How to Make Cool Designs When You Can't Draw
Few people have amazing artistic abilities, but that doesn't mean anyone can't make cool designs. If freehand drawing is not your forte, use simple tools like the ruler and the compass to create works on paper or canvas based on geometric designs. Knowing a little about shapes, colors, texture and shading will help you create pleasing and interesting compositions.
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Things You'll Need
- Paper or canvas
- Pen or brush
- Ink or paint
- Ruler
- Compass
- Color wheel (optional)
Instructions
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Think shapes -- circles, semicircles, triangles, rectangles, squares. The edges of shapes define areas within a piece. All these shapes can be any size, and triangles and rectangles can have any width and any height. Choose one shape to repeat throughout the piece in a single size or in varying sizes, or choose some combination of shapes. Many works hanging in museums are based on a single circle.
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Select colors, or hues. Colors have various values, or degrees of lightness or darkness, and also vary in intensity, or brightness -- the force with which the color hits the eye. Choose one color in varying values or intensities for the whole piece, or use colors that are near to or opposite each other on the color wheel.
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You can give the design interest by creating textures. Use ink blobs or paint splatters, from light to heavy. If you are using paint, applying it in various thicknesses will also seem to give the piece tactile qualities.
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Space in design refers to the space that objects take up, which is positive space, and the space between objects, which is negative space. Your design can have any combination of positive and negative space, meaning it can look crowded or quite empty and open.
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Add lines of any kind -- straight or regularly curved, squiggly, thick, thin -- if you wish. Lines can have shape, color and texture just the way shapes can.
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References
- Photo Credit Creatas/Creatas/Getty Images
