Yes, You Can Draw

By Samuel Fleming

This book contains 77 exercises intended to teach readers fundamental skills for drawing with pen and ink. There are 77 reference images to accompany each exercise. This book is for artists of all skill levels/media and beginners alike. Much of the skills learned here with pen and ink are applicable to other drawing media. Art is a powerful tool that often goes unrecognized and unmaximized in our modern societies. Pen and ink could be of the simplest ways to wield this power. If the knowledge required to wield it effectively was more democratized, perhaps art and artists could transform these societies, and our world at large, for the better. Art also provides an avenue for one to discover purpose and direction in life, something that may be harder to obtain today than ever before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781667855974

Samuel Fleming

Samuel Fleming is a Science Fiction and Fantasy author.He grew up in Maryland, spending most of his time swimming and writing. The thing about swimming is that it gives you a lot of time to daydream, so the two hobbies complemented each other well. Idle dray dreams turned into stories, some of which stuck with him for years. These days he swims a little less and writes a lot more.He loves a good story no matter the medium: Books, TV, video games, comics, tabletop RPG’s, or podcasts–most of which he attempts to share with his wife and three kids, and occasionally on his blog.

Book preview

Exercise 1

-Find a photo of a face that you want to draw, or find a mirror so that you can draw your own.

-Give yourself 30 seconds to draw it. You may glance at your work only 3 times while you draw. Most of the 30 seconds should be spent drawing and looking at the subject.

-Scribbles and sporadic lines are desired. Aim to capture the face’s shape and main, defining features, and their location in relation to one another. Does the edge of this facial feature align with this one?

-Pay attention to which regions are lighter, which are darker, and why. The closer your lines are to each other, the darker that area will appear. The harder you press pen to paper, the darker your line will be. Scribbles can be used as shadows.

-Repeat this exercise 15 times. Then find another face to draw and repeat the exercise another 10 times.

*This exercise can be conducted for any subject. I encourage everyone to approach every new subject they intend to draw in this fashion at least once.

Exercise 2

-Pick another face or continue using your own as a reference.

-Time yourself. You have 7 seconds to draw an eye, 7 seconds to draw a nose, and 7 seconds to draw a mouth. Glance at your paper no more than 2 times during these 7 seconds

-Scribbles and sporadic lines are still desired. Again, aim to capture the general shape and proportion of these facial features.

-Pay attention to light and shadows. Use collections of lines to indicate parts that are lighter and parts that are darker.

-Complete this exercise for each facial feature 4 times.

-Underneath each of these sketches, redraw them with more precision. Use single, continuous lines to define eyelids, nostrils, pupils, etc…

-It is expected that some of your drawings will not resemble the subject even during the redrawing portion of this exercise.

-Ignore light and shadows here.

-Remain faithful to your sketches while redrawing. There should be no scribbles or sporadic linework during this portion.

-Repeat this exercise 7 times.

Exercise 3

-Give yourself 10 seconds to draw an eye, 10 seconds to draw a nose, and 10 seconds to draw a mouth. Single, continuous, hard lines and more sketchy lines are both welcome.

-Sketch the facial feature first, then draw the sketch afterwards.

-No references are necessary. You will be coming up with the design for each facial feature on your own.

-Play around with shapes and sizes. Aim for more control as you draw.

-Repeat this exercise 10 times.

Exercise 4

-Time yourself. You have 6 seconds to sketch two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Watch for spacing and size while you sketch. The goal is to resemble a real human face. Do this 6 times.

-Time yourself again. You have 12 seconds to sketch the same features, but in a more cartoonish style. Elongate and stretch features in different