Amazing Sketching Tips for Animation Beginners

Sketching is a great way to express inner art. Becoming skilled at sketching requires several factors coming together and lots of patience. Some of these factors include instruction, time and more practice. Here we are going to described amazing sketching tips for animation beginners so that you can immediately see results in your sketching skills. Let’s begin with it!

20 Sketching Tips for Beginners

1. Start with the basic shapes lightly and add more details to it.

2. When shading, places a sheet of paper under your hand to avoid smudging. A right-handed person should shade from left to right and left-handed person should do the opposite.

3. Make use of blending stick to blend the graphite and use a small circular motion for bleeding so it will give a more natural look.

4. When you do shading, work from light to dark. Otherwise, the dark graphite could get stuck on your blending stick and mixed in with the lighter areas.

5. Add texture using different mediums in your sketch like watercolor pencils. In one part you can add water and leave other parts dry.

6. Use "B" (softer) pencils for a darker line and "H" (harder) pencils for lighter lines.

7. Get a soft look by scribbling on a scrap piece of paper with a pencil. You can then pick up the graphite with blending stick and transfer it to the project. This way you won't get those pencils lines in your sketch.

8. Take a paper with a "tooth" for added texture.

9. The closer you hold your hand to the lead end of the pencil, the more control you have on it.

10. Use a photo as your reference. The good thing about photographs is that your object won't move and the lighting won't shift on you.

11. Vary your line widths for a more interesting drawing.

12. For a unique look of shade make use of cross-hatching or stippling.

13. When you are creating 3D objects, you will have three different tones to pay attention to mid-tones, shadows and highlights. Your highlight will be the part directly facing the light. Shadows are the area facing away from the light and mid-tones are not directly facing the light source and not directly away from the light source areas.

14. When you choose a reference photo, make sure there are both dark and light areas.

15. Make use of a grid system to achieve accurate proportion. Lay a grid over your reference photo and lightly draw a grid on drawing paper to scale.

16. Practice blind sketching. This is a fun technique that loosens up your drawings like a drawing warm up. Basically, you are drawing the object without looking at the sketchbook. This is just a fun way to get those creative flow.

17. Keep your outlines light. Real life objects don't have dark lines running along the edges. However, if you are drawing a cartoon style, this tip doesn't apply.

18. Choose which details to include in and which to leave out. It not necessary to add every single detail in it. Think about what aesthetically pleasing and decide what can be left out.

19. Bring in some colored pencils, pastels or even watercolor paint to your work to add color.

20. Do practice every day! Whatever you are struggling with, keep sketching it out and you will get better.

KSHITIJ VIVAN  Ahmedabad offers an excellent opportunity for students who are interested to learn more on sketching tips on a more professional level, please sign up today for our KSHITIJ VIVAN Animation courses.