Every once in a while, I share art exercises with you, and you seem to love it! So I decided to create a selection of the top 10 art exercises for beginners to help you learn, build, and practice your art skills.
Read these articles for art exercise ideas depending on your skill level:
- 5 Art Exercises to Boost Your Creativity (even if you’re non-artistic)
- Intuitive art exercises to connect with your inner artist
- Abstract Art Exercises you will love as a beginner
- Art exercises you can do in 10 minutes when life feels chaotic
- Fun Art Exercise to find your Art Style
10 art exercises for beginners
Warm-up exercises
When looking for art exercises, I like something easy, fun, and not very time-consuming. For that, I mostly start with warm-up exercises to help me find a flow state for creating.
1. Practicing lines and shapes
Practicing drawing lines and shapes is a great fundamental exercise because it helps you improve your steadiness and build your muscle memory.
2. Hatching and shading
Hatching and shading are what take your art from basic 2D to advanced 3D and realism. Learning the importance of values and working with them is going to change your life as an artist.
3. Practice different art elements
Read this article:
The 7 Elements of Art? Learn How To Upgrade Your Artworks Right Now!
4. Study shapes that repeat in art subjects
Circles, squares, ellipses, and ovals are shapes that make the base for a significant number of subjects in art. Think faces, fruits, houses, natural elements, etc.
5. Freehand objects from your daily life
Many people are scared of this exercise because it’s easy to mess up. But that’s the whole point of art exercises. When you know you’re doing an exercise, you know that it’s about practice and not perfection.
6. Blind Contour Drawing
Draw an object without looking down at the paper. Keep your eye on your subject and let your hands interpret what you see with your eyes.
7. Continuous Line Drawing
Draw a still life object without lifting your pencil. One continuous line to trace the overall shape of your subject.
8. Blind Scribbling
Draw using your non-dominant hand to help improve your focus and release perfectionism.
9. Draw still life
Household Items, Fruit/Food, or Clothing/Personal Items are all great subjects for still-life studies. You can practice light and shadow as well as hatching and developing your drawing from basic shapes to realistic forms.
10. Draw something from your imagination
Get really creative with it! Draw a frog lifting weights, your childhood home as you imagine it, create a new character with characteristics from different existing characters, etc.
Conclusion
These 10 art exercises for beginners are very simple, easy and fun to try, so let me know what you think of them in the comments section below and don’t forget to enjoy creating <3
