Drawabox | A free, exercise based approach to learning the fundamentals of drawing

Anyone can learn to draw. It's not some magical talent a few people are born with. It's a skill you can train. We can help.

Drawabox is a set of free exercise-based lessons that focus on the fundamentals - the skills you'll need to make sense of all the other resources and tutorials out there. First we focus on the basic mechanics of mark making, and how to use your arm. By the end, we develop a strong understanding of form, 3D space and construction.

I won't lie to you - our approach is tough and involves a lot of hard work. It's also structured and gives you a clear path with concise explanations and assignments you can complete and submit for review.

You can read more about Drawabox and how it came about here.

Or you can join the community of thousands of beginners and professionals alike and get started.

Homework

Once you've completed a lesson, one of the best ways to refine your understanding of that material is to help others by critiquing their work. After having done thousands of critiques and having improved immensely over the last few years, I can attest to that myself.

  • Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

    dargonfyl

    5:32 AM, Thursday April 18th 2024
  • Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

    laurada

    5:34 AM, Tuesday April 16th 2024
  • Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

    Grumdere

    9:04 AM, Wednesday April 17th 2024
  • Lesson 5: Applying Construction to Animals

    seebfl

    8:17 AM, Saturday April 13th 2024
  • Lesson 3: Applying Construction to Plants

    Culhwch

    9:58 PM, Saturday April 13th 2024
  • Lesson 2: Contour Lines, Texture and Construction

    QriousK

    2:23 AM, Wednesday April 10th 2024
  • Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

    srpadlop

    7:02 PM, Saturday April 13th 2024
  • 250 Cylinder Challenge

    seebfl

    8:11 AM, Tuesday April 9th 2024
  • Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

    Fable

    7:52 PM, Wednesday April 3rd 2024
  • Lesson 4: Applying Construction to Insects and Arachnids

    Arcayl

    4:28 PM, Thursday April 11th 2024

Questions/Discussions

Take a moment to answer someone's question, or contribute to a discussion, if you have anything to offer.

  • Can i post my warmup pages in drawabox?

    anstupidartist

  • Should i redo the homework before submitting?

    Tresza

  • How is this pen for the course?

    RGBlack

  • Is this regular?

    RGBlack

Sketchbooks

Along with Drawabox work, our community members also post other artwork to their sketchbooks.

  • Zoltez's Sketchbook: Lighthouse

  • Armageddun's Sketchbook: some old drawings i like to share with yall :)

  • see_wolf's Sketchbook: Man Shows Fish Eclipse

  • BreadyReady's Sketchbook: Sketchbook sketches

  • Allipses's Sketchbook: Prompt Drawing 4-15-24

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something I've used myself. If you're interested, here is a full list.
PureRef

PureRef

This is another one of those things that aren't sold through Amazon, so I don't get a commission on it - but it's just too good to leave out. PureRef is a fantastic piece of software that is both Windows and Mac compatible. It's used for collecting reference and compiling them into a moodboard. You can move them around freely, have them automatically arranged, zoom in/out and even scale/flip/rotate images as you please. If needed, you can also add little text notes.

When starting on a project, I'll often open it up and start dragging reference images off the internet onto the board. When I'm done, I'll save out a '.pur' file, which embeds all the images. They can get pretty big, but are way more convenient than hauling around folders full of separate images.

Did I mention you can get it for free? The developer allows you to pay whatever amount you want for it. They recommend $5, but they'll allow you to take it for nothing. Really though, with software this versatile and polished, you really should throw them a few bucks if you pick it up. It's more than worth it.

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