Drawing tips?

[Sketch33]

Carry a sketchbook. If you find yourself sitting somewhere with time on your hands, break it out, look around and start drawing. Don't bother with erasing; keep in mind you aren't making art, you're practicing so that later you can make art. In fact, don't even take an eraser with you. Do take a sharpener though, or lots of leads for a mechanical pencil (or even just carry a pen). Try doing quick gesture drawings (a drawing that takes 10-15 seconds attempting to capture the essence of an object or a person). At other times try to do a detail intensive drawing, but don't spend more than an hour per picture.

One other tip is to draw from a photograph, only turn the photo upside down and draw it that way. It forces your eyes to actually look at the shapes that are normally familiar by removing them from their usual context. I passed that tip on to a roommate a long time back and within a few weeks of practicing that way he was quite happy with his new skills.

Let me know how it goes.