Deliberate practice is an important part of learning how to draw. I’ve been taking advantage of the ease of tracing on my computer to learn how to draw faces. I started by redrawing some of the cartoon faces I found on the Net, but I found it to be much more fun to take pictures of my husband and draw them instead. I worked on drawing me, too.

Tracing isn’t the same as drawing from scratch, but it might be a good start. If I trace and retrace pictures like this, gradually lightning the opacity of the reference layer and using fewer and fewer starting points (for example: just sketching in the eyes, nose, and ears), I’ll gradually get the hang of the spatial relationships. Eventually, I’ll be able to draw faster, better, and more confidently.