In our third art tutorial, JKR goes over a few useful drawing exercises to help improve your skizzels. Skizzels being the hip and awesome way of saying skills. Awesome. Reminder: The key to having these exercises help you improve is DOING THE EXERCISES! So come in with pencil and paper ready!

In order to build a skill you have to practice that skill. It's true of anything, not just art. But we're talking about art here, so enough with the general wisdom and onto something you can actually use.

Exercises to Increase Your Drawing Skills:

Exercise 1: Crazy Circles
This drill will set you back dozens of pads of paper, so for goodness sake go find some cheap stuff. What you should do is set yourself a time limit, perhaps 5 minutes straight, and draw circles. What the crap kind of stupid exercise is that?! I can hear you screaming all the way across the internet. Well let me further explain.

Everything in life is made up of geometric shapes. Now, geometric shapes with sides are more or less simple to draw, especially if you have your trusty straight edge on hand. Shapes without sides, like circles, ovals, and waves, are much more difficult to get right. (Sure, you could get 500 circle templates or a compass, but we're building skill here!) So spend 5 minutes with no distractions drawing nothing but circles. Start by drawing a quick, single loose circle. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. After it is complete, without lifting your pencil, attempt to quickly go over the same line. And again, without lifting your pencil. Do this many times until you have a mess of rough circles, most of which will not overlap exactly. Don't try and rip the paper into pieces, just make light circles without a lot of pressure on the paper. What you may find is that, with each pass, a more perfect circle begins to become clear.

But don't stop to think about it now! Move on to a blank space and start over. Remember, you've got five minutes here and the point is to get in as much practice as you can in that time. At the end, you should have a page (or 12) of messy, drunken circles. Sign your name at the bottom and hang it on the wall. When people ask what it is, tell them "Art"? and look at them like they're stupid. (In reality, it isn't art at all, but why waste paper?)

So many circles, you'd think you were a Geometry Major

After practicing this drill often, you will probably be quite amazed as to how it subtlety improves your overall drawing abilities. And if nothing else, your circles will certainly improve.

Go. Now. Draw your circles. If you're serious about this art thing, go do that exercise and come back for the next drill afterwards. It's okay. We'll wait.

Exercise 2: Ugly, Ugly People
For this drill we're going to build on the foundation of the Crazy Circles exercise. (Did you complete the Crazy Circle exercise? Because you were supposed to, before you moved on. Don't lie to me. I can tell if you're lying.)

For this drill you'll need another artist or a very willing friend/family member. Basically someone to be your model. Many times people will refuse to do such things out of fear of embarrassment, but you will not be drawing them per say, so make certain they understand that. And beg if you must. No one said being an artist was easy.

To begin, have some of that low-cost paper in front of you and ask your model to stand somewhere you can see them fully. The job of the model is to strike a pose and hold it for 10 seconds. They should count to ten silently in their head and then immediately change poses for another 10 seconds. This should be repeated at least 10 times, and then give your model a break before you do it again. Your job is, in that 10 second period, to draw as much of their form as possible. We're not going for detail here, just basic shape and form.

Faceless human body-shapes gone wild!

The point of this drill is to make you begin to see shapes more clearly and familiarize you with form. No matter how good you are at drawing/art, this is a great drill to do. It will help you improve even if you've already got several pieces hanging in the NY Museum of Modern Art. (Which, if you did, doesn't really prove you know how to draw.)

Exercise 3: Hands Down (the Best Exercise Ever!)
Ha ha, see, it's funny, because the title is Hands Down the Best Exercise Ever, and the exercise is about drawing hands! Hilarious!

At any rate, for the final exercise, you're going to be working from real life again. The wonderful thing about drawing is that you only need one hand (or foot, if you're very talented) to draw. That leaves you with another hand doing nothing. Lazy slacker, thinks he can get away with lounging about while his brother works so hard? I don't think so!

Put your non-drawing hand into a comfortable position. It can be flat, making a fist, giving an A-OK symbol, or a peace sign. Keep this hand as still as possible and draw it as detailed as you can with your other hand. Work hard to get the form and proportions right. Draw in every crease and vein. Check the example below for an idea of the finished product. When you're done, move your hand to a different position and draw again. And again after that!

Looks like I could use a manicure...

Hands are not only one of the most difficult things to draw, but they are also the first thing someone notices if wrong in an image of a human. Correct hands are very important, and practice makes perfect.

Whew. Now I'm tired. It seems like a good time for a nap. That is- a good time to move on to the next section.