What to include in your drawing

Sometimes I receive messages from people who follow me, and I love that. On Patreon, I even get to give my little group of supporters a bit more attention and guidance.

Here’s an example of one of many conversations I have online. Maybe you get something out of it too.

Hi Koosje, My work doesn’t look so nice and personal as yours. And how do you decide what to include and what not? And what about scale?
(included to this message was a pen drawing)

My reply:

Hi! Well, I think that if you would perhaps add just a bit of color to your line drawing, you might feel different about it. It might become more personal, because your choice of color pallette is very much you

I would not color it all though. We tend to treat our drawings like they are coloring pages, but when you choose perhaps just the background or just the foreground, to color, you bring focus to your drawing. You tell your story. You decide which color and where. Same goes for what to include in your drawing, and what to leave out. It’s totally up to you. If something seems interesting to you: draw it. If something isn’t important for you to describe a place or a view, or a thing, then you can decide to leave it out.
But don’t leave them out because you think they are too hard to draw. Practice makes you more confident in the long term.

Sometimes it helps to zoom in a little, or take a completely different point of view by standing up (bird’s eye perspective), or sitting on the ground (worm’s eye view).

When it comes to scale: practice a lot. And don’t worry about it too much. When things are out of proportion, how bad is it? It’s a drawing - so you’re allowed to have wonky lines or proportions that aren’t accurate.
I do have a few of helpful videos about drawing proportions and perspective:

and

and

Let’s not forget that we’re all learning, as we go.
I still often start my drawings too big or too small so that I can’t fit everything on the page or am left with a lot of blank paper. It’s part of the adventure.

Let go of whatever you expect the drawing to be, and go with the flow and be surprised with the outcome.

You’re doing a great job!