The dream of being able to draw or paint anything you want is shared by almost every artist. It’s the creative freedom to bring any idea to life without feeling limited by skill or technique. 

But here’s the secret: the path to achieving that freedom isn’t necessarily about mastering every subject or copying every style. Instead, it starts with the most essential and often most difficult part: developing a regular practice of making art.

Hey there! 👋 I’m Carrie. Here on Artist Strong, I help self-taught artists go from unsure to unstoppable, so they can create their first real series of artwork and start building a portfolio they’re proud of. 

If you’re ready to stop the DIY learning and get the support and structure to finally draw and paint whatever you want, I’m here to help. Sign up and watch my workshop, “How to Create Art from Your Imagination.” To date, thousands have joined the community. The workshop is completely free, and the link is in the description below.

The Foundation of Daily Practice

Let’s be honest, the idea of making art almost every day sounds simple in theory but feels like one of the hardest aspects of being an artist in practice. Life gets in the way, creative blocks happen, and sometimes the idea of making “bad” art feels unbearable. 

But this is precisely where the magic lies. 

When we commit to practicing regularly, whether it’s five minutes or five hours a day, we are doing more than just putting pencil to paper or brush to canvas. We’re showing up for ourselves and our craft, gradually integrating art into our daily lives.

Without this regular engagement, the larger artistic goals we set for ourselves, like the ability to draw or paint anything, remain distant dreams. Why? Because those dreams require time and repetition. You can’t bypass the hours of exploration and refinement that come with practice. 

The good news is, each hour you spend making art brings you closer to realizing those goals. It’s an investment that compounds over time, building your skills, refining your ideas, and deepening your artistic voice.

Breaking Down the Essential Skills

Now, it’s not enough to just make art regularly. There are specific skills that must be nurtured, and they form the bedrock of your ability to paint or draw whatever you imagine. In my experience, these skills fall into three major categories:

1. Drawing and painting from two-dimensional references
2. Translating three-dimensional objects and environments into two-dimensional surfaces
3. Drawing or painting from your imagination

Each of these skills is essential, and they are deeply interconnected. The ability to capture a still life from life, for example, will enhance your attention to detail and understanding of light and shadow, skills that will also serve you when drawing from imagination. 

On the other hand, experimenting with imaginative drawing might open up new ways of thinking about composition or line quality that you can apply to observational work.

Have you thought about the essential skills in this way? Tell me yes or no in the comments below.

Practicing with Purpose

The key to developing these three foundational skills is purposeful practice. It’s not about mindlessly sketching whatever comes to mind or following instructions without understanding their relevance. You don’t have to limit yourself to the standard art-school exercises like drawing boxes or spheres just because that’s what you’re “supposed” to do.

Instead, look for opportunities to connect your practice to ideas that genuinely interest and motivate you. Let’s say you’re fascinated by organic forms: like the flow of water or the texture of bark. Why not incorporate those into your practice? 

Or maybe you’re drawn to fantastical creatures. Work on translating those mental images into sketches or paintings. The more you can connect what you’re learning with what excites you, the more engaging and productive your practice will be.

But don’t neglect the basics entirely. Even though foundational exercises may seem tedious at times, they are crucial for developing your technical proficiency. The trick is to balance your practice between creative exploration and technical refinement. They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Also: check out my article on why artists should practice more like musicians, linked below.

Understanding the Fundamentals of Art

Another essential layer to being able to draw or paint anything involves understanding the foundations of art, not just in terms of technical skill, but in terms of formal decision-making. Every choice you make as an artist, from the type of brushstroke you use to the colors you choose to emphasize, reflects your understanding of the formal elements of art.

These formal elements include:

• Line
• Shape
• Value
• Color
• Texture
• Space

As you practice, ask yourself: how am I using these elements? For example, are you aware of how value (the lightness or darkness of a color) can affect the mood of your piece? Are you consciously using line to direct the viewer’s eye, or is it happening by accident?

These elements are like the grammar of visual art. Without a solid grasp of them, your work might still be beautiful, but it may lack intentionality. It’s one thing to create a striking image accidentally and another to do so with purpose and understanding. And, as with grammar, the more fluent you become in the formal language of art, the more freely you can break its rules.

I have an entire video on this topic, which has you look at formal decisions as well as other factors that help us develop our unique style and invite you to dig deeper here.

Then go ahead and give this video a like if this is making sense and helpful to you.

Formal Choices and Composition

An area where formal decision-making particularly shines is in composition. How you arrange the elements in your artwork, whether it’s a complex painting or a simple sketch, can make or break the final result. Even if you’ve nailed every other aspect of a piece, poor composition can leave the viewer feeling disoriented or disconnected from the work.

Start paying attention to the way you arrange objects within your frame. Ask yourself questions like:

• How does the viewer’s eye move through the piece?
• Where is the focal point, and how do the surrounding elements support it?
• How can I use perspective and scale to add depth and drama?

The principles of composition, like the rule of thirds or the golden ratio, are tried and true. They exist for a reason and should be part of your toolkit as you learn to master your craft.

Technique and Medium: Exploring the How

The last critical component in the journey to draw or paint anything is mastering your technique: specifically, learning how to apply different techniques to various mediums. Every medium, from acrylics to charcoal to digital art, has its own set of unique characteristics. Knowing how to handle these tools with confidence can drastically expand your artistic possibilities.

For example, think about how you create a sense of depth using acrylic paint compared to colored pencils. Acrylics might allow you to layer large blocks of color quickly and easily adjust values, whereas pencils require a more delicate, gradual build-up of shading. Both methods can achieve the same result, depth, but the process and techniques differ.

By gaining familiarity with the techniques of your chosen mediums, you can start to understand how best to convey your ideas. Are you trying to create texture? Build form? Suggest atmosphere? Each of these goals may require different technical approaches depending on the medium you’re working in.

Pulling It All Together: The Path to Creative Freedom

Ultimately, the ability to draw or paint anything comes from a combination of regular practice, skill development, formal decision-making, and technical mastery. It may sound like a lot to juggle, but the beauty of it is that each of these aspects supports the others. As you practice more, your skill improves. As your skills improve, you gain a deeper understanding of art’s formal principles. As you refine your understanding, your technical abilities grow, and with that, your creative freedom expands.

So, the next time you sit down to draw or paint, remind yourself: this is part of the bigger picture. Each piece, each practice session, is a step towards unlocking the ability to create anything you can imagine. The more you commit to this journey, the closer you’ll get to achieving the artistic freedom you’ve always dreamed of.

If you don’t want to do this alone, you don’t have to. It’s exactly what we do inside my program Self-Taught to Self-Confident, where I help artists draw or paint anything they want. They go through this entire process and walk away with a series of artworks reflecting their unique style, ready to exhibit or even sell. 

Learn more by signing up for my workshop, How to Create Art from your Imagination, for free. Use the link here or below to start watching right now.

Thank you so much for watching. As always please like and subscribe to my work to never miss an episode. And tell me what you’d like to learn about next in the community tab: your ideas determine the content I create!

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