How to learn how to draw? (7 important thoughts)

I didn't stop asking myself this question before and during my education in a university. My art education story is quite long: children's art school (while studying at a regular school), college, 2 universities (BFA and MFA) and 3 private teachers. So I have some experience and want to share with you how to organize yourself and achieve all of your goals and make your dreams come true!

Sometimes it's really complicated to understand how to move forward with a creative passion. Even if we have a lot of desire, time and resources it can be very difficult to grow complex and fast. In such situations, people can lose their passion and start to think that they have no talent. And it's not true! Because:
Everyone can learn how to draw. But every person has their own advantages and disadvantages. Also, some people can learn faster than others. If you don't achieve your expectations in fast terms it can be very demotivating, but I guarantee if you'll work hard, smart and systematically, the reward will be worth it.

If your innate abilities are not the greatest you can compensate it with time and effort. I know, that it's not fair, that John Doe draw less and has better results and everyone is thrilled by his paintings, but you must understand that:
No one can have professional skills without studying and practicing. So, you can compensate your weaker innate abilities with your perseverance. As a result, you'll be also more disciplined and productive than people that were more gifted at the start.

My random old sketch (2014).

Now you can start to work on your skills. You want to paint the large abstract paintings and realistically perfect nude figure drawings, 2d concept arts and to create some contemporary sculptures... And it's great for a beginner, you need to find what is your favorite media. But unfortunately, you can't master everything, so:
Your global goal must be clear. Without a clear goal, you can get lost and start to lose energy on unnecessary things. "I want to learn how to draw" is not a very clear goal, think more specific, the more specific is better. You can have a global goal, for example: "I want to create illustrations for a big publishing company", "I want to draw 2d concept arts for AAA games", "I want to know how to paint realistic animals in watercolor as a hobby" and some intermediate goals: "I need to study a structure of a hand", "I need to learn Photoshop's interface". With this goals, it will be easy to generate ideas how to achieve them.

When you have a big global goal which consists of some small intermediate goals you need some time to work on it. But what to do if routine, school, hobby, friends, family take all of your time?
Build a priority. Some people have a lot of different interests, and if you want to be a professional art must take the first place. If you indeed have no time for your global professional goal, maybe you have no problem with income and maybe it will be better to focus on what is more important to you. If art is your hobby and you really like it but your family and work take all of your time, some relax and positive emotions with a hobby will be fine for your health.

Master class of Kost Lavro, famous Ukrainian book illustrator.

Suppose you resigned with your innate abilities, determined the goal, started to work hard on the main priority - art. You draw every day for many hours for few month but the growth is very slow. You understand that you continue to repeat your mistakes systematically and don't know how to move forward.
You will grow fundamentally faster studying on the previous experience. Today in XXI century we have a tremendous legacy of knowledge in fine art and you don't need to invent the wheel. Reading about and watching a huge amount of classic paintings will help you to form a good artistic taste. Find the best sources of educational information and start to improve your skills. You can use books, youtube videos, tutorials and other educational stuff but if you are a beginner it will be difficult to understand which source is great and which is garbage. A professional artist can help you by recommending the best sources but ideal and the fastest way to learn is to find a good teacher or even better a mentor (if you'll be lucky). Always analyze your potential teacher's work and educational skills, a bad teacher can even harm your learning process (and you will need to retrain). But a professional artist is the best source of art education. I myself teach online at 1-to-1 lessons via Skype and just now have a trial lesson free to try for my new students, more information here: www.art-study.pro.

If you are do everything right with clearly defined goals and work with the best sources of knowledge and even at this point don't feel that progress is just right, remember:
Be proactive and don't stop. It's really important to work consistently and sometimes we don't notice our huge progress. At this moments try to analyze your successes and work even harder on your flaws. Don't lose your flow, be patient and you'll see how the goals are becoming reality.

Even when you'll achieve your main goals and art passion sometimes turns into routine, just:
Don't stop learning and be open to something fresh and new. It will help you to find some inspiration and energy to evolve. Remember, when you are standing still you are degrading, so don't stop learning something new and be modern and cool for your fans and for yourself.

Palanok Castle. Mukachevo, Ukraine. 2013

Thank you for reading this far (you can type 'potato' in a comment, so I'll know that you read it, lol). If you'll enjoy it and find it useful I can start a little series of articles with similar thoughts in more details, because I can share much more experience and information on art education process. Also, check out my painting and drawing tutorials.

Stay creative and have a nice day!

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