12 Drawing Exercises
to Kickstart Your Creativity
(and Sharpen Your Skills!)
Hey There!
Are you ready to get creative and improve
your skills? Below, you'll find 12 exercises to
help you level up your drawing skills in the
four main areas: sketching, shading, color, and
texture -all while getting your creative juices
flowing.
Because who says you can't learn and have
fun too! Learning doesn’t have to be about
shading a million boring spheres, aha!
Enjoy,
Kirsty
Drawing Exercises
for Sketching
Ready to loosen up and practice your sketching skills? Here are a few
exercises to help build a consistent sketching habit.
1 Continuous Line Sketches/ Pen Sketching
Swap your pencil for a pen and embrace that every line is
final. It’s a brilliant way to boost your confidence and make
you more decisive with your lines. Plus, switching back to a
pencil afterward might feel like a breeze.
Also, try out continuous line sketches. Pick an object, any
object, and draw it without once lifting your pen. This isn’t
about nailing proportions but quickly observing the shapes
of what’s in front of you. It’s a solid way to level up your
observation game and feel more confident, especially if
you make it a timed thing.
Quick Gesture Sketching 2
Head out and quickly sketch people moving
around. This one’s all about speed and
capturing the essence of movement without
getting caught up in the details. It’s great for
your observational skills and getting down the
basics fast.
3
Perspective Practice
Sketch something in perspective like a corner of
your room or an outside scene, focusing on
getting the perspective right without sweating
the small stuff. No rulers needed, just your eyes
and your hand. Adding a color wash can add an
extra layer of fun to it.
Drawing Exercises
for Shading
Below are a few exercises that will help you work on creating more depth with your
shading and avoid ending up with flat drawings that don’t ‘POP.’
4
Value Practice
Sketch a gradient rectangle that goes from light to dark.
It’s a straightforward drill to get better at understanding
your medium's range and adding depth to your art. If
you’re feeling adventurous, try drawing something using
only shades of value—no lines allowed.
5
Let’s Tackle Lighting
Experiment with lighting by shining a light on an
object from different angles and distances. Sketch
and shade the object under various lighting
conditions to practice capturing its form and the
shadows it casts, enhancing your ability to depict
light and shadow.
6
Toned Paper Studies
Using toned paper, create studies with a white and a
black pencil. This method is great for learning about
shading and depth. The toned paper serves as a mid-
tone, allowing for quicker, more impactful studies that
teach you a lot about managing values.
Drawing Exercises
for Colour
Below are some fun exercises that can help you practice working with colour. They
are really useful if you want to sharpen up your colour theory skills. If you want a
deep-dive tutorial on the basics of colour theory check out the video below:
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE COLOUR THEORY TUTORIAL
7
Colour Match Challenge
Choose a couple of colours from something you like or
something nearby and try to match them as closely as
possible with your art supplies. This exercise is a fun way
to refine your colour-mixing skills and deepen your
understanding of colour theory.
8
Limited Colour Challenge- Just 5 Pencils!
Challenge yourself by using only the three primary colours
plus black and white for your art. This approach, focusing on
just five pencils, simplifies the drawing process, teaches
valuable lessons in colour theory, and improves your
layering techniques without the overwhelm of choosing
from countless colours.
Colour Combos Challenge
9 Start by filling a sheet of paper with drawings of different
faces. Then, it's time to add some colour. You can pick one
colour, like blue, and use lighter and darker shades of it to
colour in one of the faces. This is called a
"monochromatic" colour scheme. Or, you can try using
colours that are opposites on the colour wheel (like red
and green) to colour in another face. These are called
"complementary" colours, and they can make your
drawing pop! This is a fun way to learn about colours and
see how they work together.
Drawing Exercises
for Detail / Texture
When drawing, it's crucial to capture various details and textures effectively. Here
are some drawing exercises to experiment with shading techniques, mark-making,
and different tools for creating intricate details.
10
9 Texture Tiles challenge
Draw a grid of 3x3 squares so that you have 9 squares
in total. Want a bigger challenge? Make the grid even
more squares. Next, hunt around your house for things
with cool textures and draw them in little squares,
experimenting with different marks to capture what
you see. When drawing detail, you don’t have to copy
every detail exactly, just aim to SIMULATE the texture.
Reverse Texture Challenge 11
Put your pencils away! Let's play with using
erasers to create textures. Using different types of
erasers (rubber, kneaded, electric, stick, etc.),
create textures by removing the pencil shading.
Practice using different pressures on the erasers to
get subtle and bright details. This exercise teaches
you how to create highlights and textures in
reverse, working from dark to light- which is one of
my fav ways to create realistic details.
Shading Technique Texture Mash-Up
12
Collect a variety of textured objects and
arrange them into a composition. Then,
sketch this arrangement, using a different
drawing technique (like hatching, stippling,
scribbling, or cross-hatching) for each object
to best represent its texture. This exercise
challenges you to accurately depict various
textures, improving observation skills and
expanding your shading techniques.
