An Observation Exercise

When you are learning to draw, this observation exercise will help you to shift your mind over to the artistic side of your brain.

Draw a line down the center of your blank page.

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Look for a drawing that is equal and in proportion on both sides.

This is actually a good exercise in itself - you are looking for a symmetrical drawing. You will easily identify them in future.

Pick a simple drawing to copy, draw a line down the center of it and put a piece of paper over one half.

If you find a drawing of a vase or a bottle, that would be suitable to start with.

Of course, you will need the vase drawing to be bigger than the one I show here. These are just the drawings that I found to be symmetrical.

This is a drawing of a nesting doll should you have trouble finding a good picture to copy. Nesting Doll Drawing

Copy the uncovered half of the picture onto your paper, in outline format only.

Make sure you are content with your outline before progressing any further. Take care that your lines that meet the center line look fairly accurate.

Now, put away the original drawing.

The next step is to draw the second half of your drawing by copying your first half. You are trying to create a mirror image.

This exercise requires good concentration and it trains your eyes to see. Star Drawing Star Drawing With Line

You can also do this exercise without a picture to copy just by using ordinary shapes - draw a star, a square, a circle and so on.

You could draw a cartoon figure, that would be good practice as you get into the swing of things. Of course, the figure has to be facing straight ahead and have exactly the same features each side.

You can progress onto more complicated line drawings as you begin to master the simple shapes.

This observation exercise may look easy but once you experiment with it, you will find it is challenging to draw and copy a mirror image.

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