First, make sure your drawing surface is the same proportion to your reference. You will have a hard time fitting a square reference into a rectangle picture surface.  

Close your eyes and imagine what you are going to draw – See it in your mind’s eye. 

Will it fit into the page? Sometimes we are so eager to start we just jump in and only halfway realise there is no space for the legs.  Others might start too small when they actually intended to fill the page. I always say “Good art takes time.” 

When I start on a canvas I plot out where my basic shapes are going to be and make sure my picture will fit in before you start drawing

Negative space is the space around an object. Often when you focus on the area around an object and draw that it will greatly improve your drawing. 

Every object has a positive and negative drawing space.  You really have to tune your eye in to see the negative space. We are no longer drawing the coffee mug or the chair, but the space around the coffee mug or chair.

I love adding straight lines to objects so you can clearly see the object. I am also constantly drawing in guidelines to see where one object lies relative to another object and that you have drawn it in the correct way or above each other. 

This method is a grid that is placed over a reference and drawn onto the picture surface. The artist then proceeds to copy each square exactly. This method is great for beginners and will aid you in the first steps of drawing things accurately.