How to learn drawing

How to learn drawing

Get Good at Drawing

Improve Your Drawing Skills

Draw a Good Picture

Improve Your Art Skills

Draw Cool Things

Draw From Your Imagination

Draw Real Things

Draw Without Taking Classes

Develop Your Own Drawing Style

Get Better at Drawing

Draw when You Don’t Know What To Draw

Think of What to Draw

Draw Using Only a Pencil

Avoid Smearing Lead when You Draw

Draw for Yourself

Draw What You See

Draw in Two Point Perspective

Increase Your Artistic Abilities

Draw and Paint a Romantic Cottage in One‐Point Perspective

How to Learn to Draw: Stage One, Manual Skills

We all used to draw as kids. It was easy back then, no matter if you used color pencils, a stick, or your finger on a steamy window. But even then you might have noticed that some children drew better than you. Not that you knew what «better» meant—all you knew was the sweetness of praise. Whenever you heard someone else being praised, and your own work ignored, you felt worse and worse. Eventually, you gave up on drawing. Why would you continue if nobody cared?

Now, whatever the reason, you want to come back, but it seems so scary. Those children who never gave up are working as professionals now, and their art looks almost magical. How could you possibly bridge that gap? Will you ever catch up on them?

The answer is, nobody knows. But it’s not them you should be catching up on. There’s your dream about you drawing what you want, in any style you want, without being constantly critiqued for your mistakes. That «future you» should be your ideal, because becoming as good as him or her is what depends on you, not the skill/determination of others.

Once you set your future self as your point of reference, you’ll be constantly progressing. Being better than yesterday is your goal. Doesn’t it sound more possible than becoming as good as someone else in no time? If you agree with me, join me in this great quest. I won’t show you how to draw—you wouldn’t even want that! Instead, I’ll show you how to learn to draw. I’ll lead you through four big stages that you’ll reach at your own pace.

This is stage one. If you’ve wondered how to start after such a long break, here you’ll find the answer. I’ll present a set of exercises for absolute beginners—some of them you may find obvious, but it will only mean you’re a bit more advanced than you thought! Ready?

Set Your Mind

When you decide to learn something, the right attitude is far more important than all the textbooks in the world. I’ve already given you one piece of advice—compare your skills to your future self, not to others. There are more, so read this part carefully before starting the exercises.

Perfection Doesn’t Exist

When you set up your goal, it may look completely plausible. «This is me today, and this is me when I reach the goal,» that’s what you imagine. There’s a certain way to go between these two points, and it seems like something you can do. However, you miss one important point—your needs change with you.

There is no point where you’ll be good enough. That’s how we’re constructed, so just accept it. You’ll never think of your skills: «I’m a great artist and I don’t need to learn anything else, I just do it for fun at this point.» It’s not going to happen! There will always be something you can’t do, something that would complete you. and once you get it, that new thing opens your eyes to a new world of things yet to learn.

When you think you know 99% of something, that last 1% shows you how wrong you were

If there is a way to be perfect, it’s to stop trying. You must understand that no matter how good you are at drawing, it will not make you a better, more valuable person than you are now. It’s also true from the other side—no matter how bad you are at drawing, it doesn’t make you less worthy. This brings us to another point:

Do It for Yourself

If you want to draw beautifully only to feel that old sweetness of praise, prepare for a lot of suffering. Do you remember that feeling when you were so proud of your work until someone critiqued it? Why does your satisfaction go away so easily only because a random stranger stated their opinion?

When you rely for your satisfaction on the opinion of others, you’ll never be fulfilled. More, you give power over your mood to people who don’t really care about it! Even if it makes you a good artist, eventually, you’ll be constantly stressed about not being good enough. And would you rather be a great, stressed artist, or just be a bad, but fulfilled one?

I’ve elaborated on the topic of critique in this article, so if you’re feeling it’s something you have a problem with, make sure to read it. Remember: you don’t want to be a great artist. You just want to be satisfied with your works, and you happen to think you need to be as great as professionals for it. You don’t! Stop comparing yourself to them, and instead see if you can be better than you were yesterday—that’s all you need to be satisfied.

It’s you who sets your goals, so don’t make them painfully hard to reach on purpose. You need to set the good enough yourself. Keep it fun, take it easy, and don’t be hard on yourself for not being as good as someone who has practiced for years. You do it for yourself, and yourself only. Learn to be glad about your small progress, no matter what others think about it. What do they know, after all?

There’s Only One Goal

You may have a lot of reasons to start learning to draw, but you only have one goal. It’s to learn how to draw! «Learn» is the key word here, because you can’t really be taught to draw once and for all. It’s a constant, never-ending process. Thus, if you set your goal to «be able to draw anything I want 100% realistically», you’ll fail—because this goal depends on what you want, not what you’re able to draw. And what you want changes as your skill develops, along with your vision of 100% realism.

That feeling that there is some end point is only an illusion

It’s important to understand that the journey never ends. As long as you stay under the impression that there is a goal you need to reach to be happy with your art, you will never be! Learn to appreciate every little sign of progress and just enjoy the journey. Learning is the only thing you’ll always be doing, and it’s the only goal that won’t move anywhere.

If you really need more definite goals, feel free to create them. However, don’t rely on any of them for all your happiness and confidence—that’s pointless. And even when following these small goals, keep in mind that it’s all about the process, and it doesn’t really matter when you reach them.

Manual Skills

The simpler drawing as a whole seems, the less advanced you probably are. Funny as it may sound, there is a rule for it, and it’s called the Dunning-Kruger effect. In short, the less you know about something, the more you think you know. It’s because the knowledge about what you don’t know is knowledge, too!

You may say «I know drawing isn’t simple—if it was, I could do it!» Yet you’re almost crying when your drawing doesn’t turn out as you’d like it to. If you really knew how hard it is to draw something right, you wouldn’t be so frustrated—it would be obvious for you that it must be hard!

When you look at a skilled artist drawing his masterpiece and you can’t understand how it’s done, you may be tempted to blame it all on talent. This is a clear sign that you’re a beginner. When you’re more advanced than this, even just a little bit—if you only tried to learn how to draw—you can see it’s not about one skill.

When you’re an utter beginner, you think all it takes is to draw it

I divided the most important drawing skills into four stages:

Stage 1: Draw What You Want

This is all about the most basic definition of drawing: creating marks on something. It’s about training your hand to work almost automatically with the tool you want to use. Beginners often see it as the one and only drawing skill, but in fact it’s just a base. Keyword: physical exercise.

Stage 2: Draw What You Want

This is about using the tool intentionally, avoiding guesswork. If after drawing something pretty you are afraid you couldn’t ever draw it again, this is probably the stage you should work on. It’s also for you if you can’t copy references properly unless you trace them. Keyword: precision.

Stage 3: Draw What You Want

This is less about drawing as you may know it, and more about memory. The main idea has been included in this article, but there are also other exercises that will make it easier. While the previous stage was about drawing things from your head, this is about putting these things there. Keyword: visual database.

Stage 4: Draw What You Want

This is the hardest, the vaguest part. How can you draw anything just as you want it, no matter what others might expect? How can you make something not realistic, but still plausible? Notice that it comes after mastering realism! Keyword: style.

How to Learn

Of course, today we’re working on stage 1, hence such a long introduction. You need to be aware that it’s not a tutorial in a strict sense—these are exercises that will help you get to the next level, but it’s all up to you how you use them.

For the purpose of this tutorial I’m going to assume you’re using a simple pencil and a sheet of paper. Beginners often wonder if they should start with a pencil, or maybe with a graphics tablet, but the other way makes it more complicated than necessary. There is a good chance you’re familiar with a pencil—no need to add another tool you need to learn from scratch.

However, if you’re experienced at traditional drawing and want to start your adventure with digital drawing, these exercises may help you get used to the specific stylus movement. If you want to draw with your other hand (for example because of injury or just for fun), they will be helpful, too!

Now, there is no one and and only proper pencil grip. Start with the one you use for writing and then, if it doesn’t feel precise/comfortable enough, modify the stance. All the exercises are a playground for you—don’t press yourself, test your abilities, and don’t compare them to any imagined ones.

Enough talking, let’s get to work already!

1. Draw Doodles

Start loosely—simply draw something. Whether you believe it or not, you already can draw, you just want to gain more control over it. Let yourself have some fun and just draw, as if it were a boring lesson and you had nothing to do. Don’t draw anything specific, and don’t judge it!

All the examples, like the one above, were drawn with my left hand (I’m right-handed). Your primary hand is probably more proficient, because you use it (at least sometimes) for hand-writing. Still, the non-trained hand of an experienced artist clearly shows the manual side of the drawing process.

2. Control Direction

Draw a bunch of dots, or a starry sky. Then play Snake! Try to move smoothly, and don’t take sharp turns. If you want to make it more challenging, use more dots and first connect them diagonally.

3. Draw Any Lines

Straight lines can be very difficult for the untrained hand, so it’s all the more important to practice them. Don’t go for perfect straightness—draw the lines quickly, lightly, using various directions. Some of them you’ll find more comfortable than others, and it’s OK. It’s the reason why I draw my creatures facing left!

When you find that perfect direction, keep using it in future. Rotate the sheet if necessary, but stick to that favorite flow—it will be your first step towards comfortable drawing.

4. Draw Ovals

I intentionally didn’t say «circles», because circles are as scary as straight lines. Go for ovals, and not even perfect ones. Draw them big and small, fast and slow, and don’t worry about their perfection. The goal here is to keep turning and end where you started.

5. Practice Hatching

Hatching is a technique used for shading, but it is also based on a very important movement of the hand. Draw a series of fast, short lines all in the same direction, and then cross them with another series. You can also use the «hairball» technique, or other versions of hatching. If it’s hard, start a bit more slowly, but never focus on one line!

6. Fill Closed Areas

Let’s link two exercises. Draw ovals, and then quickly fill them with hatching. The goal here is not to cross the outlines, which may be very difficult if you do it fast enough. Don’t fix the gaps—rather practice it until they stop appearing.

7. Master Pressure Levels

It’s very hard for a perfectionist beginner to let go. It’s somehow imprinted in them that every line must be perfect at once, with no corrections. This exercise is the first step towards breaking this «rule». Draw lines and some doodles using various pressure levels. Change it as you go, and see if you can make it gradual. You can even draw a gradient out of the lines!

8. Repeat Lines

Let’s continue the previous exercise. Now you’re going to learn a very important trick, something that most beginners aren’t even aware of.

Draw a short line with low pressure. Then draw over it once again, and again. For the last stroke you’re allowed to use higher pressure. Do the same with various lines, quickly, and don’t worry if it doesn’t turn out too well at first. It’s a hard exercise, but it works miracles!

9. Draw «Soft» Shapes

All these exercises should prepare you for this last one. Circles or long lines are almost impossible to draw all at once, without any additional tools. The truth is that artists rarely draw anything with long lines—short lines are much easier to control.

Learn this and become free—draw various shapes, lifting and shifting back the pencil all the time. Do it quickly and try not to force your hand too much.

Here We Go!

Use these exercises to practice your manual skills every day. The progress they will give you depends solely on your determination and discipline. Do them until they’re child’s play before moving on to the next stage. The order is very important here—without a good foundation, everything you’ll learn later will be harder to master.

This may be boring, but remember what it’s all about—you’re teaching your hand moves that are the base of even the most complicated drawings. It’s as if you were buying ingredients for a new, amazing recipe. You can invest more and have the tasty food you’re craving, or try to save and get disappointed in the end. Nothing worth having comes easy!

Remember: repetition is the key here. What you’re training is called muscle memory, and like «normal» memory it requires constant, regular practice for something to get imprinted for longer. So keep training and stay tuned for the next stage—the one about intention and precision.

You can print this image for a quick reminder of all the exercises

How to Start a Drawing: 5 Methods for Beginners

This is the hardest part. You have a brilliant idea in your head, you can see exactly what you want to accomplish, you have this feeling you know how to do it, but. how do you start? It’s the biggest challenge, because the first line is a base for another line, and another, and another. Draw it wrong and everything will be ruined. or will it?

There’s no single correct way of starting a drawing. Artists use various methods that align the best with their personal style of work. But if you’re a beginner, chances are you know only one or two methods, and you keep using them even when they don’t seem to work for you.

In this article, I will show you five popular methods of starting a creature/character drawing. I’ll present you with their pros and cons, so that you can decide which is the best for you. However, don’t look at the pro-cons ratio only—not all of them may be important for you!

1. Tracing

What Is It?

This is the certainly the most popular method among real beginners. Whenever I read stories of professional artists, they always admit this is how they started. Basically, tracing is about drawing over a picture to copy its lines, partially or completely. In result you get a drawing with clean lines and perfect proportions. In order to trace:

How to Learn It?

By doing it. It’s not hard, really!

2. Imaginative Tracing

What Is It?

This is the method that beginners may consider the only honest one. You may or may not use a reference for this; in the end, it all boils down to imagining the lines. The process looks like this:

How to Learn It?

Don’t learn it. Learn the other methods, and this skill will be updated automatically.

3. Structural Drawing

What Is It?

When you start seriously learning how to draw, you are told that the final lines are a result of guidelines, a kind of inner skeleton of a drawing. This is how you use this knowledge:

How to Learn It?

Structural drawing is a fancier name for drawing from imagination, so you can use any of these tutorials to learn it:

4. Gesture Drawing

What Is It?

Every live creature has a certain rhythm manifested in every pose of their body. This rhythm can be sketched very quickly and easily, but you can’t finish a picture using only this method. This is how you can use it:

How to Learn It?

Very simply! My favorite method is:

You can also try one of these tutorials:

5. Visual Stimulation

What Is It?

This is aimed mainly at digital artists, unless you have a light table or some other means to simulate layers. It’s the most simple method possible, and also the most basic one. You don’t even need an idea to start! How to do it?

How to Learn It?

Observe patterns around you and try to see something in them. This will give you ideas for future drawings and will develop your creative imagination. You can also draw pseudo-gesture sketches of inanimate objects (for example, the lines of a tank can be incorporated into a very strong beast).

I don’t know many tutorials about this topic, but this one will be very helpful for you:

Conclusion

As you can see, the basic methods you might have used are actually the most difficult ones. We don’t know what we draw until we have something to compare our vision to. No matter which method you choose, it’s always good to start with something quick and simple, which then becomes a base for more complex lines.

To sum it up, this is the optimal way to use each method:

How to Draw: Free Beginner’s Course

Want to learn how to draw but don’t know where to start? Are you frustrated with your slow progress and feel like you’ve hit a wall?

This free drawing course will guide you through a series of fun and easy tutorials which will develop your drawing skills quickly.

If you’re a seasoned artist, this course could be a great refresher! You might even learn something new.

My name is Darlene and I created this free drawing course because I want to provide beginners with all the resources to learn the skills they need without having to fork up loads of cash or rummage the web for bits and pieces.

Shout out to Nadia Adalath for inspiring me to create this course! Thank you 🙂

The unique thing about this course is that I’m going to use my non-dominate hand to learn along with you.

That means that I won’t have the same level of control as my right hand and will basically need to develop my drawing muscles from scratch! I want to prove to you that you can learn how to draw even if your writing looks like chicken scratch!

Some of the things you will learn:

Tools you’ll need to begin:

A sharp pencil, blank piece of paper and an open mind.

How to Draw for Beginners: Course Outline

There are 5 levels in this free drawing course with a total of 10 lessons (I may decide to add more). Each lesson can be completed at your own pace and comes with a series of homework assignments.

You can submit your homework assignments on the RFA facebook page and get feedback from me and other students participating in the course, just like in a real classroom. It will be a great way to track your progress as well!

I like to date all of my work (yes, even if it’s bad) so that I can go back and see my improvements later. It’s really fun and I highly suggest you do it as well 🙂

If you want to make some suggestions on what to cover in future lessons, let me know. I’m always taking in new ideas and since these lessons are for YOU, I want them to be more personalized.

You can access all lessons from this page, so make sure to bookmark it in your browser. You can even subscribe to my mailing list to get notified when new lessons are posted!

LEVEL 1: The Building Blocks of Art

Level 1 covers the very basics of drawing and why you don’t need to be perfect when it comes to sketching. You’ll learn how to draw faster and how to draw things that are more structurally sound.

Lesson 1: How to Sketch
If you can make a mark on a piece of paper, you can sketch! –> Go to lesson!

Lesson 2: Learn to see things differently
Learn how you can draw more accurately and quickly by breaking complicated objects down into simple shapes –> Go to lesson!

Lesson 3: Going from 2D to 3D
Step up your game and learn how to make your drawings go from 2D to 3D using various techniques. –> Go to lesson!

LEVEL 2: The Devil’s in the Details

Level 2 allows you to really pay attention to what you’re drawing and how you can make even your line drawings look realistic!

Lesson 4: How to draw with accurate proportions
Learn 4 awesome techniques to get your proportions more accurate. –> Go to lesson!

Lesson 5: Common Drawing Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Are you paying enough attention? Learn how to analyze your artwork and easily identify areas that could use improvement –> Go to lesson!

LEVEL 3: Techniques to Step Up Your Game

Lesson 6: Introduction to Linear Perspective
Learn how you can draw unique scenes with people using one-point and two-point linear perspective –> Go to lesson!

Lesson 7: Introduction to Line Quality
Learn how to further enhance your drawings by varying your line weight –> Go to lesson!

LEVEL 4: How to Shade Realistic Textures

Learn four different shading techniques to shade a variety of realistic textures –> Go to lesson!

Learn 7 simple steps so you can start shading today! –> Go to lesson!

LEVEL 5: Wrapping it all up

Lesson 10: – Putting it all together

Learn how to put everything from lessons 1-9 into practice through 3 examples –> Go to lesson!

Hi, I’m Darlene Nguyen!

I make drawing tutorials that are easy to understand and apply. So whether you’re a beginner or seasoned artist, you can still follow along. As a person who struggled throughout elementary and high school, I like to explore more effective ways of teaching. That’s why I strive to create drawing tutorials that work for everyone!

To find more detailed drawing tutorials, check out my Youtube channel: www.youtube.com/RapidFireArt.

Disclaimer

This post contains affiliate links, meaning, I recommend products and services I’ve used or know well and may receive a commission if you purchase them too (at no additional cost to you).

I Want to Draw: Simple Exercises for Complete Beginners

Do you struggle with a simple circle from the first step of every tutorial? Do your straight lines keep bending, no matter how hard you try? Do you seem to be unable to draw two points with a given distance between? Do your pictures look wrong even after repeating carefully every single step from a detailed tutorial?

These problems may come from a lack of basic skills that are ignored when learning how to draw. In fact, these skills are obvious for someone who’s been drawing a lot, but they also can be easily forgotten after a few years without a pencil in your hand. So are you ready to catch up with the best drawing exercises for beginners?

If you’re looking for a pre-game motivational boost before taking on this challenge, check out the accompanying article, What’s Your Excuse? Why Can’t You Draw?

If you’re drawing digitally, perhaps you want your work to look as if it was created with pencil and paper. If this is the case, may we recommend one of the many Photoshop brush sets available on GraphicRiver, including this Classic Art Brush Pack.

1. Break the Straight Line

Your problem: you’re not able to draw a straight line/perfect circle.

Step 1

Straight line drawing by hand isn’t real. It exists only in vector, as the shortest way between two points. You can cheat and use a ruler, but most likely your hand will never learn how to draw a perfectly straight, long line. Even if it starts as something perfect, the longer you draw it, the more mistakes can be made. What does it mean?

If drawing a long line is almost impossible, we can use short lines that our hand is more adapted for. This way it won’t matter what tool you use to draw straight lines; they’ll usually come out pretty good. Just look at the picture below. The shorter the lines, the closer to the original the picture is.

Step 2

Let’s say you want to draw a flower like the one below. You can see it’s built of a straight line, a perfect circle, and a few curves with precise angles. I guess you can draw it very slowly, very carefully, driving the lines from point to point, with your tongue stuck out and sweat on your face. But. why? Drawing isn’t a chore, it should be fun!

Step 3

Technical drawing (straight lines, perfect circles) requires concentration. It’s about drawing things exactly as they are. There’s no space for creativity or personal style, since style comes from diversity. Is it really what you want to do? Draw the same things exactly the same way all the time?

If you do, well, there’s no tutorial for you. Because drawing—creation—is about keeping your hand relaxed while being focused on a final effect instead of creating a series of perfect lines. That’s what you need to learn—how to keep relaxed, sketching quickly and carelessly. Let’s try to draw this flower once again, shall we? But this time, follow these simple rules:

Step 4

Wasn’t that fun? If you narrow your eyes, it even looks quite done. Now, fill the spaces between the lines with the ones it’s lacking. The rules from the previous step still apply.

Step 5

You can now stress the defined lines with a marker or pressing the pencil harder. This step isn’t necessary; you can skip it.

Step 6

It’s done! It doesn’t look exactly like the original, but you can see some style in it, a bit of your personal character, a real work of your hands! You can notice it even looks more natural than the original, because nature isn’t perfect. What’s most important, once you cross the boundaries, you can easily change everything!

Paradoxically, the less accurate your straight line drawing is, the more natural the results.

Step 7

Now that you’ve learned how to draw a straight line, what should you practice?

2. How to Create Your Own Style of Art

Your problem: you feel you can only draw things other people have already created. Your drawings never look like something that’s truly yours. If that’s true for you, then it’s time to learn how to make your own art style.

Step 1

So you can draw circles and straight lines, right? That’s not really good. You may be stuck in mathematical rules and technical drawing—you’re great at repeating, but not creating. How can you help yourself? Well, the first step of this tutorial is good for you too, but there’s another trick you can use.

As I said before, style comes from diversity. If you’re redrawing a picture carefully, line by line, without adding anything new (because it would be a mistake!), you can’t end up with something different. The original wasn’t yours, and your drawing is just a copy. I don’t say you shouldn’t follow tutorials anymore; you should just be more creative and—paradoxically—less precise when doing it.

How to lose a reasonable bit of precision? Let’s start with this simple exercise: draw a few simple shapes with your hand shaking, as if you were feeling nervous. Do it until you feel your hand is relaxed.

Step 2

Let’s try this simple tutorial now. Do this the same way as usual, but in Step 4 shake your hand when drawing the final lines. Draw a few of these heads, changing the level of twitch every time.

Step 3

Surprised? Every head looks different than the original, but you can recognize what you’ve just drawn. Also, you used the same proportions for them all, yet none of them looks identical. How could it have happened?

When you were learning how to write, your teacher wanted you to repeat lines from a template. You were spending a lot of time drawing (not writing) every single letter as if it was a small masterpiece. Then, with time and experience, you developed your own character of writing, your own style. Your letters look different than mine or your friends’, but still, we can all read what you write. Your style changed because you wanted to write fast—to write down your thoughts, not to draw perfect but meaningless letters.

Apply this rule to your drawings. Think about what you want to achieve, not about the lines. Draw fast, and your personal, unique hand movement will have a chance to shine.

Step 4

There’s another thing that adds up to your style: creativity. Do the same tutorial once again, this time changing the step results to your needs. You’re learning how to draw a dragon’s head, but what if dragons in your mind have longer mouths? No problem! You don’t need to find more drawing exercises for beginners for that. Just adjust the rules to your needs.

Step 5

Alright, so you now know how to make your own art style. What’s next for practice?

3. How to Measure and Draw Proportions

Your problem: your proportions always look off. You feel unable to draw a given distance without using a ruler or other tools.

Step 1

Incorrect proportions are a huge problem for an aspiring artist. Luckily, it can be overcome if you don’t ignore it. First, what are the proportions, actually?

Proportions aren’t a distance measured in some unit. They define the location of an element relative to others. That means that if you want to draw the whole picture (set of elements) two times bigger, all the distances need to be doubled too.

Step 2

Let’s train our eyes to see and redraw proportions. First, try to redraw this picture, but two times smaller:

Step 3

Now, take a ruler and check if you got it right: the distance should be two times smaller than on the screen. And, how’s your result? Probably not very good, if you’re reading this drawing proportions tutorial. Notice that the circles should be two times smaller too, and that seems almost impossible: how can you draw a circle that’s twice as big, if you don’t even know the original size?

The answer is that we need at least two elements to talk about relativity. No matter what size the first element is, it can’t be unproportional, if there’s only one! So let’s try again. Draw only the first circle.

Step 4

Now imagine two lines coming from the center of the circle. There’s a third imaginary line connecting both circles. Can you see what angle it creates? Draw this line on your picture, without adding the second circle for now.

Step 5

We need to set the distance now. How many circles can be put between both centers in the original? Apply this relationship to your picture. For the first time, it’s best to print the original and draw the other circles physically. Later, you can try only pretending you’re drawing them (keeping the pencil right above the paper/screen and seeing the circles in your mind).

Step 6

It’s almost done! Now we need to check what the size of the second circle is in relation to the big one. A good method for this is to imagine the second circle inside the first one to clearly see the proportions.

Step 7

Done! You can use the ruler once again to see how accurate it is. This method is really good when your eyes aren’t trained to see proportions yet, and with time you may not need to draw the guide elements anymore.

Step 8

You’ve done it! You went through all the steps in learning how to draw proportions. For more practice, do the following:

4. Free Your Hand

Your problem: you find drawing parallel or concurrent lines very hard. The second line always goes in the wrong direction somehow.

Step 1

This happens sometimes when you’re trying too hard. You want to be precise and, as a result, you draw slowly and carefully, giving your hand more time for mistakes. Try to draw both lines fast: does it change anything? If yes, well, I’m glad I could help! If no, a little training may be needed.

Drawing snakes is the greatest and the most complex training I can think of. It lets you practice proportions, planning lengths, changing size and angles, and, most importantly, it teaches your hand how to move gracefully. If you’re reading this paragraph, you probably have problems with snakes too—they’re thick at one point, then thin and thick again, totally messy and wrong. But we can fix it!

Start with a row of circles, each one smaller than its predecessor. End the row with a single point.

Step 2

Connect the corresponding ends of the diameters. A simple snake is done! Of course, there’s more to learn.

Step 3

Now draw a series of the same circles, but changing their positions vertically too.

Step 4

Connect them again.

Step 5

Let’s increase the difficulty level. Do the same as before, but now leave bigger spaces between the circles.

Step 6

Connecting the circles may be harder now, because you need to draw the arches. This is the actual practice. Draw the snakes, long and short, straight and curled, using bigger spaces between the circles every time you see you got it right. If you do this long enough, your hand should learn the proper movement.

Step 7

What to practice?

5. Learn What Things Are. And Why They Are

Your problem: you can’t draw from imagination. Everything goes right when you follow a tutorial, but then you can’t remember the steps, or there’s only one pose that turns out OK.

Step 1

Even though the best drawing exercises for beginners won’t help you here, you’ll be glad to hear this isn’t as big a problem as it seems. You only need to change your attitude. The problem is that you learn how to draw lines instead of what the object is. There are two kinds of information:

Matrix information is a template to create the same thing all over again. It’s hard to remember, and it’s useful only in a few cases. Vector information is scalable. It means that when conditions change (different pose, size, style), the elements adjust to them, because they’re attached to proportions, not position. Here’s an example:

Matrix Dog Head Information

Vector Dog Head Information

If you’d like to change something, for example open the mouth, matrix information fails. It’s fixed, scalable only in terms of size, and it’s even more useless when you want to create a pose in 3D space. How can you learn in vector, then?

Step 2

Take an object and analyze it. There are two ways of thinking you can use now (I’ll use a glass as an example):

What do you think? Which way better describes the essence of a glass? The first one is fast and great when you start your adventure with drawing, but it will only let you draw this particular position. You may try to go into a 3D world, learn perspective, add some motion, and suddenly it turns out you don’t really know how to draw a glass.

Step 3

Another example is anatomy. You may learn the curves of a body in one pose, but it doesn’t tell you anything about what the same body looks like when running/sitting/fighting. A simple «why» has never been that powerful. Why is this part bulging? What’s it used for? Why is it long/short? Why is this part connected to some particular one?

Step 4

What to practice?

Now You’re Ready to Draw!

If you’ve followed the tutorial carefully, after some practice you should be able to follow intermediate tutorials flawlessly. While these drawing exercises for beginners may seem boring, they’re essential and need to be learnt. If you tried them and they seemed trivial, that’s great, you’re ready! But if you had some problems, it’s really better to stop here and practice until you overcome them.

More Useful Drawing Resources

If you want the best simple drawing tutorials and exercises for beginners, stick right here on Envato Tuts+! Our instructors have put together many helpful guides that will help you develop your skills. Here are just a few to get you on your way: