How to Get Back Into Drawing When You Feel Rusty

When I pick up a pencil after a long break, I expect my old ability to show up immediately.

That is usually the first problem. High expectations.

I remember the work that made me proud and the ideas I was beginning to explore. Then I make a few marks, and what appears on the paper doesn't match what I remember. At all.

The disappointment can come quickly.

Did I lose it? What do I even draw?

But here is what I have learned from returning more than once: the ability comes back. And once I get going again, the work often grows beyond where it was when I stopped.

The first drawing simply isn't a fair test.

If you're trying to return to a creative practice more broadly, you may want to begin with my guide to getting back into art after a long break. But if you are ready to draw and are worried you no longer know how, the below is where I would start.

Make the entry point almost ridiculously small

Drawing is one of the easiest creative practices to return to because it asks for so little. You don't need a studio or bins of supplies. You don't need to make a mess.

You can use an HB No. 2 pencil and a sketchbook, or a mechanical pencil and scratch paper. You can draw in your lap, in front of the TV, as I often do. You can draw during your Zoom conference calls (still paying attention, of course).

That matters when you already feel hesitant. Every additional decision gives you another opportunity to talk yourself out of beginning.

Pick up the pencil you already have and find paper that doesn't feel precious. Your first job is only to begin.

Draw something you already know you can draw

When I haven't drawn for a while, I return to pears.

Pears are one of my standard subjects. I know their shapes and have drawn them successfully before, thousands of times. That removes one decision and gives my hand a chance to remember what it knows.

Your own familiar subject doesn't have to be a pear. It might be a flower, a tree, a coffee mug, your dog, your cat, or something else you have drawn many times. If you don't have one, pick one to own. There. That's your first tiny assignment.

If no subject comes to mind, borrow an exercise from a book you trust. I like Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab (disclosure: Amazon affiliate link) because the exercises are playful. A wrong-handed portrait makes perfection impossible. There's an assignment in the book that gives you a subject to draw while you're laying (literally laying) in your bed. Awkward is part of the exercise. Just moving the pencil on the page is the outcome.

Don't choose the most impressive subject or working on a piece. Choose the one that will get you past the blank paper.

Don't make one drawing and call it evidence

One drawing is far too easy to turn into a verdict.

You make a pear. It isn't as good as you hoped. You decide you have lost your ability and put the pencil down.

Instead, draw the pear again.

I might draw the same subject two or three times before trying something else. Draw it three ways in ten minutes—or make six quick versions if you want to keep going.

Change something each time:

• Draw it from another angle.

• Make it larger or smaller.

• Crop part of it off the page.

• Use a loose, doubled line.

• Shade one version and leave another as an outline.

• Add a pattern inside the shape.

• Arrange two or three together.

• Draw it with your eyes closed.

• Draw it without lifting the pencil from the paper.

  
  

Repetition here isn't about making six identical drawings until one is perfect. It gives you options. You stop asking, "Can I still draw this?" and begin asking, "What else could I do with it?"

I need to remind myself of this, too. I naturally move among subjects and mediums. Likely too quickly. Sometimes life interrupts me; sometimes I lose interest instead of staying with an idea long enough to discover where it could go.

One and done rarely gives an idea that opportunity.

Move from the subject to the composition

I enjoy drawing recognizable subjects, but personally, I want the finished work to be more than realism.

This is where small composition sketches help.

I draw boxes approximately three inches by three inches and play with the subject inside them. I move it, crop it, try different arrangements, and work on the values. I also look for opportunities to introduce the patterns I collect for my drawings, sketchbooks, and journals.

These little boxes are low-pressure places to make creative decisions.

Nothing has to become a finished piece. I am simply looking at possibilities:

• What happens if the pear fills almost the entire square?

• What if only part of it is visible?

• Where does the darkest value belong?

• What if the most interesting version is the least technically correct one?

• What's a perspective of a pear I've never drawn before?

  
  

The sketches reconnect me with something beyond the physical skill. They help turn a familiar subject into my own work and continue to develop my personal style. Plus, again, I give myself points for showing up.

Let the supplies change the drawing

Supplies can change both the result and the pressure. With pencil, I can shade, smear the graphite, and explore values. With pen, I like to trace a subject two or three times instead of making one perfect outline. The repeated lines add energy; then I can doodle within them or add pencil shading.

Here are some of the subjects and approaches I return to:

Subject or exercise	Supplies	What I can explore
Pears	HB No. 2 or mechanical pencil	Familiar shapes, shading, values, and composition
Flowers and trees	Pencil or pen	Organic lines, repeated shapes, and patterns
Dogs and cats	Pen or ink with pencil shading	Loose repeated outlines and value inside the forms
Wrong-handed portraits	Pencil or pen	Play, imperfection, and freedom from expectations
Doodles and patterns	Pen	Repetition, mark-making, and visual ideas for later work
Three-inch composition boxes	Pencil	Cropping, placement, values, and multiple possibilities

This isn't a required supply list. Build your own collection of subjects, exercises, and materials and keep it near your supplies. Then you don't have to invent a subject every time you sit down.

Put the drawings away before deciding what you made

I almost always put my work away and take it out again the next day.

Fresh eyes help. They really help. I encourage you to incorporate this practice with everything you make.

While I am still feeling out of practice, I may not see the drawing clearly. I may be very critical of it. The next day, one or two will usually stand above the others. Some may not look as uninteresting as I first thought.

That is the time to ask why.

Maybe the line is more interesting, the crop creates tension, or the values work. Perhaps the repeated marks have an energy the careful drawing doesn't.

"Hey, this looks pretty good" is often how I know my ability is beginning to come back.

Then one idea starts leading to another.

Let the drawing become part of something else

A drawing doesn't have to remain in a closed sketchbook.

Drawing feeds many of my other practices. Painting compositions begin as drawings, and drawing on canvas helps me block in a painting. I sketch possible quilts. Drawing is also central to colored-pencil work.

Now that I have started collage art journaling, even a little drawing on scratch paper can have another life. I can cut it out and let it evolve as part of something new. It becomes material instead of an exercise I completed and forgot.

After you look at your drawings with fresh eyes, choose one that interests you and ask:

• Do I want to draw this version again?

• Could I develop the composition into a painting?

• Could I cut it out and use it in a collage or journal?

• Is there a shape or pattern here that I want to repeat?

• Could this become the beginning of a series?

I've also recently created a drawing journal of little sketches I really like out of my practice. I cut them out of their original sketchbook and glue them down into the journal, often by subject. This way I have a drawing journal where I've curated my best and most interesting.

You don't need to know where the drawing is going when you begin. Drawing is often how you find out.

Keep a running list for your next session

Not knowing what to draw can look like an inspiration problem, but sometimes it is simply a decision problem.

Keep a running list of subjects, exercises, patterns, and materials you want to combine. Add to it whenever something catches your attention.

Then use the list when you plan an art session:

1. Choose one familiar subject or exercise.

2. Draw it at least three ways.

3. Change one element: composition, scale, line, value, material, or pattern.

4. Put the drawings away.

5. Return with fresh eyes and choose the one or two that interest you.

6. Decide what you want to repeat, change, or develop next.

   
   

That can take ten minutes or fill an afternoon. The time matters less than giving yourself another encounter with the subject.

Your first drawing back is not the final answer

If you're wondering how to get back into drawing, don't ask your first drawing to prove that you still have it.

Use an ordinary pencil. Find some unimportant paper. Choose something you know. Draw it again. Play with the composition. Put it away and look tomorrow. (You could even make a quick kraft paper book and sketch for a casual art journal.)

Your ability may feel distant at first, but that doesn't mean it is gone.

It comes back.

And when you stay with the work long enough to let one drawing lead to another, you may not simply return to where you stopped. You may find the beginning of somewhere new.

If you need a low pressure way to get back to your drawing or creativity, join us for this low pressure way back. The 5-Day Creative Challenge helps you pick up your art again at your pace and start to build the habit. Sign up here.