Drawing is a very free and limitless activity for anyone to do. I’ve always loved drawing, and I’m always trying to learn new things that’ll help me improve. Now, I want to share some of the things I’ve learned, and maybe help someone else learn and improve too.

Something that has really helped me grow and improve is practice. Practicing, in my opinion, is one of the most important things you can do to get better at anything. Sure, you can learn a lot of new techniques, but if they are not practiced, then they won’t show substantial growth.  The article “Here’s What Practicing Does to Your Brain (and How to Do It Right)” By Wanda Thibodeaux talks about how practicing really does help you improve. The article states “Practicing makes you better because it physically changes you, making it easier for data to move. So doing something as simple as drawing 15 minutes a day will  over time, will show growth.

Another thing that I would recommend doing is looking at references. Some people think that looking at a reference for an art piece is “cheating.” In actuality, it’ not. Referencing often gets mixed up with copying and tracing when they’re not the same thing. Referencing is looking at the object and applying things from the picture, to your drawing. Copying and tracing is just going over something that is already drawn. You don’t learn anything from it because you are not trying to attempt it on your own. The article, “Is Drawing Cheating? Or will it actually help you improve?” from “Let’s learn Drawing” by Valentin states, “When you are using reference the right way and if you are not just copying, what you are seeing or tracing from your reference, then using reference images will actually help you improve your drawings drastically.” I use referencing all the time. I use it when I want to draw a certain animal, hairstyle, body pose, etc. It helps me draw the thing I want to draw correctly.

Those were some things that have really helped me improve my drawings. I hope you learned some things and apply them when wanting to create drawings of your own.