Experiment with action poses. This will improve your anatomy skills and make it a bit more interesting than just drawing stiff people all day.
Try to work as quickly as you can. This will teach your brain to take in the most important information quickly and efficiently. Note basic shapes and proportions before moving on to details. This will keep you from having to adjust if your model moves.
If you want to draw something photo-realistic but lack proper skills, this will be the easiest method since you will be able to take in minute details at your own pace.
One trick to prevent drawing your assumptions is to get a picture from a magazine, turn it upside down, and draw it. This technique tricks your brain into thinking it’s looking at something new instead of something you think you’re familiar with. In this way, you can draw what you see - unique shapes - instead of drawing what you’ve always assumed the subject looks like. Pay particular attention to things like ears, noses, tree leaves, and shirt collars. These are things that we tend to generalize in our minds and ignore the details of. If you want to draw something realistically, make sure you are drawing the things which make it unique. Things like ears are vastly different between different people.
Perspective is drawn by first finding the horizon line. When you look at anything in real life, you will see that there is a point at which the physical Earth that you can see meets with the sky. This is the horizon line. You will need to figure out where this should be in your picture and lightly draw it in using a ruler. Draw in a disappearing point. You can use one, two, or three points. One is the simplest, while two is the most common. Three is hard, so avoid it until you are comfortable. The method for the two-point perspective is described below. Draw those one or two points somewhere on the horizon line. This is the direction or direction in which objects disappear. You can have the dots on the paper itself, or they can be far off the page and marked on your drawing surface. With two-point perspective, you will need to have one dot on either side of the object you are trying to draw. Draw the central line of your object and then, from the top and then the bottom of the object, use a ruler to draw lines back to your disappearing point. Figure out how far back the object goes and then draw in some more vertical lines, between the angled disappearing lines, to start creating the box that your object fills. Close your box by drawing a line from the backline on one side to the perspective point on the opposite side. You can now see what parts of your object should be visible and to what degree.
For example, humans are five to seven heads tall. There is one eye-length distance between your eyes. The line of the mouth usually points to the corner of the jaw. There is a one-foot length between the elbow and the wrist. There are many measurements like this on the human body and it can take time to learn them but it is a rewarding and interesting process.
A light source can be something like a lamp or it can be light from a window. If outside, it can be the sun itself. The light will travel in a straight line from this source and hit the facing sides of the object you are drawing.
Your next step will be to add mid-level shadows. These are areas that are only partially in shadow and are not as dark as the deeply shadowed areas. Continue to build in this way until you have three to six blocked levels or areas of shading. Once you have gotten your shadows generally placed, you may want to blend these using your fingers or a stump. This will form the smooth gradient of your shadow. Keep hard lines of a shadow if they exist, however, such as shadows from a table or other hard object. If you’re newer to drawing, you may want to leave this step out because it can make your drawing look messy. Hatching and line variation. If you are using ink or do not want to use gradient shadows, you can add depth and form using carefully placed lines and textures. Make outlines thicker in areas where there would be shadows, such as the dip at the top of an apple or the spot at the back of the neck where it meets near the ear. Use lines to follow the form of an object and overlapped lines in differing directions to create the appearance of shadows. Research hatching or etching to see examples of what this looks like, and master examples of the art. Doing this type of drawing is very challenging to do well and takes a great deal of practice. It is very versatile, however.
On a face lift from the front, for example, highlights will go above the brow, down the line of the nose, at the crest of the cheek, and on the chin, since these are the areas that protrude the most.
Pencils come in different hardnesses (created by containing more or less graphite). The harder the pencil, the lighter the mark it will make. Use different pencils depending on how light or dark your lines need to be. Hard pencils will be labeled with an H and soft pencils with a B. The higher the number listed next to the letter, the more hard or soft the pencil is. A standard pencil, for example, is an HB.
Drawing charcoal comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Willow or vine charcoal is a nice middle ground, while charcoal pencils are great for doing details.
Be sure to look for acid-free, archival paper when available. This will keep your drawings from yellowing over time or otherwise aging badly. In addition to special paper, charcoal will require the use of a spray fixative to keep it from smudging once you are done creating your image.
You can use the Tombow mono eraser. It gets deep into the surface. It is small and helps to erase precisely in delicate areas like the eyes. This eraser also helps to create texture or effects by erasing areas with a particular stroke or repetition.
