Draw Garbage means, "Draw anything, just draw!"

Empty Candy Box (Garbage)

The cliche', "Take time to smell the roses." Doesn't literally mean you have to smell roses to relax and enjoy your world. Likewise, my insistence to draw garbage does not mean you must draw actual garbage to learn to draw. Draw garbage is my way of saying, "Draw anything, just draw."

If you want to draw, you will stop making excuses and draw. The more you draw, the more able you will be to see the world as interesting shapes you can put on a 2 dimensional piece of paper. Most how-to books on the subject of drawing have lots of perfect logic, explaining how to draw in correct perspective. Logic is left brain thinking. The logical approach to drawing is intimidating, non-creative and frustrating. Start looking at the basic shape of your subject matter. Drawing well is about looking hard.

Look at the object before you. Let your eyes relax, droop your eye lids half closed and look at the object out of focus. Trace the shapes with your eyes. Close one eye and point at the object with your index finger and trace the object using the air before you as the drawing paper. Imagine your finger is making a line, as a pencil. Watch for long and short lines. Watch for straight and curved lines. Practice tracing the object with your finger and imaginary lines several times. Touch the object with your forefinger, redrawing all the lines then actually draw the object in your drawing journal.

Stop thinking of the object you want to draw as 3 dimensional. Because when you make lines on your paper to represent that object, it is no longer 3 dimensional. If you haven't already, purchase a pad of tracing paper. Take photos of the objects you want to draw. Trace the photos from your computer screen or print them out to trace.

There is a new drawing tool on the market. Colored pencils for drawing on glass. Find them in the supermarket or drug store next to crayons. When you draw on your window you can trace objects you see on the other side. Look outside, through your windows, and trace your car, gardening tools, your neighbors house, or your walkway. Go outside the glass and trace shapes of things you see inside. Or tape photos on the opposite side of the glass to trace. It is fun drawing on glass.

If you are worried you will fill up your drawing journal, good. Always have more on hand. Do not draw in journals with lines for writing. Lines are interference and not condusive to creativity.

If you want to learn to draw well, you will practice often.