How to Draw Everyday

This year I set myself a challenge to draw every single day. So that’s exactly what I’m doing. Since the start of 2023, I have been drawing daily in my sketchbook and we’re not even a month in, but I’m still going strong - so that’s something. As someone who draws a lot anyway (kind of comes with the territory when you’re an illustrator), I wanted to make sure that I’m always drawing for fun too and not just for projects and portfolios, which is exactly where this challenge comes in.

However, drawing every day can be a challenge. Everyone’s got their own little busy lives, so I’ve been thinking about my top tips for finding time to draw daily and also the motivation…

Find Inspiration Everywhere

Drawing a particular dog walk, based on a video taken on the walk in my sketchbook

I feel that one of the biggest challenges of drawing everyday for fun is knowing what to draw. When there’s no brief to follow or requirements to meet, the opportunities are endless - which is often a little overwhelming. Therefore to help you find inspiration on a daily basis, I would highly recommend keeping your sketchbook as a visual diary or journal from time to time.

Your sketchbook provides the perfect opportunity to draw the things that you get up to, so you can even look back at it in years to come to trigger those memories. I love recording the things I do and see, as sometimes your very own drawing captures so much more emotion than any photograph. Although if you don’t want to carry your sketchbook around everywhere with you, a good way to record what you do on a certain day is to take photos on your phone, which you can then draw from later on at home.

Fit Drawing Into Your Daily Life

Drawing whilst watching TV

So now you have all the inspiration you need, but how do you find time for all of this?

A way to find time to draw everyday for fun is to really integrate it into your daily routine, so really you don’t need to put any extra time aside for this. An example in my own life is sometimes drawing on my breaks at work. If I know that I have quite a lot of illustration work to complete, I often find myself taking my sketchbook and a small pencil case along to my part time job with me, so that when it comes to my break, I can sit and draw for that short time period. It’s absolutely perfect for any time windows where you find yourself having to sit down anyway, such as travelling on a train.

Keep It Fun

Spending time just doodling in my sketchbook

Let’s be honest, if you don’t enjoy something, you’re going to give it up pretty easily. This is why you need to keep it fun. Spend time doodling in your sketchbook, not everything has to be a masterpiece. Draw all of your favourite things like pandas and donkeys. Just do whatever makes you and your interests happy.

Set a Timer to Draw

You never know where a single sketchbook page might take you…

Daily sketchbook drawings can be quick, they really don’t need to be masterpieces. There’s absolutely no pressure to share them with anyone ever, so you could even set a timer for five minutes and see where that takes you. I often find that the more you restrict yourself with time, the more creative and experimental you get, leading to some amazing results. It unlocks new techniques that you may love that much that you may adapt them into your way of working.

Setting a timer is also great if you don’t feel motivated to draw, as it tricks your brain into completing the task easily. Often the hardest part is just getting started, so if your brain thinks that you only have to draw for five minutes, you’re far more likely to get started. More often than not, once you get stuck in, you will often find that you really start to enjoy it and completely ignore the timer, which is definitely a win-win situation as you continue drawing for longer!

Share Your Challenge with Others

Sharing your art keeps you motivated to draw as others are interested too!

I’m slightly contradicting myself here after saying that you don’t have to share your drawings with anyone, but I find that sharing it with people really helps too. Sharing your challenge definitely keeps you accountable, allowing you to push through.

I like to have a balance of sharing some of it, but not having the pressure to share it all online. Therefore, each week I generally like to share my sketchbook highlights, just selecting a few that I really like to share across my social media channels. This means that when I create all of these drawings on a daily basis, I can create the ‘ugly’ drawings freely, but also end up with some that I love to share with everyone, as it really does keep me motivated to stay with the challenge.

Thank you so much for reading my latest blog post and I really hope that it has inspired you to start drawing everyday or even just find some time to start creating anything on a regular basis. See you next time…