How Long Does It Take The Average Person To Learn To Draw?

How long does it take the average person to learn to draw? 

There is one question most aspiring artists have and whether you’ve already started drawing or you’re still planning on it, you might be wondering the same thing: How long does it take the average person to learn to draw? 

Now, while you shouldn’t worry too much about the timeframe, an answer to this question can help you set your drawing expectations and goals, and this post will give you just that.

For reference here are three of my own figure drawings. I started drawing consistently late fall of 2016:

December 2016:

March 2017:

April 2018:

At about 2-3 years of consistent drawing practice, I was pretty happy with my drawing skill level and how my drawings were coming out.

In this post, we’ll also tackle other related questions you might have. So let’s get right to it!

How Long does it take to learn to draw?

How long does it take to learn to draw?

Again, for the average person, it can take about 2-3 years to learn to draw with consistent practice.

Learning to draw can take as little as two years to more than half a decade. Beginners in drawing usually develop their skills after a couple of years of consistent practice.

Although you won’t yet have mastery of the art, you should be able to create decent drawings by this time.

It can take much longer for you to learn how to draw if it’s something you aren’t fully committed to. Sporadic practice sessions won’t get you very far and you can expect minimal progress — if any at all.

There are factors that will determine your level of progress in drawing at any given time within a two to five-year period and the rate at which you achieve it.

• Practice. Practice is the cornerstone of artistic development. Any hope you have of becoming an artist and producing great drawings can only be brought to fruition by regular practice. The amount of time you dedicate to it will directly influence the speed of your progress in learning to draw.
• Study. There is a theoretical aspect that you will need to understand to be able to inform your art and produce drawings that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also accurate. The sooner you understand these principles, the sooner you can learn to apply them to your drawings. 
• Consistency. It may be cliché, but consistency really is key to success. Drawing cannot be a “whenever I have time” pursuit. If you want to make any real progress, you need to commit to it and be consistent in both practice and study. 
• Drawing classes. You can certainly learn how to draw on your own without having to take drawing classes. However, your progress would arguably be faster with the guidance of a professional instructor. So if you’re looking to speed up the learning process, enrolling in a drawing class is an option you can consider.
• Natural ability. While I stand by the belief that anyone at any point in their life can learn to draw, I do acknowledge that some people have an innate artistic talent that is tied to their genetics. It can be expected that these naturally talented ones will be able to develop their drawing skills faster than others despite putting in the same amount of time and effort. 

While you don’t have any say in your genetics, you do have control over the time you choose to dedicate to learning how to draw.

Some artists are born, but other artists are made through their consistency in the practice and study of the art of drawing.

What is the average time it takes to learn to draw?

Again, the average time it takes to learn to draw is two to three years. Within this period, the progress demonstrated by the artist is the sum of the time and effort they poured into drawing, as well as the knowledge they acquired on the elements and principles of art.

How Long Does It Take to Learn Different Drawing Styles?

The time it takes to master a specific style depends on its complexity. Here’s an estimate for some common drawing styles:

• Realism – 5 to 10 years of intensive study and practice.
• Manga drawing style – 2 to 5 years, depending on skill level and character design complexity.
• Comic drawing style – 1 to 3 years to reach a professional comic drawing level.
• Cartoon-style drawings – 6 months to 2 years, as they rely more on creativity than technical precision.
• Classical drawing techniques – 3 to 7 years, as they involve in-depth study of anatomy, perspective, and composition.

Factors That Influence How Long It Takes to Learn to Draw

The time it takes to learn to draw varies from person to person. However, some common factors affect your progress:

• Hours of practice – The more time you spend drawing, the faster you improve. Consistent, daily practice yields the best results.
• Deliberate practice – Simply sketching mindlessly won’t help. Targeted exercises focusing on weak points are crucial for progress.
• Muscle memory – Repeating certain drawing techniques over time helps your hands move instinctively.
• Talent for drawing – While natural talent can provide a head start, learning to draw is a skill that anyone can develop.
• Personal experience – If you’ve done creative work before, such as graphic design or painting, you may pick up drawing techniques faster.
• Guidance from expert drawing artists – Learning from professionals, whether through online courses or mentorship, speeds up the process.
• Use of tools – A good sketchbook, pencils, or even a cheap drawing tablet can help enhance your practice.

How long does it take to draw realistic drawings?

Because this art style requires a lot of technical skill, theoretical understanding, and keen observation, it can take five to ten years to learn to draw realistically. 

You should already make significant progress in your first two to three years, but you will still be a long way off from proficiency in realistic drawing. 

Within this period, you will need to work on the basic drawing skills you first learned as a beginner. It is only with mastery over them that you can hope to learn how to draw realistically.

Understanding the Hour Rule for Drawing

The idea of the 10,000-hour rule, made famous by Malcolm Gladwell, suggests that mastery of any skill requires at least 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. However, not everyone needs that much time to become proficient at drawing.

Here’s a general breakdown of progress over different amounts of time:

• 0-3 months – Basic drawing exercises like lines, shapes, and shading. Developing observational skills.
• 3-12 months – Drawing simple objects, improving proportions, and experimenting with common drawing styles.
• 1-3 years – Gaining confidence in different drawing aspects like anatomy, perspective, and shading. Exploring comic drawing styles and manga drawing styles.
• 3-5 years – Developing a unique artistic voice, creating character designs, and working towards professional-level art.
• 5+ years – Advanced drawing techniques, mastery of life drawing, and reaching a professional artist’s level.

How to learn to draw

How to learn to draw – the very first and most important thing you need to do if you want to learn to draw is to just start drawing.

For those who begin at a young age, art is a no-brainer. Give a kid some pencils and crayons and they’ll dive right into it. 

But there’s a lot more hesitation for older folks who are considering learning how to draw. 

The angel on one shoulder tells them they can learn to do it, while the devil on the other reminds them that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

To make it perfectly clear, you can learn to draw at any age. Art isn’t limited by a biological clock. There is no cutoff beyond which all hope of learning to draw is lost.

So, whether you just got past puberty or you’re a senior citizen looking for more ways to put up resistance against the mental decline that comes with aging, you can learn to draw. 

Here are some helpful tips to help get you started:

• Just draw. Forget all the reasons why you think you can’t or shouldn’t draw and grab a pencil and paper and start sketching. For many artists across different mediums, this first step has often proven to be the most difficult hurdle to get past. You have to determine that you’re going to do it—and you do it! 
• Keep it simple. Aspiring artists can be the most ambitious folks around. Now, it’s not wrong to dream of all the incredible drawings you can produce someday. But first, you need to develop the limited ability you have and practice drawing basic shapes and figures no matter how tedious it gets. It can be tempting to attempt drawing fancier subjects so soon, but you wouldn’t be doing yourself any favors. Keep it simple for now and lay a solid foundation for your future artist self to build on. They’ll be thankful that you did. 
• Step up your learning. There isn’t a more convenient period to be a novice artist than in the information age where you have ready access to a wealth of educational material on the subject. From books and websites to YouTube videos, there is no limit to what you can learn. Supplement your technical development with theoretical knowledge and understanding of the principles of art. This will significantly influence the quality of your drawings.
• Be consistent. If you really want to learn to draw, you can’t miss a beat. Draw often. Draw regularly. Beginner’s fervor has a tendency to burn bright and die out. There’ll be times when it seems like you aren’t making any progress at all and you feel like you aren’t worthy to sharpen Adonna Khare’s pencils. It’s important that you be consistent and just keep at it even when you get frustrated—especially when you get frustrated. Just keep drawing.

How often should you practice drawing?

Ideally, you should practice drawing for two – three hours every day. Meeting this number of hours is crucial if you’re looking to really develop your skills. Perhaps you’re hoping to someday make a living from your art.

But if you’re taking up drawing merely as a hobby, or if you simply don’t have that much time to practice, try to put in at least two hours daily.

The Role of Online Courses in Learning to Draw

Online courses are a great way to learn efficiently. Many professional artists provide structured lessons that can help you:

• Learn from expert drawing artists who have years of experience.
• Avoid common mistakes that beginners make.
• Follow a step-by-step learning process that ensures noticeable improvement over a period of time.
• Access affordable courses instead of expensive in-person art schools.

The Importance of Consistency and Practice

Regardless of your skill level, the most important factor in improving your drawing is consistency. Here’s how you can stay motivated:

• Schedule built-in break times to prevent burnout.
• Keep a sketchbook and draw every day, even for a short burst of time.
• Track your progress by comparing drawings over weeks or months.
• Join a community of artists for support and feedback.

Conclusion

Learning to draw is a process of learning, practice, and improvement over time. Whether your goal is to reach a professional level or simply enjoy drawing as a hobby, the key is to remain consistent, follow expert guidance, and embrace the learning journey. By dedicating the right amounts of time, using the right drawing tools, and focusing on deliberate practice, you can see noticeable improvements and develop confident drawings over time.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Do you need to take drawing classes?

Although you do not necessarily need to take drawing classes to improve at this medium, some professional instruction would certainly benefit you and help you hone your craft. 

There are many artists who are self-taught and able to develop their drawing skills on their own by consistent practice supplemented with guides from books, articles, or instructional videos.

But whether you take up a casual art class or enroll in a prestigious fine arts academy, there is an advantage to be gleaned from the guidance provided by an instructor.

For one, you’ll always know where you stand with the direct feedback you receive from them on your drawings. Their critique would be a valuable pointer in the right direction.

You would be promptly informed of what you aren’t doing right and the steps you need to take to correct your mistakes.

On the other hand, if you are a self-learner, you would not be the recipient of this instruction and guidance.

As a result, it may take you more time to work out what you need to be doing differently and this would be a delay in your progress as an artist.

How many hours a day should you practice drawing

If your situation allows for it, you should practice drawing 1-3 hours a day.

When I was purely focused on drawing, I would aim for 3 hours a day of drawing practice.

I would draw for 1 hour, take a 15 minute break if I needed it, then complete that cycle two more times.

When you begin to learn a new skill, such as drawing, a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity takes place in your brain. When this happens, new connections are created between your neurons.

These connections are strengthened through regular practice, and the more they are reinforced, the faster the transmission of nerve impulses becomes.

Your progress in drawing corresponds to how well those connections between neurons are reinforced.

If you still aren’t getting those proportions quite right, or your shading is still off, it means the connections haven’t been strengthened enough.

So, if you want to get better at your art, you will need to dedicate several hours to consistently practicing it — five hours a day, to be exact.

Can I get good at drawing in three years?

With consistent practice, you can get good at drawing in three years. The average time it takes to learn drawing is two to three years.

If you dedicate two to five hours of drawing every day, you can make marked improvement within this timeframe.

Like any other skill, practice is key to development. The amount of time you pour into drawing will be reflected in how well you improve over a given period. 

The duration and frequency of drawing practice generally recommended by professionals are five to six hours daily.

If you have set an objective for yourself to achieve in three years, you’ll have to stick to this practice timetable.

But when you simply don’t have enough hours in a day, two hours of drawing practice should be the bare minimum.

Is drawing good for your brain?

A growing mountain of scientific evidence indicates that drawing is very good for your brain. In a nutshell, it can improve your cognitive function and is also greatly beneficial for mental health.

To see our full post take a look here: Is Drawing Good for your Brain?

For a long time now, scientists have linked viewing art with substantial brain stimulation. But studies in recent years suggest that creating art takes it even further.

Here is what drawing does to your brain:

• It improves connections between your neurons. New connections between the neurons in your brain are created when you first learn how to draw. These are strengthened with continued practice, and as a result, communication between neurons becomes more efficient.
• It improves your memory. This is especially so if you are drawing from life. Granted, you will have references. But the act of observing your subject, registering the details in your mind, and then transferring them onto your sketchpad exercises your memory. Moreover, a study has shown that people who sketched while listening to a lecture were able to retain more information than those who merely listened. This suggests that drawing activates areas in the brain involved with memory and these can be further developed by drawing.
• It improves your focus. As with most other art forms, it requires you to have impressive levels of focus to observe the details you need to draw. Indeed, artists have earned a reputation for losing themselves in their work. Once they get started creating something, all else ceases to matter. Of course, you shouldn’t go overboard either. But you can use drawing to train your brain to achieve a healthy level of focus.
• It improves your observational skills. It’s so effective, in fact, that medical students take up elective art courses that include drawing workshops in an effort to enhance their observational skills, as these are transferable from drawing to patient assessment. Similarly, nurses who engage in art also report an improvement in their observational skills.
• It improves your motor skills. It’s one of the reasons why kids are encouraged to draw. This activity mainly involves hand movements, but as signals are sent to the motor neurons in the brain, your overall motor skills get better. Because of this, drawing is even used to rehabilitate stroke patients who have lost some of their motor skills. 
• It helps lower stress. If you’re having trouble managing stress, you might want to give drawing a try. This activity has been linked to lower cortisol levels. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone and research shows that just 45 minutes of drawing can result in a significant drop in your cortisol levels. Who knew that stick people could be the solution to stress?
• It activates the reward center in the brain. When you create art, the blood flow to your prefrontal cortex increases. This is associated with the brain’s reward center. So as you are drawing, this causes a boost in feelings of pleasure. For this reason, drawing and other forms of creating art can potentially be used as therapy for those who deal with addiction, eating disorders, and other conditions that activate the brain’s reward center.

Because of its effects on the brain processes, drawing has become widely used in art therapy for cancer patients and veterans and the results have been very positive. 

But one remarkable thing worth noting is that drawing offers you these benefits regardless of your physical health, mental health, and even your drawing skill level. 

You can be completely new to it and your brain will still benefit as you doodle or sketch stick people.

Why Does drawing take so long to learn?

Drawing takes so long to learn because it is a skill that requires technical precision and a theoretical understanding of the different principles of art. It takes time to develop the former and study the latter. 

It will take you even longer to learn different drawing styles. On top of the average of two to three years to learn the basics of drawing, you will need to practice for another two to five years in order to gain proficiency in a specific style.

Thanks for reading and see you in the next one!

Zack

Zack is the creator and main author of LateNightPortrait. As a late starter himself, he believes that anyone, regardless of age, can create something special through practicing art. He spends most evenings drawing portraits and figures while listening to music. When not drawing or painting he can be found going for walks with his wife and attempting (and often failing) to train his dog.