Anybody can draw. It just takes a careful eye, steady hand, some image inside of what you want to share to an audience, and patience.
Remember in grade school when the teacher would ask everyone to pick up a pencil at their desk and take it in the right hand and begin to move it on a piece of paper. I remember hearing if it didn't work that I shouldn't worry. Most of my peers were comfortable on the right.
So, I discovered I was left-handed in writing and controlling a pencil or pen. The rest followed suit on a paintbrush, marker, quill pen, and most things. Being left-handed holds the instinct of creativity with drawing from the Right-side of the brain. (So we are told).
It doesn't matter with which hand you control the pencil or pen. But it does matter if you can be comfortable using a pencil or pen. To doodle, sketch, or draw. I never understood what 'render' means.
A, B, C. . . 1, 2, 3. . . we all had to read it one character at a time. It was so long and hard to get through it for those that had no nurturing at home. Either way it taught us some motor skills that come in handy as a pre-drawing requisite. Hand and eye coordination develops. Moving through the shape of an A or a B or a C was quite an event. Somewhere it got to be boring to the point that it was relatively easy. By the end of grade school nobody would even think that writing or penmanship was so hard.
So the same with a pencil drawing. Whatever medium is used to create a shape or line it should be from you. Design gets us to think more structured. Art is more freer and has little limitations. The whole idea of coloring in the lines or connecting the dots gave impressions that a person can draw.
When I was 8 years old I would ask my mother for paper to draw on. Every Sunday I took it upon myself to look at 'Tiger' my then favorite comicstrip by Bud Blake. I would examine with my eyes one frame at a time and thought, "If I'm ever going to draw that good I am going to have to copy freehand what I see with my eyes".
Many days and nights I became quietly involved at using my pencil to follow the outline or shapes of the characters. Then I eventually penned it with ink or marker or crayon on outlines. I finally would color the paper with crayons. It was therapeutic and a good creative workout.
Enough of Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear and Mickey Mouse. I would soon look for a breakdown of shapes to help me out. I began studying more about cartoons and animation history aside from filmmaking and comedians and actors. I would watch the black and white movies. I fell in love with those old Popeye cartoons. It took me a longer time to draw realistic like the Fantastic Four and Batman and Superman.
Those adventure heroes are not that simple. But again; going from simple funnies to adventure characters is like relearning A, B, C and 1, 2, 3 with a different style. Maturity comes with practice. Making shapes is what I would restudy at the University. I was searching for more academic training so I could figure out how to better sketch my ideas down. When I got Analytical Drawing at Brigham Young it made sense to me.
The breakdown of a structure is a blueprint of basic shapes in different directions and parts from different planes. Once the anatomy or body positions are understood the framework can be erected. We are building an idea with definitively natural restrictions and limitations of movement. Take some Comedia Dell'arte and you have caricature and humor.
It is okay to feel overwhelmed. As long as you take it one step at a time. You can finish a drawing with some pleasure. The rushing of a drawing is very dissapointing if it turns out sloppy. But if you are working with thumbnail sketching and stylistic work it is perfectly fine. Each time you do it there is something unique and appealing.
Move freely with some kind of direction. Then define your creation with pastel, pencil, pen, brush, etc. At some point in time you begin to breathe life into your work.
You become obsessed or focused in delivering ideas and feelings through whatever you are using as medium. Your work is 'acting' for you. You are now the producer, director, writer, makeup artist, wardrobe designer, and actor all in one. So now it is time you tell your story in stick figures or puppets, or animal characters, or people figures or dressed up heroes and monsters.
Take what you like visually as your model and copy it or sketch it. Follow the arcs and the perspective. Even good artists study the basics. Some times you need to walk away from it too. You will be successful as you communicate through 'your' art and it touches someone.
Check out your local bookstore for comicbook "How To" books and DC has some good instructionals. A figure drawing class is good. Hanging out at the coffee shop, marina, mall, take a sketchbook and get some ideas quickly sketched. You can always finalize things with magazine shots and your imagination. Use whatever resource you can.
