Drawing Skills Anyone Can Master

Time to bring out your inner artist! Drawing can feel intimidating, but with the right basics, anyone can create beautiful drawings. Try these portrait artist's tips, and get better at drawing in less than a week.

Featuring Zimou Tan, Portrait Artist

Format
Daily lessons delivered straight to your inbox, completely mobile-friendly
Duration
5 Days
Time
10-20 minutes per lesson

What you will learn

  • How to use contour lines to make an image 3D
  • The basics of perspective
  • The difference between positive space and negative space
  • 3 Different shading techniques
  • How to use the pencil technique to get proportions right

Why should you take this course?

  1. You want spend time on a creative outlet that brings you joy and calm. It is so easy to float through another day without letting any creative juices flow. Honing a skill like drawing is a great way to wake up your brain, learn a new skill, and gain the foundation to start having more and more fun with your new creative skills.
  2. You have never felt confident drawing and are ready to build up your skills. This course is easy-to-follow, and costs nothing compared to formal, in-person drawing lessons. With just 5 days of instruction, you'll feel totally confident drawing free-hand.
  3. All you need is a pencil and paper. Drawing is the most low-maintenance creative project possible. Unlike many artistic pursuits that take lots of tools and money, this course is easy to start and needs no special materials.



Course Overview

5 Lessons

Understanding Shapes and Composition
Making Objects 3D
Looking at Proportions
Putting Things into Perspective
Throwing Shade


Meet the Expert

Zimou Tan
Zimou Tan
Professional Portrait Artist
Zimou Tan is a Professional Portrait Artist based in Pennsylvania. With over two decades of experience, Zimou specializes in portraiture and aims to capture the soul, gestures, expressions, personalities, and moods of all his subjects. He graduated from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco in 2001 with degrees in both Fine Arts and Traditional Illustration. Zimou then served as a Professor of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art College until he started his portrait business. Zimou has been featured on the front page of the Marin Independent Journal in 2013 and in “Strokes of Genius 4 – The Best of Drawing”, a book by Rachel Rubin Wolf, in 2012. He was also chosen as one of 50 artists who impacted China in 2009. Zimou’s paintings have been exhibited in the New York Portrait Society Gallery in New York City, the American Artists Professional League in New York City, the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Asia Society of Arts of America in San Francisco, and the Pasadena Fine Art Museum in Pasadena.
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What are others saying?

Mint

Ok so I have always loved the idea of drawing but didn't know how to do it well, so I came here. This helped me learn super helpful skills like shading and perspective. Thanks for making this, wikiHow!

Jack

Easy to follow course. Easy to follow instructions. You explained everything very well, and it gave me encouragement to keep trying out drawing projects. Thank you.

Riyna

I was extremely pleased with the way this taught me how I can express myself through drawing. Not only did it teach me key skills, it has also helped me take my mind off things that stress me out. Thanks!

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