Hi there designers ,

Perhaps the most fundamental skill for any illustrator is that of sketching .

Being able to transform an image in front of you, or from your mind, into an actual physical image is not easy .

Some say that you either have the potential to sketch or you don’t. Some people just seem to have a knack for artistic styles, while others…well, others just stick to numbers and stick men .

So, is it possible to teach yourself to sketch beautiful drawings? In my opinion you CAN teach yourself to do practically ANYTHING , if you have patience and time …which I suppose go hand in hand!

Personally I’m not the world’s ‘best sketcher’. However I have my own style and love to mess about sketching weird characters and font styles .

This article is a sketch resource for all you designers out there who would like to learn more, or improve their skills in this discipline.
Obviously there are a million and one tutorials and books you can buy which profess to turn you into a design guru overnight , but the reality is that you are going to have to practice and maybe swear a little before you begin to see results.

To get you started why not take a look at this list of the TOP 50 pencil art sites online .
There are some seriously helpful and inspirational sites on this list.
My personal ‘top 3’ being:

1. Drawing-pencil-sketches.com
2. Color-pencil-drawing.blogspot
3. Easy-drawings-and-sketches

Here are some tips that I live by when sketching:

1. Go wild, don’t be worried about creating too many unnecessary lines. Sketching is about getting that creative energy out there, don’t inhibit yourself.
2. Don’t be too heavy handed. I use a lighter pencil. It’s easier to erase and stops you from “going too far”
3. The majority of the sketches I do are intended to be taken into Photoshop or Illustrator, so I keep the lines very simple. If your designs are going to be finished digitally then there is no need to get detailed. Sometimes I make the final salient outlines of my sketch darker, so that my scanner picks them up correctly.
4. RElAX….chilled tunes help me!

Pencil classifications:

1. ‘HB’ – hard black (for me this is the devil pencil…I seldom use it)
2. Darkest softest pencil to the sharpest lightest pencil – 6B, 5B, 4B, 3B, 2B, B, HB, F, H, 2H, 3H, 4H (I’m a fan of anything from the H classification)

Well, hopefully this is enough for you guys to work with. This sketch resource is a work in progress.
So please feel free to send me any additions that you feel are relevant, or leave a comment below.

Here is a nice Easy Drawing tutorial video I stumbled across on Youtube.

Does anybody have a good sketch resource for the human anatomy? I have looked around online but have been disappointed with what I found.

Let’s get sketching!

D