Drawing Sketches: Free Sketching Techniques

If you’ve been wanting to learn how to sketch, but didn’t know where to start, then you’ve come to the right place. There’s no sense in trying to figure out sketching techniques on your own when you have experts like those featured here to help you in drawing sketches!

First, you’ll learn how to “see” like an artist with guidance from Grant Fuller, author of Start Sketching and Drawing Now. In this excerpt, Fuller explains how to visualize objects for drawing sketches by using your memory to fill in the gaps.

Next, get comfortable with a gestural sketch drawing with Jeff Mellem, author of Sketching People: Life Drawing Basics. Mellem shares a sketching exercise that will help you be more confident when you pick up your pencil.

Then find inspiration from two artists featured in Sketchbook Confidential, a collection of sketches from talented, professional artists who welcome you to peek into their processes. In the excerpt, you’ll find in this free eBook, get inspired by the sketches of Kate Starling and Roberto (Bob) Cardinale.

Download Your Free Guide to Drawing Sketches Today!

Here’s what you’ll learn in the free download:

Lesson 1: Start Sketching and Drawing Now by Grant Fuller

Here’s part of what’s inside: “Explore what you can do with a pencil. See what marks a simple pencil will make. The point leaves a certain type of line, the side a different mark. Different pressures and speeds have very different results. This type of experimenting might seem pointless at first, but you should be as familiar with the pencils you use as musicians are with their instruments. Doodling creates a connection with your eye, brain and hand that will be vital to your creation of successful drawings.”

From Sketching People: Life Drawing Basics by Jeff Mellem

“Gesture is the first step in creating drawings from your imagination. Or maybe I should say re-creating because you are attempting to translate what you saw in a moment into a drawing that may take several minutes to develop.

“In public settings, subjects rarely stay still for very long. They are constantly gesturing or shifting their weight. If they are doing something very active like playing basketball or even just walking, they will only maintain a pose for a fraction of a second.

“Gesture allows you to quickly convey what your subject is doing. It gives a solid foundation so that when the drawing is further developed the figure maintains a fluid, orchestrated rhythm. If this foundation is weak, the final drawing will be, too.”

From Sketchbook Confidential – featuring Roberto (Bob) Cardinale

“When sketching, I try to be very conscious about the feeling of the piece and what part or parts I have to exaggerate in order to get the feeling that I am after. When I sketch, I feel very open and relaxed, as I am not trying to do a finished or important drawing. It’s as if I’m just thinking about a form and not trying to create one.The sketch is free to do what it wants, and I feel no need to exert control over it.”

From Sketchbook Confidential – featuring Kate Starling

“I always make a composition sketch before I start to paint, and while this started as a discipline to eliminate false starts in painting, I’ve found that it’s a way of focusing my mind to the painting process. By sketching, I calm down and ready myself to concentrate; in a short while I can feel myself click into a different mental state.”

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