Jürgen writes from Germany to ask,

Hi Jürgen:

Lovely to hear from you.

I think your problem lies in the phrase “something which seems to me complex.” The monkey in your brain is saying,“this is too hard. I can’t do it. ” You need to eliminate that sort of thinking by changing the lens in your brain.

Instead of seeing a tree, look at a branch. Or the intersection of two branches. Or where a twig meets a branch. Or the shape of a group of leaves. Study it for a minute and then draw just that section, leaving room on the page to continue the drawing beyond. If you need to, tell yourself, “I’ll just draw that little part of the tree and that’s all”.

Once you start examining this section you will gain confidence and be able to add more and more of the tree.

Here’s another approach: Squint your eyes so the tree is blurry and you can’t see details. Draw that shape. Then go in and add the biggest details. Then get smaller.

So, one approach is small to big. The other is big to small.

____________

Yet another way is to draw the negative space around the object. The sky behind the tree for instance. Do it slowly and accurately. Then go into the shape and start to add details. Again big to small.

Remind yourself that complex subjects are just a lot of simple objects joined together. Break them down, draw them one by one, and there’s nothing you can’t draw

I hope that’s helpful.

Your pal,

Danny

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