When you're actually sitting down to draw, it's important to understand the tools you're using. I don't mean your pens, pencils or paper - I mean your arm. In terms of drawing, we can move our arm using any one of three major points as a pivot.
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The pivots are as follows:
Moving from the wrist affords us a very small arc of motion. This is very good for creating stiff, accurate linework, but falls apart when you have to create strokes that flow smoothly and consistently. It's often the reason you see students chicken scratching early on, because they're trying to draw everything from their wrists. It's not surprising, since we've spent most of our lives writing, which we do from the wrist.
The shoulder gives us a much larger arc of motion, and makes it easier to draw consistent, flowing lines. The downside is that beginners are generally not even remotely comfortable with that kind of a motion. It's unfamiliar, and usually relies on muscles that are under developed, so it'll feel awkward and quickly grows tired or sore at first.
I am not saying that we never draw from the wrist. As mentioned above, there are things the wrist excels at - specifically drawing stiff but precise marks, which may come up frequently in very tight areas of detail or texture. As explained in the next section however, we are primarily going to be drawing from the shoulder, especially through these first few lessons, because those exercises demand lines that flow smoothly and consistently. Furthermore, the majority of people are already far more capable of drawing with their wrists than they are with their shoulders. Always remember that the exercises and lessons we're doing here are intended to build out your skill set.
To put it simply, these lessons aim to teach you what you need to know in the long run - not what will necessarily be easiest right now. Generally speaking, we try to avoid the path of least resistance, and focus instead on what is of greatest overall value.
The very fact that drawing from the shoulder is considerably more difficult is exactly why I want you to use your shoulder pivot as much as possible.
There are plenty of cases where the elbow will work fine, and it will absolutely be much easier for you - but the biggest trap in drawing is getting in the habit of taking the path of least resistance. It's a tendency many beginners have when faced with two options, they will lean one way or the other because it is the easier option. Not because it is the best suited to solve the problem they're facing. It's a mindset that must be broken, and it's something we'll come across time and time again.
With mark making being so critical, I want you to apply the shoulder pivot wherever you can, so you can grow accustomed to it and comfortable with it. It will be tiresome, and you'll be forced to take more breaks. It will make you sore, as you develop muscles that until now have gone ignored. But it will also make it so when you are faced with the decision of which pivot to use for a given mark, you will make that decision entirely on what the best option is, rather than what suits you best.
Drawing from the shoulder means driving the motion from the muscles that control that joint. Being a ball joint (rather than a hinge joint like the elbow), the shoulder has a pretty considerable range of motion. This means that even though the surface you're drawing on is flat (and the drawing motion from a pivot is an arc), you should be able to move your arm from that pivot and still have your pen touch the page at all times with minimal adjustment from your elbow.
Now, note that I'm saying minimal. I really don't like mentioning this because it's very easy for students to overdo it, but your elbow may move slightly to compensate and maintain the pen's contact with the page. This DOES NOT mean you should be drawing in a way that involves a lot of motion from multiple pivots, as this will make the motion muddy and indistinct, and will likely cause you to depend far too much on your elbow, rather than properly developing familiarity with your shoulder.
All I'm saying is, don't worry or fuss over it if there is a little bit of movement at the elbow, just be sure that the drawing motion as a whole is being driven by your shoulder muscles.
One exercise I frequently recommend to get familiar with the different pivots is to pivot from your wrist a little, to get used to what that feels like, then lock it. Locking your joint means that you're going to make a conscious effort not to engage the muscles that allow you to pivot from that joint. Next, do the same with your elbow - pivot from that joint, then lock it as well. Finally, do it for your shoulder. This exercise helps, especially whenever you catch yourself having fallen back to drawing from your elbow or wrist (which will happen often), because it reminds you of what each joint's motions feel like.
One thing that can help is to draw on an angled surface, similar to a drafting desk. You don't need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on a desk though, you can probably achieve a similar result with some books propping up a drawing board. None of this is necessary however, but do be sure to sit with good posture and draw at a clean, uncluttered desk or table.
More than anything, all of this is meant to familiarize yourself with how your arm works, so eventually you will have a much greater degree of control over every aspect of it.
You'll find this page specifically at the 9:19 mark of Victor Pauter's audiobook recording.
I've got two arms and I ain't afraid to use e'm! And teeth. Can I draw with my teeth? Maybe that's in the next lesson.
Here's my reading of this page.
Some of you may remember James Gurney's breathtaking work in the Dinotopia series. This is easily my favourite book on the topic of colour and light, and comes highly recommended by any artist worth their salt. While it speaks from the perspective of a traditional painter, the information in this book is invaluable for work in any medium.
Having your work reviewed by others is critical, as those who are just starting out aren't in a position to properly judge their own work, and won't be for quite some time. Don't be afraid to show your struggles - it's by analyzing your mistakes that we can help you grow. Perfect homework is not what we're looking for; we just need it to be complete.
There are currently two places you can get your work critiqued by the community - Reddit and our Discord Chat Server.
Both of these are completely free.
If you are interested in receiving extra help, I critique the work of those who support Drawabox on Patreon.
All of these private critiques are done through reddit, in specific threads where students post their work as a comment, including a link to their work (often hosted on Imgur, though most image hosts are okay).
My requirements are more strict than the free community critiques:
The minimum pledge for this lesson is $5.00/month. The orange button above will take you to the reddit thread for this lesson, you can post a link to your work there and I'll be notified. Once I catch the submission, I'll add it to this backlog spreadsheet.
Pledges are collected at the beginning of the following month, but you may start submitting your work immediately. If you're a new patron, I'll be reaching out to your shortly to collect your reddit username.
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