In ancient times, oil painting artists use charcoal to draw the outlines of the subjects first before anything else. They then use a brush to brush off the excess charcoal so that the dust don't contaminate the painting. This act alone leaves a faint guideline for the artist to complete the painting.

Since a long time ago, artists have employed the use of simple drawing techniques to produce quality paintings. Without a strong drawing foundation, many things could go wrong in the process, and the final end result may not be ideal. Let's take a look at what can go wrong.

For a start, to paint a spontaneous drawing, artists are often encouraged to draw over guidelines instead of just tracing over them. Tracing makes the painting look mechanical and unnatural. Therefore, strong drawing skills are still required, even though there are already guidelines to follow.

Having a strong foundation also allows the artist to correct anything on the drawing as they work. That's because they are not just tracing blindly and are actually creating a new painting, guided by the existing lines on the canvas.

All the better artists know this, and they make sure they take the time to build a strong drawing foundation before moving on to more advanced drawing or painting techniques.

And when you think about drawing foundations, what could be better for building a strong foundation than pencil sketching? Rough pencil sketches are easy to produce and trains the eyes and mind to look out for mistakes in a drawing. The more the artist practises, the better he becomes.

Drawing can be a huge challenge at times, and learning to draw soundly can be overwhelming. There are thousands and thousands of subjects to choose from, and there are all kinds of perspectives to practise on. So it's important that the artist treats drawing as a journey and not a destination.

On this journey, the artist may constantly have to hone his or her drawing skills with regular sketches. If you feel uncomfortable drawing with pencil at times, maybe it's a good time to consider taking up some pencil drawing lessons to strengthen your drawing foundation.

There are some artists who work exclusively with pencils and they have often demonstrated great skills. Take a few moments to observe the drawings of these great pencil artists and learn from them.

Your drawing foundation will strengthen your overall drawing and painting ability so that you can take on and overcome more complicated painting challenges. At the end of the day, you'll be glad that you've taken the time to sharpen your pencil drawing skills.