This fantastic skill lets you transfer your ideas onto a paper in the most fun way. Sketching refers to a quick freehand drawing, focusing on the most important parts of a subject. The best thing about sketching is that they usually blend in while you continue to build upon the concept of your drawing. Here, we have gathered some helpful sketching tips and techniques for beginners to help you get started with your sketching journey.

Ten Amazing Sketching Tips For Beginners

1.       Always start with simplified basic shapes and forget about details until later.
2.       Position your hand away from the tip of your pencil and move your entire arm as you draw, not just your wrist.
3.       Place a sheet of paper under your hand when shading to avoid smudging.
4.       Don’t use your finger to blend, instead use a blending stick to blend the graphite for a natural look.
5.       Develop your observational skills and hand-eye coordination by drawing what you see.
6.       Use harder sketching pencils for lighter lines and softer pencils for darker lines.
7.       Choose a paper with a “tooth” for added texture.
8.       Always work from light to dark, else the dark graphite can get stuck on your blending stick and mix in with your lighter areas.
9.       Keep your outlines light if you are sketching real-life objects. However, if you’re drawing a cartoon, this tip doesn’t apply.
10.   Practice every single day to get those creative juices flowing.

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Easy To Learn Sketching Techniques For Beginners

Hatching & Cross-Hatching

Hatching & cross-hatching are at the top of the list of techniques you should learn and are often used together. They are very common sketching techniques that can be used to add depth and texture to your sketches through shading. Hatching involves drawing lines along the main line of your drawing to create shadow and depth. The closer the lines, the darker the shading will appear. Cross-hatching is a series of lines similar to hatching, but going in the opposite direction and are placed over the first set of hatching lines.

Stippling Technique

With this technique, one can add shading and depth by using small dots. When you place a lot of dots close to one another, it appears darker, when you put them farther apart, it appears lighter. To ensure that your dots show up and make a better impact, keep the dots closer. It is best to use softer graphite for this effect, as it comes out better. You can either use them with great care to add controlled gradations in your drawing, or you can use them roughly to add more texture to your drawing.

Scribbling

The use of random movements across the paper to create uneven and abstract lines, generally without even lifting the pencil off the paper is called scribbling.  These sketching ideas for beginners can be very effective when used properly to create sketchy artwork. Random movements across the paper will result in a somewhat deconstructed image, and the more irregular lines created closer together, the darker it will appear.

Circling

This technique helps to control the tone your pencil produces by simply adjusting the amount of pressure you place on it. To create smooth transitions you can make small circular strokes that give you a more blended appearance. It’s important to note that you shouldn’t make small circles with perceptible lines. Instead, move the pencil around in a circular motion when adding pressure. For this approach, a duller pencil works best.

Shading & Blending

This is one of the most popular techniques used among pencil artists to give a cleaner shading element to your drawing. This effect can be achieved in a number of ways. You can blend simply by angling your pencil to utilize the wider edge, creating thicker lines that create the appearance of shadows and shading. Then, roll up a piece of paper to blend and this will give your sketch a smoother appearance.

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Creating Highlights

Just like adding shading to create depth and shadows to your sketch, you can also create highlights. Highlights are usually created at the highest point of an object where it is closest to the light source. It helps to add extra details and shows where the light is coming from. Create highlights by adding various amounts of white to your object using a white pencil. Another way to achieve this effect is by using an eraser to remove some of the shadings to create lighter areas to indicate the presence of brightness.

Rendering

This sketching for beginners’ technique is sure to take your drawing to the next level. Rendering is essentially an approach where you apply graphite to the paper surface and then remove some of it with the eraser to add the highlighting effect. This is an ongoing process of applying and removing the graphite that finally gives you a very soft and almost blurred effect.

Things to Keep In Mind While Choosing And Using Sketching Books

•         Always pick unlined books, so that you can enjoy sketching without any background distractions.
•         A spiral-bound book is best as the pages seem more individual, you can fold it and have a hassle-free surface to draw on.
•         Look for perforated pages in spiral-bound books to avoid messy edges and it also allows you to remove pages easily.
•         Draw on only one side of the page as it is very common to have a pencil imprint on the back of the facing page.
•         Use thick paper books as it allows you to erase mistakes easily and they’re nice to draw on too.
•         Sketchbooks with hard covers are convenient for use as they are more durable than paper covers.

 

We hope you enjoyed these beginner sketching tips and techniques. Do let us know which is your favorite in the comment box below.