How to Draw Anything for Beginners -

Read on to see how to draw anything for beginners!

People are often surprised to find that I drew something, whether a cartoon character or a real-life, complicated building. They aren’t being insulting at all — they just don’t understand how I can just draw something and make it look like the original.

Well, I’ll let you on a little secret: I cheat. I don’t free-hand draw anything that’s large or requires a lot of attention to detail. Ok, so it’s not really cheating, but the method I use makes it a whole heck of a lot easier.

how to draw for beginners — PIN IT FOR LATER

So how do I make them look so good? Grids. I use grids. This is actually a simple drawing technique, but for some reason, most people don’t get exposed to it, at least not enough to remember it when they need it.

When you draw using a grid, you only have to focus on a small portion of your picture at a time. So instead of focusing on drawing all of Elsa, I may only be focused on her hand, or even just a few fingers. Once I have that done, I’ll move on to the next portion.

And the beauty of grids is that they work for any drawing ability. If you’re more confident in your drawing skills, you might make your grid with fewer blocks. If you’re a beginner, you just make your grid with lots of blocks.

I realize this may still not make a whole lot of sense. The best way to understand it is to see it. So let me show you how to first create and then use a grid so that you, too, can draw any character you want!

Then, you can click here to turn that drawing into a toss game.

How to draw using a grid

Find an image of your character to copy, and remember that the simpler it is, the better. I recommend searching for coloring pages. That way you find images with clear, easy to copy, lines. Once you’ve found one you like, save it to your computer.

2. Now you can either print it off and draw a grid on top of it by hand, or you can edit the image directly on your computer. I like to just do it on my computer, but it works either way.

I draw my grid using Paint, because I’m ~~technologically challenged~~ old school like that. Whether you do it on the computer or on a print-out, the method is the same.

Draw a straight line halfway through the picture/paper vertically, and draw another one going halfway horizontally. You will now have 4 sections on your image.

Now draw another two vertical lines, halfway between the first line you made and the edge of the picture/paper. Do the same thing going horizontally. You’ll have 16 blocks now.

At this point, you can keep going as much or as little as you want. When you’re ready to draw, you’re going to draw one section at a time, so keep that in mind. If the image you’re using is more detailed, you’ll probably want more sections so that you don’t have to focus on many details at a time. If it’s more simple, you may not need any more.

3. Next, you want to very lightly pencil in a grid on the paper or poster you’re going to draw on. Draw the same amount of sections as you did in the grid you drew on the picture you’re working from.

It’s important that the paper or poster you’re using is about the same shape as your original image. Otherwise, your drawing will be too thin or too squashy looking.

You’ll erase the grid later, so be sure to make it as light as you can so that it’s easy to remove and doesn’t leave dents in your paper.

4. Now for the fun part! Drawing time! Choose any section you want and draw it in the corresponding section on your paper/poster. Do this lightly, in pencil. Even though it’s much easier to draw a small portion at a time, you still might make a few mistakes and that’s ok! Just erase, and try again.

Once you’ve finished the first section, just move on to another one that’s connected to the one you finished. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Et voila! You did it! You drew an amazing looking picture!