{"id":5496,"date":"2018-07-26T11:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T15:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevirtualinstructor.com\/blog\/?p=5496"},"modified":"2019-06-27T20:37:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T00:37:38","slug":"10-exercises-for-confident-lines-and-accurate-hatching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevirtualinstructor.com\/blog\/10-exercises-for-confident-lines-and-accurate-hatching","title":{"rendered":"10 Exercises for Confident Lines and Accurate Hatching"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I don\u2019t think it’s an exaggeration to say that every artist wants to create amazing drawings and paintings. We want to combine technical skills with creativity, communicating our unique vision and imagination \u2013 even if it\u2019s just a five-minute sketch. Don’t you agree?<\/p>\n

But before it becomes possible to create mind-blowing artworks, we have to spend some time with the basics. We simply cannot expect to communicate our ideas through a drawing without basic technical skills in place.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why so many beginners unfortunately quit drawing only after a dozen or so unsuccessful attempts to capture a subject they like<\/em>, but are too complex for their level. However, there are a few things that are important enough no matter how simple or complicated the subject is.<\/p>\n

With any skill, we have to practice and build up our abilities. Drawing is no different. Practice plays an important role in developing ourselves as artists and should be a regular part of our activities – no matter what our current skill level. <\/p>\n

This article is dedicated to short, yet effective drawing exercises that you can perform in just a few minutes every day. Musicians regularly practice their scales. A basketball player practices layups. We can think of these exercises in the same way. If you practice them regularly, your drawing skill will improve greatly.<\/p>\n

Even if you are confident in your lines and hatching and pleased with the results, these exercises are still a fun exercise to practice. They provide a chance to focus your mind on a simple concrete action, which makes it easy to enter a state of “flow” (or a meditative submergence into the process).<\/p>\n

The results of a five or ten minute warm-up, before even touching the big project you\u2019re working on, may be surprising. Vocalists do various warm-ups before the \u2018actual\u2019 performance. We can use these exercises in the same – warming up the technical side of our artistic brains.<\/p>\n

The tool for practice is up to you. It may be a graphite pencil, an ink liner, a nib pen, or any other mark-making tool. (I used ink liners just because they are my favorites; they provide clear, contrasting, and controlled marks on the paper.)<\/p>\n

The paper can be any you like \u2013 ordinary printer paper is great because it\u2019s so affordable and you can use as many sheets as you like. <\/p>\n

\nI’ve put together a special worksheet that includes a few templates to help you with the line drawing exercises that we’ll be covering below. Click on the button below to download the PDF worksheet…<\/p>\n