As a drawer, we all face the same problems, no matter if we sketch fantastical subjects, realistic figures or sprawling landscapes. Here are seven quirky but common drawing problems you’ve undoubtedly come across as you put pencil to paper.
1. You suddenly find that your drawing hand is covered in graphite.
You’re drawing, shading and erasing, when suddenly you realize — your paper has a lot of weird smudges on it! Why? Then you look at the side of your hand and realize it’s covered from the graphite in your drawing! Time to wash your hands.
2. You’ve used your erasers so much that there aren’t any clean erasers…
The eraser is a good friend that you’ve counted on time and time again. It has been such a pal that it always seems to be dirty. You try to erase a line, and it only causes more smudges on your paper.
3. …and your mechanical pencil erasers are all gone.
If you’re a fan of mechanical pencils, it seems like the eraser is always the first to go, and the rest of it is suddenly useless.
4. There’s no “undo” button like on a computer.
Working on the computer has its advantages, one of the biggest is that you can instantly undo your mistakes. Best of all, there aren’t any phantom lines like erasers can leave. We wish the “undo” or “delete” button could exist offline!
5. You think your drawing is right, until…
We’ve all been there: You’re drawing something in a realistic style and thought everything was right — that it was all in correct proportion and every angle correct. Then, you discover one tiny flaw in your drawing and work on fixing it. In doing this, however, you realize the drawing had more troublesome details than you thought. It’s the snowball effect; suddenly, you just went from being done to starting your entire artwork over.
6. What’s in your head and what goes on paper doesn’t match.
You’ve got a mental vision of this gorgeous, intricately detailed drawing, but when it comes time to translate it to paper, it doesn’t look the same. Don’t you wish that what’s in your imagination could seamlessly be translated into real life?
7. Your favorite pencil is now 1/8th of its original size.
We all have our favorite wooden drawing pencil. It has helped us create so many wonderful artworks. Like every pencil, however, it needs to be sharpened and eventually becomes so tiny that you can’t use it anymore. The search for a new favorite pencil then begins again!
8. If it were up to you, you’d draw all the time.
You love drawing so much that you’d do it all the time — if possible. But that doesn’t work too well in front of your co-workers, or in the car, where a bumpy ride will show in your artwork. Still, you try and figure out how to sneak in a drawing or two at the opportune times.
What would you add to this list?
FREE drawing prompts for more creative art
Enjoy 140 ideas that will jumpstart your imagination and help you create inspired drawings.
Share tips, start a discussion or ask one of our experts or other students a question.
No Responses to “We've Been There: 8 Problems All Drawers Have Dealt With”