The software is very good for beginners. It is organized for learning to copy artists line drawing and getting ideas on curves and shapes and develop eye and hand coordination. The next step is making contour line drawings from photographs getting closer to drawing from real life. We have to look for lines and curves that separate different colors which are to be copied on to the drawing. A contour line drawing is the first step in many drawing techniques.
There are two ways to see the world. The first is known as the logical mode in which we see objects like trees, grass, skies, people etc. The second known as the artistic mode, we see lines, curves, shapes and colors.
The software gives instructions for practicing logical and artistic mode exercises. The logical exercises allow changing of the pencil widths. In the artistic exercises the pencil width is preset. The principle is to expose only a very small part at a time on the reference pane on the left and to draw the lines on right pane in the space provided. It is sometimes more difficult to draw on the screen, because a mouse has a lower precision than a pencil, and because most people are used to draw on paper, but not on computer. However, zooming in into the drawing solves these problems. Many professional artists draw directly to the monitor. If you draw on the screen, you can use the exercises interactively, as the program will check your drawing for accuracy and report your score at any time by pressing the 'Update Score' button. The program checks the drawing for the similarity with the reference. Each grid cell is scored separately to indicate which area needs more work. The 'pass' score is 80, both for a grid cell and a drawing as a whole, but it is possible to get a score of 90 and higher. The software needs some computer skills and lots of patience to become a skilled artist. A lot of help is available to overcome the initial resistance to learning.
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