Simplify your process with Eraserrrrrr.

Eraser can be a powerful tool to speed up your process of drawing. We have a funny way to set our goal on achieving perfection, and this includes avoiding mistakes. We advocate on working slower and that time should not matter, that we should focus on every stroke with accuracy etc. I won´t really debate on that one, however I will say this. Drawing slow is BORING.

I rather be excited, work with determination and confidence towards a finished work. I know what happens to most of the work when aiming for perfection. At some point I will look at the image, and for me, it starts to look BORING. Like it does not have any personality. The more hours I have put into it before I reached this point, makes it even more frustrating to give up on it. But that´s excactly what´s going to happen. Eventually, it will become another unfinished work.

After all these years of drawing, I have come to the conclusion, that you should plan the idea to the point when your vision has clarity about it. And then just execute it with full determination. This means that you need to work boldly and efficiently towards a finished result. Tools will play a huge role to get things going and eraser is like no other, specially in the beginning.

Let´s look at some of the quick sketches I´ve done to help you get started.

Laying a foundation quickly on your paper is the first stage, don´t be too accurate, just create close enough shape in there and fill it. Now take the eraser and start pulling stuff off, like drawing with it. You will be surprised how fast the image begins to have accurate shape. Refine some edges and corners with a pen, and clean everything with the eraser. You have already reached a point when you can start finishing the drawing. Simple and effective.

Creating a portrait happens similar way, just lay a shape for the foundation and fill it up, pull some of the light parts out and your good to go with a pen. Repeat, and you will be amazed how fast you can get to the point when you can see the facial features form.

It is much easier to see if things are correct when there is something to compare on. It is hard with a blank piece of paper. Creating and filling a silhoutte gives you a good foundation when you can actually measure things with your sight. Don´t be afraid to make a positive image first, eraser is such a quick tool to almost like sculpt your drawing.

You can actually even delay using the eraser and just draw things on top of the silhoutte before pulling light off. You can be rough at these early stages, don`t worry about blending or smoothing things out at this point. You can do that later on, it´s part of the finishing stage of the drawing.

Alot of the times this helps you keep everything loose and brings out fascinating “mistakes” that are worth to preserve, that gives your drawing more personality. When working in traditional way it is hard to introduce that looseness and mistakes in a drawing, and it is even harder to keep them as part of the finished work.

Hope this tip will help you in order to draw more loose and effectively, and becomes part of your tools permanently. We don´t always have to add things, removing them is equally important. Have fun with the process.

Sincerely

Mikko