Of course, observational drawing requires you to have a reference or a live subject. You clearly cannot draw from observation without a subject to observe.

So what happens when we don’t have the subject in front of us and we have no reference in which to work? How to do we create convincing drawings without a reference?

Most artists have the desire to draw without reference material, but when they “give it a go”, the results aren’t what they expected.

Drawing From Memory

When we find ourselves without a reference, we have to rely on our memory. We have to pull information from our past drawing experiences and apply it to the drawing that we create from our memory. And like drawing from observation, this takes a bit of practice.

Drawing from memory is a skill that can be developed. Fortunately, there are a few steps that we can take to develop this skill.

We’ll quickly look at an overview of the steps involved and then we’ll break each one down. Then it’s up to you to apply them…

• Practice From Life
• Develop a “Drawing Formula”
• Practice From Memory
• Compare Results
• Repeat

Practicing From Life

In order to draw from our memory, we must create memories. This means that we need to practice drawing from observation. By practicing, we start to develop a “road map” for creating a drawing of that specific subject.

Consider this example. You just got a new job and your new workplace is on the opposite end of town.  You’re not very familiar with this part of the city. In fact, you’ve only been to that side of town once or twice and you have no idea how to get there again.

You made it to your interview, but there were lots of turns and it was a little confusing. There’s no way you’d get there again without directions.

You don’t want to be late on your first day of work, so you put the address in your GPS system and go to work. You use your GPS again to get home. And just to be safe, you use it for the rest of your first week.

But the next week, you no longer need it. You know how to get to your new job. In fact, you are now starting to enjoy the drive. You find that you begin to notice things along the way that you didn’t see when you were following the GPS. You notice specific houses, shops, and little details that escaped you before.

It’s now the sixth month of your “no longer new job” and you’ve memorized every detail of the journey. The details of the trip have become engrained in your memory. You can even give directions to others, citing landmarks along the way.

We can compare this example to drawing. When we draw a subject from life, we have our “GPS”. We can see the details on the subject. We have a guide.

The first few times that we draw the subject, we need the “map”. The more practice that we get with the subject, the more details that we notice in the process. Pretty soon, we can draw a fairly convincing version of the subject without even looking at it because we have memorized the process – we know the way.

Drawing Formulas

A drawing formula is a step by step approach to drawing a specific subject using defined relationships (proportions). Formulas exist for drawing many subjects: figures, portraiture, architecture, and animals to name a few. While accomplished artists throughout the years have devised formulas for drawing specific subjects, we can also develop our own.

When we practice drawing from life, we begin to develop these drawing formulas. We are essentially creating a “road map” for drawing the subject.

I am trained as an illustrator. Illustration majors in art school were, and still are, required to take many classes in figure drawing. In fact, I was in a figure drawing class for four consecutive years. That’s a lot of figure drawings.

When I first started, I had no idea where to start with the figure. Our professors just told us to draw the figure and walked around the classroom offering little critiques, but of course – little instruction.

For those first few drawings, I would start with the head and work downward. I soon learned that this approach wasn’t the best for drawing the entire figure.

As I continued to draw, I started to develop a formula that worked for me. It only developed from drawing from observation, but it could be applied to drawing the figure from my imagination.

I had created a drawing formula for drawing the figure through practice.

The best part is that not only could I now apply that formula to drawing the figure without a reference, but I could also apply it to drawing the figure from observation. So both skills improved as a result of the repetitive practice.

Practice From Memory

Once you’ve developed a formula for drawing the subject, the next step is to practice drawing from memory. Grab that sketchbook and start drawing the subject without a reference.

Try drawing the subject from different angles and note any issues that you encounter along the way.

You may notice that your drawings from memory are stylized, and this is perfectly acceptable. Keep in mind that for highly representational drawings, you’ll always need some sort of reference.

Compare Results

Once you complete a drawing (or drawings) from memory, make comparisons of your work with your drawings from observation.

• What details did you leave out?
• How could your drawings from memory be improved?
• How can you adjust your drawing formula to lead to greater accuracy?

Give yourself a little critique and decide how you can improve your process.

Repeat

Skills, like drawing, are developed through repetitive practice. Unfortunately, there isn’t a “magic bullet” that will make your drawing skills better over night.

The good news is that you are only limited by your dedication to the craft. And if you’re willing to put in the work, then the “sky is the limit”.

To improve your drawing from memory, you’ll need to repeat the steps above. Perhaps many times. This is great practice for your sketchbook and you’ll notice the results.

Once a habit is formed, it usually “sticks”. This is why it is so important to commit to creating good habits in our life and ridding ourselves of the habits that hinder us.

It’s easy to talk about starting a brand new habit, but it’s another thing to develop one. Developing a habit takes dedication and will power in the beginning. Over time, the habit becomes easier to repeat, but it’s tough at the start.

So, why I am talking about habits here?

Well, drawing is a skill. Skills take time and persistent practice to develop. And like any other skill, they need continual attention, without long time periods between practice sessions.

Clearly, if your desire is to draw well, then you need to create a drawing habit.

Making a commitment to draw everyday, for even just a few minutes, will lead to drastically substantial results. You may not see these improvements everyday, but you will over time. Creating a drawing habit, and sticking with it, will improve your skills – it’s almost guaranteed.

Remember, drawing is not a “talent” that some are born with and others are not. It is a skill that anyone can learn and develop.

Okay, so maybe you recognize that you need to develop a drawing habit. So, how do we develop a habit of drawing when we know that habits are hard to start?

In order to create a drawing habit, we need to understand how habits are developed and how our minds work when it comes to habits.

How Habits Work

Habits, in a way, are a method of training your brain to behave automatically. However, when we start a new habit, there’s nothing automatic about it. We have to commit and force ourselves into the activity, doing it even though we may not feel like it.

I run everyday, well almost everyday. I don’t particularly like it that much (sometimes I do). But, I know that it is important for my health. I feel better when I run.  I have more energy. I’m more creative. (I’ve always been athletic, but I’ve always hated to run.)

Even though it’s not my favorite activity, I can still recognize the importance of the benefits that it gives to me. You see, I run for the health benefits – not for the joy of running.

I’ve formed a habit with my running, but it definitely wasn’t easy when I first started. This particular habit has taken some time to become “entrenched” in my every day life. It definitely didn’t happen when I first made the commitment to start exercising. And I made some mistakes when I was trying to develop this habit.

My First Mistake

The first mistake I made was to run when I “had the chance”. I didn’t set up a routine or a schedule, I just told myself that I would run when I could, but do it every day.

As you can imagine, this didn’t work at all. I ran the first day and when I was sore the second day – I found I didn’t “have the time” to run. My habit had no chance of forming. It was doomed right from the start.

My Second Mistake

A few weeks later, I decided to give it another go, but this time I had a better plan. I decided that I would run as soon as I woke and hopped out of bed. I made a commitment to myself to never, I mean never, miss a day.

I was much more successful with this new approach, but I also made another fatal flaw. More on that in a moment.

My second attempt at forming a running habit was great for the first few weeks. That’s right, I actually got up every morning and ran. This lasted for about 5 weeks. I felt great, I was losing weight, and I felt like I had actually created a new habit for myself –  a good one too.

Then it happened. I missed a day.

Remember, I had committed to never, I mean never, miss a day. And when I did – I felt awful. Not physically, but mentally. I felt like I was a bit of a “failure”.

But something else happened too. I saw that the world kept on going, even though I skipped a day. In fact, I kind of liked the extra time I had because a didn’t run. And guess what happened. That’s right, I missed another one. And another one. After a week, my habit was gone.

You see what happened there?

I was successful for those 5 weeks because I set my new habit to occur with another activity that I was already doing – waking up. When I woke up each morning, it became a “trigger” and I knew that the next thing I was to do was to start running. This is why the habit worked for so long.

But maybe you can also see where I failed.

When I missed a day, I felt terrible, because I had set my expectations too high. I had not “set my mind” to forgive myself when I missed a run. So, when I did, I felt like I had failed. And that feeling of failure eventually led to my demise.

If I would have just made the commitment to not miss two days in a row.

So, when I tried again several months later, this is what I committed to. I told myself, “If I miss a day – it’s ok. I can run on the next day.”

And guess what? I’m still running today. If I miss a day – it’s ok. I just pick up where I left off. My habit has stuck now and I almost don’t even think about whether or not I will run – I just do it.

So what did I learn about forming a habit?

I am by no means, a “habit specialist”, but I did learn a couple of things about forming a habit when I decided to start running. And if your desire is to start a drawing habit, then these principles can be applied to ensure that you are successful.

1. Make a Commitment  – The first thing is to do is to make a commitment to improving yourself with your new habit. Understand that you are establishing this new habit for the benefits that will result, not necessarily for the joy that the activity will bring to you.

By establishing a drawing habit, even for just a few minutes every day, you will see results in your skill. Drawing is fun most of the time, but many times it takes real work. And real work isn’t always fun.

But you’re not making the commitment to form a drawing habit because drawing is fun. You are forming this habit for the benefits of drawing improvement that will result. This means that there will be days that you don’t feel like doing it. But if you’re committed to the benefits then it’s a lot easier to work through and continue.

2. Group Your Drawing Habit with a “Trigger” – I found success with my running habit when I committed to do it when I woke each morning. Waking up was my trigger. It’s what told my brain that it was time to do the next activity – which was running.

Decide what trigger you can “group” with your drawing habit. Maybe it’s that morning coffee. Maybe it’s right after dinner. Think of an activity that you know you will not be “skipping” and group your drawing habit with it. That way you are more likely to complete it every day. Over time, your brain will “tell you” that’s it’s time for drawing when you do that daily trigger.

3. Expect to Miss Some Days –  Nobody’s perfect and it should be expected that you will miss a day or three. When this happens, don’t get too down on yourself. Don’t let it be the end of your habit. Instead, simply make the decision to not miss two days in row. If you skip a day, just pick up on the next.

4. Set a Time Limit – Our time is important and you may tell yourself that you just do not have the time to start a new beneficial habit like drawing every day. Saying that you “don’t have the time” is really just an excuse. Wake up 30 minutes earlier, or skip that hour of TV.

Setting a time limit to the activity helps as well. Commit to drawing for just 30 minutes, or even just 15 minutes every day. Surely, you can find 15 minutes in your day to improve your skills.

So What Do I Draw?

Be prepared for the ole’ “artist block” when you start your new drawing habit. That blank sheet of sketch paper staring at you can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. You can’t wait for inspiration to strike. You’ll end up waiting for a while if you do.

Inspiration usually results from some sort of action. So, make a plan for what you will draw ahead of “drawing time”. It can be anything. Objects around you, photos that you have lying around, or even your hand. The point is to just draw something. As you start making marks, and get to the work, your artistic inspiration may just “kick in”.

If you need a little help getting started, this handy list of 101 sketchbook ideas will get things going…

• 101 Sketchbook Ideas

Start Your Drawing Habit

Ok, so now it’s time to get started. Drawing well requires a commitment to developing your skill. And skills are developed with practice. And practice requires a habit.

Make a commitment to yourself to start improving your drawing skills by developing a drawing habit. With a drawing habit in place, you’re sure to see improvement over time.

Every time I sit down to work on a drawing, I make sure that each of these supplies are within my reach. I may not use them for every drawing that I create, but they are an essential part of any colored pencil artist’s tool box.

Let’s have a look inside…

1. Colored Pencils

Okay, so this one is fairly obvious. You must have colored pencils to create a colored pencil drawing. But there’s a little more to this.

The quality of the brand of colored pencil that you use greatly affects the results that you will see in your drawing. You cannot expect to use sub-par materials and get professional results.

Even if you are just starting out, I would suggest going right for the higher quality pencils. Using a lower quality brand may just lead to unnecessary frustration.

(Some of the following links are affiliate links which means we earn a small commission if you purchase at no additional cost to you.)

My favorite brand is Prismacolor Premier. These pencils are soft and layer easily, producing rich colors quickly.

They are wax-based, so wax bloom could be an issue, and many people complain about how easy it is to break the core of the pencil. But despite these issues, they are still “far and away”, my favorite.

Of course, there are lots of great brands of pencils out there and I’ve tried many of them. A couple of other great brands out there include:

• Faber Castell Polychromos Color Pencils (oil-based)
• Derwent Studio Colored Pencils (wax-based)

If you want to learn my opinion on each brand that I have tried, you can check out the colored pencil comparison chart.

2. Bristol Paper / Illustration Board / Toned Paper

Okay, so two obvious ones on the list. You also need a quality to surface to work on. While your standard 60 lb. drawing paper in a sketchbook will accept the marks produced by colored pencils, it won’t produce the professional results that we’re after. You’ll need a higher quality surface that is better suited to accept multiple applications of color.

My favorite surface on which to work is Bristol paper. There are two different surface textures (tooth) to choose from – smooth or vellum. I prefer to work with the vellum surface which does have a slight tooth. The slight surface texture accepts the colored pencil applications with ease, allowing multiple layers of color.

Illustration board is also a great surface for colored pencil applications. Illustration board provides a surface that is similar to Bristol paper, but is backed with a rigid core. It is a bit pricer and it is hard to find in some art stores, so I tend to stick with Bristol paper.

With any colored medium, you may find it an advantage to work on a toned surface. Working on a toned surface provides a neutral starting point for adding color, allowing you to work the values darker or lighter. You may also choose to allow parts of the paper to show through the finished drawing, with specks of color that enhance the overall appearance.

There are lots of toned paper choices, but my favorite is Canson’s Mi-Teintes paper.

This paper is designed for pastel applications, but also preforms well with colored pencils. It features a heavy tooth, so multiple applications of color are required (and so is a bit of patience).

3. Hand-Held Pencil Sharpener

It may be tempting to use that shiny electric pencil sharpener that sharpens pencils to a precise point in a matter of a second. However, an electric pencil sharpener can be ruined by colored pencils.

Wax-based colored pencils produce wax-based shavings that can get caught in the blades of an electric pencil sharpener. These shavings create havoc for an electric pencil sharpener and can cause it to stop working.

This is why I use a metal hand-held pencil sharpener. It is cheap and gets the job done. If the blade becomes dull, I can easily replace it, or just pick up another sharpener all together.

4. Kneaded Eraser and/or Vinyl Eraser

Every colored pencil artist needs a couple of erasers. I suggest having both a kneaded eraser and a vinyl one.

A kneaded eraser is great for “lifting” an underlayment of graphite before applying colored pencils to the surface.

However, a kneaded eraser is not strong enough to remove colored pencil applications from the surface, so this is where the vinyl eraser comes in. The tougher vinyl eraser is able to remove a good bit of material from the surface.  However, you’re likely to find that it doesn’t remove it completely.

5. Colorless Blender

Burnishing is a process of layering colored pencils in order to create a solid area of pigment. It is done to eradicate the texture produced by the drawing surface. By removing much of the surface texture, a colored pencil drawing resembles a painting.

For wax-based pencils, burnishing applications of colored pencils is an integral part of the process. While lighter colors such as White or Cream can be used to burnish areas, a colorless blender is another option.

A colorless blender is a pencil (or marker) that features a waxy core of un-pigmented colored pencil medium. It can be applied directly over colored pencil applications to work the color into the tooth of the paper. It can also be used to smooth transitions of color and value in the drawing. Without a doubt, a colorless blender is a “must-have” for artists that work with wax-based colored pencils.

6. Turpenoid

Another way that colored pencils can be burnished is with a solvent. Solvents can be brushed directly onto colored pencil applications thinning the material “just enough” to work it into the tooth of the paper. Like with a colorless blender, applying a solvent can also smooth transitions between colors and values in the drawing.

Different solvents can be used to create this effect. Some people prefer to use rubbing alcohol, but I tend to stick with a product called “turpenoid”.

Turpenoid is a relatively odorless, clear liquid that shares many of the same properties as turpentine. It thins the colored pencil applications with a good deal of control, just without the fumes.

7. Nylon Brushes

If you decide to use a solvent to blend your colored pencil drawing, you’ll need to have a few brushes. I prefer to use nylon brushes because they are strong and flexible, while providing control and precision.

My favorite nylon brushes are the Grumbacher Goldenedge brushes. They are a bit pricey, but well worth the investment.

8. Drafting Brush

Although you won’t have to worry about any dust or powder with colored pencils, you may experience a few small pieces of the material landing on the surface as you make marks. These small pieces of color can accidentally get smeared by the palm of your hand if you’re not careful.

To prevent unwanted smearing, I use a drafting brush. An occasional swipe over the drawing removes these small specks of color.

If you try to swipe the specks away with your hand, you’re likely to smear the color. However, the fibers of the drafting brush are able to pick up the material and remove it without any smearing.

9. A Blade

Another important tool is a blade. It could be an X-Acto knife, or a box cutter.

The blade serves multiple purposes. It can be used to cut down the drawing surface or to sharpen the pencils to a very precise point, which is sometimes necessary. If you do sharpen with a blade, be sure to make cuts away from your body.

One More…

One more supply that I use frequently is a masonite drawing board. I left this one off of the list because it isn’t considered a “must have”. Since most of my colored pencil drawings are relatively small (11″ by 14″ or smaller), I use a small board.  I can tape the drawing on to the surface to prevent any “buckling” of the paper, but I can still turn the board to draw from different angles, if the need arises.