Draw what you see: 9 observation exercises to train your artist’s eye

Draw what you see, not what you think what you see, is probably a recommendation that you've heard a lot if you're a beginner artist, but it can be harder than it might sound. It also raises questions of semantics. You might think you're already trying to draw what you see but you're really only looking rather than seeing.

This is because as well as learning to draw, we need to learn to see. That is, to really notice the details in the objects we're looking at and to avoid being influenced by our existing notions of what they should look like and our simplified, abstract symbolic idea of their appearance.

How to draw what you see

We've already seen some techniques that can help with this in our features on how to do scribble art and how to break drawing habits, but they're worth looking at again. Below, I'll also suggest some new exercises specifically for learning to draw from observation.

If you need tools to practise with, see our pick of the best drawing tablets or the best pencils for artists.

01. Invert you subject

A classic and really straight-forward practice exercise taught at many art schools is to draw from a reference image but with the image inverted. The idea is that turning the photo or illustration upside down forces you to observe the forms more closely.

We're so used to seeing the world the right way up that we have preconstructed ideas of what most things look like. This can make us blind to their real shape as it becomes hard not to unwittingly pull from existing motions when we draw from observation. When an image is upside down, we have to concentrate a lot more.

02. Draw negative space

Learn to see Negative Space and draw everything better: How to Draw #7 - YouTube

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Another great way to focus on seeing things as they really are and not as we imagine them is to try to draw the negative space – that is the space between the objects – rather than the objects themselves. The line is the same because the virtual border of an object is the same as the border of its environment, but this mental change of approach it can reduce unconscious bias by tricking our perception into seeing the shape of objects more accurately.

This is great technique for drawing proportions in the body and for difficult poses. Try to forget that you're drawing a 3D object and instead focus on drawing the space around it.

03. Blind contour drawing

We've mentioned blind contour drawing before in our pick of quick creative exercises, and it's a great technique for learning to draw what you see because it forces you to concentrate intently on your subject.

Even back in 1973, Frederick Franck in the The Zen of Seeing: seeing/drawing as meditation' was concerned that technology was giving us more ways to look but leading us to see less – and that was before the internet and smartphones!

He notes that most of the time when we look at something, we judge and label it, which can prevent us from really seeing our surroundings. He suggests exercises for "seeing/drawing" that include a form of blind contour drawing.

Pick an object (it could be from a photo or a real object in front of you). Look at it briefly and then close your eyes for two minutes. Open your eyes and look at your subject again more intently, as if it's the "most important thing in the universe". Then take you pen or pencil, hold it loosely and let it trace on the paper what your eyes see without looking at it – keep your eyes on the subject but imagine that the movement of your pen is caressing the edge of what you're drawing.

The resulting sketch is unlikely to be great to look at, but that doesn't matter. The aim here is to learn to see detail.

04. Draw from memory

A nice complementary exercise to practise drawing from observation is to do the opposite and draw a subject without having it in front of you at all.

First look closely at an object or image that you want to sketch, then put it away and try to reproduce everything that you can from memory without resorting to looking again. Don't cheat!

When you're done, compare your drawing to the real thing and notice what's similar and what's different. This could help give you insights into your own process of noticing and help you identify details you may have missed when you looked at the object. And this can help you overcome the habit of noticing only the things that interest you.

You'll probably want to choose a subject that's complex enough that there are likely to be some differences but not so complex that it becomes impossible to recall.

05. Use imaginary lines

Seeing and Drawing Exercise - YouTube

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Our brains are great at correcting for perspective so that we recognise the same objects in different situations, but can be a problem when it comes to drawing from observation, since our mind wants to use its default view. We know rectangular objects like tables have angles of 90 degrees, for example, but that might not be how they look at a different perspective.

In the video above, the artist Ed Cooper shows how to see like an artist by using imaginary lines. It starts to sound a bit mathematic and might bring back memories of school trigonometry classes, but it helps see how objects relate to the environment around them and each other, allowing you to use one object to measure another instead of trying to look at them as separate isolated items.

It's common for artists to use their hand or brush to measure the proportions of subjects, but this can have its downsides – see the video below from Alex Tzavaras.

You're Measuring Proportions WRONG! - YouTube

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06. Simplify then rebuild

You're likely to have heard that you should learn to identify the basic shapes in your subject and to draw these before you tackle fill in the detail. The problem is that sometimes it can be hard to see these basic shapes.

One way to practise this is by going backwards. Take a sketch you've made and break it down into its basic shapes – these could be circles for heads, torsos and muscles or line segments like straight lines and s-curves. Try redrawing the sketch with the fewest number of shapes possible that still keep its form recognisable. Once you're done, use this new break down of the shapes as the basis to for a new sketch adding back the detail. This can help you learn to see basic shapes and simplify your drawing by being more selective about what details to use.

07. Draw a plant

Let's go to the opposite extreme. I mentioned that a challenge with drawing what you see is interference from our existing notions. This is particularly apparent when you consider complex subjects like plants and trees. Our basic idea of what a plant looks like is often something at the symbol level, like the icon above. The reality is that plants are much complex, and certainly aren't flat.

This contrast between how we imagine plants and how they really are makes them a good subject to help us break free from our reliance on the domain of symbolic expression. You might want to try drawing just a section of a plant because an entire plant in all its complexity will take a long, long time.

Try starting with a leaf and go from there, and pay attention to whole shape, including parts that you might not be able to see because they're overlapped by others, because these are what will create depth in your drawing.

08. Find the real colour

Image 1 of 2

Colour and light are other aspects where our brains can trick us when we try to draw what we see (just check out our piece on optical illusions). White, for example, is rarely pure white. Above is a photo I took of a white-fronted woodpecker. But despite it's name its front isn't quite white. Using the eyedropper in Photoshop shows there's a tint to it.

Don't really on your brain's tendency to simplify colours into easy categories: shades are more complex. If you're not working digitally, you can't identify a colour using Photoshop, but you can try to see the colour more objectively by separating it from its environment. Trying rolling your hand to make a 'telescope' shape or using a neutral-coloured frame or other object to cover the rest of the scene and isolate each colour. This will help prevent your perception from being affected by the other colours around it.

Another good idea is to avoid adding colours separately. First find the most dominant colour in a scene and use that to fill your canvas, then proportionally add the second-most dominant and so on. One you have all the most dominant colours down, it should be easier to accurately apply the less dominant colours because your canvas will already look more like your reference.

09. Describe the scene in words

Writing and drawing are often seen as two separate and distinct ways to capture a scene, but visual artists can also benefit from writing. That's because it can encourage slow observation and help us notice the full complexity of a subject.

Find an object or scene and before you start to draw it, first describe it in words. Then take time to carefully study the subject and draw it slowly from different angles. Rather than aim to create finished sketches, think of this as a process of observing by drawing. Try to spend at least 10 minutes on it. Once you're done, write a paragraph describing what you drew including what makes the subject complex. You might find that the process of writing after you draw raises new questions or helps you to notice details.