Young children are often overlooked by the traditional drawing curriculums that tends to focus on children over twelve or thirteen years old, who are blessed with natural talent and who can usually draw already. School teachers do craft projects and provide younger children with free time to do symbolic stick-figure-style drawings. Yet, unless children are given instruction and guidance, before they stop symbolic drawing they will assume they weren’t born with the ability to draw realistically. The closer they get to preteen years, the more they will resist the activity and not want to try at all.

However, if children are given structured lessons in realist drawing from the time they are very young, they will quickly graduate to sophisticated and skilled drawings right after giving up their symbolic drawing styles.

Everybody can enjoy drawing, but sometimes it’s hard to know where to begin. Many people make the mistake of drawing what they think something looks like, instead of really looking at it carefully first. Hervey Bay artist, JoAnn Clarke, said that a set of simple general principles are required. Just as a composer and musician can break things down into their basic components, so too by breaking down a subject into a series of simple elements a child can analyze what they ‘see’ and then put it into drawing.

By utilizing the basic components of shape a student is able to create any possible image with the fewest number of lines. This has been termed the “alphabet of shape” that consists of five basic elements; circle, dot, straight line, curved line and angle. Any object that a student wants to draw can simply be analysed in terms of how these elements of shape are combined. Thus children can be trained to see each general shape and then be free to interpret the detail in any way they wish. Thus, every child is able to achieve realistic representation of the subject drawn and still be creatively unique.

Besides the obvious benefit of learning to draw, students also develop fine motor skills, problem-solving abilities and improved concentration. Case studies have also shown how children, who have undertaken tuition in drawing, within a positive, non-judgmental, non-competitive environment, have made marked improvements in areas such as disorientation or misrepresentation of images, hyperactivity, communication ability and reading readiness, introverted behaviour, resistance to participation and inability to observe or remember instruction sequences.

Pencil drawing in its simplest form has a variety of techniques which can be readily acquired through regular practice. Practice sessions need not even be overly long, but they should be consistent as this will accelerate the artists skills more readily.

To become a really good artist takes time and patience and having the motivation to practice. It also means you should read the following steps which will have you on the right road to successful drawing:

1. Drawing takes time. Allow enough time to be able to enjoy the whole process. Build up the drawing a little at a time and feel the satisfaction growing as the drawing begins to take shape. Let yourself become absorbed in your work, this will make a big difference to the outcome.

2. Take on simple projects at first. Being too ambitious may make you feel worse if your pencil drawing does not come out quite the way you were hoping. All artistic endeavors require a great deal of focus and technique, so prepare to invest in your learning process.

3. When copying, focus on the actual subject and do not keep looking at your own drawing as this can make you less focused if your own drawing does not look like the same.

4. Remember to shade and tone and for this you will need different types of pencils. It is worth investing in some good quality pencils so that your pencil drawing can become amazing with a little practice.

5. Finally, believe in yourself. The road to becoming a great artist is a fairly tricky one however; the greatest skill that is required in pencil drawing is that of dedication and determination.

With some basic drawing tips everybody can improve their skill level and be a better drawing maker. Here are some drawing tips that will help you to improve your skill level.

1. If you are just starting out you should practice drawing simple shapes like circles, eggs and ovals with reasonable accuracy. These basic shapes can be used to draw more complex shapes.

2. As these basic shapes will be the construction lines on which the main drawing will be structured you should practice drawing these lines as light as possible.

3. If you face difficulty in drawing the basic shapes take help of circle templates, compass or rulers.

4. For improving your skill level in figure drawing be selective. Concentrate more on a specific area and practice a lot. For example you may want to practice drawing tricky areas like hands, draperies more than simpler areas like nose, lips etc.

5. Using a good-quality material will make your drawing look good and save you from lots of frustration. Your eraser should erase cleanly without smudging the drawing. And your pencil should be good enough to draw lines without requiring frequent sharpening. You may also try clutch pencils because they require less maintenance than timber cased pencils.