10 Tips To Improve Your Drawings

Acclaimed artist Karl Kopinski shares his sketching and drawing advice, based on his personal experiences and career in the illustration industry

- Karl Kopinski

I grew up loving Asterix and comic books, and also the stories of Dickens and Sherlock Holmes. I always loved portraiture, and artists such as Diego Velázquez, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn, Norman Rockwell, Frederic Remington and Phil Hale were huge influences on my oil painting style. I also love Katsuya Terada who I met in Los Angeles two years ago with Kim Jung Gi.

I think my style is a real mix of all these artists and life experiences. I always loved sketching and have been lucky enough to build an interest in this and actually publish my own books.

I don’t know if I ever realised I wanted to be an artist. I think it was the only thing I was good at! I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything else, to be honest. I was lucky enough to be supported by my family, and my wife Tara has been amazing at really pushing me. This is important because I think that by its nature this career will always have its ups and downs, and struggles. I’m not the most confident of people and so having some moral support and people to say, “Yes, you are good enough” can make all the difference!

I think that, like most artists, my personal style is a mix of all the amazing influences. There are so many artists whose work I love and have tried to emulate.

1 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Want to improve your drawing skills? Then you just need to keep practising. Draw from either life or photo reference. It’s such a great way to learn and it takes away a lot of the stress of design. It’s simply a matter of putting what you see in front of you down onto paper.