10 Drawing Exercises

10 EXERCISES
TO IMPROVE
YOUR
DRAWING
by Dawood Marion Sekhem
 
Contour Drawing – Place your pen on the page and begin

drawing. Do not lift your pen from the page until the drawing is
absolutely complete.
Distinctions of my method of contour drawing:
• Keep your hand moving. Your hand should be drawing the

entire time, even when looking up at the subject. When
looking up at the subject you can slow down a little, but
don’t stop drawing.
• Aim to look at the subject more than the paper. Looking up

every 3 – 4 seconds is good. Ideally every 1-2 seconds.
In my opinion, contour drawing is the most valuable exercise to
help you gain confidence in your line work.
The reason is simple, contour drawing forces you to recognize the

shape of the subject you are drawing. More importantly, in contour
drawing you don’t lift your pen. This removes one distraction from
the drawing process. By not lifting the pen you are forced to
concentrate on the actual shape of the object and not have to think
about where to place your pen down and continue drawing once
you lift your pen up. Also with contour drawing you are not dealing
with shadows, volume, texture and other distractions, you have
laser beam focus on the outer shape of your subject.
I recommend contour drawing your hand 100 times in a month –

That’s 5 hand drawings a day for 30 days.
Blind Contour Drawing – Perhaps the second most effective

exercise to improve your drawing.
In blind contour drawing you are not looking at your paper at all.
This is extremely powerful because you eliminate mostly every
distracting element from the drawing process. Here are just a few
distractions eliminated during a blind contour drawing:
 
• Judgement of how the work is progressing.

• Where to place the pen back down on the paper.
• Looking at the paper too long
• The want to correct mistakes
I recommend:
• Doing at least 2-3 blind contour drawings before each

drawing session.
• Do 2-3 blind contour drawings during the short poses (3
second – 1 minute) of figure drawing sessions.
Drawing Your Hands – I find drawing your hands helpful

because, first and foremost, your hands are always accessible.
When you can’t get to figure drawing workshop and there are no
people or plants around to draw, your
hands are just an arms length away.
Plus your hands have many of the
attributes of the human body with
joins (knuckles) and wrinkles. It’s a
great idea draw your hand in many
different poses. At the beginning of
my workshops I have students first
draw their hands to see where they
are in drawing ability. Try drawing your hands 4 -6 times (4 - 5
different poses) before a drawing session to warm-up.
 
You can even put a pen, pencil in your hand holding it. Try contour
drawings of your hands.
I recommend drawing you hand 100 times in a month – That’s 5 hand

drawings a day for 30 days.
Reportage Drawing – Reportage or on-location drawing is

essentially plein-air drawing; drawing your surroundings.
Reportage means “the act of reporting” in this case with images.

Simply go somewhere, find a comfortable spot to sit or stand; where
nobody will be looking over your shoulder. Then begin drawing the
scene. Start from one side of the page (landscape orientation), for
example the right side and continue drawing towards the left until you
reach the end of the page.
 
Once you reach the other end of the page, tape another sheet (on the
back) to the end of your drawing and continue drawing until you’ve
reached the other end of that page. Continue doing this as much as
you can take.
Reportage drawing can help you:
• Increase your drawing speed.

• Build your endurance to draw for longer periods.
• Develop interesting composition.
• Learn how to use perspective in a drawing.
• Understand how to use proportions to create more depth
in your drawings.
Figure Drawing – Drawing the human form from observation

Figure drawing has a plethora of
elements that makes it a sure-fire way
to improve your drawing ability, far
more than I will name here. I’m going
to share my approach to figure drawing
which will make it more enjoyable and
help you produce better results.
Over the years I’ve seen people at figure drawing groups struggle
through their drawings. Approaching each drawing from the same
narrow angle which is attempting to “recreate life.” While
photorealism is a great form of artistic expression, not many artists
ever get a firm command of it. I recommend not trying to be perfect/
precious with your figure drawings. Allow for playful experimentation.
Have fun with the process. After all, you'll only keep doing what feels
good.
Well the big secret is: The more you do figure, the better you will get.
Now ask yourself, “Which would you do more, a form of drawing that
looks awesome but was a pain to execute or a really fun approach to
drawing the same subject.” Light pop on yet?!?! The more you draw
the figure the better you will become at it, regardless of the approach.
I actually became really good at drawing the figure by doing tons of

playful contour drawings at figure drawing groups. During the long 20
minute poses I would drawing the model 6-7 times, instead of
working on one drawing. This allowed me the freedom focus on
mastering one thing – the various shapes on the body, instead of
tackling one shape, volume, shading etc.
I’ve said quite a bit on this one, so to recap, be loose and free. Allow
room for error without correction and you will see your ability to
capture the human form grow!! Here are some things figure drawing
can help with:
 
• Build strong observation skills.

• Ability to drawing organic subjects.
• Drawing animals.
• Learning how create interesting compositions
• Enhancing ability recognize and have a command of aesthetic
elements such as:
• Form
• Composition
• Color
• Value
• Contrast
• Gesture
Creative Figure Drawing – Using the live model only as a

reference for less tradition, more non-representational drawing.
 
As the model takes the pose, I usually begin by loosely drawing

figure as I see it then somewhere along the line (earlier or later) I
start to add imaginative elements such as costumes and props. This
can also be helpful for character designs and other creative projects.
Creative figure drawing was one of those ‘game changers” for me

because it allowed me to be as free as I wanted with my drawings. I
actually excelled much faster in my ability to draw the human form
the more I removed the rules for drawing it. I can’t stress this
enough.
Self Portraits – Drawing a picture of yourself from observation

via a mirror. You can use any type of
mirror. I used a small make-up mirror
to create the drawings below. I would
pull out my mirror anywhere, places
like on the bus or train, in a restaurant
waiting for my order, literally anywhere.
It’s a good way to get lots of repetition

drawing the face. Egon Schiele, one of
my favorite artists of the past created
lots of self portraits, many of them
were in the nude.
 
When you can’t get to a figure drawing session, self portraits are a
great alternative. You can set your own time and drawing for as long
as you want. I find self-portraits most useful for getting better at
drawing heads, faces, eyes, noses, mouths, hands (most of all), feet
and the full frontal figure.
You just may see yourself in a way you never have before after a few
self-portraits.
Register Drawing – Drawing people while they are ordering at

the register. Frequently I will would go to a coffeeshop and sit where
I could see the front of the check-out line and draw the people
 
ordering. This is very challenging because people won’t be there

long, maybe a couple minutes. At first I was only able to capture a
head, then I began drawing their gesture. Later I would draw the full
body and eventually I could draw the person at the register and the
cashier.
Drawing people at the register is a lot like the short 1-2 minute pose
at the beginning of a figure drawing session, where most people
focus on gesture and movement. It’s also really effective if you want
to increase your drawing speed. However, in my workshops I always
tell students, “Speed doesn’t equate to skill level.” I draw fast
because of practicing at cafés and on public transit where people
frequently move. I have to learn to capture their likeness before they
decided to either move to totally different position or get up and walk
away.
Another great aspect of drawing people at the register is, they are
paying attention to placing their order, so there is very little chance
that you will be disturbed by them realizing you are drawing them.
Register drawing (at a busy place with a constant line) is particularly
a powerful exercise because you have an almost non-stop supply of
fresh models. You also learn so see and recognize the local (basic)
shapes on the figure faster through repetition.
This will help you IMMENSELY with figure drawing.

 
Another great aspect of drawing people at the register is, they are
paying attention to placing their order, so there is very little chance
that you will be disturbed by them realizing you are drawing them.
Register drawing (at a busy place with a constant line) is particularly
a powerful exercise because you have an almost non-stop supply of
fresh models. You also learn so see and recognize the local (basic)
shapes on the figure faster through repetition. This will help you
IMMENSELY with figure drawing.
Drawing On Public Transit – Riding a bus or train and drawing

the passengers. This exercise is one of the most difficult to do
because there are lots of challenges such as:
• People moving.
• The vehicle moving and shifting as well as coming to
sudden stops.
• Onlookers standing over your shoulder and
sometimes wanting to converse about what you
are doing .
• The person you are drawing will sometime realize
you are staring at them creating an awkward
moment.
 
Actually I’ve found that my skill level excelled much faster from doing
this exercise daily while commuting to and from work.
Drawing Living Things – Drawing anything with organic shapes

such as dogs, plants, trees etc. I’ve found that drawing organic life
such as plants and animals is super helpful subject matter in terms of
developing line quality and ability to drawing the human form. If for
whatever reason you can’t get to a figure drawing session, one of the
best alternatives is drawing plants such as the images below:
Plants, trees and animals have organic (curvy) contours just like the
human figure.
About the Author
Dawood Marion Sekhem is CEO of Drawing

Toolbox, a company specializing in the training and
development of artists. His goal to help you
achieve your creative goals faster and easier than
you ever imagined by using advanced techniques
made simple and approachable.
Dawood has consulted for more than 1,000 people

and provided training through instructional
products in other countries worldwide. Through demo and instructional
video, he addresses thousands of people each year. He has studied,
researched, written and spoken for more than a 20 years in the field of art.
His exciting talks and workshops bring about immediate progress and long-
term results. Dawood helps artists as well as so-called non-artists of all
levels increase their abilities by implementing advanced techniques made
simple.
To learn more about Dawood Marion Sekhem and Drawing Toolbox, please
visit http://dawoodmarion.com/

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10 EXERCISES

Contour Drawing – Place your pen on the page and begin

Distinctions of my method of contour drawing:

• Keep your hand moving. Your hand should be drawing the

• Aim to look at the subject more than the paper. Looking up

The reason is simple, contour drawing forces you to recognize the

I recommend contour drawing your hand 100 times in a month –

Blind Contour Drawing – Perhaps the second most effective

• Judgement of how the work is progressing.

• Doing at least 2-3 blind contour drawings before each

Drawing Your Hands – I find drawing your hands helpful

I recommend drawing you hand 100 times in a month – That’s 5 hand

Reportage Drawing – Reportage or on-location drawing is

Reportage means “the act of reporting” in this case with images.

Reportage drawing can help you:

• Increase your drawing speed.

Figure Drawing – Drawing the human form from observation

I actually became really good at drawing the figure by doing tons of

• Build strong observation skills.

Creative Figure Drawing – Using the live model only as a

As the model takes the pose, I usually begin by loosely drawing

Creative figure drawing was one of those ‘game changers” for me

Self Portraits – Drawing a picture of yourself from observation

It’s a good way to get lots of repetition

Register Drawing – Drawing people while they are ordering at

ordering. This is very challenging because people won’t be there

This will help you IMMENSELY with figure drawing.

Drawing On Public Transit – Riding a bus or train and drawing

Drawing Living Things – Drawing anything with organic shapes

Dawood Marion Sekhem is CEO of Drawing

Dawood has consulted for more than 1,000 people

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