Reject Art Paralysis! Solve the Mystery of Drawing Skill

Early on when I was trying to learn to draw, I had some trouble figuring out what exactly I should practice. People told me about things like perspective, values, maybe a little online course here or there. Yet so often I would look at someone else’s art and wonder how to draw that. Maybe they drew these shapes, and then… something??? And then it’s done! Every time I thought about that mystery in the middle, I’d think about how much there was to learn, and then it was a struggle to actually practice. Because I didn’t actually know what to do! Sound familiar at all?

Hello there! My name’s Mt Kanjon and I want to talk about the process of learning to draw. It always seems like a mystery, but we can work through it! If this excites you, I’ve got a lot more – including a mini-course on digital art skills!

There’s a thing our brains do when learning a new skill or even just completing a task. We set a goal, and figure out how to get there. Sounds “easy”. You discover that you have to do a few things first to work towards that. But then those things need more things done. What do you actually work on first? If you’re of the ADHD type, this discovery of completing task X before Y can have you completely lost in planning, overwhelmed to the point of just not doing it.

People often talk about “just” breaking tasks down, making lists, sure. That works sometimes for some people, but for others it’s a time sink of thoughts, and it’s not like we didn’t know we had to break things down. And what further complicates this in a creative subject like art, especially learning to draw, is that you don’t even know what those other tasks are! Art schools will put together whole programs for this but… that’s a lot to commit to. At the start, you kinda just want to learn to doodle and sketch and see where things go, yeah? So let’s figure out what goes in these mystery boxes and make this whole thing less stressful.

We could put in a bunch of things I’ve talked about on this channel. Mark making, perspective practice, gesture drills, construction, studies of this, and that… but that’s a lot! Suddenly we’re back at a big jumble of things to do to get to that goal. Hmm… so not that.

How about an easier general creative learning process of studying. Looking at something and trying to draw it. If this is new and sounds tough, don’t panic: that’s what we’re breaking down. You know how some people tell you to just draw to practice? Practice is how you get there, but “just” drawing tells you nothing. If you’re going to just draw it, it’s going to come out bad, and yikes, you don’t want that!

Except you do! Some of you who have seen me know that I like to talk about bad art. That’s the first thing we’re putting in here. This is your assignment: draw the thing you want to draw badly. Make it ugly. You’re not going to post this or share it. You’re going to draw it and then see what you did wrong. Confront it as a part of the process, because everyone has to do this to learn. People just don’t often share the bad stuff, so you don’t see it, so it tricks you into thinking it shouldn’t happen. I want to convince you that drawing something badly isn’t demotivating or disappointing, it’s your goal to learn. This is how you do art. You must see and feel what it looks like to get it wrong to get it right. Each time you get it wrong and see how, you’ve learned, and you’ve built experience to start fixing it.

Making it badly still feels like a mystery though – what else can we do? Right before this “bad art” part, we’re going to do some warmups. These can be drawing simple shapes, practicing making smooth lines, perspective, or small studies of things like objects on your desk. Just five minutes. Set a timer. You’re starting with something simple, and it’s not the thing that you want to practice drawing at the end. This might feel like some bad art too, but that’s what warmups are.

Then the main “bad art” study. What’s the thing you want to draw? Get a picture of it and put it next to your sketchbook. We can overcome the fear of this part by forcing ourselves to have limits. The first limit: time. Set another timer, this time even shorter like 1 or 2 minutes. There’s no way you can do the whole drawing in that amount of time, right? Stay with me! The second limit: space. Draw a small square on your page, or divide up with some lines to have a few of these. Something no longer than your thumb, or if you want, grab a stack of sticky notes. Start that timer and go for it. Scribbles, sketchy lines, mash those shapes out there. When the timer’s up, stop.

Hmm. You probably wanted to do more, right? Excellent. That’s what’s after this “bad art” part. Doing it again. Grab another sticky note and try again to see what you can do in the same amount of time. Then again, with more time. Two or three times is often enough to give you a couple moments where you can see a piece you did wrong and try again. It won’t always be better with every sketch, some parts might get worse when you work on the pieces you notice. This repetition, right here, is how you study and learn. This doesn’t suddenly take you from zero to perfect study, but it’s how you get there in short manageable chunks.

Those three things: warming up, studying, and repeating, are only about 10 minutes total! But if you spend time repeating a study and want to keep going, by all means, give yourself more time and more space to draw. You’ve found your motivation, keep at it. If you feel exhausted at the end instead, don’t worry! Early on when learning to draw that’s natural. You’re going to need to try this a few times. Take a break and try again with something else to study. We’re repeating the process of drawing to study and learn art, but at the same time you’re actually learning how to learn by trying this out.

It does take patience, you do need to practice to improve, but taking this one step at a time, day by day, in bite size pieces, helps you get there. If you’re having trouble figuring out what you want to study with, I’ve got a fun video on study lists too. If this video is your first exposure to learning to draw, well hey! Check out my website and channel for more. There’s loads of real things you can practice. If you’re already skilled at art but want to keep pushing yourself, hey, you probably know this process, but here’s your reminder. Have a fun time with it as you chase that passion in your learning and art.