Finding a universal method to teach artists how to draw is a complex task. As artists, we are very different. So, naturally, some artists find some drawing teaching methods amazing, and others find them boring. And when you don’t like the traditional drawing teaching methods, you can’t help but wonder: can you teach yourself to draw?
You can teach yourself to draw as long as you’re consistent, patient, and objective. Anyone can learn to draw on their own by identifying their mistakes and knowing how to correct them. Hundreds of artists are self-taught, which means that you can be a self-taught artist as well.
In this blog post, I want to show that you can teach yourself to draw, show you the secret to doing it, and give you some tips so that you don’t fail in the process!
Can You Teach Yourself To Draw?
As stated above, anyone can learn to draw by themselves, even if you think you have zero talent or ability for drawing. There are many reasons that can contribute to the idea that drawing is only for a few, but the truth is that people are very different from each other, so every one of us has a unique way to learn new things. As artists, we are even more dissimilar from many people; some of us are highly creative and energetic, while others are very analytical and harmonious. But don’t worry, regardless of your personality, you will find more than one way to teach yourself to draw.
And what’s fascinating about the idea of being a self-taught artist is that you won’t be bonded to one singular line of thought but many. You will start to develop your style by the way you choose to learn to draw and the things you like. However, it’s not all wine and roses; being a self-taught artist comes with challenges and difficulties. Moreover, if you don’t do it right, you may never understand how to get better at drawing.
Tip #1: Teaching yourself to draw doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t listen to any advice. In fact, listening to the right people could save you tons of time and help you achieve your artistic goals much faster.
However, as I said above, you can learn to draw on your own. You don’t need a teacher looking over your shoulder telling you what to do and how to fix your mistakes, although I consider that having a drawing teacher is the quickest way to learn to draw if you have the right instructor. But you are here because you want to teach yourself to draw, so I will show the secret to being a great, self-taught artist.
How To Teach Yourself To Draw
When you choose to teach yourself to draw, there are some things we need to have clear. You will be learning from someone, but the difference is that you will be your own teacher. You will be the one who has to correct yourself, keep you accountable, motivate you, and choose what to learn. Hence, you will also decide when to move forward to other things or keep practicing, and for this reason, it is crucial you’re objective and realistic.
So, before you start this journey, I’d like you to allow me to give you some advice. Below, I will share with you some things I do to teach myself to draw, what methods I follow, and some things I think are essential to becoming a sound artist.
- Make a plan of what you want to learn. I consider understanding the fundamentals is essential. If you learn to draw without them (just like I did), you will have difficulty re-learning to draw things correctly in the future. Trust me! If you watch videos of very talented artists talking about what they wished they knew before starting to draw, ALL of them say they should’ve paid more attention to the fundamentals in the beginning.
- Improve your observational skills. I cannot stress this enough, but learning to see is almost everything when it comes to drawing. If you can’t see your mistakes, you won’t be able to learn to draw by yourself. The difference between great artists and average artists is that great artists identify their mistakes and know to correct them on the spot. In contrast, average artists don’t notice these mistakes until they finish their drawing, and some never see them at all. I have a handy blog about drawing upside down that will help you understand how to see when drawing and significantly improve your observational skills.
- Draw from reference. I know many people think drawing from reference is bad or cheating, but it is not. In fact, drawing from reference is how the great masters learned to draw and how many amazing artists learn to draw nowadays. On top of that, I think drawing from reference is the best way to measure if you’re improving or not. When you draw through the strokes of someone else’s drawing, you learn from the techniques the author used, and you can compare your drawing to your reference to see what it is that you’re missing.
- Be your own teacher. No one can tell you what’s wrong with your drawing, so you will have to figure it out by yourself. Question the accuracy, angles, and proportions of your drawing. Look carefully and listen and find the things you can improve. In most cases, if you have a reference image, you will find the mistakes you need to fix. However, there will be cases in which you won’t know what to fix or how to proceed, and you will have to use some joker cards in these cases: a ruler or transfer paper. Make sure to rely on these options only when you’re stuck and don’t know how to proceed; if you overdo it, you won’t get better at drawing as fast as you could.
If you follow these, you will be fine for the most part. However, you’re still missing the secret that makes most artists succeed in achieving proficiency.
The Secret To Being A Great, Self-Taught Artist
Have you ever wondered why so many want to learn to draw but only a few learn to do it? Or why every new year’s eve, most people can’t accomplish the goals they set for themselves? The answer is simple: most people can’t achieve their goals because changing is complex, and they exaggerate their expectations. Nonetheless, the secret to solving this is within you. To find this energy, you need to adopt the mindset of the self-taught artists.
The secret isn’t a magical thing that will make you learn to draw in a week. Instead, it is a somewhat cliché but a true idea: be patient, consistent, accept frustration, and don’t stop drawing, even when you don’t feel like it. If you genuinely want to learn to draw, you need to have the right mindset. You need to be stronger than most, a doer. But trust me, everyone is that strong, including you; adopt the self-taught artist mindset and unleash your true potential.
Tip #2: If you’re starting to think that drawing is too hard and that you cannot do it, you are probably expecting too many results too quickly. Accept that drawing is a very long journey, and it will take you some time to master it. You can do it, but you need to keep doing it!
I know I was very dramatic about the right mindset, but I’m genuinely aiming to touch a nerve there and inspire you to start to learn to draw!
How To Start Learning To Teach Yourself To Draw?
The most important thing to see progress in anything is to start. Obvious but true. Take action today! Find a pencil, a sheet of paper and start drawing anything that comes to your mind; save that drawing and keep it as a memoir of the decision you took. Today is your first day, so you can choose to learn to draw anything: faces, anime, perspective, eyes, hands, animals, comics, etc. Or you can also start creating your drawing plan!
However, if you can’t seem to find an idea of what to do right now, here are some posts you can visit to take the first step.
- Learn about line quality. In this blog, I walk you through how a line can create depth, weight, and value.
- Learn about crosshatching. Crosshatching is a fantastic way to shade, and it helps a lot with your line control.
- Learn to draw straight lines. I put together ten different ways to learn to draw straight lines and some engaging exercises you can try.
- Learn to draw elf ears. A bit random, but that’s precisely why you would try it. In this blog, I teach how to draw twelve different elf ears, step by step!
I have many other blogs here on Enhance Drawing you can read if you want to continue learning. I hope this blog helped you in any way.
Happy drawing!
