This is the first in my ‘How To Do Art When You Can’t Even Draw’ series of tutorials.

So you don’t know how to draw? I didn’t know either! It’s a good job you don’t need to – here’s how to do make a start.

How To Do Art When You Can’t Even Draw

I come from a family full of creative talents—painters, illustrators, carpenters, performers and musicians.

Growing up, I often felt frustrated by my lack of artistic ability, leading to many temper tantrums! Every earnest attempt ended in the same demoralising conclusion: I just couldn’t do it.

And yet, I never stopped wanting to create.

Choosing A Simple Style

As an adult, I began using preschool-style colouring books with large prints. I cut out shapes, arranged them, and traced them onto paper to create meaningful pictures and scenes. This showed me that drawing skills weren’t necessary to create art.

Now, after decades of practice, I produce all my own sketches for my artwork. It’s surprisingly easy and just requires practice.

If you want to create original, personalised images for cushions, mugs, calendars, etc., try my ‘How To Do Art When You Can’t Even Draw’ tutorial below. I’ll show you how to make unique, personal images by simply drawing lines.

Making A Start

Find a colouring book—any will do. The specific content doesn’t matter; we can work with what you have.

Colouring books provide outlines, just like tracing around a cookie cutter. How you fill them in is what makes your art unique.

Choose a theme you like. For this example, I’ll create a Christmas scene.

Next, decide on a sub-theme: Religious (Nativity), contemporary (Santa), or abstract (a collage of your favourite Christmas elements).

Example: A Christmas Scene

Next, choose a few pages from the colouring book with parts that you like.

Above all, pick shapes that you think you won’t struggle with too much, to keep this fun! I’ve chosen four pages to start, but you can always add more later.

Tracing the bits you want to use with tracing paper or parchment is an option, but that might mean going out and buying supplies, and we want to get started right away!

Alternatively, you could cut out the shapes, which saves time and energy. Cutting out is my personal preference.

Either trace or cut out the shapes that you want to use in your picture.

Cutting out shapes makes it easier to imagin your picture because the details are more visible, giving you a sneak preview before you fully commit.

Next, play around with your layout. The main thing to remember about perspective at this stage is that larger objects should be placed towards the front, and smaller ones towards the back.

Once you have your basic layout, it’s time to decide what you’re going to trace it onto.

If you’re just experimenting, grab a piece of A4 paper from the printer! Don’t worry about precision – these are just guideline shapes. You’ll be adding plenty of your own flair and personality to this image (trust me).

This is your image. You’ve taken a few shapes from somewhere else but what’s on this paper now is your image. So you might as well just copyright it now!

You Can Draw!

Feel free to fill in the gaps and let your creativity flow—it’s your artwork!

Refer to your cutouts for inspiration. Feel empowered to add your own curves and lines wherever you see fit.

If you prefer a more uniform look, consider cutting off sections of your template to trace inner details, like I’ve done with my snowman’s hat. This technique helps maintain proportions and ensures accuracy when filling in the rest of the hat and upper head

Continuing to remove small sections, such as the snowman’s head, allows you to line up other parts for adding detail, like the scarf, and so on. This method helps maintain precision and ensures each element fits together seamlessly.

Certain shapes can be reused multiple times to fill spaces. For example, snowballs, stars and birds, to fill up space. Add some of your own lines if you’d like to, like the ones above.

Once you’re happy with your basic outlines it’s time to fill in some detail.

What Is Art?

Never lose sight of the fact that art is exactly what you want it to be, and everyone sees it differently based on their own perspective. What something means to you, can have a completely different meaning to someone else. Isn’t that wonderful?

When choosing pens, remember A4 paper is often thin and porous, suitable for pastels, coloured pencils, and felt-tip pens, but feel free to use whatever you have at hand.

Remember, the materials you use will determine the final effect of your artwork.

Adding Some Detail

If you ‘can’t draw’ the chances are you ‘can’t shade’!

I’ve always admired sketch artists the most—they have a talent for detail and density in every stroke that seems innate.

But here’s a secret: you can achieve shading effects simply by drawing lines, my friend!

Use ordinary straight or curvy lines freehand. Layer them, criss-crossing in multiple directions to add depth. Experiment with different colours for even more variety.

Multi-directional lines create depth. Here are some examples of techniques that you could try.

Introduce coloured lines for texture.

Can you see what’s happened here?

You’re creating art! No shading, smudging, blending … just hand drawn, freestyle lines with a few curls and swirls.

If you can hold a pencil, you can create texture … with lines!

Personalise Your Picture

Add some of your own shapes and use lines to fill them in.

By mastering these simple techniques, you could soon be designing your own greetings cards, party hats, cushion covers, and much more before you know it!

Would You Like To Know More?

If you enjoyed ‘How To Do Art When You Can’t Even Draw’ and would like to receive occasional updates of new tutorials, Please subscribe to my occasional newsletter by popping your details into the form below.

Did you try this one yourself? If you had a go at this simple, first step project I’d love to see what you created!

Now that you’ve mastered some drawing skills, how about trying your hand at crafts? Take a look at my ‘How To Do Crafts When You Can’t Even Sew’ tutorial.

Take a look at my own Art & Crafts right here at SarahHDavis.com, where you’ll find, unique, hand-crafted, original Wood Burning Artwork, Paintings On Wood, Handmade Crafts decorations and gifts ready to order and custom made.