal is to produce art that is lovely, harmonious, and fashionable.
You will discover these guidelines in the Drawing Academy and discover how to apply Golden Proportions to your own artwork and compositions.
8. Composition skills
The arrangement of visual elements in a piece of art is referred to as composition; the word’s literal meaning is “putting together.”
There are numerous ways to arrange every element of art, including lines, shapes, tone, form, depth, colour, texture, and space. However, visual arrangements that adhere to compositional guidelines will look better.
Compositional components that are crucial to fine art include the following:
.
- Shapes and proportions
- Orientation, balance, and harmony of visual elements
- Contrast and tonal values
- Rhythm and gamut
- Perspective
- Symmetry
- Stylization
- Visual focus
To create a good composition, you can follow some rules, such as:
.
- The rule of golden proportions
- The rule of thirds
- Rules of rabatment
- Rules for guiding a viewer’s gaze
- Rules of symmetry
- And others
9. Knowledge of the proportions of the
human head, face, and body
Without understanding the proportions of the human head and figure, it is impossible to produce a skilled, figurative work of art from life or memory.
You must learn these proportions if you want to produce better figurative art because every great master used them.
Since the proportions of the human body are a crucial subject for fine artists, you will get a thorough explanation of them in every Drawing Academy video lesson on figurative drawing. These comprise the proportions of the human figure as well as the dimensions of the head and facial features.
10. Knowledge of human anatomy
Knowing the human skeleton is another crucial skill for figurative art.
You need to do more than just replicate the external shape when drawing a portrait or human figure. You must be aware of what lies beneath the surface in order to create truly realistic figurative art.
Take your time learning this admittedly difficult subject. You don’t need to know the Latin names of every bone, muscle, and organ in the human body or everything about how their physiology functions because you are an artist, not a doctor. However, you must be aware of the major skeletal and muscular structures that affect the dynamics and shape of the human body.
You can find thorough tutorials on skeletal and muscular anatomy for artists in the Drawing Academy. The Academy lessons give you all the information you need to know about human anatomy in a very approachable and simple way.
11. Understanding and using the
techniques of rendering tonal value
When tonal values are accurately and skillfully portrayed, three-dimensional nature can be realistically portrayed in all its three dimensions.
Tonal values can be rendered in graphite pencil in both correct and incorrect ways. Unfortunately, the majority of “Watch-Me-Draw” presentations on YouTube demonstrate how to do it incorrectly. To avoid using amateurish techniques like smudging graphite for blending, using a blunt pencil, relying on five different pencil grades, and rendering in full strength from the beginning, there are some rules you need to be aware of.
You need to take lessons from professionals if you want to develop truly professional pencil hatching methods. You can find a thorough explanation and demonstration of rendering techniques in the Drawing Academy. You’ll learn to rely on your abilities rather than on combinations of grayscale values or pencil grades.
12. Color theory and techniques for
working with colors
My main focus in this presentation is drawing abilities. However, using colour is a crucial component of your art education.
In multicoloured works, colour theory and skillful colour use are required.
A well-drawn piece of art is well-painted, according to many great artists. Some people will say “I draw with colours.”
The basis of all visual arts is drawing. The fundamental drawing abilities mentioned above must be mastered if you want to improve as an artist.
You will pick up all the skills you need in the Academy to be able to draw anything you can imagine, think, or see.
Not by yourself, this place. Academe tutors are available to assist! If you have any questions about art, require assistance with your creative development, or simply want a qualified assessment of your work, you will have access to unlimited personal support from practising fine artists.
The Drawing Academy offers much more than just instruction in drawing. You will gain personally from the art community as well. You can interact with other students, display your own artwork, and critique other people’s.
You can purchase The Drawing Academy for the incredibly low cost of just $257. This amounts to just one daily cup of coffee. Even better, you can pay the tuition in three $97 monthly installments.
You will receive the Academy Diploma after three months, and your membership will then be free forever.
Contrast this with attending a modern art college, which would require you to devote at least four years of your life, cost more than $100,000, and provide no assurance that you will acquire proficient drawing abilities.
Get the most out of the Drawing Academy to save you time and money!
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