Video summary

These 20 drawing exercises will CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Main summary

Key takeaways

Educational

Main ideas / lessons

  • If your drawing progress has plateaued, the issue is usually either not spending enough time or practicing the wrong skills.

  • Improvement comes from targeted exercises that build specific abilities in the right order—from hand dexterity → visual observation → 3D construction from imagination → manipulating 3D forms.

  • Doing these exercises consistently (short daily sessions) leads to faster improvement than relying on single tutorials.

  • Once fundamentals are built, the next step is applying them to figure drawing/poses.

Methodology: The 20 drawing exercises (organized by levels)

Level 1 — Build hand dexterity (hands doing what your brain wants)

  1. Exercise 1: Writing

    • Warm up by writing:
      • the alphabet
      • your name
      • random sentences
    • Goal: rapidly improve fine motor control and pen/pencil precision, especially after being away from the tablet for a few days.

  2. Exercise 2: Line stacks

    • Draw:
      • a series of parallel straight lines
      • then a series of curved lines
    • Key instructions:
      • keep spacing consistent
      • draw lines quickly in a single stroke
    • Purpose: force you to confront weaknesses like wobble and drift, building line confidence.

  3. Exercise 3: Circles and rotations

    • Draw many circles in one motion (not scribbly).
    • Technique:
      • visualize the circle first
      • commit to the stroke in one go
    • Then:
      • rotate the circles into ellipses at different angles
    • Purpose: ellipses are the foundation for drawing cylinders.

  4. Exercise 4: Rotating squares to find/maintain centers

    • Steps:
      • draw a square
      • mark its center using an X from opposite corners
      • redraw the square rotated
      • repeat, gradually rotating toward a full 180°
    • Purpose: foundation for drawing boxes in any orientation.

  5. Exercise 5: Drawing ribbons

    • Draw long 3D-flowing ribbon-like lines:
      • start with a single line
      • duplicate it with a slight offset
      • join the sides
    • Purpose: train control over twisting/curving forms while maintaining underlying volume (useful for hair, fabric, organic forms).

  6. Exercise 6: Shape extrusion

    • Steps:
      • draw any 2D shape
      • “extrude” it into 3D by adding depth
      • analogy: turn a flat letter into a chunky 3D version
    • Purpose: extend ribbon-like thinking into 3D form building from 2D shapes.

Level 1 practice guidance

  • If it feels hard: that’s normal—the muscles are being trained.
  • Suggested schedule: 10 minutes a day for a couple of weeks.

Level 2 — Train your eye (visual observation accuracy)

  1. Exercise 7: Symmetry

    • Draw a shape using curves and straights on one side.
    • Then draw the perfect mirror image on the other side.

  2. Exercise 8: Shape matching

    • Draw any shape.
    • Next to it, draw a duplicate attempting to match it as identically as possible.

  3. Exercise 9: Drawing silhouettes

    • Draw recognizable silhouettes from references, but with no internal details.
    • Examples: character, animal, vehicle, etc.
    • Purpose: make the form readable using outline alone, training observation of shape.

  4. Exercise 10: Symmetry in perspective

    • Take a square in perspective.
    • Draw something symmetrical inside it while respecting perspective.
    • Key instruction:
      • both halves match, but are foreshortened correctly
    • Purpose: bridges observation into spatial awareness (a “gate check” before Level 3).

Level 2 progression

  • If Level 1 and 2 are consistent, drawings should noticeably improve.

Level 3 — Construct 3D forms from imagination (mental/spatial skills)

  1. Exercise 11: Cylinder rotations

    • Draw a cylinder.
    • Rotate it through views:
      • top-down
      • side view
      • three-quarter
      • foreshortened
    • Goal: learn how ellipses change with viewing angle.
    • Purpose: cylinders underpin drawing limbs and soft body forms.

  2. Exercise 12: Rotate boxes with a horizon line

    • Steps:
      • establish a horizon line
      • practice drawing boxes at different positions/angles that still relate correctly to the horizon.

  3. Exercise 13: Rotate boxes without a horizon line (verify afterward)

    • Repeat the box-orientation practice but:
      • draw without placing the horizon first
      • add/draw the horizon afterwards to check accuracy
    • Purpose: tricky test of box construction from imagination.

  4. Exercise 14: Drawing a “box storage room”

    • Practice stacking boxes:
      • on top of each other
      • beside each other
      • with boxes in front of others
    • Purpose: make boxes convincingly relate in 3D space.

Level 4 — Manipulate 3D forms (turn primitives into real objects)

  1. Exercise 15: Box slicing

    • Slice a box with a plane, like cutting a piece off at an angle.
    • Practice slicing in different directions.

  2. Exercise 16: Box extrusion

    • Extrude a box face outward to create more complex geometry.

  3. Exercise 17: Volume bending

    • Bend a cylinder or box as if malleable (e.g., turn a straight cylinder into a banana-like curve).

  4. Exercise 18: Beveling

    • Round off hard edges of boxes/cylinders/forms to feel melted.
    • Approach:
      • bevel some edges or bevel all edges (flexible based on preference)
    • Purpose: soften geometry and prepare for blob-like forms.

  5. Exercise 19: 3D blobs (freeform organic mass)

    • Create blob-like 3D shapes that:
      • don’t rely on clean primitive geometry underneath
      • resemble solid forms like clouds, rocks, organic masses
    • Goal: maintain a sense of solidity and 3D volume despite the lack of simple underlying primitives.

  6. Exercise 20: Combine everything (real-life complex object construction)

    • Pick a complex real object (examples mentioned):
      • a car
      • an animal
      • furniture
    • Construct it using accumulated skills:
      • boxes, cylinders, slices, bevels, blobs, etc.
    • Purpose: show how all exercises “come together” in real drawing tasks.

Additional instructions: how to schedule practice

  • You don’t need to do all 20 daily.
  • Suggested warm-up approach:
    • pick a few exercises from your weakest level
    • spend ~10–15 minutes warming up before real drawing
    • rotate over time so it doesn’t become boring
  • Time expectation:
    • recommended roughly 2 weeks to notice a difference
    • a couple of months to get fundamentals ahead of most artists
  • Next step after fundamentals:
    • apply to figure work
    • watch the creator’s video on “the four levels of drawing poses.”

Speakers / sources featured

  • Main speaker/creator: The video host/professional artist (speaks throughout; claims “professional artist for well over 20 years”).
  • Program/source promoted: Art School (the creator’s structured art education program):
    • described as 10 terms, with weekly assignments and Discord community.
  • Referenced external content: Creator’s other video: “the four levels of drawing poses.”

Original video