Why is it that your friend is "artistic" and you're not? It's because your friend is using a different part of the brain than you are. Your friend can "see" things differently than you can because they are interpreting what they see in a different way than you are. They're looking at the world in terms of shapes, lines, colors, and the relationships between these things. What we'll be doing here is trying to get you to see things in this way. It's not like you'll be seeing things better or worse than you do now, but you will be seeing things in a different way. This way of seeing is the way artists see, and it allows them to translate the three-dimensional world around them into a two dimensional drawing. Hopefully, after looking through this website, you'll be seeing like an artist and drawing what you see in a way you enjoy.
Have you ever noticed that when you get into doing something that you really enjoy time just seems to slip away? "Time flies when you're having fun?" For example reading a good, compelling book, or listening to your favorite music? This happens because you're in the " visual" or "creative" mode of thinking. This mode of thinking disregards time and converts what you see into pictures and feelings in your mind. When reading a book, your visual or artistic mind takes the words that your logical mind sees and translates them into a picture that you see in your mind's eye.
Would you say that you're better at math than drawing? This is because you're more comfortable with the logical, step by step, time centered, areas of your mind. Every normal human being has two modes of thinking: The logical, symbol mode and the visual, artistic mode.
The logical mind vs. the artistic mind
We use both modes all the time. We use each mode separately, and we use both modes together. We use each mode to interpret the other mode. Your logical mind cannot put to paper a self portrait because it keeps telling you "This is the ear, draw the ear." and "here is the left eye, draw the left eye" Then "No! That does not look like the left eye!" happens. What your visual mind will do is "Here is a sweeping curve that intersects with this shadow." and "These two shapes combine to create a highlight in the negative space". The fact that it's a left eye doesn't matter to your artistic mind. Your visual mind doesn't see a left eye, it sees lines, shapes, and lights and darks that combine to make a whole picture of a left eye. In order to "draw what you see" you will have to learn to draw lines, shapes, and lights and darks that combine to make a whole drawing. Your logical mind, that labels everything it sees, will not be a part of the drawing process.
When you were a child, you had fun drawing because you were able to put marks on a piece of paper that represented something to you. Or, to a very young infant, drawing doesn't represent anything at all. As an infant, you were fascinated with the fact that this long stick in your hand makes marks on this paper. As a young child it was all in the interpretation of the drawing. It didn't matter that what you drew didn't really look like what you were seeing, all that mattered was the act of representing a favorite object or person that you saw.
Later, around six or seven years, as you matured, and your perception of the world expanded and became more complex, you tried to be more realistic in your drawings. Rather than just drawing two dots and a curved line that represented two eyes and a mouth, you began to attempt to depict your subject in a more realistic way. The eye became a compound object with a pupil (a dot), the iris (a circle surrounding the dot), and the eyeball (a circle enclosing the smaller circle). And the mouth may have been drawn smiling as a crescent shape with a grid inside it representing teeth. And now, a nose is added that is a bulb with two dots for nostrils. These became your own personal "symbols" of what an eye, nose, and mouth looked like. In order to create likeness in a drawing of your family, you always drew the same faces but added long hair for Mom and Sister, and drew short hair for Dad. You may have even drawn Mom and Dad physically larger than you and Sister. In the same way you drew people, you drew objects; A chair was two very flat ovals with two lines sticking out the bottom, and a window was a square with a cross drawn inside it to represent window panes. These "symbols" that you drew over and over again got stored in your logical mind as what you would draw if asked to draw. Rather than draw what your visual mind ACTUALLY sees, your logical mind says "I see a chair - here's my symbol for a chair." and you draw the chair you drew as a child.
Around sixth grade is when you decided that symbols just aren't gonna cut it anymore. You'd try and draw what you actually see, but your conditioned, logical mind, kicks in and overrides your creative impulse and spits out yet another symbol, or even better, a modified symbol that does somewhat resemble the object you want to draw. Your creative mind sees your symbol drawing and says "This does NOT look like what I want! I can't draw, so I will never draw again!" And so that was the end of your learning. And from then on, when asked to draw, you squirm and draw another symbol at the sixth grade level of learning regardless of your age. Unfortunately, also around the sixth grade, is when public schools stop requiring art classes. Art now becomes an elective that you don't have to take if you don't want to. The children who do end up taking art classes are the ones who are comfortable with drawing. These children may have even stopped drawing "symbols" and started to access the creative side of their brains and started drawing what they see by breaking it down into lines and shapes.
What we will try to do with this website is to get you to use your visual mind and suppress your logical mind. We are going to break your habit of drawing symbols and allow your artistic, visual mind to draw what it actually sees. Hopefully, you will be able to let go of your sixth grade artistic mind and re-learn your art skills. But this time, maturing in your skill without giving up. These beginning exercises are meant to show you how to suppress your symbol oriented mind and begin to draw what you see and what you feel.
Drawing materials
To start to draw you're going to need a few materials. The nice thing about drawing is that it's a pretty inexpensive hobby. Drawing is simple enough that you could use any writing implement and any drawing surface, but if you're going to take the time to learn, you might as well get some decent tools.
Since this site is on the Internet, you'll probably be sitting in front of your computer as you draw, so you're going to have to be comfortable there. If you're at a large desk where you can just clear a spot next to your keyboard, that would be fine. If you're at a smaller desk, or just don't have room to draw on your computer desk, might I suggest a "lap desk". At many art supply stores, and even at some Wal-Marts, you can buy what looks like a large clipboard. It's just a large piece of wood with clips bolted on so you can clip your paper to the board. Of course, you could just get your own board and tape your paper to it as well. What you will do is set the board in your lap as you sit at your computer desk and lean the top of the board on your desk so you have an angled surface to work on. You may want to angle yourself so you can get to your computer's mouse and work the popping images and navigation of this site.
For paper you can just use typing paper of at least 8.5x11 inches or just grab a stack of printer paper. Get one of those pink school erasers. Hopefully you'll never use it. You may also want to get a bunch of those cone shaped erasers that fit on the end of a pencil. 
You can use regular number 2 pencils, but I think the lead is too hard. A hard lead will give you a real thin, gray line, and a softer lead gives you fatter, blacker lines. If you're at the art store looking for lap desks, grab a bunch of 5B or 4B pencils. A 5B is a bit softer than a 4B and so will make a darker line. I prefer 5B over 4B. To see a comparison between a No. 2 and a 5B click HERE.Something you probably didn't expect you'd need is an empty picture frame. While you're at Wal-Mart or Target get a cheap $3.00 5x7 inch picture frame. One with plastic and not glass would be best. Also, pick up one black permanent marker and also a few non-permanent (or "washable") black markers. After you get the frame home, take the glass or plastic out of the frame, and with the permanent marker and a ruler, segment the glass into four equal planes like so. Now put the glass back in the frame and bend the staples or tabs back to keep the glass in place. Don't put the backing back on the frame, all we need is the frame and the glass. What this frame is is your "drawing plane". It's going to help you compose the subjects in your drawings, and it's also going to help you see two dimensionally. We'll get deeper into it's use later.That's it! Now let's continue with the learning!
