7 Powerful Drawing For Beginners to Advanced Artists Tips

Learn how to draw like the great masters. Drawing for beginners to advanced artists tutorial to help improve your skills, regardless of your age.

Your Art Skills Like The Great Renaissance Artists

Draw like Michelangelo. Could you even begin to imagine such a vast accomplishment? Drawing at the same level as one of history’s all-time greats. 

I know this sounds far-fetched, but bear with me. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael were like you once, starting from scratch. Zero skills. Not knowing anything about picture making, drawing, and the magic of illustrating. 

Now, to be fair, the renaissance fathers worked tirelessly to achieve such timeless masterpieces. It wouldn’t be honest (and truthful) to give you false hope here. 

This lengthy article will not do you wonders simply by reading it. However, I believe you will be on your way to a great path by taking the shared notes here and combining them with daily commitment and consistency (even if it’s just 15 – 20 minutes a day). 

Of course, this doesn’t mean you will have timeless pieces by tomorrow. But it means you are taking the proper small steps. 

And over time, with momentum and experience building up, you can decide for yourself how badly you want to achieve your illustrator goals. 

7 Drawing For Beginners Full Video Presentation

The Cost of Achieving Your Artistic Dreams

Dream big. Expect to pay big. I wish to shock you for a moment back to the reality of what it means to achieve big goals and dreams. 

It will require two essential elements that most folks—unfortunately—will never pay the price. 

I am not talking about your money but the level of commitment and consistency you bring to the table. 

Take Michelangelo, for instance. He was known to sleep about 1.5 hours in a 24-hour period. I can’t even begin to imagine the massive anxiety, depression, and loneliness he experienced. All the while he was working without ceasing. 

“If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem so wonderful at all.” –Michelangelo Buonarroti

I believe you can reach that level in any walk of life—provided you are willing to sacrifice so much of your precious, short life. 

“But that’s too much for me,” you might think. “That’s an insane way to live.” And that’s okay. Your dream might be much smaller and more digestible and not so immense.

I simply wanted to expand your mind to the possibilities if that’s how far you wish to reach. 

Drawing for Beginners Flexible Goals

Having flexible goals is normal and healthy. Perfect for beginners and a great habit for advanced artists. The size of your goal can change over time as you begin to experiment with your drawings.

Now, pay attention to what I am about to say.

In order for you to advance your drawing skills, you cannot be flimsy and flexible about staying committed and consistent—drawing one day, taking a few off. I can’t stress this enough.

This is important to learn.

Exercising your commitment and consistent habits are far more important than learning anything here. I promise that if you work on building these foundational habits, it will not only help you learn how to draw many folds better, but you can also achieve so much more in all walks of life.

Now that I have warmed you up, let’s dive into what was promised—the 7 powerful drawing for beginners to advanced tips.

Enjoy.

Learn To Draw by Sketching Every Day—Duh!

Dream trap. Not much different from a mouse trap is the perfection trap. Instead of the mouse suffocating to death, you will stifle your dreams by chasing perfection.

Take it from me. It’s not a healthy approach to life. Quantity will get you light years farther than someone stuck on making that “perfect” anything.

It’s been proven. If you take a person, ask them to focus on creating the best drawing possible. I am talking about that perfect piece. And on the contrary, someone else asked to produce a set of quantity pieces.

You will find, over time, that more quality pieces come out of the quantity-focused person.

While the quality-focused person is still “figuring their drawing techniques out,” little do they know, they are walking into their dream prison. No pun intended.

Don’t get caught in that giant dream killer (perfection) spider web as Frodo did. Excuse the nerdy Lord of the Rings reference.

You might think, “Well, I wish to push some of my work as close to perfection as possible.” That’s fine, provided you focus on producing quantity first, then selecting from that batch what is worth pushing to a more refined stage.

You will also begin to feel more confident due to the volume of work you produce—regardless of the quality at first. 

This is good news. Loosen up and allow yourself to make plenty of mistakes.

One of my art teachers back in college once said, “Let all the bad drawings come out of you.” Boy, do I still have plenty coming out of my system.

Remembering this will help you stay encouraged, fueled, and optimistic. You begin to shed one lousy drawing at a time and get closer to your ultimate artistic goal. Like a pro, baby!

Begin a Busy Bee

The harsh truth in life we all face. Being busy all the time and overcoming those bad habits that orbit your daily world will be challenging.

You must commit time and attention for anything to germinate in your life. And I mean daily. This isn’t about blocking five hours a day and going haywire.

If you have that time gap freedom, I highly doubt you would dedicate it without first building up mental stamina and momentum. No different than a beginner bodybuilder trying to train for five hours daily.

That’s too much at the beginning of your journey.

Before you panic, let me propose something much more digestible and doable.

The Magical 20 Minutes of Dedication

All you need is 15 – 20 minutes of concentrated training. And make sure it’s something you repeat day in, day out.

Don’t go insane trying to work seven hours one day and mentally burn yourself for the next.  You will have no drive for a 20-minute session in the upcoming days. It’s best you keep the short-duration momentum chugging.

If you do as I suggest, you will notice that your desire to increase the session time to 30 minutes (and beyond) daily will naturally appeal to you.

Word of caution. Before you get excited, understand that sometimes life will happen to you, and that momentum will break.

If that’s the case, I suggest you get back to stage one and start at 15 – 20 minutes again.

Remember, short daily durations of concentrated work will do wonders compared to one extensive weekly session. 

Avoid Smudging Like the Rat Plague

Smudging is annoying. Unless you intentionally wish to smear, then that’s a different story.

Smearing ruins your artwork and leaves your hand covered in graphite and other pencil substances. There is a simple trick to avoid it.

If you are a right-handed artist, always start your drawings from the top left of your paper and work towards the bottom right.

The opposite is true if you are a south-paw, left-handed person. Work from top-right to bottom-left.

Pro Tip: If you must go over sections already covered, say shading; for example, simply place a piece of paper under your drawing hand. This will help avoid ugly smudges.

Keep it clean before you get mean. 

Drawing from Life—Whether Beginner or Jedi Level

The invention of the internet has opened many doors and connected our world, making it a small place. You can access information past generations couldn’t even dream of by pushing a few buttons. More like a button at this point.

And what exactly does this have to do with drawing from life?

Hold on, cowboy (or cowgirl). I’ll get to that part.

Drawing from life is hard—but it’s the best training you can give yourself. Like everything else, there is always an upside and a downside.

You might say, “Why not just use images or pause videos and draw from these readily available resources.” The problem is that your computer, tablet, and phone screen is a flat two-dimensional surface.

The world you see around you functions within three dimensions. So, when drawing from life, you observe the world from a 3D standpoint.

You will learn to see how shapes wrap-around volumes. It’s a more complex task because you don’t have a photo that flattens objects into a 2D surface.

However, your artwork will speak “volumes” in the long run. But I must warn you; there are side effects to stepping into the real world.

You will be bombarded by fresh air, and by-passers will surround you like dragonflies attracted to bug zappers. This approach will force you to get comfortable with your public surrounding and draw in all conditions, regardless of sitting or standing. 

Lessons you will pick up from life drawing and observing your scenery:

1. You will begin to see how light and shadow work
2. Your rendering skills will increase
3. Help break down complex objects such as a flower and a tree canopy into simple shapes
4. Seeing actual scale surrounding us—architects, mountains, skyscrapers, bugs, etc
5. Weather conditions and smells all add to your artistic repertoire. When you create an illustration, say a castle on top of a mountain, your experience from drawing from life in cold conditions will help remind you of that encounter. The cold, wet, bitter frostbite experience will pour into your drawing and painting. Giving it a more believable, grounded look and feel
6. This goes for painting as well. Life observation is the key

You can also set up your homemade still-life setup. Using either natural sunlight or artificial interior light bulbs. If light bulbs are your choice, I would suggest 2700 Kelvin for warm light and 5000 Kelvin for cool light.

Since I have encouraged you to get out there with your sketchbook, let me tell you about another age-old tip. Oh, even the masters practiced this one. Keep reading.

Copy Masterpieces Using Your Sketchbook

Secrets of the old masters. Even Michelangelo practiced this forgotten gem.

If you were fortunate enough to get educated in France or Italy. Maybe you saved money or had parents who could afford your education abroad. Then one of the secrets of these schools could be found here, at home.

You see, masters were created by copying previous masters. Whether they were from past generations or current contemporary artists. Contemporary is a fancy way of mentioning current living artists.

One great example was Michelangelo copying Leonardo Da Vinci’s work—regardless of his hatred for Da Vinci. Michelangelo couldn’t resist but study such a fine master.

Now that some history lesson has been discussed, let me explain how you can benefit from this without spending money.

Of course, the highest quality of art you can observe would be the original piece. But flying to France for a museum visit is impractical so you can copy a Sergeant painting.

I have a much cheaper alternative for you. I am talking about creating your home museum.

Before I continue, I want to mention that if you live near a museum hosting masterpieces you gravitate toward, then stop by and spend a few hours drawing.

This applies to drawing for beginners as well. We all need to start at some point.

Don’t forget to pack some food and perhaps grab a coffee if you’re a coffee lover like me.

Another alternative exists if you don’t have that option or are not interested in leaving your home. One that I put to practice.

Here it goes, drum rolls, please. It’s easy and fun. What you want to do is find high-quality images of artwork online. I recommend masterpieces, but you can still add images from artists’ work you admire.

My first recommendation is a professional printing service. Not Staples or any other business printing places, for that matter.

I am talking about your local college print shop.

The problem with Staples is their focus on darker-duller printing. I suppose it makes sense when you’re printing business material. Just a wild guess. Who knows.

Back to college print shops.

They focus on printing for graphic students and charge less than retail stores. Call your local college(s) and ask about their print shop. Ask if they have public access to their printing services. 

The quality of their paper is phenomenal, and they print on demand, which means direct printing instead of waiting at least 24 hours or more.

You can also print from home if you can access an excellent printer. Still not as great as the above option, but better than nothing if you’re on a super-tight budget.

After you have printed your stalk of gold nuggets, cut out the white edges of each image, then tape it to your wall.

You can always set all the images on the ground and organize them before taping. That way, you can see what it will look like once on your wall.

I mentioned this because you might have a list of images, and you can’t exactly see what they will look like posted next to one another. Maybe even run out of wall space before you can finish taping all your goodies.

Another recommendation is to tape the images roughly at your height level. I say this because you will spend time standing and staring at the pictures while measuring and copying as you would at a museum.

So if the images are too low or too high, it can place stress on your neck after hours of observation.

My last recommendation here is to stand rather than sit. Let me explain.

I avoided this skill for years, thinking I could get away by always finding comfortable conditions before beginning my drawing sessions.

Think about it. when Leonardo was painting the Last Supper and was searching for references for Jesus’ twelve apostles, including Judas Iscariot sitting with Jesus, do you think Da Vinci simply Googled some terms or looked through a swipe file of photos?

Of course not. He took his hand-made papers and drawing tools and went to local marketplaces—locations buzzing with life.

Da Vinci wasn’t exactly grocery shopping.

He would stand and draw from life. And when I say life, I mean at the moment. Not exactly telling by-passers to “hold that pose, please.”

Da Vinci would observe and try to keep that reference in mind as he quickly recorded the drawing on his precious paper.

I say precious because it wasn’t easy to buy paper for the price of dirt as we do today.

Imagine the confidence you will gain with this skill. Having the ability to draw anywhere, any time. In your face Tony Robbins.

From the edge of a cliff (not recommended) to busy streets looking over beautiful architects, exciting and interesting people, and your very own home museum. 

Speaking of your home museum, let’s talk about what you will do with those awesome (or hideous) sketches you produce.

Become a Member of the Wall

Avoid social media posting. At least, at first. Tape your artwork on your wall instead. Let me explain the difference.

When you focus on posting on social media, it creates an addiction pattern in your brain—that craving for likes and comments pouring in. This opposing driving force restructures your mind to think, “What’s my next post, and how soon can I complete it.” Thus creating an artificial fix in your brain. 

You might argue that posting creates a community-like vibe of ideas bouncing and everyone benefiting as artists. That is true.

However, if you have been grounded for some time and have been actively drawing WITHOUT showing it to anybody, you might be okay with starting your social media postings.

Your focus improves when social media is eliminated.

Drawing for beginners pro tip: Stay away from posting on social media until you get good at regularly drawing for some time, regardless of your work’s quality.

Printer Paper Rocks

I would suggest an alternative, similar to your home museum. I recommend you purchase a set of printer paper. They usually come in 500 sheets, and the quality is quite suitable for sketching.

Nice and inexpensive, but not as cheap as drawing on napkins.

There is no pressure or guilt every time a drawing goes wrong. This is great for drawing for beginners.

I sometimes start a basic drawing, then place a new sheet of printer paper on top, flip the page to help see the image below and draw a more refined picture.

Then continue this process until I feel satisfied.

Most of my drawings end up in the famous bin with zero guilt—no sense of cost considering the low price I paid per printer sheet.

My Current Favorite Pencil

As for pencils, I use PaperMate BREAK-RESISTANT LEAD HB2. This particular one is my favorite of all the expensive and non-expensive graphite pencils I have used.

It has a bit chalky grip when sketching, and it’s not slippery like most pencils. I don’t know about you, but slipper pencils remind me of tablet surfaces and slippery pens–very annoying. 

I encourage you to keep a sketchbook with you and sketch in that as well. My favorite sketchbook is by Stillman & Birn. They make the finest sketchbooks that you can buy in the market.

The only thing that would beat that would be to fly to Italy and find a sketchbook shop where they make you hand-made sketchbooks. This is a dying practice, unfortunately.

The best recommendation is to sketch on printer paper and keep your sketchbook around.

At least, that’s how I do it. This approach might work for you, too.

Then you can take those sketches and tape them around your room.

I understand you might not like your work, but post them anyway. This will create a sense of self-motivation. “Ah, look at all this work I have produced” will run through your mind whenever you feel down and discouraged. 

Avoid posting other artists’ work on your wall unless it’s part of your potential museum studies. This could cause a negative impact. While you are on your lonely-journey-to-artistic-mastery.

Set Up Your Work Environment Correctly

Studio Setup. Think of it for a moment. When you picture your couch and your television, what comes to mind? Relaxing, laziness, kicking back, couch potato, Netflix, and comfort food. Maybe more comes to mind, but you get what I mean.

This is the case because of the conditions we have created with our environment setup.

When you visit your local public library, your immediate thoughts would be quietness, study, and focus oriented.

A place to be productive.

Once again, this is a direct consequence of the environment that has been intentionally or unintentionally set up.

The same applies to your art environment. And I am not talking about spending a fortune setting up a studio with natural Northview lighting, a section dedicated to oil painting, and another to props and manikins.

Although you might wish for such a rich studio in time, we must start at an affordable and reasonable place.

Even if you could afford such a luxurious studio, I think it would be a waste of money, considering you haven’t figured yourself out as an artist.

What you like and don’t like. What appeals to your taste and what you cannot stand?

Here is my personal setup at home.

I want to help you save money, so let’s consider affordability.

Think Ikea, Walmart, and Amazon.

I purchased my lightweight tables at Ikea and the lamps at Canadian Tire (a local superstore in Canada, but I believe Walmart is equivalent in America). 

Affordable Tools List

I have access to a good amount of tools that I have accumulated over time. Nevertheless, I usually revert back to good old pencil and printer paper. 

1. The printer paper is a no-brainer. Anywhere that sells printer paper.
2. The pencils are PaperMate BREAK-RESISTANT LEAD HB2.

You are welcome to use whichever pencil you gravitate toward. But if you want something affordable with a chalk-like grip, perhaps my recommended pencil would suit your taste.

Conclusion To My First Post

I am new to blogging, and this is my first piece of content. But don’t underestimate the concentrated value you are receiving.

My goal is to challenge you and shock your belief system today. Some of these principles are universal—I believe you can apply them in any walk of life and be able to match your success to the degree of effort you wish to apply. 

So much more to say and so little time. I suppose you will have to come back when I publish more content 😉

In all honesty, if you genuinely enjoyed my post, I would appreciate it if you could drop me a comment. 

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