Many people want to know where to begin with my drawing lessons. I suggest starting with Line Drawing Parts One through Four and Drawing From Life With Expressive Line. These five lessons will give you a basic set of drawing skills. The rest of the lessons will add to your drawing knowledge, and don’t need to be learned in any particular order.
Below, you will find my Graphite Pencil Drawing Lessons. These are more advanced offerings. In them, I discuss my style of pencil drawing. However, I try to write them so that anyone, from the beginner to the experienced artist, can enjoy them.
Drawing Lessons
- Line Drawing Part One – How To Use A Viewfinder – Make a simple frame viewfinder and learn how to use it to draw accurately.
- Line Drawing Part Two – Draw From Life With A Viewfinder – Use a viewfinder to take the first steps into drawing from life.
- Line Drawing Part Three – Draw From Life Using Sight Size – Draw from life using classic freehand style.
- Line Drawing Part Four – Enlarge or Reduce While Drawing From Life – Learn how to enlarge or reduce the drawing from where you are instead of moving closer or farther away.
- Drawing From Life With Expressive Line – Draw the world with line that expresses what you see and feel.
- Drawing Exercise – Circles And Lines From My Sketch Book – A line drawing challenge that sharpens your life drawing skills.
- Draw Three-Dimensional Pyramids with Gradations – Make three-dimensional form with pencil gradations. Use three different pencil grades to shade pyramids and create realistic depth.
- Shade a Ball – Learn to shade a simple ball with an easy side of pencil technique.
- 30 Days To Drawing Success – If you want to increase or revive your drawing know-how, drawing for 30 days in a row seems to work for everyone and every skill level. This is how I do it.
- Shading For Beginners, A Pyramid, Half Sphere, And Cylinder – Learn to shade these basic shapes with a flat pencil tip that creates a consistent texture throughout this drawing. There’s a video that goes with this lesson.
- From 2D Design To 3D Shape With A Pencil And A Plan – Nice and easy gradation makes this 2D design rise up into 3D form.
- Texture Hatching Technique – Draw this pine cone by erasing from and hatching into the mid-range value.
- Draw a Spring Beauty Wild Flower – Make a line drawing of a wildflower using simple shapes.
- First Steps In The Art Of Pencil Drawing – A beginner’s guide to the art of graphite pencil drawing, including the type of pencils to buy and basic instructions on how to use a drawing grid.
- Draw Simple Flowers – Draw simple flowers with circles and ovals as guides.
- Mindless Drawing – Daydreaming is good, but shading makes it awesome!
- Organic Form Gradation – Use pencil gradations and attention to lighting to create three-dimensional organic form.
- Step by Step Draw Along – Draw Your Coffee Mug – Draw your mug in seven steps with a few simple drawing tools.
- Create Three Dimensional Form with Value – How to draw modeled form with value by drawing a still life.
- Draw a Scallop Shell in Six Steps – Learn how to sculpt form by erasing highlights and adding shadows to a “base” value.
- Draw a Shiny Ornament in Six Steps – Shiny ornaments have lots of reflections which are challenging but fun to draw. This drawing lesson shows you how to draw them in simple steps.
- How to Draw a Rosebud – Step-by-step instructions on how to draw a simple rosebud with graphite pencil.
- How To Draw A Cat – Follow along as I sketch a friend’s cat in four steps. Instructions and a slide show.
- Drawing With Masks – Surround part of the drawing with a mask to get details and values under control.
- Sketch a Yarn Ball – Turn a sphere into a yarn ball.
- How to Draw a Rose – Learn a combined shading technique that builds on basic shading to draw this realistic rose.
- Shaded Graphite Mandala – Explore the boundlessness of ordinary pencil drawing.
- Draw Realistic Tree Bark Textures – Learn to draw smooth and rough tree bark textures in simple steps.
- Drawing (Painting) With Powdered Graphite – Use powdered graphite that you make yourself to create an egg shape.
- Draw A Horse – Use powdered graphite and pencils to draw this horse.
- Simple Shapes And The Illusion Of Three-Dimensional Form – Draw a simple star shell shape and explore three-dimensional form.
- Rose Drawing Lesson – Draw a realistic rose in seven steps.
- Flower Drawing Lesson – Draw a flower with brushed graphite and pencil in seven steps.
- Full Rose Drawing Lesson – Draw a realistic rose in full bloom in five steps with graphite pencil.
Exercises and Art Theory
- Drawing Exercise – Circles And Lines From My Sketch Book – This exercise strengthens your ability to visualize abstract shape and see geometric relationships.
- How To Use A Value Scale and Value Cards – Printable scale and cards.
- Red Horses, Green Fields, and Why Artists Have to Lie – It’s all about value.
- Key – What It Is, Why It Matters To Your Drawings, And How To Change It
- Two True Lines – Use your pencil to find horizontal and vertical lines, plus some other tricks that’ll help you draw accurately.
- Beginning Drawing Practice – Gradation – Draw a Gradation while learning pencil control.
- Beginning Drawing Practice – Smooth Hatching – This drawing exercise teaches you control over your pencil and eraser.
- Beginning Line Drawing – Make a line drawing and use it in many creative ways.
- Blind Contour Drawing – Blind contour drawing is a classic way to warm up before you draw.
Drawing Videos
- Three Shapes – I shade a pyramid, a half sphere, and a column.
- Still Life Study of Apples – I shade three apples from life.
- Three Pears Line Drawing – I use my pencil and thumb to measure and make a line drawing from life.
- Three Pears – Drawn from life, concentration on shading the pears from the line drawing.
- How To Use A View Finder – Here’s how I use a viewfinder to find a good composition, and then transfer the basic line drawing to paper.
- All Videos
Graphite Pencil Drawing Lessons
I offer insight into my drawing style, which I learned over thirty-plus years of working with graphite pencil. Subscribe via email in the sidebar to receive notifications of new tutorials by email.
- Dried Variegated Croton Leaf – A drawing of a dried leaf that’s curled itself into a small sculpture.
- I’m A Shy Artist – I talk about my shyness and draw three wild grape leaves.
- Less Than Perfect – A drawing of a small tree with a curled leaf that is actually a bug home.
- Withered Leaf – I challenge myself by drawing a highly detailed withered leaf, which makes me appreciate my usual drawing subjects even more.
- Three Leaves – Working with a slightly out-of-focus reference photo, I go on an emotional roller coaster ride as I fight my way through this challenging drawing.
- Leaves In Graphite Pencil – Returning to my drawing after a break, I find both my love for the medium and insecurity about my abilities waiting for me.
- Broken Shell In Graphite Pencil – I draw a broken shell symbolizing hidden strength.
- Begonia With Mixed Textures – A drawing of a begonia with blended and non-blended hatching.
- Winter Leaf – A winter leaf portrait.
- Late Autumn Leaf – I draw a colorful autumn leaf trio in grayscale with only moderate success.
- Lilac Leaves – After a long search and a reluctant muse, I draw big lilac leaves around tiny buds.
- Redbud Leaves In Michigan – In this slightly wonky composition, I practice working on Fabrino Artistico Hotpress watercolor paper instead of my usual Arches.
- Begonia Leaf Drawing – I use my non-blended method to draw these begonia leaves, right down to the tiny dot detail that covers the main leaf.
- Begonia Drawing – An odd-looking composition inspires me to draw this begonia.
- Succulent Drawing In Graphite – A small succulent drawn with only two pencils and a brush.
- Dried Leaf Study in Graphite – I use my non-blended method to create a three-dimensional study of a leaf. I talk about how values fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and how important hard and soft edges are.
- A Shell Study In Graphite – I use my brush blending technique to create a shell study. I talk about how to light a small still life and discuss form and detail.
- Autumn Leaf With Raindrops In Graphite – A leaf with raindrops to celebrate a very wet autumn.
- Mixed Leaves And An Artistic Slump – I draw more of my beloved foliage while wondering if I should pursue abstract art.
- Begonia Blossom In Graphite – I draw a bright orange flower in graphite and am not too disappointed in the result.
- Redbud Leaves in Summer – A larger-than-normal drawing for me that turned out relatively flat.
- Xerographica Drawing In Graphite – I draw my huge Xerographica air plant with swooping and curling leaves.
- Grape Leaves in Graphite – These grape leaves were drawn in the new non-blended method that I’m experimenting with more and more. Also, I used different paper and pencils than normal, and the world didn’t turn upside down!
- Bee On Begonia – This bee caught my eye last summer, and I snapped an in-focus reference photo that I was proud of. This year, I finally decided I liked the composition well enough to draw it.
- Redbud Leaves While Riding The Waves Of My Bipolar Mind – I drew Redbud leaves in a completely new style while spinning through a Bipolar hypomanic episode. Eventually, I came back down to earth, and the art isn’t bad.
- Hosta Leaf In Autumn – A drawing that kept me dancing, down to the very last pencil stroke, trying to balance pattern, detail, and form!
- Imperfect Rose Drawing – I draw a scarred rose from my reference photo, talk about being an INFP, and how I feel my way through a drawing in the same way I feel my way through life.
- Two Begonias Drawn In Graphite – I chose two begonias to draw through emotion, then immediately panicked when there wasn’t enough detail to draw them as usual. Thankfully, my intuition steps in at the last moment to save the day. Whew!
- Peony Flower In Graphite – I draw a peony from a photo reference and tell you how I soften edges, darken backgrounds evenly, and discuss the importance of value.
- Dogwood Flower Drawing – I show you how I draw a dogwood flower from a photo reference and explain eraser and hatching techniques I’ve developed over the years.
Observation, Fantasy, and Misc.
- Sea Shell (Junonia) Grid Drawing – I used a grid drawing app to get started, and then went crazy tying to draw all the detail on this shell.
- Talking With Doodles And Other Things That Make Life More Fun – What’s more fun than playing with doodles? Nothing!
- Doodled Olives From Outer Space! (Unstuffed) – In spite of the possibility of universal collapse, here’s how I created hollow spheres in space.
- Figure Drawing for Artists Who Don’t Have a Figure – Figure drawing strategies for artists who don’t have a model.
- Quick Sketching – I create form with shadow and light in three steps.
- Drawing Texture Technique on Queen Ann’s Lace – my “layered” technique for building very detailed textures.
- The Secret Of Small Art – why I love to make small drawings.
- The Memory Of Aspen Leaves In Autumn – Sweet smelling round leaves that I draw from memory.
- Smiling Huskberries – Botanical drawings of the Huskberry, which is found only on the Isle of Carol
- Wrapped Pears Beyond The Edge – I discover there’s more to this drawing when I look past the edge.
- Tongue Shellfish From The Isle of Carol – I highlight the odd Tongue Shellfish and how I drew it.
- Coral Tresses Graphite Drawing – A quirky drawing of very odd coral with lots of texture and twists and turns.
- Ink And Graphite On The Easel – What worked, what didn’t, and what might! I love combining ink with graphite.
- How Do You Plan A Drawing – I’m not much of a planner. I’m more of a finder. I either find my drawings around me or in my head. Nevertheless, I do my best to explain how to plan them. Whew!
- Buddy The Art Cat – A step-by-step drawing of the cat who guarded my pencils and stole my erasers for 12 precious years on earth. He continues his guardianship in spirit, and I’m pretty sure he’s still stealing my erasers.
- INFP Artist Mind Map of Creative Flow – How I feel my way through my art-making process.
- For A Bipolar Artist, Art Is A Refuge – How making space for art helps keep me balanced.
- My Non-Forced Non-Linear Trust-Myself Time Management Scheme – The title says it all.
- Scribbled Ribbons – Turn doodles into realistic form and follow your inner prompts to see where they lead you.
- Prehistoric Chicken With Pitt Pens And Graphite – A doodle goes out of control in the creation of this mixed media piece.
- The Best Way To Learn How To Draw – It’s in your hands.
- Turtle Of The Month – An idea my bipolar mind came up with.
- Dragonfly In Purple And Green – Another bipolar creation.