5 Ways to draw like a kid again

Do you remember what drawing was like when you were a kid? You probably used to draw all the time. Maybe you doodled during class or filled notebooks with art of your imaginary characters. At a certain point most adults stop doing that. They mistakenly think art is only something you do if you’re “good at it.” If the fear of making “bad” art is keeping you from doodling to your heart’s content, here are five ways to get back to drawing like a kid again.

1. Play an Art Game

The Blob Art Challenge is a popular drawing game you can use to get out of your head and start putting pen to paper. Using watercolor paint or a highlighter, create a series of oddly shaped blobs on your paper. Then grab a pen and transform your blob into whatever you think it could be – person, animal, object, strange alien creature, etc.

Similar games include Three Lines, where you make three random lines and then try to create a drawing from them, and the Scribble Drawing Challenge, where you scribble randomly all over the paper and then create a drawing from the scribbles. All these drawing games are even more fun to play with a friend – simply do the first step, then swap papers and make drawings from each other’s blobs, lines or scribbles!

2. Switch Up the Medium

Using an unfamiliar medium is exciting and invites experimentation! If you’re used to drawing with a plain old pencil, try making art with something you’ve never used before or revisit something you haven’t used in a long time. Try crayons, markers, chalk, highlighters or even weird stuff like nail polish! Don’t be afraid to mix media and incorporate other elements such as magazine clippings, glitter, stickers or anything else. Play with your art!

3. Draw On “Bad” Paper

Have you ever been intimidated by the blank white expanse of an untouched piece of drawing paper? Just about every artist has. One great solution is to draw on “bad” paper. This can include lined notebook paper, scrap paper, sticky notes, used envelopes, even napkins. Drawing on something you’re used to discarding can help you stop worrying about whether your art is “good.” You can take this concept even further by committing to throwing away your art before you even start drawing! (Don’t worry – if you end up loving it, you can keep it).

4. Don’t Look at the Canvas

Blind contour drawing is an easy way to make art without any pressure. Contour drawing involves drawing the outline or the most important edges of something without adding too much detail. Blind contour drawing is when you do that without looking at the paper. First find a reference – something you can look at for a while as you draw, such as a photograph or something around you that is mostly stationary. Place your drawing utensil on the paper then train your eyes on your reference. Slowly follow the outline of the reference with your eyes and as you go match the movement of your drawing hand with the movement of your eye. Do your best to never look at the paper! Be patient and slowly follow all the edges of the reference until you’ve finished a complete contour drawing, then look at your piece. If it looks odd or a little wonky, congratulations! That’s how it’s supposed to look.

5. Draw Badly on Purpose!

This one is pretty self-explanatory. Before you put pencil to paper, commit to drawing something objectively bad, something undeniably ugly or silly. Think of creative ways you can make it as terrible as possible, such as skewing proportions or coloring outside the lines.