I had been teaching art for nearly ten years. Some

students had learned it for hobby and some others to become professionals.

They all asked one question…” How to be a good artist?”  

Always my answer is … ” Be on the right path,”

” What is that right path? ”

” …like any other subject art also has some basics. Learning and practising them is the right path. You start this journey with observation.”

” …observation !? ”

” Yes. Observation is the key to drawing. What is drawing? Drawing is nothing but using only a line and a curve. You should acquire the ability of using this line and curve in different shapes and sizes. That means you have to understand the shapes and sizes of the things. This is seeing the things as an artist. We call it…learning to see. This is Observation.’

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  Let me narrate one incident which happened in my class room. One of my students was copying a drawing. She was little bit confident about her ability to draw. After one hour, in middle of drawing, she understood something had gone wrong. And she also understood, where it had gone wrong.

  She drew one of the shapes in the picture, a little bit big. So all connected parts with that particular part gone wrong in their proportions. She lost. I told her again, what I said previously to her…’’ Don’t draw. Look at it. Judge heights and widths and their relations. It will come.’’

  She had started to work again. This time she began to see their heights, widths and their relations, instead of seeing the picture. Then she got it.

  I asked her..” What happened In your mind in the first and second attempts? ”

She told me that in her first attempt she concentrated on the picture …  how to copy it? In her second attempt, she did not bother about the copying the picture. She concentrated only on heights and widths of the shapes and their relations. This was what she said.

                                                                   ***

   To learn art, start with Drawing. To draw you require good observation skills.

   Observation is the key to drawing. That is … ”Learning to see ”

   From there, start your journey to learn draw. See every thing as a shape. There are so many small and smaller shapes in those shapes. See the relation between the shapes. That kind of study will help you to understand …’ Size and Proportions.’