Learn to Draw
A downloadable version of this software with more features and exercises can be found here.
Why some people can draw and others cannot? Do artists see things differently?
There are two ways to see the world. In one way, you see objects - trees, grass, skies, people. In another, you see lines, curves, shapes and colors. The first thinking mode is logical, the second is artistic. Look at the figure below. What do you see?
A lime and kiwi? If so, you are in the logical mode, because those are objects. In an artistic mode, you would see shapes, textures and colors and you would think something like this: "there are two large nearly perfect ellipses here, an arc above that joins each of these ellipses...".
Why is it necessary to turn on an artistic mode in order to draw? Why cannot you draw a lime and kiwi while seeing them in a logical way, like lime and kiwi? The problem is, your logical mind already has a symbol for every object. It has a symbol for a lime, kiwi, and blackberry. If you are not an artist, these symbols are far from perfect, they are not what you want them to be. Unless you turn your logical mind off, it will dictate you how to draw, it will overpower your artistic mind and make sure that you draw those symbols rather than what you really see.
The best way to shut off your logical mind is to make sure it does not know what you are drawing. This is possible by exposing only a small part of your drawing reference at a time, and never seeing the entire reference until the drawing is ready. The logical mind can not figure out the name or the purpose of the object you are drawing and it leaves you alone. So, you begin to see shapes and colors instead of objects. Later on, you will learn to slip into the artistic thinking yourself, but for now, the tools in this tutorial will help you by opening only a small window in the drawing reference, as in the figure below.
Once the logical mind is turned off, how does one learns to draw? The first step is to copy artists' line drawings. This is the easiest form of drawing. Every time you draw, you are learning to see curves and shapes, and you are developing hand eye coordination. The next step is making contour line drawings from photographs, and this step will take you closer to drawing from real life. Just look for lines and curves that separate different colors, and copy them to your drawing. It is that easy, even a computer can do it. A contour line drawing is not a complete drawing (with an exception of cartoons), but it is the first step for many drawing techniques. Next, you can learn to shade and use color.
Wait, but artists don't just copy, they create, right? The reality is that only a small percentage of professional artists can draw without reference, from their memory or imagination, others use tricks with combining multiple photos and real life objects.
Still you should not give up on an idea to draw out of your head. The Exercise 3 of this tutorial will help you to improve your visual memory. After all, until you learn to draw from reference, you have no means to check if you can copy your imaginary images into paper as well.