Once you learn to draw, soon you recognize: a major part of this artistry is mere technique and craftsmanship. Once you are proficient in the primary techniques, your creativity can rely on this foundations. This leaves you furhter freedom to develop your drawing skills and imagination rather than focusing on employing the basic techniques properly.
So it's a good thought to exercise these primary drawing techniques on a regular basis. Especially as you are starting to learn to draw, much practice of these primary techniques will quicken your drawing success.
Learn to Draw Hatchings and Crosshatchings
Hatching implies to draw many parallel running lines close together. Other than in conventional shadings the lines must not touch eachother! Though there's still white space 'tween the lines they build an area apparently shaded strongly.
Cross-hatching goes one step further. When you're doing cross-hatching you cover one group of hatchings with another group orthogonal to the first one. This way cross hatchings get a lot thicker and stronger than (single) hatchings.
Drawing hatchings requires preciseness. So practicing hatchings is also a outstanding opportunity to exercise your draftsmanship preciseness. When starting commence to fill up blank pieces of paper with hatchings and cross-hatchings without a concrete depicted object in mind.
When you have gained some technique, you should try first easy subjects. Choose such scenes that contain plenty of shadow. Try to depict this scene not using outlines. Instead rely completely on translating the shadows and dark areas into hatchings. Let the hatchings' alignment follow the objects you're drawing. For drawing darker areas and shadows place the lines of your hatching closer together or use cross hatching.
You should be learning to Create Shadings
Drawing shadings is more usual than hatching. It's more intuitive and requires lower skills. When drawing shadings you merely fill up areas of your drawing with your pencil. By changing the softness of your pencil, the pressure you employ and the count of layers of shadings you create you manage the shades you produce.
Similar as when creating hatchings you'll draw shadings by creating lots of lines. For now you draw them so dense to one another they intersection and blend completely. Shadings created out of lines still have a alignment ( although not as strong as in hatchings). So pay attention to align your shadings' alignment with the shapes of the objects you're depicting. To get the shading more dense you can employ the same techniques as when creating cross hatching.
Another way for drawing shadings involves drawing lots of really little circles close together so they merge and blend. Blendings created this way are extremely even and lack a hidden direction. The advantage: you won't have to pay attention to the shading's visible direction.
Ideally you start practicing shadings instantly. Choose a few pieces of paper, outline a few simple figures like rectangles and start to fill them up with shadings. Try to get them as smooth as possible and apply the different methods explained before.
Again when you have reached decent levels of expertise, try to start employing the techniques acquired on real-world sceneries.
Use Various angles and perspectives
In addition to creating hatchings and shadings the most crucial technique you have to know while commencing to learn drawing, is a profound understanding of perspective.
There are a few rules that may assist you in constructing perspectively sound drawings. But first it's necessary you exercise your eye to recognize basic forms and structures.
Choose easy subjects mostly containing of unbent lines and not too much curves. And then depict these subjects by drawing only the outline. This way you can focus on interpreting dimensions and perspective. But don't stop here, repeat this practice by drawing exactly the same subject over and over again from different angles.
You will see with every repetition you will apprehend the subject more skilful and your ability to capture and depict the dimensions of any subject will increase greatly.
What Next?
This trio of practices are the most important when studying to draw. There are more basic methods and techniques you might want to learn. You could improve your drawing expertise by yourself - just get and draw real subjects. Begin with easy ones and increase the level of difficulty as you make advancements.
Additionally you can learn drawing employing practices designed and proved to ensure best progress for your drawing abilities.