You’ve probably heard people say that the holy grail of drawing is observation.

It is - observation is the foundation of any drawing - you need to be able to observe carefully to be able to translate what you see into a drawing, whether you are aiming for a realistic interpretation, or something more stylised.

If you would prefer to digest this blog post in video format, you might like to watch this video on my YouTube channel:

The issue we face when observing a subject to draw, is that our brains get in the way: our brain is always trying to help us in whatever task we’re doing, so if we’re drawing say, a bird - your brain will check its memory bank for all those images of birds you’ve seen, and give you an image of a bird. This may not actually match up to the exact bird in front of you which you’re trying to draw. So you begin to draw from memory, combined with what you can see in front of you, and the combination will often lead to a result we’re less than happy with.

So how can we say thanks but no thanks to our helpful brain, and really, really observe what we’re drawing?

1) Work from Reference Photos

One thing I’d recommend when you’re just starting out drawing, is to work from reference images to start with, or if you’re working from a real object, take a photo of it. The reason for this is that it immediately makes your reference 2D, instead of 3D, so it wont change if you move position, which can make it much easier to identify the shapes and lines making up your subject.

2) Remove Unnecessary Distractions

When we’re translating a complex image such as this one to a simple sketch, there’s an awful lot that we’re having to do to simplify all those shapes, marks, colours and textures into a simplified collection of lines and shapes we can sketch.

If you’re able to, just removing one of those factors, like color for example by turning your photo black and white, can help to minimise the overwhelm.

Tip: Make sure your background is as plain as possible to remove any unnecessary distractions and make your subject much clearer to identify.

3) Look Before You Draw

Spend some time looking at your reference, without drawing anything. We’re often eager to get started so will naturally want to start drawing as we observe, but force yourself to spend at least 2 minutes doing nothing but looking at your subject.

Tip: Try not to look at the whole image at once (this will make your brain scream “ooh, it’s a bird!”) instead, trace your eye around the edge, look for shapes which make up the overall structure, and pay attention to the angles you can see.

4) Confuse Your Brain

Another technique which can be helpful is turning the reference image upside down. It’s much harder for you brain to jump in with its helpful suggestions if it can’t interpret the reference. It’s then easier to look at the reference as a collection of shapes, lines and angles which you can observe, and translate into shapes and lines on your page.

5) Think Outside The Reference

Look at the shape of the negative space - that is the area around your subject, for example in this flamingo image, the water surrounding the bird makes up the negative space.

Sometimes the shape of the negative space can be a little easier to connect with than the bird itself, so it’s worth paying attention to that

Tip: The negative space can be broken down into lots of smaller shapes rather than seeing it as one large shape.

6) Start Large and Get Smaller

The method I recommend when sketching is to start out with a collection of simple shapes which roughly make up the structure of your reference. When observing your reference, first try to identify one or two of the largest shapes making up the object - they don’t need to be completely accurate to the detail, but a simplified form of what you can see. Once you have identified these large shapes, you can begin to layer smaller, more detailed shapes on top to refine your drawing.

7) Keep Your Eyes On The Prize

One thing I always encourage my drawing students to do, is to keep your eyes on the reference way more than on your drawing. We will naturally want to look more at our drawing to check what we are doing is right, but the more time we spend looking at our drawing, the more our brain takes over and starts telling us what we need to do, instead of actually observing what is in front of us. Aim to spend at least 75 percent of your time looking at your reference, and only 25% on your drawing.

I hope you found these tips helpful? Do you have any tips to help observe better? I’d love to hear them!

This post is an extract from my online course: Learn To Draw: A Beginner’s Guide To Sketching Anything

7 Tips To Improve Your Observation For Drawing