How to Get Better at Drawing: Expert Tips & Exercises

If you want to get better at drawing, it really comes down to two things: nailing the fundamentals and practicing with purpose. This means shifting from just doodling whenever you feel like it to actively training your hand and eye with specific, targeted exercises.

Mastering the Fundamentals That Actually Matter

Before you can even think about creating art that truly connects with people, you need a solid foundation. This isn't about getting bogged down in dense art theory; it's about building real-world skill and muscle memory. The whole point is to make these core concepts so automatic that you can draw with confidence and intent, not hesitation.

A lot of aspiring artists hit a wall because they try to render a complex portrait or a detailed landscape without first understanding what it's truly made of. The secret is that every object, no matter how intricate, can be broken down into much simpler pieces.

See the World in Basic Forms

The single biggest leap you'll make is learning to look past the surface details of a subject and see the simple forms that give it structure. Almost everything you can see or imagine can be constructed from a few basic shapes.

• Cubes and Boxes: These are your best friends for drawing anything man-made—buildings, cars, even a book on your desk. Getting comfortable sketching boxes from every possible angle is non-negotiable for understanding perspective.
• Spheres and Ellipses: Absolutely essential for organic stuff. Think heads, eyes, apples, you name it. A fantastic warm-up is to just fill a page with clean circles and ovals.
• Cylinders and Cones: You'll start seeing these everywhere once you look for them. Tree trunks, arms, legs, bottles, and cups are all built from these forms.

Start right now. Look at the objects around you—your coffee mug, a lamp, a plant—and mentally break them down into these core shapes. Developing this "x-ray vision" is one of the key skills that separates artists who get it from those who are still guessing.

Develop Confident Linework

Your lines are the voice of your drawing. Are they whispering or are they speaking clearly? Timid, scratchy lines can make a solid drawing look amateurish, while bold, confident strokes breathe life and energy into it.

The quality of your linework has a direct impact on the energy and clarity of your final piece. Focus on drawing through your shapes. Use your whole arm, moving from the shoulder, to pull smooth, single strokes, rather than just flicking your wrist.

Try this: fill a page with parallel lines. Then try a page of concentric circles. Then flowing S-curves, all without lifting your pencil. This isn't about making pretty art; it's a gym workout for your hand. It builds control and, more importantly, confidence.

Grasping Practical Perspective

Perspective is what creates the magic trick of depth and space on a flat piece of paper. It can seem super technical and intimidating, but you only need a practical grasp of the basics to make a massive difference in your work. Start with one-point and two-point perspective.

• One-Point Perspective: Think of looking straight down a long road or a set of train tracks. All the lines that are parallel in real life seem to rush toward a single "vanishing point" on the horizon.
• Two-Point Perspective: This is what you use when you're looking at something from an angle, like the corner of a building. Instead of one vanishing point, the lines recede toward two different points on the horizon.

This isn't just a technical skill; it's deeply wired into how we see the world. A fascinating bit of Stanford research on drawing development looked at how children learn to draw. It found that the ability to draw recognizable objects goes hand-in-hand with the ability to perceive them accurately. This shows that getting good at drawing is a complex dance between seeing and doing, not just memorizing a few visual tricks.

Building a Deliberate Practice That Gets Results

We all love to doodle. It's relaxing, and it’s a great way to let your mind wander. But if you’re serious about getting better at drawing, that kind of casual sketching will only take you so far. The real secret to leveling up your art is shifting from aimless doodling to what's known as deliberate practice.

What does that mean? It means every time you sit down to draw, you have a specific purpose. You're not just drawing whatever pops into your head; you're actively working on a weakness or building a new skill. Think of it like a musician practicing scales instead of just playing their favorite songs over and over. This structured approach is what turns your practice time into real, measurable improvement.

This isn't about draining the fun out of drawing. It's about making your efforts count.

A focused session with a warm-up, a clear goal, and some time to apply what you've learned is infinitely more valuable than hours of mindless sketching.

Designing Your Practice Routine

You don't need to clear your schedule for hours on end. Honestly, even 15-20 minutes of highly focused work can be more powerful than an hour of distracted doodling. The magic ingredient is consistency, paired with a solid plan.

Before you even pick up your pencil, decide what you're going to tackle. Instead of a vague goal like "get better at faces," break it down into something concrete.

For example:

• "Today, I'll draw five eyes from different angles, really focusing on the shape of the upper eyelid."
• "I'm going to spend 10 minutes just on cross-hatching to see if I can create a smoother value scale."
• "For 20 minutes, I'll do quick gesture drawings of people in motion, using reference photos."

This method forces you to confront the things you find difficult and gives you a clear way to see your progress. After a week of practicing one specific skill, I guarantee you'll notice a difference. For even more ideas, check out our comprehensive guide on how to improve drawing skills for a ton of other targeted exercises.

I see so many artists fall into the trap of only practicing what they're already good at because it feels satisfying. Real growth happens when you step out of your comfort zone and intentionally work on the skills that challenge you the most.

To help you get started, here’s a simple schedule you can adapt. It’s designed to fit into a busy day while still hitting the core fundamentals.

Sample 30-Minute Daily Practice Schedule

A structured routine helps you maximize your drawing practice in just 30 minutes per day by focusing on different fundamental skills each session.

This kind of routine ensures you’re not just spinning your wheels. You’re building muscle memory, honing specific techniques, and immediately putting them into practice, which helps lock in the learning.

Actionable Warm-Ups and Exercises

Just like an athlete stretches before a game, you need to warm up your hand, arm, and eye. These quick drills are perfect for building the hand-eye coordination and muscle memory that lead to confident, controlled lines.

Here are a few warm-ups you can do for about five minutes every day:

• Parallel Lines: Grab a pencil and fill a section of your page with straight, parallel lines. No rulers allowed! Try them horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. The goal is to keep the spacing and thickness consistent.
• Perfect Circles and Ellipses: Draw circles and ovals in all different sizes. The trick here is to draw them with a single, smooth motion from your shoulder, not your wrist. Avoid sketchy, hesitant lines.
• Flowing S-Curves: Practice drawing long, continuous S-shaped curves across your page. This is fantastic for building fluidity and control, which is essential for organic forms and gesture drawing.

This kind of focused, daily effort is what separates the pros from the hobbyists. It's about making every minute count. Building this habit is your fastest path to seeing the results you’ve been hoping for.

Training Your Eyes to See Like an Artist

Here’s a secret that great artists know: drawing is less about what your hands can do and more about what your eyes can see. To make real progress, you have to retrain your brain to see the world differently—not as a collection of familiar objects, but as a fascinating puzzle of shapes, lines, and values.

Our brains are hardwired for shortcuts. It's why your first drawing of a person probably looked more like a smiley face than an actual human. The goal is to sidestep those mental symbols and learn to trust your eyes. This shift from assumption to observation is the key to figuring out how to get better at drawing.

The Strangest Exercise That Actually Works: Blind Contour

One of the most powerful ways to build this eye-to-hand connection is through blind contour drawing. It feels strange at first, but stick with it. The rules are simple: pick a subject and draw its outline without ever looking down at your paper. Don't peek!

The point isn't to create a masterpiece. In fact, your first few attempts will likely be a chaotic mess of wobbly lines, and that’s fantastic. It means you’re successfully fighting the urge to "check" your work on the page, forcing your hand to follow your eye in real-time. This exercise builds an incredible level of coordination that will benefit every other drawing you do.

Draw the Space Around Things

Another game-changer is learning to see and draw negative space. Instead of drawing the object itself, you focus on sketching the shapes of the space around it. For example, if you're drawing a chair, you’d draw the shape of the floor visible between the legs or the patch of wall seen through the backrest.

This simple trick forces you to see your subject as a pure, abstract shape. It completely bypasses your brain's pre-packaged idea of what a "chair" is supposed to look like.

Drawing the negative space is an almost magical way to fix proportion issues. When you accurately draw the shapes around an object, the object itself often materializes with surprising accuracy—looking far more realistic than if you had tried to draw it directly.

Focusing on negative space helps with:

• Proportions: It’s often much easier to judge the size and relationship between simple, empty shapes.
• Composition: You become more aware of how your subject fits into its environment.
• Accuracy: It breaks your reliance on symbols and pushes you toward pure observational drawing.

Build It Before You Draw It

Finally, stop trying to draw a complex object all at once. Instead, learn to construct it. Break it down into its most basic forms—the cubes, cylinders, and spheres that form its underlying structure. Look for the major angles and lines of action that give the subject its form and energy.

These quick warm-ups are a perfect addition to any drawing routine. If you're looking for more, check out our guide to essential drawing warm-up exercises.

This construction-first approach gives your drawing a solid, accurate framework to build upon. You start with a light "scaffolding" of shapes and angles, ensuring the foundation is right before you even think about adding details. It's the best way to avoid that frustrating moment when you realize, hours into a drawing, that a fundamental proportion is completely off.

Using Drawing to Deepen Your Understanding

Many people see drawing as just a creative pastime, but it’s actually one of the most powerful learning tools you have at your disposal. When you physically sketch a concept, you’re forcing your brain to process it in a much more meaningful way. This act of drawing cements the information in your mind, boosting both understanding and memory.

Think about it. When you draw something, whether it’s the intricate anatomy of a hand or the gear system of a clock, you can't just glance at it. You have to really look. You're actively deconstructing what you see and translating it from a real-world object into a series of lines, shapes, and forms on paper.

This translation process is a serious cognitive workout. It builds stronger connections in your brain, making the information stick far better than if you had just read about it in a textbook. So, drawing isn't just an output of what you know; it's a powerful input that fundamentally changes how you learn.

Put This Technique into Practice

So, how can you use this to get better at drawing, faster? It’s all about active engagement. Next time you’re flipping through an art history book, don't just read. Grab your sketchbook and create quick visual notes. Doodle the key compositional shapes or architectural details you find interesting. You’ll be surprised how much more you remember.

Here’s a classic example for anyone tackling anatomy:

• First, study a diagram of the human skeleton. Really absorb it.
• Then, put the reference image away.
• Try to draw the bone structure of the arm entirely from memory.
• Finally, pull the reference back out and compare your sketch to the original. Where did you go wrong? What did you forget?

This simple "draw, check, repeat" method instantly shines a light on the gaps in your knowledge. It forces you to think critically about structure, proportion, and form, improving both your anatomical accuracy and your ability to visualize complex subjects.

The link between drawing and memory isn't just anecdotal—it’s backed by solid science. The act of drawing creates richer, more complex mental models that are far easier to recall later.

This idea is well-supported. A 2019 study, for instance, found that students who drew the concepts they were learning nearly doubled their recall compared to those who only wrote down notes. What’s really fascinating is that this memory boost happened regardless of their artistic talent. It proves that drawing is a universally effective learning strategy for everyone.

If you’re curious, you can learn more about the science behind drawing and memory and see just how powerful this technique can be for your own artistic journey.

Smashing Through Drawing Plateaus with Smart Feedback

Every single artist, from the absolute beginner to the seasoned pro, hits a wall. It’s that incredibly frustrating moment when you’re putting in the hours, grinding away, but your skills just don't seem to be getting any better. This, my friend, is a drawing plateau. It's a totally normal part of the journey, and the trick isn't to avoid it, but to know exactly how to smash right through it when it happens.

The first step is simply recognizing you're on one. Do you feel uninspired? Bored with your usual subjects? Maybe you’ve noticed your newest drawings look uncannily like the ones you did six months ago. That’s your brain telling you it’s time to shake things up, not just practice the same things even harder.

Shake Up Your Routine

When you feel stuck, the absolute best thing you can do is jolt your brain out of its comfortable, well-worn grooves. Repetition is great for building foundational skills, but too much of the same old thing leads straight to stagnation. It’s time for a little creative detour.

Try dedicating an entire week to whatever you hate drawing the most. If you always avoid drawing hands, guess what? You’re on hand-duty for the next seven days. Sketch them from every angle. If perspective makes your head spin, spend a few days drawing nothing but cityscapes and building interiors. Confronting your weaknesses head-on is the single fastest way to turn them into strengths.

Another fantastic method is to completely switch up your tools. If you’re a graphite purist, go grab a cheap set of charcoal sticks or a few ink brush pens. A new medium forces your brain to solve problems in a completely different way, breaking old habits and often leading to those wonderful "happy accidents" that can kickstart your progress.

How to Ask for and Use Constructive Criticism

Drawing can feel like a pretty solitary pursuit, but real, tangible improvement often comes from an outside perspective. Learning how to seek out, filter, and actually apply feedback is one of the most important skills you can develop. It’s all about getting an honest look from another artist's eye—someone who can spot the things you’ve become blind to in your own work.

But let’s be clear: not all feedback is helpful. Simply asking, "So, what do you think?" is far too vague and usually gets you an equally vague answer. To get advice you can actually use, you need to be specific.

• "Does the perspective on this building feel correct to you?"
• "I’m really struggling to get the texture right on this fabric. Any suggestions on how I could make it look more realistic?"
• "I feel like the composition is a bit unbalanced. Where does your eye naturally go first when you look at this?"

Pro Tip: When you get criticism, your only job in that moment is to listen. Don't get defensive. Your goal is to separate the valuable, actionable advice from the unhelpful noise. If someone points out a flaw in your anatomy, that’s useful. If they just say, "I don't like it," that’s just an opinion, and you can let it go.

Becoming Your Own Best Critic

While getting feedback from others is a game-changer, the ultimate goal is to sharpen your own critical eye. This means learning to step back and analyze your work with a bit of objectivity. Once you finish a piece, put it away. Hide it for a day or two. When you come back to it with fresh eyes, you’ll be genuinely amazed at the mistakes and opportunities for improvement you suddenly see.

Online communities can be a goldmine for this kind of feedback. Places like Reddit (check out subreddits like r/learnart) or dedicated art forums are full of artists at all levels sharing work and offering critiques. But sometimes, what you really need is to go back to basics. Brushing up on some foundational drawing techniques for beginners can give you a solid framework for critiquing your own art. When you understand the core principles, you can more easily diagnose where a piece is falling short and see a clear path to making it better.

Got Questions? Let's Clear a Few Things Up

Even with the best plan, you're going to hit roadblocks and have questions. It's just part of the process. Let’s tackle some of the most common things that trip up aspiring artists so you can get back to your sketchbook with confidence.

How Long Does It Take to Get Good at Drawing?

Ah, the million-dollar question. The honest answer? It's different for everyone. Your progress comes down to two things: the quality and consistency of your practice.

Think of it this way: someone practicing with real focus for 30 minutes a day will outpace someone who just doodles without a goal for two hours once a week. It’s not about the clock; it’s about the effort.

Forget the timeline. Focus on building a habit you can actually stick with. If you commit to practicing with intention, you'll genuinely see a difference in a few weeks. Aim for steady progress, not some mythical overnight transformation.

Do I Need to Buy Expensive Art Supplies?

Nope. Absolutely not. While fancy materials are nice, they don't create skill. In fact, you can make incredible progress with the most basic tools imaginable. All you really need to start is a simple pencil and a stack of cheap printer paper.

Don't let yourself believe that a new set of pens or a pricey sketchbook is the secret to better art. It's a common trap. Your skill is built in the mileage, not in the store. Master the fundamentals with whatever you've got.

Concentrate on learning line control, understanding basic shapes, and seeing light and shadow. Those are the skills that matter, and they'll carry over to any medium you ever want to try, from digital painting to oils.

Is Natural Talent Required to Be a Good Artist?

This is probably the biggest myth in art. The idea of "talent" is wildly overrated. Drawing is a learned skill, just like learning to cook or play the guitar. Anyone who is willing to put in the time can become a fantastic artist.

Real progress in drawing comes from deliberately training your hand, eye, and brain to sync up. It’s a direct result of:

• Consistent Practice: You're literally building muscle memory and fine motor control.
• Active Observation: You have to train yourself to stop naming things ("that's an eye") and start seeing them as shapes, lines, and values.
• Problem-Solving: Every drawing is a puzzle. How do you take a 3D object and convincingly put it on a 2D surface? You figure it out piece by piece.

At the end of the day, passion and persistence will beat "talent" every single time. If you want it badly enough and are willing to do the work, you have everything you need to get there.

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