There's a reason artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo are called 'masters'. They dedicated their lives to learning composition, anatomy, the use of light and dark, painting techniques, etc. The results are works that have the power to captivate the world centuries after they were created. Whether it's these artists or a Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, O'Keefe, etc. the point is that there's some fine work out there and you'll go a long way toward improving your own skills if you study their works. Do yourself a favor and go to a museum or library and find a classical artwork that really knocks your socks off. Then try to copy it. Try to copy it...perfectly. You can get closer than you might think and, in the process, you'll really improve your observation skills and come to appreciate little tricks to get particular effects. Want a homework assignment? Try and copy one of Goya's drawings. They're wonderful and strange you'll learn a lot in the process.

A nervous drawing is a bad drawing. We've all seen them - jittery, careful sketches in which the person was so nervous about 'making a mistake' that they instead ended up with a boring, soulless drawing. Do yourself a favor and stop holding the pencil in a death grip. Relax your fingers, draw with your whole arm, and work in smooth, decisive movements. Make a mistake? Forget about it and keep going - you can always touch up later. The important thing is that the defining lines of a drawing or composition have some personality and movement to them.

Art materials are so much fun and, literally, almost anything can qualify. Try your hand at crayons, pencils, pen and ink, watercolors, markers, acrylic paints, oil paints, and anything else you can get your hands on. Use them on a variety of materials. You'll find the effects you get vary widely - from the sharp precision of graphic pens on smooth paper to the delicate atmospheric quality of washes on rough paper. The possibilities are essentially limitless.

It's important to experiment because I do believe that everyone tends to have one or two media that, for whatever reason, they can control and shape better than the others. Some people are natural, instinctive painters; others are draftsmen. Some like a loose, fluid style while others are control freaks. There is no right or wrong, but it's helpful to know your personal strengths and weaknesses and the range of what's out there so you can make informed decisions about what tools to use rather than simply defaulting to the few things you've tried.

So go forth and experiment! You'll make some truly magnificent messes and learn an awful lot in the process....

This is very common problem for beginners. You want to draw something - let's say your bedroom - and have all kinds of neat ideas of how you want the drawing to look. So you reach for that box of oil pastels and are working away when you hit a snag.... The oil pastels smear and those rounded tips just won't let you get in all the details you'd like. You crumple up the drawing and swear off oil pastels forever. Are they to blame? Of course not - you simply chose a hammer when you really needed a screwdriver. You picked the wrong tool for the job....

Any media has its strengths and weaknesses. Pencil offers lots of control, a good range of light and dark, and requires limited materials, space, etc. But pencil can be tedious to build up really rich blacks, it smudges, it can reflect light awkwardly, etc. Every media has its pros and cons and thus you should ask yourself the following questions before you commit to a particular tool.

1. Do you want to work in color?
2. Does the subject matter/desired effect require lots of precision?
3. Do I want to be able to make lots of changes along the way?
4. Will this project be a matter of minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months?

If you've got a short period of time, want to use color, and have a fair amount of control, I might steer you toward colored pencils. If you could care less about control and want to work quickly, I might suggest ink brushing, watercolor, etc. For every effect, there's a proper tool, but you'll really help yourself and your work by taking a minute or two to think before you reach...

Almost everyone I've met can draw something approximating a circle, rectangle, and triangle. But many people will see something complex - a racecar, a sailboat, a trophy, an airplane - and immediately tell themselves "I can't draw that-that's too hard." Actually, it's not.

Break the complex shape into simple shapes. Is your complex shape a modified circle? Rectangle? Triangle? Some combination thereof? Start with the big shapes/spaces and work toward the small ones. You can always put in the details later, but it's critical that you capture the essence and proportions of the thing you're trying to draw. By focusing on simple shapes and using them as building blocks, anyone can draw a complex composition.

Before I really commit to a drawing - an illustration that might take me a good twenty hours, I want to be sure that I'm really satisfied with the concept and composition. To do this, I'll create multiple thumbnail sketches - very quick little drawings - in which I experiment with a variety of perspectives, compositions, tonal ranges, etc. It's a very helpful exercise that not only ensures I slave over the right composition, but it also loosens the muscles and helps me relax when I'm working on the final drawing.

There are times when a student will ooh and ah over the speed with which I sketch out a composition, render an object, shade a portrait, etc. Their inclination is to think that it's some sort of inborn talent that they don't have and that I must be some sort of artistic genius. Nothing could be further from the truth - it is simply a matter of practice. I have shaded thousands of objects. I have crosshatched until my fingers were stained black with ink. The result? I have a muscle memory and dexterity in my hands that allows me to do those things very quickly. I also have confidence because I've done them many times before.

If you want to practice your technique so that these things become second nature, spend a little time in your kitchen. The reason is that kitchens often have many simple objects that provide an artist with a ready array of challenges. Try drawing a coffee mug, spoon, glass, and basket. They all offer rounded shapes, but each has a very different texture. Did you capture the reflection in the glass? Hmmm... Did you draw what you actually observed or what you imagined the glass must look like? When practicing technique, draw from observation and be sure to spend as much time looking at the object (and making active realizations/decisions about it) as you do drawing it on the page.

When it comes time to shade your drawing, take a moment to identify the darkest area of your composition. Is it part of the object? Is it somewhere in the background? Whatever it is, be sure to make it as dark as you can in your drawing? In a similar vein, ask yourself what's the lightest area in your composition? Leave it blank and let the white of the paper do the work. Now that you've identified the lightest and darkest areas in the drawing, by definition every other area must be a shade in between. Holding your pencil lightly, brush the surface of the paper to create smooth layers of tone. The drawing will emerge like magic - conjured from the paper and exhibiting a nice range of tone.

While pencil is often the most readily available tool, it really doesn't matter what you use (as long as it provides the level of control you need for the effect you want). By practicing, you'll continue to strengthen your powers of observation and build the muscle memory that will allow you to sketch and shade with the greatest of ease.

I'd much rather have a drawing that has a bit of soul than one that technically perfect, but feels mechanical. While technical precision and flawless rendering was a marvel in earlier eras, we really don't need it in handmade art any more - that's what photographs are for. In many ways, this really sets you free as an artist - you don't need to be a slave to purely representational art. So take a deep breath, loosen up that arm, and stop worrying so much about making a mistake. Be free and expressive and you'll find that your work has more life, personality, and charisma.