I always wished I was a rock star. I’m sure I still could be if I could only find the time to learn how to play an instrument and develop a fabulous voice. Many people feel the same way about learning to draw. If you’re one of them, there’s more hope for you than there is for me!
There are many drawing websites and apps that teach basic, intermediate and advanced drawing skills.
Drawspace gets very high marks for being a comprehensive learning to draw website. I found the website very easy to navigate and was impressed by all they offer. One course in each level is free and the others charge a fee. You can download the tutorials or view them online. There are a wide variety of artistic skills to learn.
How to Draw it is a site that both kids and adults can use easily. The easiest level covers shading and how to use watercolors. There is a very long list of animals the site will teach you how to draw. That is a great place to start!
I really like the Drawing Now website. It is simple to use and very straightforward for both the beginner and intermediate user. Choose the tutorial that interests you and get started. It is a step-by-step layout on how to draw and I found it easy to follow.
Drago Art looks like a really fun site to learn from. The many tutorial categories range from Fantasy to Monsters and Transportation. There are over 3,000 tutorials! There are step-by step illustrations as well as video tutorials.
How To Draw: With Artist Matt Busch! is an app for the iPad and iPhone. It is $1.99. It gets very good reviews for teaching students how to draw. Users work on paper, and learning to draw faces seems to be a primary goal of this app.
The Learn to Draw Digital Sketchbook is an instructional app available for the iPad. It is free but gets mixed reviews. One good review says that as you create a drawing the program talks you through the correct process step by step. Other reviews feel that the app just ‘tells you what to do’. Since it’s free, you have nothing to lose by investigating it yourself.
How To Draw – Easy Lessons is a free app for the Android. It is good for beginners to learn basic skills. It was originally designed for children but we all have to start somewhere!
There is a new drawing device for an iPad called the Fifty Three Pencil. It is designed to work with Paper, a very popular free app for the iPad. It is an aluminum pencil shaped device that can perform many artists’ tasks. It can paint on watercolors, draw thick or thin lines, and it erases easily. $49.95.
If you are not joined at the hip with your devices, you might prefer reading Betty Edwards who became famous with her 1979 book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. This is a great learning to draw book.
An interesting read about drawing is Andrew Marr’s A Short Book About Drawing. Marr is a journalist and an amateur artist. He writes about the pleasure he takes in his drawing and how it makes him see the world differently. This might provide additional motivation for you to learn to draw. $15.79.
If you are looking for inspiration, check out our ASE article on the book The Art of Urban Sketching.
Need more incentive to draw? Winston Churchill was a huge proponent of drawing and painting. He believed that it ignited and exercised a completely different part of his brain from his life as a writer and statesman. Take a look at his small book, Painting as a Pastime by Winston Churchill. $8.19 hardback.
