10 Drawing Techniques Every Beginner Should Learn

When I first started drawing seriously, I was overwhelmed by all the tools, techniques, and terminology out there. Should I focus on shading? Anatomy? Perspective? The pressure to be “good” from the start was real—and honestly, it held me back for a while.

But the more I drew (and failed, and learned, and drew again), the more I realized something important: drawing is a journey, not a race. And every journey starts with a solid set of tools—not just pencils and paper, but the techniques that give you confidence and control.

So if you’re just starting out—or even if you’re looking to strengthen your foundation—here are the 10 drawing techniques that helped me grow the most as a beginner. I still use them today.

1. Line Control

Drawing starts with the humble line. But a line can be delicate, bold, sharp, wavy, or expressive—it all depends on how you use it.

Early on, I spent time just drawing lines—trying to make them straight, curved, light, or heavy. Practicing pressure control helped me understand how my hand movements affected the page.

Try this: fill a page with different kinds of lines. Vary the pressure, direction, and spacing. You’ll quickly see how much character you can create with just a pencil.

2. Hatching and Cross-Hatching

Before I discovered these, my shading was all smudged and muddy. But with hatching (parallel lines) and cross-hatching (intersecting lines), I learned how to build value using texture.

These techniques are especially helpful when drawing with pen or ink, where you can’t erase. They add structure, tone, and rhythm to your drawings—and they look amazing when done well.

I still love using cross-hatching in sketchbook portraits. There’s something satisfying about building shadows line by line.

3. Gesture Drawing

Gesture drawing changed the way I approached figure drawing. Instead of focusing on details, I started capturing movement, flow, and energy.

The goal is to draw the essence of a pose in a short amount of time—30 seconds, 1 minute, maybe 2. It’s messy, fast, and freeing. And it teaches you to trust your eye and hand without overthinking.

Even now, I warm up with gesture sketches before longer pieces. It loosens me up and gets me into the flow.

4. Contour Drawing

This one blew my mind: drawing without looking at the paper. Contour drawing forces you to really observe your subject, following the edges with your eyes as your hand mirrors the path.

At first, my drawings looked ridiculous—like abstract blobs. But after a while, my observation skills improved drastically. I stopped drawing what I thought I saw and started drawing what was actually there.

Try a blind contour exercise. No judgment—just draw the outline of your hand or face without glancing down. It’s weirdly fun and surprisingly helpful.

5. Value and Shading

If you want your drawings to pop off the page, mastering value is essential. Value means the lightness or darkness of a tone—and understanding it helps you create depth, form, and realism.

I practiced shading spheres, eggs, and faces under a single light source. I also made value scales (from light to dark) to train my hand and eye.

Don’t be afraid to go dark. Beginners often keep their drawings too light, which flattens them. Bold shadows can bring your work to life.

6. Sighting and Measuring

Ever draw a face and wonder why the eyes ended up in the forehead? I’ve been there. That’s where sighting and measuring come in.

I learned to hold my pencil at arm’s length and use it as a tool to compare sizes and angles. This helped me understand proportions—like how wide the shoulders are compared to the head, or where the nose sits between the eyes and chin.

It might feel clunky at first, but it’s a game-changer for accuracy.

7. Negative Space Drawing

Instead of focusing on the object, what if you drew the space around it?

Negative space drawing helps you shift from symbolic thinking (“this is a chair”) to seeing actual shapes (“this is the weird triangle between the legs of the chair”). That shift deepened my understanding of composition and helped me capture complex scenes more easily.

Grab a plant or a chair and draw only the spaces between its parts. It’s a great exercise for retraining your brain to see like an artist.

8. Basic Perspective

Perspective once scared the life out of me. All those vanishing points and horizon lines? Confusing! But when I broke it down, I realized that basic perspective—even just understanding one-point and two-point perspective—made a huge difference in how real my drawings looked.

Start with simple cubes and boxes. Learn how objects shrink with distance and how lines converge. Once you grasp it, you can draw rooms, streets, or scenes with believable space.

And no, you don’t have to be an architect to master it!

9. Texture Rendering

Whether it’s fur, wood, glass, or skin, learning how to capture texture can take your drawings from “good” to “wow.”

At first, I tried to shade everything the same. But apples aren’t fuzzy like sweaters. Learning how to use lines, stippling, or patterns to suggest texture helped me make each object feel unique and tangible.

Practice by drawing everyday objects and focusing solely on texture—ignore color, shape, or detail, and ask, What does this feel like?

10. Thumbnail Sketching

Before I commit to a big drawing, I always make thumbnail sketches—small, rough layouts of possible compositions. They let me play with framing, light, and subject placement without the pressure of a final piece.

This technique taught me that planning is part of creativity. And it saved me from a lot of frustration (and wasted paper).

Even now, when I’m stuck, I’ll draw 3–5 thumbnails to see which composition “clicks.” Often, the best ideas come in those tiny boxes.

Draw Like No One’s Watching

Learning these 10 techniques didn’t make me a master overnight—but they did give me a foundation I could grow from. They helped me build confidence, sharpen my eye, and discover my own style.

The key is to practice without pressure. Not every sketch has to be a masterpiece. In fact, most won’t be. And that’s okay.

Drawing is about exploration. It’s about learning to see—and trusting your hand to follow.

So take your time. Try new things. And most of all, enjoy the process. The more you draw, the more you’ll grow—not just as an artist, but as a visual thinker and creator.

And if you ever get stuck, remember: all great artists were beginners once, just making marks on a page and seeing where they would lead.