THE

STAIRS
A step by step journey into
my view of The Fundamentals

YOU DON’T KNOW, THAT YOU DON’T KNOW, WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW. BY DIEGO LUCIA
Sold to - 2020
LA PLATA - ARGENTINA
raquitome07@gmail.com

 I want to dedicate these notes to my mother, Delia N. Dupuy, my father Horacio

Lucia, and my wife, Natalia E. Lucia, for supporting me in every single crazy idea
that I've come up with.


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THE
STAIRS BY DIEGO LUCIA

Facts about The Stairs.

One floor, three stages, ten steps.

It is a 14-minute read that can last you for a lifetime.

I’ll be guiding you from the beginning to the end. No

missing Step. Find out exactly what you don’t know, and
learn it.

You can use this article for the rest of your life.

A simple step-by-step system for a guided and more ac-

cessible learning experience.

You’ll learn the Fundamentals!

There is No magic, tricks, hidden agenda, style, or look

alike.

A system to know what you don’t know and learn it.

Based on my own experience as a student and teacher.

Enjoy The Stairs…

Second Edition
© MAY 2023 by Diego Lucia
La Plata, Buenos Aires, República Argentina.
Spiral stairs icon by Lluisa Iborra from the Noun Project.

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DIEGO LUCIA AUGUST 2020

The goal of this article is to arm you with the basic drawing knowledge to get you up to a place
where you can decide what is going to be your next move, and by the way, these notes can last you
a lifetime. Take good care of them.

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If you've been following my work, you If you see a video of somebody doing
INTRODUCTION 
should know that I mainly focus on something with Mastery, it's easy to
line drawings. I don't believe in the believe you can do that with just a
impossible. There is always a way; we little practice. Well, nothing further
I want to make sure we are on the
have not yet found a method to ac- away from the truth than that.
same page. These notes study the
complish that.
core concepts and fundamentals
There's no such thing as just practice.
someone needs to grasp. I have said
After years of teaching, I've discov- Throughout these notes, I will take
"grasp" to START developing their ca-
ered some dark moments in learning you on a tour to discover what you
reer as character designers, concept
how to draw, which are more chal- don't know.
artists, animators, illustrators, you
lenging than others. There's always a
name it. Wait, one more thing, you can
moment you struggle against it, and
start your career without these and WHAT ARE THE BASICS?
you don't know why it is so hard.
even work without them, but trust me,
These notes result from many years of
that will be challenging and frustrat-
studying, learning, and teaching Definition: The essential facts or prin-
ing. You will enjoy what you do if you
drawing, looking to overcome that ciples of a subject or skill.
can adequately control these steps.
struggle and flow seamlessly during
No matter what puzzle they throw at
your learning process. Basics are something we need to re-
you, you will have the tools to solve it
or learn it if you need to. visit after we have learned a lot of
NEVER STOP LEARNING things. Let me rephrase that we should
Anyone can play Pictionary, but YOU never abandon learning fundamentals
want to draw. because the more reliable our base,
Nobody ever gets to the finish line; the more robust our castle will be. We
July 2020 there's no running. If you are in a race are going to start seeing things that
to get there, stop running right now, we have missed the first time around.
Deep Basics by there's no finish line.
You'll find many puzzles you'll need to
Going into Deep Basics, we will be
able to go deeper, which is what this
Diego Lucia. 
solve to advance to the next level. The study is all about.
trick is not to initially jump to the
It is standard. A student doesn't care most challenging puzzle because you We learn the basics at the beginning
about Basics because kids study Ba- need the tools to solve them. You'll of our drawing journey when we are
sics. We are grown-up people; we find yourself frustrated, getting angry, amateurs or new to this art. However,
know a lot and have been drawing for and all those feelings we usually go we needed to stay longer playing and
years, so we don't care about basics. through when we skip the foundation. understanding the fundamentals or
However, I do. come back to analyze them in-depth.
We usually need a proper process of
I wanted to understand the learning studying Basics that allows us to be
ARE BASICS BORING AND
process and teach a new or advanced amazed by Basics. During these six
UNATTRACTIVE?
student. I've developed a simple sys- months of quarantine, I investigated
tem to find out what you know and students' cases, drawings, and com-
what you need to learn (always talk- mon mistakes to get to your current Many people believe that Basics are
ing about Deep Basics). reading. unattractive, that a drawing should
When we teach anything we know, We will learn 'what' to judge and how have colors, or even call it unfinished.
we assume (consciously or uncon- to do it. You may often find something I am afraid I have to disagree with that.
sciously) that the other person knows weird about your drawing that is off, A good pencil-on-paper sketch could
many things, which is incorrect in but you can't put your finger on it. be a Masterpiece if its Basics are solid.
many cases. So we need to start at the And the thing is that you can't tell
very beginning. what is wrong because you don't see On the other hand, people tend to like
We are going to go deep into the it, because you still don't know what it sketches done with pencil on paper
world of Basics. is. thought.
Starting at the most basic premise: Judging a pencil-on-paper drawing is
The problem with Basics starts with its so easy because you are so exposed.
name. As soon as you hear the word -' We don't know that we don't know There's no place to hide behind a
Basics, you start thinking about easy, what we don't know.' Photoshop effect, just pencil and pa-
beginners, not for me; I don't need per. And that is scary. We are looking
that, I'm not a beginner, I've been The first goal here is finding out what for approval, and we need a lot of con-
drawing for x amount of time. you don't know. fidence to put ourselves naked in
front of the eyes of "the judges."

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What we call Deep Basics is, in any
I'll be staying in Basics for a long time! career, what differentiates the hobby-
Because it is a beautiful place, we will ist from the Master.
explore it. I've divided this into small pieces that
are almost impossible for anyone not
to understand each section.
HOW TO KNOW WHERE TO
Without any further to announce, let
LEARN?
the games begin.
Can you do two and keep them paral-
lel?
I can keep going with these and start
working with all the combinations.
Ok, welcome to Deep Basics.
THE EXERCISES

Nowadays, the internet provides us So, this is ground zero, where every- So here's a simple way to test this
with a lot of information and places to thing starts. You are not going to need Step. Just draw straight lines, see how
learn how to draw, but how can we too much to be able to move up these many possibilities you can create, and
choose what we need. By understand- first two steps. how many different types of straight
ing these fundamental concepts, you lines you can do.
will wisely choose what teachers can It would help if you had something to
help you the most with what you draw and something to draw on. I'll I won't show you an entire page with
need. use a Pencil and Paper. You'll have to straight lines drawn by me to avoid
The act of teaching is not the same as grab the pencil comfortably and have influencing you and let you pull this
the act of producing art. You may be a relatively simple amount of control first Step freely.
able to play the guitar, but teaching for these first two steps, at least to
how to do it is another different world. move on to the next Stage.
Step 2

Follow me. The next stop for us is The
BASICS ARE INCREDIBLE, Stairs.
Draw non-straight lines.
PERIOD.
The Second Step may feel less compli-
CONTROL STAGE cated than Step one, but we have
Only a tiny group of people are pas- many more combinations and varia-
sionate about drawing to understand tions that we should control here.
that maybe it is not a Photoshop brush This Stage is to get control of our vo-
or a specific brand of pencil. They cabulary in a drawing.
You need to control the amount of
know that it goes way beyond that. The Line.
pressure applied during the whole
line. With that said, here are more
I'm doing this because I love the Ba- possible controls, turning left or right,
sics, and of course, if you are reading Step 1

up or down again. You may come up
this, you know that I love teaching. Straight lines.
 with many more things likely to con-
trol in a non-straight line.
We will learn things many artists are
fighting against, avoiding or skipping, Yes, draw straight lines. Straight,
or unaware of their importance. please. I mean it. THE EXERCISES
Here we are, analyzing the fundamen- (Keep it simple and increase the diffi-
tals of drawing in-depth, which I call culty as you can).
You should play around with this and
'Deep Basics.'
- You can evaluate this Step if you are see your limitations and how many
an Advance Artist too. combinations you can develop and
First, we must create "The Stairs" in
The more control on your line, the control them.
our playground to start this analysis.
Each Step of The Stairs will require a more range you will have to adapt to
any drawing style. Minimum knowledge and control are
sometimes simple yet essential con-
Starting with a straight line going required to go to the next Stage. I can
cept. Maybe you can do it relatively
from left to right, or is it right to left, tell you if you are ready by seeing
well, but be aware of all the complexi-
bottom to top, or top to bottom? your work, but I hope you can see
ty left behind, and you can, if you
It may be diagonally placed. when you are ready or not to go to
want, MASTER that Step. This way, you
Can you do them all? Step 3. Don't lie to yourself; you will
can smoothly go Step by Step until
Have they tapered the beginning and start feeling frustrated too soon.
you reach the Final Floor.
If you were new to drawing and start- end?
Long? A little longer? This Step is the last one you can skip
ed reading this, would you consider
Thin, thick? with only a little understanding, but if
these concepts' depth? Be honest.
Light, dark? you do, you'll eventually notice that

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your drawings are missing some-
thing.
TRANSLATION STAGE
We are now going to translate things
using just lines. Of course, we will
start simple and get more complicated
as we move up The Stairs.
Step 3
 cise is going to help you tremendous-
Draw rectangles.
When you reach this Step, you can
start seeing the quality of the draw-
ing. Here I can tell you how ready you
are to keep going.
Many things are visible in this Step—
for example, CONTROL. I hope you can
see how easy it is to tell how much
you can control a straight line by
drawing a rectangle.
THE EXERCISES
The exercise for this Step should be
easy to guess. Draw rectangles hori-
zontally, vertically, big, medium, and
small. These are just some ideas. Try
to be precise, but keeping control, you
can pile up boxes. We know the exact
anatomy: four straight lines (parallels
in groups of two, all connected at the
end, and four 90-degree angles). The
more control you have in Step 1, the
easier this exercise will be.
Here's an idea of an exercise for this
Step, fill up a page with rectangles and
fill up every hole. It gets more compli-
cated when the space is limited.
Step 4
 have found your weak spot. Grab a
Draw a 2D geometric
shape with straight lines
Your imagination can fly like an eagle
and bring you some fantastic 2D
geometrical shapes to draw. But in
this Step, I want to introduce the con-
cept of references. I'm going to tell
you an excellent reference to work. I
use Tangram.
The Tangram is a puzzle consisting of
seven flat shapes, called tans, together
to form different shapes. People be-
lieve it was invented in China during
the Song Dynasty and brought to Eu-
rope in the early 19th century. The
objective of the puzzle is to create a
specific shape using all seven pieces.
Well, that was our Wikipedia moment.
Let's move on.
THE EXERCISES
Creating one with a piece of paper is
pretty straightforward if you don't
own a Tangram. Using Tangram as a
reference, put the pieces together,
create a beautiful shape, and draw
that flat 2D shape.
These exercises will help you connect
your eyes with your drawing, in-
creasing your accuracy and under-
standing of what you are trying to
explain with your sketch. This exer-
ly with proportions.
Step 5

Draw 3D Boxes
I can divide this Step into smaller
steps, but you are here because you
care about your drawing skills and
how to improve. Then I will go straight
for the head and make the goal harder
here.
Welcome to the challenging but lovely
world of magic. Here we will start the
act of illusion; this will add depth to
your drawings, which are not real. We
will deceive our brains into believing
that there are additional planes inside
and outside our page.
It sounds challenging. Well, it's cum-
bersome but, once again, not impossi-
ble because there's already a reliable
method, and it is called perspective.
You may be a beginner, intermediate,
or advanced artist. If you want to
draw, you must know perspective.
Disclaimer, I will not teach you per-
spective in these notes. There are
plenty of books and videos that al-
ready do that job impeccably.
If you don't know perspective, you
book and learn one-point, two-point,
three-point, etc. This level is hard to
Master, but it is essential to under-
stand.
Later on, in the exercises section of
this Step, I will show you how to in-
crease or reduce the difficulty.

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You may ask yourself, -How can I
know if I'm doing this correctly? See?
You can find the weak spot. If you
need someone to tell you that, read
more about perspective or find a good
teacher/mentor who can help you
polish the hard edges you still have
on this subject. Let us move to the
Next Step.
Pro Tip: Books are your friends.
THE EXERCISES
Well, start by drawing a box.
We've already established that you
know your next stop if you can't tell if
you are doing it right.
Draw a second cube. This time, look
at it from a different angle and draw
the third cube from a different per-
spective. Now go big and small, and
change all viewpoints at will.
You can draw straight lines already;
rulers are not allowed. Start with the
horizon line and other helping guides
if you need them. The idea is to even-
tually draw the cubes out of your
head without using any guides. Got it?
I want you to learn perspective before
freehanding those cubes.
If you can do that, now it's time to
understand overlap. That is when one
object is in front of another, and that
automatically creates depth. So draw
those three cubes overlapping each
other.
Step 6
 control, the closer to a circle you'll
Draw a Circle without
lifting the pencil from
the paper.
Step six is all about your arm. The
less of your arm you move, the harder
this will be.
It's challenging but not impossible to
do by moving your hand. Draw with
your whole arm instead of your hand,
and make larger circles, then start
lowering the speed. The larger the
circle, the more of your arm you'll
need to use. That is my advice, take it
or leave it. The use of these notes
does not mean you have to take my
opinion as a fact.
I'm writing here what would have
helped me find what I didn't know
that I didn't know.
THE EXERCISES
I can stop telling you how to exercise
these Steps.
Draw a circle without lifting the pencil
from the paper.
Make it big and small; if drawing a
circle is too hard for your current
skill, try an ellipse. The higher your
get.
Now that I think again, I will keep giv-
ing you ideas on practicing and judg-
ing each Step.
Ready for Step Seven?
Step 7
 three-dimensional with our refer-
Wrapping-lines
These steps are getting more complex.
Now I'm talking about drawing a
sphere using just lines, for example.
We are inserting the use of wrapping
lines at this Step. Draw a cylinder or
even a cube and wrap lines around it.
Using these wrapping lines is an in-
valuable tool that helps you describe
volumes. To give you a brief explana-
tion about wrapping lines, these are
lines that go over the surface and
around the volume.
If you can control straight lines and
curves, draw a circle, and understand
perspective (Steps 1, 2, 5, and 6), this
Step is a piece of cake.
THE EXERCISES
Draw a circle and wrap lines around
it, giving the illusion that it is a sphere.
Use only lines, no shadows. Try also a
cylinder and boxes and do the same
thing.
CONSTRUCTION STAGE
In the previous Steps, we've tested our
notion of controlling our language.
We can now draw lines and basic
shapes and know how to use tools to
show volumes on a two-dimensional
surface. If you've reached this Stage,
you are ready for the upper section of
The Stairs.
Be careful. If you are not ready yet,
your drawings will show a lack of
control and understanding of those
Steps. Go back, take your time, learn,
and investigate. Master as much as
you can those Steps. You'll see the
beauty and joy of understanding in
the upcoming pages. You can explain
on paper what your eyes are seeing.
Step 8

Draw a 3D geometric
shape with straight lines
Controlling straight lines is second
nature for us now. It's time to go
ences.
We must use every trick to show
depth: perspective, overlap, and wrap-
ping lines.

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THE EXERCISES
Finding a reference for this exercise is
pretty straightforward. I've come
across this balancing game "Apa-
cheta" (see image), and I find it cool to
use it as a reference for this Step (at
the end of these notes, you'll find a
couple of photos for you to use if you
need them).
The concepts to focus on are three-
dimensional references and under-
standing volumes in space. Accuracy
in three-dimensional drawings is
more challenging than in 2D flat
shapes, but, again, possible.
Here is my first quick try using this
game as a reference. I kept this draw-
ing to show it to you. It took me
around ten minutes. You can take
more time if you want. I can do better.
Trust me; I'll be playing a lot with this.
I hope you can spot the mistakes, but
spotting them while doing it is anoth-
er different game; you’ll see what I’m
talking about when you try it your-
self.
Step 9

Organic Shapes with
Volume
Organic three-dimensional shapes are
the most fun to draw. They make use
of all the Steps previously mentioned.
Now all Steps in the Control Stage and
Translation Stage are put to the test.
I like to see it as the final boss of a
game.
I hope you had fun playing it and it
helped you realize what you still need
to include or how deep is your
knowledge of the fundamentals.
THE EXERCISES
It's time to get the most fun out of this
learning process. You choose to draw
whatever you want. Grab a photo, or
an action figure, go out and draw a
landscape or a statue or some col-
umns, architecture people on the
streets, and see how much you know
about the Control, Translation, and
Construction Stages. Just enjoy the
act of drawing and try to solve every
puzzle you can.
Step 10

Channeling
We are at the final Step, which comes
with time, practicing everything we've
explored.
It's when you can do all previous
steps as second nature.
You can express your ideas and ex-
plain things on paper using these
concepts.
How to know if you are here? You'll
enjoy the act of drawing. The Process
of drawing is like playing a game that
you are good at. Like every game,
sometimes you'll lose. Don't worry.
We all do fail sometimes. That is what
keeps the game interesting.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Well, this is the end of these notes.
I’ve been drawing for a long time.
When I was writing this, I was 42
years old, and I started writing these
notes after realizing that I would’ve
loved to read this when I was 16 or 17.
I don’t know if I would’ve paid any
attention to it, or followed them, never
the less if you are 16, 20, 40, 60, or
100 years old, trust me and learn
every Step of The Stairs.
For some Steps, you might need a
teacher or a mentor. I learned from
lots of teachers and masters of the
craft, and this list keeps growing
every day.
I also want to thank every one of you.
Because if you are reading this, it
means that you love drawing.
Trust me, reading this part of these
notes means that you love drawing or

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you love me for some reason. Thank

you.

I’ve developed everything you are

reading here to clarify why some-
times we feel frustrated when we
learn to draw. After years of studying,
learning, and teaching, I’m calling
these notes: “The Stairs: A step-by-step
journey into my view of The Funda-
mentals.”

Thank you for taking the time to read

The Stairs, and if you feel that it is
helping you in any way, the objective
has been reached.

Learn the Fundamentals!

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DRAWINGS BY DIEGO LUCIA MARCH-SEPTEMBER 2020

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DRAWINGS BY DIEGO LUCIA MARCH-SEPTEMBER 2020

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Here you have two references to use for Step 8, if you ever feel that you need more, please contact
me and I’ll be happy to share some more with you.

CREDITS Paper used for drawings Smooth

Newsprint.

Spiral stairs icon by Lluisa Iborra from Diego Lucia,

the Noun Project. September 2020.
Apacheta game by Apacheta Juegos
de equilibrio.
Photography and cover art by Diego
Lucia.
Cover photo Natalia Lucia.
Pencil used for drawings Staedtler
Mars Lumograph Black 8B.

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