Like most people and artists I taught myself drawing online. Starting out I wondered how long it would take me to learn to draw and was a little overwhelmed.
Hundreds of videos and tutorials later I didn’t have a clear answer but wanted to know. How long does it take to learn to draw? Learning to draw takes about 8 weeks on average. How close you are to this average depends on the breadth and depth of drawing you learn. This average is based on a wider breadth covering all aspects of drawing with less depth into specifics.
How long does it take to draw well? What factors affect how long it may take you? How do you learn to draw on your own?
In this post, I will cover how long it takes to learn to draw along with all these related questions to give you the most complete and accurate answer.
Learning to Draw: How Long Will it Take?
Learning a new skill can be intimidating, and drawing is one of the earliest skills we’re introduced to as babies and young children.
We’re encouraged to use drawings to express ourselves however once we get older this almost disappears.
The talented artists of our classes and groups are placed on a pedestal by the rest of us, their drawings are out of our reach. We lose interest at the depressing thought that to reach their level is impossible.
At best we guess it would take an ungodly amount of time and practice but even then we don’t know if we even would get there.
I’m here to dispel this myth as false and let you know there is an exact time you and anyone can learn to draw.
I know this is a fact because I along with thousands of others do it every day.
Drawing is a skill, NOT a talent despite what a lot of us are led to believe from experiences like this. Which is exactly why I wrote a whole post on just that here.
Skills and trades are taught in schools, classes, apprenticeships, online, and in person. Drawing is just another one of those skills.
I myself took a semester-long course in college which was about 12 weeks on Traditional Media. Drawing itself was covered in about 6 weeks as we also covered painting and installations.
The basics of drawing were covered in this class; starting with simple lines, shapes, and shading exercises. Still life compositions were next followed by live models and original art drawings.
My original art drawing was of a made-up creature I created by combining references from video games.
Using everything we had learned I was able to pass that class with an A (90-100% Score) as my grade and more importantly I was able to draw.
Granted I understand that my college class is only one example so for this post, I did research on some of the most popular beginner drawing courses and their average length of completion and have created a table of that data here:
| Class | Length |
| Proko – Figure Drawing | ~8 weeks |
| Drawabox Lessons | ~12-16weeks |
| Brad Colbow – Procreate Master Class | 4-6 weeks |
| Brent Eviston – The Art & Science of Drawing | 8 weeks |
| Gabrielle Brickey – Learn to Draw: Daily Practices | 6-8 weeks |
| Chris Oatley – Digital Painting | 12 weeks |
| Vilppu Academy – Drawing Essentials | 6 weeks |
| Ctrl+Paint – Traditional Drawing | 6 weeks |
| Drawing/Traditional Media College Course | 6-12 weeks |
8.3 weeks is around how long it takes to learn to draw. That is the average time it took for students to complete these drawing classes.
How to Learn to Draw
Now that we know learning to draw is an attainable goal with a timeframe, we want to know, how do we do it?
As I’m sure you can imagine or probably already know how to learn to draw is a topic worth a post on its own. I will create one filled with specific exercises to help you learn and link to it here once done.
For now below is a list of things you will need to learn to draw:
Lines & 2D Shapes
Lines and shapes are your fundamental tools for drawing about as much as your pencil or stylus will be.
Exercises focusing on smooth straight lines and curves will be a great and easy place to start.
Perspective & 3D Shapes
3D space is the next step bringing your drawings closer to life as you now draw things as you see them from different angles.
Form Deconstructing & Constructing
Using what you’ve learned so far, take everyday objects and break them down into combinations of simple 3d shapes to draw out their form. People can be the next step here just repeat the same process.
Shading & Lighting
Next level drawing brings us to light and shadow this is what will really make your drawings pop off the paper.
Hurray! You’ve learned how to draw. This is a very simplified list of course but you now know what you need to learn so go out and learn it.
How to Learn to Draw Fast
Previously we arrived at the average time it would take someone to learn to draw. For some who are interested however the best possible outcome would take the least time.
It is definitely possible to learn how to draw in less than ~8 weeks.
The courses and classes I mentioned have actual run times that range from 8-22 hours or less than 1 day.
Implementation of the techniques you learn are what take more time and some people will simply need more time than others.
BUT…
By actively studying and learning you can take less time to learn drawing as a skill.
First, set more goals with clearly defined terms and times to accomplish them.
In college, my professor told us about an experiment where art students were split into 2 groups.
Group A was told to spend the entire year on one masterpiece. Group B was told to produce one piece of art a day.
By the end of the year, about half of group A had quit and the remaining students had good pieces but only a few that stood out.
Group B had tons of work with multiple masterpieces by each student with only a few quitting.
Limiting time on goals helped force the students to become more creative resulting in better work even at a much higher quantity.
Break up your big goal of learning to draw into smaller more achievable goals.
For example
Drawing > Lines & Shapes > Lines > Draw 50 lines/day (Separate from any other drawing)
Once you’ve broken down your goals like this you can track them. Hold yourself accountable, even when you miss days, write it down so you make up for it the next day.
You will actually take less time overall than if you didn’t track it because you are constraining yourself. Focusing will allow you to get more done than a weekly class where you have all week to submit the work.
By doing this with all your goals for drawing or any other skills you can learn to draw faster!
How Long Does it Take to Draw Anime, Comics, Anatomy, Portraits, Etc
Once you’re done with these basics you can now move on to learning how to draw the specific things you want.
Anime, people, comics, characters, cartoons, each of these are their own category.
The good thing is you can draw them all now with the skills you’ve developed.
Based on some quick research each of these can be accomplished in about 1-2 months or 4-8 weeks.
But you do have the technical skill now to draw all of these things without that and for some of you that may be fine so you can go now and start learning.
The rest of you may want to know how to create your own original pieces. Originality is another big cause as to why people can’t or choose not to answer the question of how long it takes to learn to draw.
There are only two things holding you back from learning to draw what you want. Just as they were holding you back from drawing at the start. Knowledge and experience.
Drawing is a skill and so to be able to create your own characters and comics you have to study them.
Just like with the drawing basics you’ve got to find classes for the specific area you’re interested in and learn.
Anime/Manga
While every anime/manga has its own styles some common drawing themes include big eyes, different body proportions, exaggerated features, less detailed and not hyper-realistic drawings.
Characters
Human? Animal? Objects? This is super broad, depending on what type of characters you have you’ll need to focus on learning about that type. One consistent thing however is learning how to add emotion and characterization to your characters will help make them better overall.
People/Anatomy
People can be difficult to draw but luckily we see them all the time and you have yourself as a reference. Studying anatomy will help you create more believable and better drawings of people.
Portraits
Faces just like people can be hard to draw but anatomy can help you create better proportions to make them look good.
You can learn to draw whatever you want and do so in a reasonable amount of time.
Learning to draw a matter of setting your goals then seeking ways to achieve them. Whether it be formal classes in a college or just some random YouTube videos there are an infinite amount of resources.
Learn the techniques, use references to implement them, then try your hand at drawing on your own. With knowledge and experience, you will be able to create awesome drawings and I wish you the best.
