Old Barn Drawing

Do you have a favorite old barn drawing amongst your clippings of pictures that you like?

Old barn drawings are easy to do, so I encourage you to get that clipping out and do a pencil sketch.

I did this barn drawing (below) from memory, I saw it when we went for a drive in the country one weekend. I arrived home and did a quick outline to remind me of it's simplicity.

The barn was sitting on an empty block of land, a sad reminder of the past. The way the doors were hanging from their hinges added a little bit more character to the drawing of the barn.

In hindsight, I should have noted how many boards were between the top of the doors and the roof of the shed. I could have used this information to help me achieve the right perspective.

With your favorite barn picture in hand, just sketch the outline of the barn. That's all you need to do to get an idea first up.

Then you draw in the panels, decide whether you want your barn drawing to have a door and work out where the shadows would be.

Refer to your picture to show you which areas will need shading or decide for yourself where the sun would be to portray shadows opposite the source of light.

The trees and grass can be made up of all different strokes - have fun with it and experiment to find which style you like.

In this pencil drawing of an old barn, I put a horse shoe on the ledge inside the door. My Dad has an old shed and when I walk in there, the first thing I see is a horse shoe on the ledge. This is so consistent with most old barns. You'll most likely find lots of bottles, cans and an assortment of odds and ends. These are things that the owner thinks will come in handy one day!

If you have always wanted to draw, I recommend you give the old barn drawing a go.

Examine these drawings closely - they really are just a series of lines - and that's all a drawing is. These drawings were all created when I first began teaching myself to draw and I can see the trees are very ordinary!

You and I both know I am a self taught artist so I'm not about to teach you all about perspective drawing or anything like that.

I am here to encourage you to start drawing and it is only a suggestion that you start with old barn drawings.

I know that one day I will frame a barn drawing of mine because of all the character it contains.

I have drawn quite a few so I'll have to ask my family and friends which is their favorite and then frame the one that wins the vote.

This is a drawing of a typical hay barn.

How many times have you driven past a farm and you see all the hay stacked up in the barn like this?

Next time you go driving, take a sketch pad and your 2B pencil with you. A mechanical pencil with 2B lead would be better for travelling because you don't need to sharpen them.

You only need to do rough outlines and your inspiration will complete the drawing once you get home.