Think You Can’t Draw? Think Again!

I have lost count of the number of times someone has said to me they would love to keep a sketchbook or they would love to be more creative but they can’t draw to save their life!

I’ve also heard many people express their concern about being able to create patterns because they can’t draw or are not “that good at drawing”, and so they rather not even try…

One thing my uncle has always told me is that everyone can draw (he’s an incredibly talented botanical artist). The only thing you need is practice.

This is the hard truth unfortunately, you need to practice. As with anything else in life, if you don’t put in the hard work you won’t be able to reap the rewards. So try to practice a little bit every day. Find little time niches here and there (in the morning before going to work, on the train, during your lunch break or even during those boring meetings… you can always say that doodling improves concentration if anyone asks!).

Image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay

One fun exercise you can try to get you started is Continuous Line Drawing. For this exercise you cannot lift your pen or pencil off the page while drawing, hence the “continuous line”.

This will force you to really look at your subject and the lines it is made of. Besides, you won’t expect the drawing to be perfect so that will take the pressure off!

Another version of this exercise is the Blind Contour Line Drawing which has many benefits. To start with it improves hand-eye coordination; second, it again forces you to really look at the object you are drawing and of course it will help you understand that drawing is all about observation (drawing is at least 50% observation). 

The rules for Blind Contour Line Drawing are:

1) you cannot lift the pencil or pen off the sketchbook once you start drawing

2) you may not look at the paper

So you should try and move your pencil or pen at the same speed as your eyes move over the contours of the object you are drawing. The best part is, you can do this exercise virtually anywhere!

So try these exercises and, most importantly, draw every day and you’ll see great improvements over time.

So do you think you can’t draw? Have you stopped yourself from even trying for fear of not being able to produce a nice drawing? 

Let me know your thoughts and experience in the comments below.

Till next time

Create and be happy

xox