One of the basic premises of this site, is the fact, that I consider drawing to be a skill. A skill that is learned, and not some magical innate talent, that you either have or don’t… This is great news, because it means that anybody can learn to draw! (Yes, that goes for you and me too!) It does however take some work. Work in the form of practice. This is where your daily drawing exercises come into play. And it just so happens that I am in the process of making such a collection. And… You just happen to be looking at it!

New Exercises Will be Added Regularly

This collection is a continuous process, and I’ll be updating it as often as I can, so make sure to check back from time to time. I am not gonna rush it, though, because I absolutely wanna make sure, that the content I provide is the best possible quality I can muster! This means researching, trying and working with the exercises, before actually getting them ready for presentation in the form of writing, photos, and/or video, and finally posting them. All of this takes time, so a little patience is appreciated… 😉

Now Without Further Ado, On to The Exercises:

(These are links that will take you to the pages containing the actual exercises)

1) Straight Lines

2) Curvy Lines

3) Circles and Much More

4) Drawing Boxes

5) Drawing from the shoulder

A Few Words on Practicing

First of all: let’s get one thing straight! Practice is NOT dull! Practice can be fun! This is an important point that I wanna stress right away! There is absolutely no reason why practicing your drawing skills should be tedious, boring work. Practice done right, can very well be fun and engaging!

The exercises in this post, are exercises I use myself on a daily basis, and I personally find them very enjoyable. To keep things fresh, though, I don’t necessarily do all of them every day. I’ll switch between them, and I’ll sometimes take out smaller elements and work on them individually, depending on my mood, and the situation that I am in. This alleviates a lot of the feeling of duty and “pressure” from structured practice, and adds a lightness to it, which can be very enjoyable. Of course, I combine this with more structured practice sessions to make sure I am working on all the aspects I find necessary for my development. I just want to make sure that my drawing keeps being a source of fun and enjoyment! I certainly have enough duties in my life… 😉

Now, having said that. I do find it important to notice, that the experience of developing my drawing IS a source of enjoyment to me, and I wanna make sure that I improve continuously. So I am mindful about being consistent with my practice. I just find it useful to spend a little energy thinking about how I go about it, to combine joy and relaxation with progress. It’s a balance, like most anything in life.

Get the Most Out of Your Practice Time

There are actual several ways to beef up your practice, by thinking about HOW you practice. For some more inspiration on this, I suggest you go take a look at my post “How to Improve Your Drawing Skills” which has a lot of great information on several techniques, that can help you to maximize the efficiency of your practice. These will help you progress faster, which will definitely also add to the fun of Your Drawing Journey.

One general point that I just wanna throw in here, is that a little bit every day goes a long way! In general, it’s a lot better to practice your drawing for shorter periods regularly (preferably every day), than to do marathon bursts once a week. This actually goes for any motor skill that you want to learn. Whether it’s learning an instrument, balancing on a rail or cutting vegetables really well…! Any motor skill that takes a degree of coordination, will develop better and more efficiently with regular (smaller) amounts of practice than with long stretches done once in a while.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you should NOT do longer sessions! Obviously it is great and highly beneficial to draw for long stretches of time, where you really get into the flow of it, perhaps putting on some music, and just getting lost in drawing.

It just means that you should not disregard the importance of a couple of minutes doodling, or drawing circles here and there, or just whipping some quick lines across the morning paper, or while you’re standing around waiting for the copier to finish, or whatever… These tiny stimulations of your drawing hand, done regularly adds up, and actually amounts to quite a bit. Besides, it also helps to build a habit of drawing.

So doodle along all you want, comfortable in the knowledge that it all helps!