Master Two Simple Shapes to Become a Professional Artist
A genuine, honest to goodness short cut to creative success
Abstract: Everyone needs to draw. You may need to map directions, sketch a flowchart, or knock out a quick illustration because your boss demands it. Do you want to suffer humiliation and recrimination because a four-year-old draws better than you? This article will teach you how to use basic rectangles and circles to draw a realistic radio and nude. Whether you want to add to your job skills or unleash your inner Picasso, this article will push you past your fear of drawing and transform you into Norman Rockwell, or even Van Gogh.
Don’t be discarded by progress
Did you ever wonder why your Facebook buddies can make memes and you can’t? Did you ever want to add a picture to your post, only to have your loving spouse say, “They can sue you for using that.” Did you ever slave for weeks over a report and have your boss reply, “I don’t want to read. Where are the pretty pictures and charts?”
Have you ever wanted to write for a publication like Medium, but don’t like boring public domain images? Have you ever read a comic book and thought, “Why can’t I draw like that?
Do you want to communicate in the digital age?
In the digital age people, like your boss, want to see. Not to read. Stories and text books once added illustrations the same way parents added sugar to cough syrup. Images provided the cream to the coffee of communication. In the future, readers will think of images as the hustling wife and words as the stay-home-dad.
Time to pick up your pencil and draw.
Anyone can draw
Don’t worry. Anyone can draw. Even you. And they can learn without mortgaging the house to take classes.
I spent thousands of dollars on art classes but don’t follow my example. One day while sketching thumbnails I realized anyone can learn to draw by mastering two simple shapes: rectangles and circles. [1]
That’s right. After I dropped a fortune on college classes, after I signed my life into indentured servitude until I’m 70, after years of listening to artists pontificate on the topics of tone and color, continuation, depth of field, gestalt and asymmetry, rectangles and circles appeared before me as angels of the art gods. I lost my fear of illustrating and embraced my inner inspiration.
After I dropped a fortune on college classes, after I signed my life into indentured servitude until I’m 70, after years of listening to artists pontificate, rectangles and circles appeared before me as angels of the art gods.
If you pay attention and follow these steps, you will never miss a deadline because of a slacker illustrator. [2]
Start with supplies.
If art is the building, supplies are the foundation. Add the wrong materials to the foundation and the building crumbles before you finish. Arrange your supplies on your work station before you start. If you step away from your project to find your eraser, you’ll lose track of your thoughts and retrace unnecessary steps.
To finish this project you need (at least):
- №2 pencil
- Drawing paper. (You want real drawing paper without lines. Lined paper belongs in elementary classes with eight-year-olds whose handwriting resembles that of doctors and coked-up salesmen.) You can find drawing paper online or at any art store. If you can’t find drawing paper, use printer paper.
- A real eraser. Not the pink rubber tip on the back of your pencil. The pink erasers are shit. They leave pink streaks and tear your paper.
(Estimated cost: $2.75)
Don’t I need a ruler and protractor?
No. Learn to draw free hand. The resulting sketches will feel more natural to the reader. In addition, you can find a pencil and paper in any glove compartment, desk drawer or dive bar when you’re stoned and great ideas pour into your brain like popcorn kernels bursting from the pan. Not so with rulers.
You can master freehand rectangles and circles with a patience and practice. My first few resembled broken fried eggs, but after drawing three or four thousand I nail them five times out of ten.
Get Serious
If you want to draw professional illustrations and not the crude sketches of teenagers posting web comics, I recommend a MacBook Pro and Adobe Illustrator. Buy them before you start this lesson. Don’t forget a laptop — not a desktop — to sketch in the park or coffee shop. Real artists cart their tools to work, drinks and even church.
If you want to draw professional illustrations and not the crude sketches of teenagers posting web comics, I recommend a MacBook Pro and Adobe Illustrator. Buy them before you start this lesson!!
Why an Apple computer? Let’s be honest, Windows sucks at art. The commercials lie and tell you they’re better than Macs but making art with Windows is like watching Nickelodeon cartoons when the latest Pixar 3D animation is playing at the theater. I admit, a Mac costs twice as much as a PC, and many Internet service providers, mine for instance,[3] refuse to support them. Your devices will lose their connection to the network three or four times a day. [4]
The downside doesn’t matter. Check out the users in any coffee shop and ask “who looks the coolest?” The ones with slender silver lap tops and the Apple logo. The others resemble small change free-lancers hustling their next dime.
You can license Adobe Illustrator for $20 a month. Ask any pro which they prefer, pencils on paper or Illustrator. They’ll say Illustrator. Once you do Illustrator, you don’t want that smaller tater.[5]
Don’t balk at the price tag. Ask, “How much is my career worth?” When you master Illustrator after a couple or five years, your work will stand up beside any self-published book cover on Amazon Kindle.
(Estimated cost $2700)[6]
Shape #1: The Rectangle
The first and easiest shape to tackle is the simple rectangle. Four lines, clean and elegant, reproduced in different sizes and dimensions.
You could draw from your imagination, but I find it helps to use a model or reference sketch. For this exercise I used a stock photo of an antique radio from Pixabay. I chose the radio because the case is a rectangle, as are the speaker, dial face and buttons. If you choose a round shape (for instance, a basketball), you can still finish this assignment, but your basketball will resemble a Bizarro world artifact more than something from this planet.
Picture the underlying shape, in this case the rectangular case. Put your pencil to paper.[7] Don’t try for perfection. If you have any problems following the steps, you can refer to the GIF animation at the end of the section (Illustration 1.5).
- As you eyeball the radio, sketch four straight lines. Not satisfied? Erase and try again. After a few dozen tries, your eyes will convince you it’s perfect.
- Add the other dominant rectangle shapes. The radio features two, the speaker and dial plate. You will have added three rectangles at this point.
- Sketch the smaller rectangles. Study the model several times. You’ll spot a new rectangle with each new glance. You don’t have to catch every detail (no one can access the real radio for a comparison), but try to capture the basic form.
- Try your hand at the round objects. At a minimum the two dials.
Tip:
While you’re sketching, hold your thumb in the sightline. Artists hold their thumbs in front of their models when they draw. People who see them think they’re superior artists with full mastery of our skills.
Good for you! You completed your first drawing of a radio. Far from verisimilitude, but remember, you’re just starting.
Add a few, simple finishing touches. Round the corners, add shading lines, highlights and shadows, and hatch marks to enhance detail. Add some background hatch marks to create contrast. The finished sketch should resemble the one in the header above this article.
Wasn’t that easy? Even if you retraced your steps a few hundred times, your sense of accomplishment when you study the finished sketch will make the effort worth the time and expense.
Shape #2: The Circle (or Ellipse)
Drawings with circles require more effort and patience. Ellipses dominate the shapes of leaves, landscapes, and people. but the figures contain several ellipses more often than a single defining shape.[8]
For our second exercise, let’s challenge the skills we developed in our first drawing.
Let’s tackle a nude.
I used my personal model, Ms. Cheryl Lynne Shosett, because she’s easy to draw and to stop her ceaseless emails and texts asking me why I never publish my sketches of her with my articles. For some reason, she believes I only ask her to pose so she’ll sleep with me, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have hundreds of her sketches in my drawer and I’ll post them after my divorce is final and my wife’s lawyer can’t use them to extort more money for the settlement.
For some reason, Cheryl Lynne believes I only ask her to pose so she’ll sleep with me, but nothing could be further from the truth. I have hundreds of her sketches in my drawer and I’ll post them after my divorce is final and my wife’s lawyer can’t use them to extort more money for the settlement.
As I did with the radio sketch, I included a GIF animation at the end of this section to walk you through. (Illustration 2.3)
Cheryl Lynne’s figure reveals a dozen ellipses that combine to form more complex shapes. For instance, we can sketch her head with one oval for her face and one for the profile of her skull. In fact, we should begin by roughing out her head.
- Sketch an oval for the model’s face and a second oval to fill in the shape of her head. The ellipse defining her head should be shorter than the ellipse for her face.
- Sketch a large oval to encompass the upper torso and a smaller one for the hips. Don’t worry if the two don’t touch.
- Create two overlapping ovals for one upper and lower arm and a third — half the size — for her hands. Use them create the entire arm shape. Repeat for the other arm.
- Draft the legs. They can be roughed out with three ellipses too. When you finish, the model’s basic shape will emerge.
- Freehand the rough lines to fill out the missing edges. This will bring the female figure into focus. (Illustration 2.2)
- Use your eraser and new lines to create a rough sketch of the model. Smooth the lines and add details such as her eyes and hair. You’re one step away from finishing.
- Add dimension, depth and contrast. Shade in lines, use hatch marks and stippling to bring out the smaller details. Study the room lights and how they interact with the model. You might even use your thumb and eraser as paint brushes and smudge the pencil lines to create texture.
When you return your pencil to your desk (or release your mouse) your model will explode with life and vitality.
Congratulations! You accomplished more in two short sessions than many illustrators do in a lifetime. Even if your finished product lacks the polish of my work, just tell your critics, “Back off, asshole. This is my style.” Once you do that, you’ll be as obnoxious and professional as any artist charging two or three hundred dollars for their work.
[1]: The technical term is “ellipses.” But it’s been years since high school geometry and, as good writers know, the precise word is only important to experts.
[2]: Budget cuts in my publications forced me to hire artists with lower rates, but they’re being deported to Mexico before summer. My wife will be happy Margarita’s leaving, or she would have been happy if only she waited to file for divorce. She’s convinced I’m sleeping with Margarita, but this may be TMI for readers.
[3]: Spectrum.
[4]: Spectrum.
[5]: The last sentence is an is an example of artist humor
[6]: A bargain for the ability to create quality art and enhance your market value.
[7]: Or your digital brush to the digital art board.
[8]: Unless you want to draw an orange or the Venus of Willendorf.
Wry noir author Phillip T. Stephens wrote Cigerets, Guns & Beer, Raising Hell, and the Indie Book Award winning Seeing Jesus. Follow him @stephens_pt.
