I often tell my brand-new students at the beginning of their first lesson: “In the next 2 hours, I will teach you all you need to know about drawing; after that, everything else will just be practice.” Am I being facetious? Yes, perhaps a bit, but not as much as one might suppose.
In their very first lesson, I introduce my students to most, if not all, of the concepts & tools that they will need in order to learn to draw. This includes, but is not limited to, things like: Drawing the large shapes first; ignoring all details; establishing relationships between the different parts of the drawing; developing all parts of the drawing equally rather than belaboring one area; periodically moving away from the drawing, & so on. They will learn how to “sight,” or measure without the aid of a ruler. We will discuss the importance of spending most of their time looking at what they are drawing instead of the drawing itself. And we will firmly establish one indispensable rule: When making a change to the drawing, they must put the new line down before erasing the old one. After which, I solemnly promise to nag them any time they forget any of this…
In those first 2 jam-packed hours, I am, in effect, handing over to the students the comprehensive answer to the question: How do I learn to draw? Yet everyone recognizes that it takes much longer than 2 hours to learn to draw well. Why is that? Because applying & integrating this information – making it one’s own, so to speak – is the difficult part.
There are several reasons why students have difficulty with this. One is because the new knowledge is often contrary to their habits: After all, when we find a mistake in our checkbooks, we erase the error first, then we write in the correct amount. When correcting a drawing, though, we do the opposite: We make the new line first, then erase the unwanted line. Another reason is because some of the information may seem counter-intuitive: It’s normal to want to keep our eyes on our paper to see what our hand is doing; it seems unnatural to give precedence to the fruit on the shelf, only glancing at our paper perfunctorily while we draw.
What is the fix for the above-mentioned difficulties? Practice, practice, practice…& my nagging voice!
But, by far, the most problematical stumbling block to applying & integrating the new knowledge is a student’s own resistance to it. In order for learning to take place, the student must believe that doing the things I’m presenting to her will work; that by applying & practicing them, she will learn to draw. The source of that resistance – & some strategies to overcome it – is a future topic.