We hope you enjoyed last week’s first official ELVIS SWIFT Drawing Lesson No. 1. Well here is our second lesson with drawing tips and tricks from Elvis Swift himself.

This lesson is to draw a picture in one uninterrupted line without looking at the paper staying focused on the subject without glancing at your picture in progress.

So here is a rundown on how to do this.

1. Find something or someone of interest to draw.
2. Affix your paper or sketchbook to a sturdy table so that you can move your hand across the surface of the paper without it skittering around.
3. Before you begin drawing, fix your gaze on the subject or scene and study it.
4. While looking at your subject, decide where you will begin the drawing, find a place on the paper that will allow you to fit the entire sketch within the papers boundaries, place pen or pencil point on that spot.
5. Carefully strategize a continuous path so that you will easily keep track of where you think you are as you draw.
6. Do not look at the drawing surface, keep your eyes on the subject only.
7. Begin drawing, don’t stop until you have covered all your bases and included all the pertinent parts needed to make a complete picture.
8. When you think you have finished the drawing, stop, put your drawing tool down and look at the results.

This exercise is especially useful to help improve eye hand coordination and also good practice to resist cheating. If you feel you cannot keep from looking down at the picture in progress, you might try this lesson while wearing a blindfold. But that is another drawing lesson entirely.

Start the exercise with a simple subject like a door key or the pet goldfish. If you attempt drawing a friend, family member or complex image and it looks awful, they may ridicule your effort at drawing and thus crush your self-esteem. Don’t pay any attention to them.