If you want to get better at drawing, stop making this common mistake seen in adult drawing classes

As a professional artist and mentor to budding artists, I’ve spent a lot of time in the studio, teaching drawing to budding artists. And over that time I’ve come to realises there’s a few common mistakes beginner artists make. Last week I outlined the #1 mistake I see beginner artists make (you can go back to read that blog post here). But today, I’m outlining the #2 mistakes I see new artists make:

#2 mistake: focusing on shading rather than shape and tone.

Let’s face it, when we start our art journey, we’re all trying to get that perfect, photo-like finish in our drawings. We’re all craving the “oh wow it looks like a photo” comment from others when they view our work (as we progress, we move away from realism and tend to delight in the abstraction and emotional representation of art, but that’s a whole other story for another blog post).

However, focusing on the blending and shading and not the shape or tone is a big mistake. You see, we have to learn how to walk before we can run. And no matter how good your technique is when it comes to shading and blending, if the shape and tone is wrong, the drawing will never look right.

I often find when I introduce students to the magical “blending stick” they are wowed and dazzled by how smooth it can make their shading. And students become so eager to race to the shading part because they feel once they use the magical “blending stick” and their drawing is silky smooth, all will look better. When they realise the shading hasn’t fixed their drawing, the dissappointment on their face is so real you can almost feel it. The truth is, we must perfect SHAPE and TONE first, before we tackle shading and pencil techniques. These are FAR more important than blending.

For example, one of my favourite exercises to give students in my adult drawing classes is the “scribble drawing” where we create a realistic face using scribbles (you can find this exercise in my Online Beginner Drawing Course A). Many students scoff at first, thinking its not possible to make something look accurate with just scribbles. But they are soon amazed to see that with scribbling works! The reason is because we get the shape accurate first, and we focus on the tones. How we actually build up those tones (with scribbles, hatching, dots etc) is totally irrelevant if the tones in the end are accurate.

An example of a Scribble Drawing Celebrity Portrait By Vince Low 9

So how do you avoid rushing ahead to blending and shading?

Here’s what I recommend:

Work on accurate shape first, learning to see and measure with your eye. I have exercises for this in my Online Beginners Drawing Course and my 30 day Drawing Course
Do some tonal exercises to train your eye to perceive darks and lights (again you’ll find these in my adult drawing classes in Kingscliff NSW and in my adult drawing classes online. I also include them in my drawing classes for kids.)
Once you’ve mastered accurate shape and tone you’re ready to move on to shading and blending techniques.

Now there’s one more tip I have for how to get better at drawing. And this one needs it’s own blog post as well so head to the next blog if you’d like to know my 3rd tip for how to get better at drawing.