Drawing exercises to improve: a weekly routine

October 15, 2026

The best drawing exercises to improve are those that train one specific skill at a time: line control, observation, gesture, form construction, value and visual memory. Practising for 20 or 30 minutes a day with a varied routine gives better results than drawing for hours with no goal.

What drawing exercises to improve should look like

A drawing exercise is useful when it has a clear goal, a limited duration and a way to check whether you have done it well. Drawing “whatever comes out” is fun and necessary, but it does not replace deliberate practice.

Apply these three criteria to any exercise:

1. One skill per exercise. If you are practising gesture, do not worry about fine proportions or shading.
2. Fixed time. Use a timer. The limit forces you to make decisions and stops you from endlessly polishing.
3. Repetition with variation. The same exercise for weeks, changing the model or the subject.

Draw in a cheap notebook or on sketch paper: practice needs to be plentiful and free of the fear of “ruining” good paper. We explain how to choose one in best sketchbooks for drawing.

1. Warm-up: lines and ellipses

The warm-up is a 5-minute exercise to loosen your hand and gain control before drawing. It works just as well on paper as on a drawing tablet.

1. Straight lines between two points: mark two points and join them with a quick, confident stroke, without going over it. Fill a whole page in different directions.
2. Parallel lines: fill a rectangle with evenly spaced parallel lines.
3. Ellipses: draw ellipses of different sizes and degrees of opening, tracing each one two or three times “in the air” before touching the paper.
4. Ellipses on an axis: line up several ellipses on a vertical line, as if they were cross-sections of a cylinder.

The key is to move your arm from the shoulder or elbow, not the wrist, especially for long strokes. If you draw digitally, it is a good moment to adjust your pen pressure; we explain how in how to set up a drawing tablet.

2. Blind contour drawing

Blind contour drawing means drawing the edge of an object while looking only at the object, not at the paper. The result will be distorted, and that is expected: the aim is to train the connection between eye and hand and force yourself to observe instead of drawing what you think you see.

How to do it: choose your free hand, a plant or a shoe. Set the timer for 2 or 3 minutes and follow the contour very slowly with your eyes while the pencil follows the same path. Once it feels comfortable, try the modified contour variant: you can look at the paper only to reposition the pencil, but not while you are drawing the line.

This exercise is one of the best known from the method popularised by Betty Edwards:

3. Gesture drawing in 30 seconds and 1 minute

Gesture drawing captures the movement and intention of a figure with very few lines in very little time. It is not about anatomy or detail, but about the line of action: where the body leans, twists or stretches.

1. Find photos of people in motion (sport, dance) or use a pose website with a timer.
2. Do 10 poses of 30 seconds: just the line of action and the orientation of the head, ribcage and pelvis.
3. Continue with 5 poses of 1 minute: add limbs as simple lines or cylinders.
4. Finish with 2 poses of 5 minutes to consolidate.

Use a material that does not let you correct, such as a marker or a brush pen with ink: it forces you to commit to the stroke. A brush pen with an ink cartridge is ideal for expressive gesture:

If you want to go deeper into the figure, the next step is anatomy books for artists; there is a selection in books for learning to draw.

4. Basic forms and perspective

Almost everything you draw can be broken down into cubes, cylinders, spheres and cones. Mastering these forms in perspective is what gives your drawings volume instead of looking flat.

Box exercise

Draw 20 boxes in two-point perspective, floating in different positions and angles. Then draw the hidden edges with finer lines, as if the box were transparent. If a box “does not close”, its lines are not converging properly towards the vanishing points.

Constructed objects exercise

Choose everyday objects (a mug, a phone, a bottle, a chair) and draw them starting from the basic form that contains them. Only add the details once the form is right.

5. Values in 3 to 5 tones

Value is how light or dark each area is, and reducing it to a few tones is the most effective exercise for giving an image volume and clarity. Thinking in 3 to 5 tones forces you to simplify, which is exactly what good illustrators do.

1. Prepare a 5-square scale: paper white, light grey, mid grey, dark grey and black.
2. Place a simple object next to a lamp to get clear side lighting.
3. Draw the object and fill each area with just one of the five tones, with no gradients.
4. Repeat with only 3 tones: you will see that the image still works, and often reads better.

To control the scale well you need several pencil grades; we explain which ones in graphite pencil grades. The same principle is the basis of colour theory for illustrators.

6. Life drawing and master copies

Drawing from life

Drawing from life means drawing what is in front of you, with no photo in between. It forces you to translate three dimensions into two and to deal with changing light. Carry a small sketchbook and draw in cafés, on public transport or at home: people, objects, corners. Ten minutes per sketch is enough.

Master copies

Copying the masters means reproducing a drawing or painting by an artist you admire in order to understand their decisions. It is not about tracing, but about asking yourself why they put the line there, how they handled that shadow or what they simplified. Choose public domain works or works from drawing books, and note what you discover in the margin. It is the same idea Austin Kleon champions: learning by stealing ideas and processes, not results.

Weekly routine of drawing exercises to improve

A weekly routine combines the exercises above so that you work on every skill without getting bored. This plan takes 20 to 40 minutes a day and can be adapted to your schedule:

Every four weeks, redo a drawing you made on the first day with the same model and compare them. It is the most honest way to measure your progress.

Tips to make your practice work

• Date every page. It lets you see how you are progressing and spot which exercise you have dropped.
• Prioritise consistency over duration. 20 minutes a day achieves more than three hours on a Sunday.
• Do not erase during exercises. Visible mistakes show you where the problem is.
• Change your reference. If you always draw the same pose or the same angle, you only learn that pose.
• Keep practice and projects separate. Exercises are for learning; your illustrations are for applying what you have learnt.

Frequently asked questions

How much time a day should I draw to improve?

With 20 to 30 minutes of focused practice a day, you will see clear improvement within a few weeks. Regularity matters more than the length of each session.

What is the best drawing exercise for beginners?

Blind contour drawing and warming up with lines and ellipses are the most useful when starting out, because they improve observation and stroke control. After that, add basic forms and values.

Does copying drawings help you learn?

Yes, if you analyse why the artist made each decision rather than simply reproducing the result. It is a traditional method in art training and works best with works by artists who have mastered the fundamentals.

Can I do these exercises on a drawing tablet?

Yes, they all work digitally, although it is best to disable undo or avoid using it during the exercises. That way you train committing to the stroke just as you would on paper.

What supplies do I need to practise drawing?

A sketchbook, two or three pencils of different grades, an eraser and an ink marker or brush pen are enough. What matters is having them always to hand so you can practise every day.