Exercises to Improve your Drawing Skills

Below you will a handful of videos that talk about effective exercises to improve your drawing skills quickly. I know that drawing exercises can sometimes be dull and you want to get to the next level, but without daily practice, you will never reach the next level. So take your practice seriously and learn the ropes.

The Best Exercise to Improve Your Drawing Skills

Leonardo Pereznieto on Fine Art-Tips, the artist focuses on a common issue in drawing: stiffness and lack of fluidity in lines. He emphasizes the importance of practicing long, continuous lines for more professional-looking drawings. Pereznieto suggests using the whole arm, not just the wrist and fingers, to create these lines. He demonstrates this technique by sketching various objects, including ellipses, holes, and shadows, all with continuous movements.

The tutorial contains shading exercises with short but decisive lines and creating cast shadows with parallel lines. Pereznieto also sketches a variety of shapes, such as a dome, a glass, planes, a shoe, and a futuristic vehicle, to practice smooth line drawing. He advises holding the pencil lightly and moving the whole arm for fluid lines, recommending daily practice of these exercises as a warm-up to improve drawing skills significantly.

Visit the artist’s youtube channel here.

How to Practice – Improve your Art Skills, the Smart Way!

In “How to Practice – Improve your Art Skills, the Smart Way!” by Jazza, the artist outlines three essential practice methods for enhancing art skills: innate, inspired, and developmental. Innate practice involves consistent, regular work, focusing on project creation. Passion and bursts of creativity drive inspired practice, though it can be fleeting. Developmental practice is intentional skill-building, often more structured and less enjoyable, but highly effective. Jazza emphasizes the importance of combining these methods for balanced artistic growth, suggesting inspiring and challenging projects to maintain enthusiasm while achieving measurable progress.

Visit the artist’s youtube channel here.

Best Drawing Exercises – Asking Pros

In the video “Best Drawing Exercises – Asking Pros” by Proko, professional artists recommend various exercises to improve drawing skills. Essential techniques include simplifying real-world objects into basic geometric shapes to understand form better and practicing quick gesture drawings to capture movement and expressions. Artists emphasize stepping outside their comfort zones, such as figurative artists trying landscapes to broaden their skills.

Drawing straight lines and shapes from imagination enhances dexterity and spatial understanding, like a musician mastering an instrument. Life drawing is highlighted for its importance in translating three-dimensional objects onto a two-dimensional plane. Traditional drawing with pencil and paper is advised for all artists, including those who work digitally, to develop natural flow and gesture in their art. These exercises enhance observation, imagination, and technical skills, which are crucial for artistic growth.

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Getting GREAT At Sketching – Try This One Thing

In “Getting GREAT At Sketching – Try This One Thing” by Walid Feghali, the artist emphasizes the importance of regular sketching to improve drawing skills. He suggests a two-week challenge where, for at least 30 minutes each day, one should sketch simple, enjoyable subjects. In the first week, he recommends drawing trees, plants, rocks, clouds, and mountains, using an eraser for effects without worrying about the outcome. The second week should focus on crystals, animal skulls, and sea creatures like sharks and jellyfish, using nature as a reference. Feghali demonstrates sketching techniques, drawing rocks and roots with varied line weights and textures. He stresses the importance of having fun and making mistakes as part of learning. This approach, he assures, will lead to noticeable improvement and confidence in drawing.

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Iterative Drawing – The Fastest Way to Improve

Iterative drawing is a method that involves repeatedly drawing the same subject or concept with slight variations each time. This process helps quickly identify and correct mistakes, leading to rapid improvement in drawing skills. It’s particularly beneficial for analytical people who prefer a structured approach to learning, as it combines both creative intuition and analytical thinking. This method is about gaining ‘mileage’ or extensive practice through repetition, essential to mastering any skill, especially in art.

Visit the artist’s youtube channel here.

I hope you enjoyed these exercises to improve your drawing skills. Find more drawing lessons and tips from our site here.