Easy Pencil Drawings for Beginners

Easy Pencil Drawings for Beginners

Test your creativity with these easy pencil drawings for beginners and learn the basics of how to draw simple objects and scenes.

For many, drawing appears to be a skill that requires a lifetime of practice and a high degree of talent. However, we don’t believe this to be entirely true! Many choose to pick up painting or drawing later in life and can still be exceptional artists. The fact is, anyone can have a go at some simple drawings for beginners and hone their creative skills. Whether you’ve tried your hand at sketching before or you’re a complete novice, these simple sketches for beginners and expert tips will be sure to help you out.


Easy Drawing Tips for Beginners

As we’ve mentioned before, drawing is a skill. However, if it’s something you’ve always fancied trying then there’s no better time to start than the present! The truth is that anybody can pick up a pencil and have a go, but there are a few drawing tips for beginners that you’ll need to keep in mind when embarking on your creative journey.

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Practice Regularly

Practice Regularly

One of the biggest hurdles when it comes to drawing, the old saying still rings true; practice makes perfect! We all have busy and essential things to do, but setting aside just half an hour to tune out of everything else and get stuck into drawing regularly will help improve your skills tenfold. After all, how can you improve at drawing if you don’t draw?

Fill The Canvas

Try to Fill Your Canvas

When drawing a subject, envision how big it should be about the area you’re working with. For example, try to use as much of the page as possible from top to bottom when drawing people. The last thing you want is a fantastic drawing squeezed into the bottom corner of your canvas.

Focus On Proportions

Focus on Proportions

It’s one thing to get the quality and details nailed, but ensuring your proportions are correct can make or break a potential masterpiece. One way to ensure success is to imagine your canvas divided into even sections (you can even mark these out yourself if it helps you further). Sticking to proportion lines helps keep your subject in shape and brings realism to your drawings.

Larger Details First

Draw Larger Details First

A common mistake many make when practising easy sketches for beginners is getting too carried away with the more minor details. You’re not being timed, so there’s no reason to rush through the essential parts of your drawings. A rule you can never forget is to ensure you get the more significant elements of your scene drawn first. Using the example of drawing people again, in this scenario, you would focus on drawing the body and head before moving on to things like facial features and muscle complexion.


Easy Drawings for Beginners

So you’ve got your paper and pencils… but what will you draw? With no references to go off, many give up before they’ve even started. Like many other creative disciplines, the best way to learn how to draw simple sketches is to start by (you guessed it!) sketching simple scenes. After all, nobody becomes the next Picasso overnight!

1. Fruit

One of the easier pencil drawings for beginners, sketching fruit, is where many start their creative drawing journey. Fruit is an easy starting point for beginner drawers as you’ll follow basic shape outlines and add simple shadow details. Start by just drawing one piece of fruit, like an apple or orange, and gradually progress on drawing multiple pieces in one scene if you’re brave enough!

2. Eyes

Another very basic shape is the human eye. One of the classic easy drawings for beginners, drawing eyes helps you with circular shapes and sleek lines. Unlike fruit, sketching eyes can be as basic or as complex as you make it. Once you’ve mastered the basics like the overall shape, iris, and eyelids, you can move onto the eyelashes, reflections and shadowing.

3. Hair

If you want to work on your shading skills, hair is a tremendously easy pencil drawing for beginners as you’ll use solid colours and follow basic outlines. These drawings don’t have to be big either, allowing you to build up the drawing from a few strands of hair to a complete sketch, honing your skills along the way. If you’re feeling more adventurous, why not add some highlight colours?

4. Clouds & Skies

As your scene will change constantly and dependent on the wind, clouds and skies are more complex subjects to target when learning pencil drawing techniques for beginners. If you’re not quite confident enough to tackle a natural scene, you could always use a reference image from the internet. Drawing clouds and skies will allow you to focus on shading in shadows, reflections, and balancing light.

5. Buildings & Architecture

When you’re ready to tackle a more significant scene, learning how to draw buildings can be much less daunting than you think! The best way to start drawing buildings for beginners is to get the basic shape and outline of the subject. From there, add secondary details like windows, roofs, and brick details. This kind of drawing will help you improve in drawing uniform & static subjects, often paying extra attention to the straightness of lines and perspective.


Need Any More Help?

We’ve covered some of the fundamentals of learning how to draw for beginners, but make sure you check out some of the other great tips and tricks from our artful life drawing magazine. If you’re ready to take the plunge, why not look into still life drawing for beginners or some online life drawing classes?

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