Really anybody can draw! Honestly, it’s a lot easier than you think.

You need a piece of paper, a pencil and a good quality eraser and a picture of something you would like to draw.

I find drawing calms the mind, but be careful! Time passes very quickly when your drawing!

The hardest part is to be honest, I am not saying we are intentionally dishonest, I am saying we often translate what we are seeing into a form we can easily draw – such as a child may join a few circles and lines together and declare it the drawing of you!

An example of this is the sky - blue sky is darker than white clouds, so shade in your sky and erase out and smudge your clouds in. Many people when pencil drawing would do the opposite, shading in the clouds and not be aware of the error.

Examine drawings done by artists and you might find that they contain a lot of the following components.

1. Consider magic thirds, nearly a third of the way from any edge of the paper is a sweet spot to add an item of interest
Say you are drawing a forest; this could be where you add the most interesting tree.

2. Odd numbers and repeat items
Don’t draw 2 trees draw 3, odd numbers are more interesting

Example: have some similar trees gathered in the picture, draw them in a consistent manner, this is pleasing to the eye

3. Roads, streams and paths

Don’t let the viewer see the end of the path, in that it must not go off the page, or they eyes follow it off the page

Let it either fade into the distance, or have it go around an obscured bend.

4. Make sure you have at least three levels.

Foreground
Background
Midground

Often something that joins all these levels together can be very pleasing to the eye… example:

An old bridge at the front
Trees spanning the mid ground
Mountains on the horizon
A stream joining these components together, becoming fader and smaller as it disappears into the distance to the foot of the mountains.

5. A note on mountains... they further back they are the more diffused the light is, draw the furthest mountains paler, gradually get darker as you come forward, this is true with everything.

6. White space
Don’t forget to have areas that are gaps, the white space between is interesting. The shapes between objects are almost as interesting as the objects themselves.

7. Light and shadows
Source: Consider your light source ahead of drawing your picture so your shadows are consistent.
Be bold, make your darkest shadows nice and dark, and you highlights very bright, you can leave them totally white.
Smudging pencil with a finger can soften shadows and shading very nicely, then tidy up any edges with an eraser.

8. Study other drawings that you like, try to list what you like about them. Consider the relationship of objects, the dept of shading, how you would change it if you were the artist.

9. Practice, even in front of the TV.... use a photograph, even something in a magazine and study it.
Attempt to draw it free hand, this is easier done if you also look at the spaces between objects as well as the items of interest in a photograph.

Roughly draw out the locations of the key components and once you have all the items in place start to add the detail.

10. A very good non scratchy eraser, not just for errors but for creating white space, and don't press hard especially when drafting out the picture.