First, you should always practice with a pencil. If you’re not drawing in pencil and you have a pencil, your drawings aren’t realistic.
If you’re drawing on paper, I suggest you try to draw a picture with your hand instead of a pen. That might seem too slow – but really, by holding your hand you can get a better idea of the shapes and distances, and you can move your hand in the same direction as you draw.
Once you’ve got a good handle on that, practice with a pen or pencil and see what kinds of movements are common. You might have to learn about some techniques from your art teacher and from other students – you are the teacher, but the people who learn your art learn the stuff you’ll need to know to be successful.
Once you pick a pencil (and you can’t go wrong as a beginner at drawing with a pencil), try to draw a picture when you’re sitting down. It may be best to sit down with your back to your drawing board so you can see the shape and perspective.
When I started drawing, I used a pencil to sketch and then a piece of paper to write on, but I was always better at drawing when I was sitting with my back to the drawing board and looking around. Once I started drawing with my hand, I couldn’t sit still for long because it became uncomfortable.
If you have a chair or table nearby you can sit with and use your hand to draw and you can see if that’s a good way to go.
Finally, make sure you practice drawing realistically at least once a day. When you’re drawing you have to think about all the things you want to draw. If you start off with a picture of a cartoon character, you want to draw the thing that the cartoon character would do.
Also, make sure you don’t keep looking at your drawing for too long – that could be too uncomfortable. Some people find that drawing becomes too painful if they look at their drawings for more than a few seconds.
Why do I need to learn to draw?
Learning to draw makes drawing fun. A little practice on a sketch pad or computer makes drawing a lot more expressive, and makes drawing really quick. You can also learn good drawing habits like keeping your arms straight down, making your pose more like an upside down triangle, pulling your fingers into the sketch so your arm feels closer to your head, and staying with a smooth, even movement.