Bryce Gladding
Rhonda Claridge
English 112
28 January 2019
A Beginner’s Guide to Drawing
To the average person, drawing might have been something they may have done as a kid
but didn’t find the value in it as they grew older or they told themselves they aren’t good enough.
I personally can say that I have been in that same situation. Art has always been that skill that
you put away in the attic to collect dust for a while. However, it wasn’t until my Two–
Dimensional Art class in my freshman year at Colorado Mesa University when I took that box
back out of the attic and realized its importance. Art is exploring your creativity and making
visual discoveries. Like the importance of written and verbal skills, art is a visual language in
itself that is essential for communicating and expressing our ideas as individuals. Unfortunately,
many people are abstaining from this beautiful language mainly because they think they don’t
have what it takes or the courage to take the first step. Drawing can seem like a daunting task,
but developing this skill might be easier than you think.
To start out, the most common things to draw are objects such as the eyes, mouth, face,
and even hands. Such objects are what we see every day during human interaction and
replicating these simple objects are important to the development of communication in artwork.
In this case, we will start out learning how to draw hands. Drawing hands can me a difficult
process considering any small mistake can make the hand seem almost inhuman, however it’s
nothing to be afraid of. With your graph paper and pencil ready, take a moment to look up
drawings of hands other artists have done to seek inspiration and find something you may be able
to sketch. Looking at a drawing and trying to replicate it is nothing to be ashamed of when
starting out and is something I would highly encourage. Many famous artists mastered the skill
of being able to paint portraits of individuals because they practiced this skill many times and
developed attention to detail. Merely looking at a simple drawing of a hand and trying to put that
on paper is a highly valuable skill as a beginning artist. Just make sure you don’t steal artwork
and take credit as your own. I have seen many people trace over an exact copy of a drawing and
turn it in as their own and to me that’s just not right. It takes away your creativity as an
individual and the feeling of pride after completing your own artwork. So, to be a successful
artist, let’s just avoid going down that path. After you trace the outline of your chosen hand,
make sure the proportions are right and the fingers are in their correct places. Don’t place your
hand on a piece of paper and trace around it like in elementary school. This takes away the skill
