Hello. I’m Beverly Hilton. I’ve been a member of the group since about 1994. Perhaps you’ve read my previous remarks about my “artistic history”. If not, you can take a look at my profile here.

Here are two examples of paintings I did when I was 10-11 years old – a long time ago indeed!

You can draw - picture 1You can draw - picture 2
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When I did the first one I remember being attracted to the colours on a Christmas card and tried to reproduce it.

The second one was a picture of a jig-saw puzzle which I liked. Probably the picturesqueness of the subject interested me.

Anyway I must have been able to draw a bit even then. A few years ago I became interested in the drawing of Renaissance masters like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Andrea Del Sarto and others. Here are three Michelangelo drawings I had a go at copying, using a 2B pencil.

You can draw - picture 3You can draw - picture 4You can draw - picture 5
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Sometimes I hear people who come to our exhibitions say “I wish I could draw”. It’s most likely you can. After all, you learned to hold a pencil to form letters and numbers at school. Also you used paints and crayons without any inhibitions.

All you can do these days is write a shopping list, or postcard, or add your signature to something. So you need to lose your self-consciousness about taking up a pencil or biro for a different purpose.

Here’s a few exercises to get you started:

1. You need some small sheets of unlined paper, say 4 by 6 inches. Start with your name and try to write it in as many different styles as possible – use pencil, biro, felt tip, crayon etc. to “make contact” with your paper, e.g.

You can draw - picture 6

2. Next, try this. Don’t take your pencil off the paper:

You can draw - picture 7

3. Try these verticals, horizontals and diagonals without taking your pencil off the paper:

You can draw - picture 9
You can draw - picture 10

4. Try mark making with different things like hard pencils, soft pencils, e.g. H, 2H, B, 2B, 3B; charcoal pencil, felt tip, drawing pens, graphite sticks and coloured pencil.

You can draw - picture 8

These are just a few ideas, but you can get a lot more ideas and help from the following books. If you live in the UK most of these are available at half the RRP from branches of “The Works”.

  • “How to Draw Everything” by Barrington Barber
  • “The Fundamentals of Drawing” by Barrington Barber
  • “The Complete Book of Drawing techniques” by Peter Stanyer
  • “A Foundation Course in Drawing” by Peter Stanyer and Terry Rosenberg

Try your local library for the following books:

  • “The Encyclopedia of Drawing Techniques” by Ian Simpson
  • “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards

Drawing is the basic skill of all art. I hope this article encourages you to have a go. Thanks for visiting our website.