Draw what you see and don't get hung up on tiny details

I recently asked my students to go somewhere, anywhere that there are other people, take a picture with their phones and then make a hand-drawn copy of that environment without getting too wrapped up in details such as facial features and minute intricacies. I wanted them to focus on the overall picture, rather than worrying too much about every little detail. In a way I wanted the end result to be kind of like attempting to remember a dream - you can see the outline but the individual details always elude you.

Here is one that I was particularly proud of

I always tell the students that there is no right or wrong way to do art but many artists and particularly beginners get frustrated because they cant' get details exactly right. If we look at some of the most famous paintings ever made most of them didn't bother with intense focus on details. Sure there are some such as Mona Lisa where tiny details are very important but most of the famous works didn't bother with it. I am not sure why that is but it is that way.

Also, getting hung up on not being able to do a face "correctly" can frustrate someone out of trying at all - and we don't want that.

I think that my students, and me for that matter, quite enjoy doing artwork a lot more when we don't have to focus on tiny details that at least in my opinion don't really affect the overall picture all that much anyway.

Here is the original photograph.

Personally, I think the kid did a really good job and I was proud of them. He was very proud of his work as well and this is far more important than what I think.

So if you have a chance maybe do the same yourself and as always, remember to use higher than average quality paper so that erasing is easy to do. Also, never trace or copy a photo but simply glance at it and see if you can recreate it without cheating. These days cheating in art is slowly becoming the norm and for purists like me, this doesn't even seem like art. You may as well just publish the photos if you are looking for an exact replica of the real world.