How to draw

I draw at the kitchen table at night. Nothing fancy. A cheap pencil and the back of leftover printer paper.

These notes are the three things I wish someone had shown me first. No shading tricks. No talent talk. Just shapes that turn into objects.

Materials

Start with a square. Don’t make it perfect.

From the top-right corner, pull two short lines back and a little up. Connect them. That is the top of the box.

From the bottom-right corner, pull one line back. Connect it to the side you already drew. You now have a box sitting on the table.

If it looks like a crooked brick, that is fine. Crooked bricks still read as cubes.

Draw an oval. That is the mouth of the cup. Keep it wide and flat, not a circle.

Drop two lines down from the sides of the oval. Curve them in a little at the bottom and close with a smaller oval.

The handle is a letter C touching the right side. One line is enough. Don’t outline it twice.

If the oval is too round, the cup looks like a bowl. Flatten it.

Draw a slight curve. That is the center vein.

From the base, swing one line out and back to the tip. Do the same on the other side. Stop. Do not add twenty little jagged cuts.

A leaf reads from the center line, not from the decoration. You can add two short veins later if you want.