Drawing is an incredibly useful skill to have, but more than that, it is a way to express yourself. Many artists find their peace within a craft like drawing.
It is a way of demonstrating how you see the world in a platform that allows you to share it with others.
There are many benefits to drawing, both for your mental health and general skill-building.
However, so many people who pursue art are known for giving up when they don’t magically develop incredible talents overnight.
This makes me so sad because art is something that you have to commit to, which is why I put together a few tips for drawing for you guys to enjoy.
When you try these different techniques, remember that drawing is generally not an innate talent. Even for those who seem to take to it naturally, drawing is a skill.
Everyone starts somewhere, and you can always build from there using practice and the right techniques.
Give yourself time to be bad before you get good. It will make the wins that much more satisfying!
Practice with Tracing to Learn New Styles
—I will forever stand by the fact that tracing is one of the best ways to learn how to draw. Children tend to understand this innately, and many young artists start here. However, adults will dodge this, thinking it means that they can’t actually draw until they read it in a Tips For Drawing blog post!
There are so many beautiful things about tracing, but the biggest is that it helps you get used to the motions of drawing. Tracing is an amazing way to get used to holding a drawing tool in your hand.
As a whole, tracing is an excellent way to get started or switch styles. If you usually spend time drawing a certain kind of work and you want to branch, out give tracing a try. This is an excellent way for you to feel the difference in style. While you might not move your hand the way that artist did, you will gain insight into how you would do it.
This is where the real magic happens. It makes it easy for you to get a better idea regarding how you can approach these other styles, so you can adapt and make them your own. This is why it will always be one of my top tips for drawing.
Photo by Neven Krcmarek
Use Different Tools to See How It Changes Your Process
—One area where people get caught when it comes to learning how to draw is pigeon-holing themselves into certain tools. The funny thing about newer artists is that they always try to overly commit to one style or tool. In reality, different artists use different tools and have different styles for different reasons.
Sometimes you just need to explore when it comes to art. Instead of telling yourself you can only draw with charcoal, try pencils or markers or anything else. There is no right or wrong way to make art, so one of my top tips for drawing will always give yourself room to explore.
What is fascinating about drawing is how easily it can change depending on what tool you use. You might not like drawing with regular colored pencils, but realize that watercolor colored pencils are your jam. Every single tool will teach you more about who you are as an artist.
There are simply some things that you wouldn’t know until you tried to do it with a tool that doesn’t accommodate it. This can help you to grow so much as an artist, and might help you learn some fun new styles!
Make A Daily Drawing Commitment
—If you really want to grow as an artist, you have to commit to it. This is something that you will see in every collection of tips for drawing because all artists know it is true. I spent time drawing plenty of ugly things before I drew a good one. It is just the nature of the craft because drawing is a skill.
In order to get good at drawing, like really good at drawing, you need to practice. The amount of work you put in will directly correlate with how fast you get better. That doesn’t mean that drawing every day for a week will make you the perfect artist. It just means that it will bring you that much closer.
So many people try drawing and then get discouraged. This means that they will wait another three weeks before they will even try again, and then get discouraged when they don’t improve. Instead of holding yourself to an impossible learning standard, be patient with yourself and practice often.
You will love just how much more casual you get with your drawing when you don’t hold yourself to some standard. Art is a skill, but it comes from the heart. Don’t let your desire to make something perfect talk you out of creating in the first place.
Photo by Amelia Brown
Try Different Styles to Improve Your Talents
—Every artist tends to have a style that they default to. For new artists, they tend to mimic a specific style from someone else. For seasoned artists, they tend to default to their own personal style built from years of drawing.
While both of these are fine and it is always great to improve in this way, it lacks innovation. Sometimes it is simply best to try a new style just so you can keep growing.
Trying out a different style is something that we should all be doing simply to learn more about drawing. Though it can be frustrating, it is still one of my number one tips for drawing. I think that choosing to work on something that isn’t like your usual style can help a lot.
You might be surprised by how much you can learn from this sort of practice. You might even find that it brings you that much closer to refining your personal style.
Use Drawing Exercises to Build Skill Quickly
—Like I mentioned previously, there is nothing more important than practicing if you want to level up your drawing. Of course, this is easier said than done, and people generally run into a pretty big wall with it. The wall is that a lot of the time, you aren’t quite sure what to draw.
While you can certainly just pick something in the room or try to come up with something, it might not suit what you are aiming for. This is what makes drawing exercises such a powerful tool.
A good set of drawing exercises can take your daily art practices and drastically simplify them. Instead of losing steam trying to come up with something, you can easily rely on these to get to work quickly.
Even better, so many of these exercises come with inspiration from other people or even tutorials. There are entire Instagram accounts dedicated to this, so check it out.
Photo by Annie Spratt
Try Different Kinds of Surfaces
—An often overlooked drawing option is the fact that you can choose a different surface. Different papers come in different textures and can provide you with different outcomes. You might need a textured paper that grips more. On the other hand, a paper with texture makes it harder for you to draw what you want to draw.
Experimenting with how these tools can alter your style is imperative. What is good for one project might be horrible for another and vice versa. Give them a try so you know what you can do!
Use A Drawing Glove
—Drawing gloves are slowly becoming all the rage, and it is easy to see why. These gloves are something that just about anyone can benefit from a variety of reasons. Not only do they make it so you can draw longer and feel less pain, but they make it easy for you to protect your artwork while you do it. Something like this can be particularly helpful for left-handed artists!
These gloves are designed to ensure that you are not experiencing the same kinds of pressure while working. They soothe your hands and wrist so that they are less impacted by the strain of working. Everyone knows the feeling of drawing for so long that your work starts to get bad.
With these magical tools, you can easily get to work and stay working. This means that you can get more practice in while your hands adjust to all of the motions of drawing.
Photo by Štefan Štefančík
Watch Art Tutorials
—Art tutorials are known for sharing endless collections of knowledge. If tracing isn’t your style, this is a great way to quickly boost your knowledge base. You can learn so many new tricks and skills by watching art tutorials.
The internet is filled with different tutorials so that you can learn things quickly. Whether you want to watch or read, you can easily follow other artists as they make amazing things.
For me, learning from other artists will always be one of the greatest tips for drawing. You can easily get straight to work drawing beautiful things with a little help from fellow artists.
This is a great way to learn about different styles and techniques too. It is just one of the best ways to go about learning quickly. These artists will help you to find your footing so you can build up your talents quickly.
Try Different Pressures
—A completely underrated consideration when it comes to drawing is the use of pressure. Most artists really only think about pressure when it comes to certain stylization ideals. However, using different pressures can dramatically change how your style works if you do it regularly.
I am always going to be in favor of forever challenging how you do what you do with your craft. In my opinion, it will always be best to see how changing your style influences your work. You might just realize that by pressing more or less, you can work through some of those hang-ups or muscle spasms that you might have been facing. It is funny to think that what we do naturally isn’t always right, but it might not be.
Photo by Adli Wahid
Practice Shading
—If there is one thing that you really want to master when it comes to drawing, it is shading. Shading is often what gives drawings a beautiful and rich depth. It can be used to make what you are trying to draw into what you actually meant to draw.
There are so many different ways to approach shading, so learn about a few and see what it can do for you. You will find that this is one of the best ways to go about improving your art quickly.
[do_widget id=custom_html-20]Conclusion
As an artist, you will find that some things work for you more than others. When you are working on improving your craft, depending on what needs you have, some tips for drawing might be helpful. Others might not. What matters at the end of the day is that you should continue to try new things to get better.
Never stop challenging yourself or your style, and don’t give up if it doesn’t work out in the beginning. Art takes patience if you want to do it correctly, so find new ways to explore your craft. If it works out, great. If it doesn’t, just keep trying. You can only get better with time!
What is your experience when drawing? What type of things do you like to draw?