Using Basic Drawing Instruction Books to Learn

Having found the exercises in "Learn to Draw in a Weekend" so helpful to grasp the fundamentals of shading and creating basic shapes on the page, I struggled to know exactly what to draw so I went through a nice phase of using several basic drawing instruction books to keep learning.  I was fascinated with the idea of being able to draw something, anything, and make a nice realistic shaded picture.  The idea of drawing something from life seemed impossible though.  I came across a book entitled "Draw What You See, not What you Think you See" and worked my way through loads of the exercises which really got the brain working.  They were all so helpful!

Great Instruction Book

Some of the exercises were very odd, drawing things in reverse or upside down and focusing on what is "not" there.  I think at the end of it I had made excellent progress!   Here are some of the interesting things I tried out:

Fascinating to draw this upside down ship:

and upside down guitar and chair:

These were great and I think it was this book that gave me my love of shading and drawing with a pencil.  Finally I was drawing things that made sense, were shaded and not ridiculous.  I was also learning to control the pencil more too as well as the different types of pencils.

I found at this point that I could not venture past being 'told what to draw'.  I was great doing exercises and following instructions but away from the book I drew a blank.  I used about three different books, always starting with the basic instructions of shading, trying out what they suggested.  Copying these exercises I got better and better!  "Anyone Can Draw" provided endless shapes to give experience and was really pleased with the results:

Grapefruit

Bookcase Unit

Having exhausted the exercises in several beginners books, I once again became frustrated.  I wanted to be able to draw original things, different things.  I wanted to take what I had learned so far and start drawing!  I gathered items from the home as suggested and drew them but without tutorials it was a lot more difficult.  I decided to ventured into a different area so I moved away from Tutorial books and got myself a Dorling Kindersley "Drawing Animals" book.  

As it was geared for kids it got me using things other than pencils.  It also got me drawing different things, like animals.  

Furry Mouse using Coloured Pencils

 

A seal on a rock with watercolour for the water:

I feel at this point I had gone on from tutorials from the very beginning, the absolute basics and now actually drawing interesting pictures.  I felt ready to try and use my own initiative!