All artists must first learn to be comfortable with their drawing skills, as drawing provides a basis for most art forms. When a sculptor or a painter begins work on a new piece, he or she typically begins with an initial sketch that will be drawn and redone until the artist knows what his or her first step will be in the medium of his or her choice.
Learning basic drawing skills is essential for any young, budding artist, not only because it teaches special awareness of shapes, techniques, creativity and how to refine ideas into a thing that lives on paper or canvas, but because every artist must have a process by which they explore the ideas that are bouncing around their head. By learning to translate those ideas to paper with a pen or pencil, a new artist will understand how to take an image in his or her head and make it into a thing that exists in the world.
If someone is comfortable with drawing, he or she can easily transition their drawn idea into other forms of similar media, such as painting, charcoal work or even mixed media. Charcoal or pastel work can be done in a very similar way to drawing. A proficient drawer who transitions to using charcoals or pastels will find there is more ability to work with smudging and shading, offering more freedom to create more or less definition with their line strokes. Painting and drawing have always been considered similar endeavors, and while the tools may differ, many of the techniques are the same.
If you are a new artist who is hoping to work with many different kinds of media, we recommend that you begin with the basic foundation of most, if not all, art forms: drawing. Once you master that technique, you will be easily able to transition into countless other forms of artistic expression.
At Hunakai Studio of Fine Arts, we offer a range of drawing classes for those who are looking to build and develop their drawing skills. From our introductory art classes for children, to our Drawing Experiments and Cartooning and Illustration classes for teens, to our Portraits classes and Adult Drawing and Color Pencil sessions for adult artists, we can help you build the foundational drawing skills you need to succeed at expression your vision in any medium. For more information on drawing classes, contact us today!