What are your favorite drawing exercises?

[Sarah LuAnn]

There are tons of methods and exercises for learning to draw accurately. Negative Space drawing, blind contour drawing, drawing from upside-down reference... then once you have the basics you do exercises like master copies, etc.

So out of all these exercises...What are your favorite? Is there one you've been introduced to in a class/tutorial/whatever which you haven't seen elsewhere? Which helped you early on in learning, and which helped you once you had the basics figured out? Of course, none of us are too good for the basics anyway ;-).

I'm interested in all of your thoughts. I'm sure you all have lots of helpful experience to share!

[Christine Garner]

@sarah-luann I find practicing my perspective drawing rewarding and I like to do lots of observation drawing. I watched a few videos on Phils Design Corner https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvedReHaxA4VXPPPCvAUWaQ and picked up quite a few tips as well- especially his manikin method for figure drawing.
Some good exercises are here as well- most of these are covered in SVS Learn class videos too. http://drawabox.com/

[lmrush]

Just drawing something everyday in your own life, a coffee cup, a dog bowl, but the best advice I have ever been given was "draw what you see not what you know"

[A Former User]

master copies definitely help me out. Right now I'm working on still lives to get a better grasp on value and proportion. Although if it's new ideas I'm looking for I possibly go to clouds for interesting shapes for subjects like vehicles and find inspiration or reference on pintrest.

[TessaW]

My favorite would be constructive drawing from life, reference, and imagination. I feel my drawing skills really improved when I started drawing a variety of things using constructive methods, and always trying to implement rules of perspective. Household objects, buildings, still-lifes, cartoon characters, organic objects like trees and fruit, etc.

[Sarah LuAnn]

I like what I'm reading :-). I've never actually done construction drawing with quite so much detail, I'll have to try that.

[albertognolo]

For practicing the line weight I find useful filling a paper sheet with lines from one edge to the other changing the pressure of the pen and controlling the weight of the line.

Another exercise that I find very useful is working with silhouettes as suggested by Jake Parker in the lesson 'drawing environment'. This helps me a lot to take a step back and learn do not jump into the details too soon. So the exercise consists in using a thick marker and drawing many silhouettes of a subject, like a monster, a spaceship, a house, a sofa, a tree. Draw many an just focus on getting an interesting and engaging shape, external shape.

Then of course master copy as Ben said is really useful!

Also if you draw objects like mechanical stuff, or constructions or similar, I found useful to understand how the object actually works, so you can give a more real feeling to your drawing even if you are using a cartoon style.

[MissMushy]

Just came across this "flour sack" drawing exercise which I guess animators use for developing poses and adding life to characters.(https://sites.google.com/a/kcdm.info/kcdm-sketch/flour-sack-exercise) It helps remind me that, in between all my struggles with perspective etc., drawing can be fun lol

[TessaW]

@missmushy Here's a great video of a similar exercise:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0660Fuih7qo

[MissMushy]

@tessw awesome! Will check it out