10 things you can do to overcome your fear of drawing

If you’ve always had the desire to learn how to draw, the only thing stopping you is yourself and your fears.

The fear of failure is a powerful barrier to overcome before we can achieve our goals. If you want to learn to draw, but are afraid to do it, you must learn to overcome your fear, and you do it by facing it.

But don’t get me wrong here. You shouldn’t just go to the art supply store in town and buy all your gear and try to develop a masterpiece out of the word “go”. That would be like facing the school bully without mental or physical preparation…

There are 10 things that I can recommend to you to overcome your fear of drawing. You can make one, or as many as you want:

1. As the Nike slogan says: “Just do it!” Make the decision to start learning to draw, and begin your research to familiarize yourself with the terms, tools, materials, and techniques. You can start by visiting my site (www.Learn-to-Draw-and-Paint.com) where I have a growing collection of free articles, tips and techniques on drawing and painting. That’s a good start! 😉

2. Get some basic drawing equipment. It sounds expensive, but it doesn’t have to be. To get started, you can start by getting yourself a pencil, sketch pad, eraser, and maybe a ruler. If you have access to discarded photocopy paper, you can “recycle” it by drawing on the blank side of the paper.

3. Rewire your brain in relation to the drawing. This is perhaps the single most important thing you can do to overcome your fear of drawing (or any fear for that matter!). Drawing is just a skill, and there is nothing stopping you from learning anything. Anyone can bake a cake! Just follow the easy-to-follow instructions and steps, and the result will be displayed. Once you’re convinced of this, learning to draw will be easier than you think.

4. Go Slow But Steady: Unless you’re some kind of genius, if you’re a normal mortal like the rest of us, you should start with the most basic exercises and techniques, and follow the steps below, until you’re skilled enough to draw something you can be proud of.

5. Don’t be too critical of your drawings. Remember, you are learning something here. You are not expected to produce a facsimile copy of any object in the early stages of your “apprenticeship” in drawing. You are expected to do your exercises well. That’s all.

6. Understand that most of the basic skills you will learn are so basic that a child could learn them, and so can you. You start out learning how to draw simple shapes, how to hold a pencil, different pencil strokes and gradually move into drawing stick figures, you learn about shading, proportions, perspective and that sort of thing. It may sound overwhelming… but it doesn’t have to be.

How do you eat an elephant? R/ One bite at a time! This is how you learn to draw too!

7. Develop a learning routine. Depending on your time commitments, you can set aside an hour or so a week to learn new concepts and practice new skills. This is also important because doing so will ensure that you keep their interest alive. A pleasant commitment to continuous learning will develop your skills quickly.

8. As Yoda says: “Practice what you need to.” A few weeks ago I saw a TV interview of the famous Australian guitarist Tony Emanuell. This boy has been playing the guitar since he was 4 years old! When asked by the journalist how he got to be so good, Tony’s response was: “I play the guitar more than I eat, sleep, talk and go to the bathroom. When you do something over and over again, you have to do it right.” ” [or words to that effect].

You get back what you put in. If you just want to learn how to draw, you should practice regularly. If you want to become a master… you know what to do.

9. Take a drawing course if you can. Sure, you can learn to draw from books. But to take your skills to the next level, you need to take a course at your local community college, summer school, or even online.

10. Keep track of your progress. I do my exercises on loose paper and my drawing practices on a pad. That way, I keep track of my progress.

You’ll be surprised how good you become at drawing if you keep a record of your early work and compare it to your most recent drawing. This translates to a confidence boost that will help you keep going.

I hope you find these tips helpful and I wish you all the best on your artistic learning journey.

Sincerely,