How to Draw Everyday WITHOUT Fail (Easy Steps to A Daily Drawing Routine)

All of us must have experienced those awful days when we had ZERO motivation to draw anything.

We would probably never pick up a pencil or even draw a line.

Which meant that we were getting no practice in. Which is quite horrible.

When you don’t draw regularly, you lose the muscle memory associated with that action. You also miss out on a great deal of time, which you could have spent honing your skill.

Improvements happen slowly. We don’t jump from an amateur artist to an expert in a matter of a few days.

It takes:

• A LOT of time
• An equal amount of patience
• And an INSANE amount of practice

So, unless we practice consistently, how will we improve?

If we take a LOT of breaks, then it will just take that much longer to reach our goals.

Now, I’m not trying to scare you.

You can DEFINITELY achieve all your goals and much more. You just have to keep a few simple tips in mind.

These small changes will help you draw every day, no matter what.

So, grab a pen and paper. Take notes and don’t forget to take action as well.

Don’t Wait For Motivation To Draw

Motivation is OVERRATED. Yep, I said it.

Never rely on motivation.

It’s a fickle thing. One day you are full of it. And the next day you may have nothing left.

You can’t count on motivation to drive you.

Motivation is going to run out, no matter what you do. It’s a fact, and I’m sure you know it.

The thing is, motivation is emotion-based. And we don’t have the same emotions every day, now do we?

So, if you want to use motivation as a factor, then you will need to find it EVERY DAY.

Which is hard to do, but it is possible with the help of:

• Motivational podcasts
• Motivational books
• Watching art videos
• Reading art books
• Viewing art

However, you can consistently draw every day using a much MORE reliable method.

It’s really simple. All you have to do is make it a habit.

Make Drawing A Habit

Sounds way too easy to be good, right?

But I’m completely serious.

You NEED to build a habit of drawing every day without fail.

While motivation WILL fail you very often, habits won’t. They’re ingrained and we won’t be able to get rid of it.

Think about it.

Before you cross the road, you ALWAYS look both sides before actually crossing the road. If you go even one time without checking the road, you’ll feel weird.

It’ll be like a strange itch you can’t get rid of. The habit will FORCE you to look both sides and then cross.

The good part is, that we often do it subconsciously.

So, if you make drawing a habit, you won’t even have to think about it. You’ll just show up without fail and draw.

It’ll be as easy as breathing.

Therefore, you should seriously consider making drawing a habit. It will help you LOADS.

How To Build A Drawing Habit

Now that I’ve convinced you to make drawing a habit, let’s get started with building the habit.

DISCLAIMER: These first few steps will be HARD. It’s not supposed to be easy and will test you to your limits.

You will feel like quitting more often than not.

But, as soon as you get past the first few weeks, you will feel SO much better. Everything will get MUCH easier and you’ll complete your goal without much effort.

So, don’t stress out if you’re finding it hard. Everyone finds it super difficult.

But, you will thank yourself for taking these first few steps. I promise.

Steps To Build A Drawing Habit

Now, let’s get into the intricacies of making your dream a reality.

Making a habit stick is complex. But, we can break it down, and using these simple tips, you can create a drawing habit easily.

1. Pair Your Drawing Habit With Another Habit

This is the simplest way to succeed.

You should pair your drawing habit with another habit that you do WITHOUT fail.

For example, you might game every night before going to sleep. You can then incorporate your drawing session before gaming. You can also tell yourself that you won’t game if you haven’t finished your drawing goal for the day.

This way, you’ll be forced to complete your drawing session before gaming.

Impressed?

I want you to grab a pencil right now.

Write down all habits you can think of. They must be something you do unconsciously. It must also be something you do every day WITHOUT fail.

It could be something like:

• Drinking coffee in the morning
• Working out in the evening
• Reading a book before bed
• Scrolling through Instagram at night

Just make sure that you’ll have enough time to draw before or after that particular habit.

Now, choose any one of your habits.

Decide when your drawing session will take place as well.

INFO: This method is called habit stacking. If you want to know more detailed information about this method, you can check out this fantastic book called, ‘Atomic Habits’ by James Clear.

2. Give Yourself A Reward

For a bonus of completing your drawing target for the day, you can also reward yourself.

This could be something like chocolate, or even an extra 15 minutes of gaming.

It could be anything and it’s completely up to you.

TIP: Choose something small that makes you happy. It shouldn’t be something you would get too bored of after a few days.

Doing this will have two benefits.

1. You will add a further incentive to complete your goal. (We all LOVE that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow)
2. It will also help you to get over the boredom of doing the same thing every day.

3. Prep Everything In Advance

If you find it energy-sucking to spend 10 minutes setting everything up, exactly as you like, then this is just for you.

Instead of setting everything up when you’re about to draw, you can get everything ready in advance.

For example, if you plan on drawing in the morning, you can set everything up the night before.

This way, you can just walk in and straightaway draw. You don’t need to find where you left your sketchbook or need to sharpen your pencils again.

It also makes you much more happier and you’ll be more motivated to draw as well. (Yes, you can get motivated this way too!)

It’s a simple change.

You would have to set everything up no matter when you draw.

But just doing it before will make your life much easier and effortless as well.

4. Change Your Environment

This is a little harder to pull off, but if you can, you’ll be SO much happier.

Sometimes, you may not be drawing because of your environment. It could be a really noisy room or it could be your bedroom.

FACT: Keeping your drawing area in your bedroom is a BAD idea. You’ll always be thinking about when you will finish drawing. At the earliest opportunity, you would immediately procrastinate and put off drawing. So remember. Don’t draw in your bedroom.

Small things cause a lot of distractions. And this could have an adverse effect on your art as well.

So I suggest you make some serious changes.

Move out of your current room. Find someplace quiet and peaceful where you can draw.

Also, decorate your desk. Put up posters of art. Buy that cute lamp you’ve been eyeing at Ikea.

Spruce up and liven up your desk. I promise you’ll find drawing every day SO much easier.

And you’ll really come to love it.

Hold Yourself Accountable

Another extremely good way to force yourself to draw without fail is to find yourself an accountability buddy.

You can hold yourself accountable as well. However, that requires a LOT of discipline, and I’m sure you must have already tried that if you’re reading this post.

So go out and find yourself a friend.

Tell your friend to monitor your drawing habits and to make sure you’re drawing EVERY single day.

PLAN: Report your drawing sessions to them. Tell them your goals and make sure they remind you whenever you’re not in the mood to complete your sessions.

You can also try using Instagram for this.

Write a post telling everyone that you’re going to draw and post your work EVERY day. And then follow that commitment and post all your drawings every single day.

You’ll be way too scared of going back on your word to stop and more often than not, you’ll draw every day.

Having that accountability will change things pretty quickly.

Break Down Your Art Goals

Sometimes, we tend to procrastinate, simply because we don’t know where to start.

You may confused about how to improve. And what to draw to get better?

You may be confounded with questions about anatomy, composition, color, and much more. This may be adding to your inability to do something about it.

The solution is pretty simple.

Just break things down.

Let’s say you want to learn anatomy.

Start by finding out exactly where you lack. Research on the different resources that might help you.

For instance, you might need information on:

• Good anatomy book
• Tutorials on anatomy
• Anatomy online courses

Find out where you can get information. Then break it down.

Tell yourself that you’ll start learning Proko from the next day. Give yourself a month to complete your figure drawing basics.

Then move on to the next resource on the list.

By taking small, consistent steps, you’ll reach your goal in no time.

Once you plan things out, you’ll improve at a much faster rate as things won’t be vague anymore.

‘I’m going to complete one lesson of Proko today’ sounds SO much better than ‘I’m going to learn anatomy today’, doesn’t it?

So take small and consistent steps. You’ll reach your goal in no time.

Convert Your Art Goals Into A Video Game

This is pretty related to the previous topic on the list.

By breaking down your goals into smaller goals, you’re creating a map of the main goal.

Which is exactly how you can turn your goals into a video game.

You can break down your main goal. Let’s say it would be ‘becoming a concept artist’.

Becoming a concept artist can comprise:

• Learning the fundamentals
• Learning digital painting
• Getting familiar with the workflow
• Preparing a portfolio

Take any one of them and break that down into further goals as well.

So, for example, if I take ‘learning the fundamentals’, I would need to:

• Learn figure drawing
• Learn perspective
• Learn lighting and color theory
• Learn structure and form manipulation
• Learn anatomy

Then analyze the smaller goal and research on how you can actually achieve it. You should write down a list of resources that will help you reach your target faster.

Thus, the main goal (becoming an artist) is like the main boss and the smaller goals (learning anatomy, learning perspective, etc) are the smaller bosses that you fight along the way to get strong enough to defeat the main boss.

This way of thinking will motivate you a LOT and you’ll be much more eager to progress quickly.

TIP: You can also make a cute chart and draw smaller goals as boss creatures. Every time you complete a small goal, you can cross it out. It’s fun and motivational as well!

Repeat, Repeat… And Then Repeat Some More

You can use these tips to help you focus and work every day.

After that, it’s just a matter of consistency.

The more you work, the better you will get. It’s as simple as that.

Breaks are also necessary, don’t get me wrong. You should rest pretty often so that you don’t end up burning out.

Burnouts are scary and you DON’T want that to happen. Once it does, you won’t feel like drawing for a LONG while and you’ll get VERY exhausted.

So it’s much better to focus on completing small goals one step at a time.

It’s better to draw one page every day for 50 days than to draw 50 pages in one day.

Focus on consistency over quantity and you’ll be just fine.

Take these tips and incorporate them into your life.

Afterword

As I said at the beginning, implementing changes is going to be SUPER hard at first.

You’ll be extremely tempted to procrastinate. You’ll feel weird doing something different. You might get super bored and may be itching to stop this as well.

But don’t.

Once you conquer the beginning stages, things will get a LOT easier.

Your drawings will drastically improve for sure. So, keep at it, and don’t stop.

TIP: It takes 66 days for a habit to fully sink in. After those initial 66 days, it will become part of your life.

After a few months, you’ll be impressed at what you can do.

So, enjoy the process and happy learning!