When you're learning to draw or paint, there often comes a time when you plateau and feel you're not making more progress. Sometimes this requires switching things up to break your drawing habits. Forcing yourself to change perspective or change the way you make marks on the page can be a great way to make another leap forward in your art practice.
With that in mind, I've picked out nine art exercises that you might find useful to break drawing habits you've developed so far (and break visual habits too). From from upside down drawing (the reference image not you!) to drawing with a single line and drawing with negative space, these should help you to start having fun again with your drawing, and hopefully take it forward.
If you need new tools to practise with, see our pick of the best drawing tablets or the best pencils for artists.
01. Draw upside down
I'll start with a classic, and don't worry, you don't need to do a handstand: it's your subject that will be upside down. Find a photo or illustration that you like as a reference image (a drawing in a style that you're able to replicate is a good option), flip it upside down, and draw what you see.
The idea behind this long-serving art school exercise is to force you to really observe your reference and notice the details rather than relying on memory and your existing notion of what the subject should look like. It's really effective because you're no longer trying to draw things you already have a name for (like a ‘nose’ or ‘eye’) and instead focus on nameless abstract shapes. You should find it becomes easier to identify which shapes or tones in your drawing don’t correspond to the reference picture.
In the great example video above, the artist and teacher Matt Fussell describes this is the drawing exercise that changed his life, and I don't think that's an exaggeration. By turning your reference image upside-down, you can make no assumptions and take no shortcuts!
02. Draw on black paper
Most people learning to draw or paint work by laying various weights of dark markings on a white support, but if you're looking to break your drawing habits and change how you think about values, working the other way around can be illuminating – literally.
By drawing with white pens, pencils, chalk or charcoal on black paper, you have to draw the highlights rather than the shadows. This forces you to think about how to express them. It can improve how you understand values (the lightness or darkness of a colour) in general, allowing you to add dimension to your work. The artist Mark Campbell offers some tips in the video above.
03. One-line drawing
Another great exercise to change how your draw is to try keeping your pen or pencil on the page. Make your first mark anywhere on the page, and don't stop – complete the entire drawing in a single continuous line.
One line drawing can be a challenge, but it's a fund one with numerous benefits. This drawing exercise trains hand eye coordination as well as observation, encouraging you to keep your eye on your subject. And it forces you to simplify and consider economy of line, exploring how simple outlines can tell the story. This can really change your drawing habits if you tend to get a little carried away with your line work and shading.
In the video above, TobySketchLoose argues that photorealism can be overvalued and suggests that this exercise can help beginner artists to escape from seeing that as their goal since the results will necessarily be different from the real subject, requiring the artist to combine observation with artistic licence.
04. Backwards forwards drawing
This art exercise contrasts with the one above, but it's another one that can help break drawing habits and force us to take more time over our drawing. This time, rather than taking our line for a walk, we'll procrastinate, making continual backwards and forwards lines.
In the video above from Sketchbookspace, we see that the result of this is that no part of the drawing is made by a single line. As you make and remake a line, the movement helps you to feel your way around the object, deciding what lines to commit to. Imagine your pencil is moving over your subject, defining its shape, and try using the same backwards and forwards motion for shading.
05. Draw from your shoulder
Many beginner artists naturally find themselves drawing from their wrist. After all, that's how we write. But we tend to write in a relatively small size and move across the page in lines. When it comes to drawing, we have a lot more space to explore and no rules about how we cover it.
Drawing from the shoulder can help maintain a broader perspective of the piece of art you're working on, and it can help you create smoother, more fluid lines for a more relaxed and confident drawing style and also helps you. The technique also encourages better posture and can be better for artists with repetitive strain injuries. BeeJayDeL shows how he does it in the video above.
06. Draw with negative space
A lot of the exercises we've looked at aim to change your drawing habits in terms of how you observe subjects and draw their outlines. But how about using no outline at all? As the artist Kim Diaz Holm points out, people, animals and objects in the real world don't tend to have black outlines around them. By taking advantage of negative space, you leave the viewer to do some of the work, filling in the gaps to bring your image to life.
07. Shoot laser beams
Using cross contour lines are a great way to focus on creating the illusion of 3D in your art, but as the artist Kenzo explains in the video above, beginners often draw them curving the wrong way. That's sometimes because they draw a shallow line only on the visible surface of their subject, forgetting about the hidden side.
Kenzo suggests imagining you can see through your subject and drawing the cross contour lines all the way around helping you to understand the whole form. "That's when you're going to realise how deep the curve should be," he says. He also suggests imagining you have laser eyes in order to force yourself to think about the angle of your eyes to each form. This is a great way to help define form in 3D space.
08. Inside Out – Outside In
If you struggle to decide what order to approach things when you draw a complex scene, Sneaky Art's "Inside Out – Outside In" method may be just what you need to give some order to how you work.
He starts with the main area of focus – whatever he finds most interesting and wants the audience to notice first, then he goes outwards from there. But when it comes to the surrounding elements, he works the other way around (outside in), starting with larger shapes and the general composition before going into details.
09. Scribble
One final bonus suggestion: scribble! Some artists say you have to learn to scribble before you can learn to draw. There are many drawing exercises to try to start with scribbles, so I've put together a separate list of scribble art exercises you can use to practise.
Do you have any other ideas for breaking visual habits and forcing change in your drawing? Share them with the world in the comments section below. For general ideas to work the creative muscles when you have little time available, see our suggestions for quick five-minute creative exercises.
