11 Advanced Drawing Ideas and Tutorials to Level Up Your Skills

Ready to push beyond the basics? These challenging drawing ideas and tutorials are designed to refine your technique and take your art to the next level.

You’ll find a mix of creative prompts and step-by-step lessons that strengthen essentials like anatomy, perspective, lighting, texture, and composition.

For a quick refresher on core skills, you might also enjoy reading:

You absolutely can draw, and draw well. Keep reading to build on the basic skills you’ve already explored.

1. Draw in Three Dimensions

Artist’s hand drawing a sphere and cylinder atop a rectangular box on a white background–all shapes are in blue and transparent to show all lines and corners — When you can draw basic 3D shapes in different perspectives, your drawings come instantly to life. Still from the Skillshare class Form & Space/3D Drawing & Perspective by Brent Eviston

Begin with drawing the foundational shapes of sphere, cylinder and cube, then practice capturing them from different perspectives. With guidance on linear perspective, you’ll learn to draw three-dimensional objects as if they’re in deep space. You can learn this skill with just a pencil and paper, though a variety of drawing pencils may be useful.

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🎨 Artist Insight: You Can Draw Well
“Drawing is not a talent. It’s a skill anyone can learn,” assures master artist and author Brent Eviston.

2. Draw Faces, Figures and Clothing

Illustration of a blue-haired woman standing on her hands and aiming a crossbow with her feet, with leaves, stars and clothing suggesting she spends a lot of time outdoors — Learn to draw expressions, body language and clothing that make illustrated characters vibrantly alive. Still from the Skillshare class Character Illustration: Drawing Faces, Figures & Clothing by Gabriel Picolo

Drawing vibrant characters involves fluid poses and relatable facial expressions. You’ll come away from this class knowing how to draw movement through poses, four core expressions and contrasting, stylized color. All you need is a sketchbook, black and blue graphite pencils, an ink pen and, if desired, a marker for shading.

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3. Draw Realistic Fur With Watercolor Pencils

Artist drawing a squirrel eating a nut–the squirrel has realistic-looking gray and caramel-colored fur — When it comes to drawing mammals, realistic fur makes all the difference! Still from the Skillshare class Drawing Animals: How to Draw Realistic Fur With Watercolor Pencils by Gemma Chambers

Learn to draw realistic, soft-looking animal fur with watercolor pencils and some fundamental techniques. From sketch to final drawing, you’ll get the steps broken down in simple language that can apply to any drawing. Grab watercolor paper and pencils, a pencil sharpener, a ruler, one small watercolor brush and a putty eraser to get started.

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🎨 Artist Insight: Some Drawing Skills are Universal
“The skills and techniques you'll pick up on this course are UNIVERSAL. You can apply this method to just about any realistic watercolour drawing you like and get great results. In time the process becomes second nature and I hope it will give you a great foundation for your own art journey,” encourages pencil artist Gemma Chambers.

4. Draw Realistic Wine Glasses

Artist drawing two highly realistic white wine glasses in pencil on white paper, with one of the glasses tilting over as if to “cheers” with the other — Glass and liquid both contain worlds of texture and light in a small space–learning to draw them will greatly advance your general technique. Still from the Skillshare class Realistic Drawings With Graphite Pencils: Drawing Wine Glasses by Gemma Chambers

Create “wow factor” with relatively simple techniques for drawing glass and liquid, not to mention the sophistication and contrast of a couple of clicking wine glasses! The basics you’ll need for this class are paper, drawing pencils, a pencil sharpener and a putty eraser, though you can take it up a notch with smooth board paper and a black Polychromos pencil.

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5. Draw a Realistic Portrait

Realistic hand-drawn self-portrait of the artist in full color, featuring a woman with long dark hair, large earrings, textured clothing and makeup — An illustrated portrait comes to life when you capture skin tones, textures, and fine details with care. Still from the Skillshare class Coloured Pencil Drawing Fundamentals: Create a Realistic Portrait by Temi Danso

Work through multiple exercises to perfect techniques for drawing realistic human portraits. Including important factors like skin color (which is more complex than it might look), blending with colored pencils and how to capture the fine details that make someone look like themselves, this class will boost your portrait-drawing confidence. All you need is wax or oil-based colored pencils, a sketchbook and alcohol markers.

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6. Draw Lineless Illustrations in Procreate

Grid of colorful cartoon illustrations of individual men and pairs of men doing different things, like watching the sky, moving boxes, enjoying drinks and at a party — The beauty of lineless drawing is in its simplicity, though it still requires knowledge and skill within Procreate. Still from the Skillshare class Lineless Illustrations in Procreate 101: Drawing With Color and Shape by Simon Ip

Lineless art relies on confident shapes and coordinated colors, and is regarded for its simplicity. At the same time, it definitely requires skill with Procreate. Learn which brushes to use and how to make the most of a limited color palette, using blending modes and guided steps to create your drawing.

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🎨 Artist Insight: Don’t Overthink
“I strongly recommend that you don't overthink the process and have fun throughout the way,” advises digital illustrator Simon Ip.

7. Draw Expressive Gestures & Poses in Procreate

Colorful illustration of an adult woman and young girl laughing and dancing in a rain puddle — Draw characters are meant to tell a story–learn to do so though poses, expressions and relationship depiction. Still from the Skillshare class Character Illustrations: Drawing Expressive Gestures & Poses in Procreate by Sarah Holliday

Drawing people may be fun, but if you struggle to give them expressions and tell stories with your illustrations, this class will help. Explore exercises that teach you to imagine and draw expressive poses, hand gestures, body language, facial expressions and stylized scenes that convey character relationships. You’ll need a couple of existing character designs, then you can either follow along in Procreate or use a different medium.

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8. Draw Illustrated Lettering With Intricate Floral Forms

Large, pencil drawing of the letter S, and the entire letter is made of floral blooms and leaves against a green grid drawing surface — Bring together a love of flowers and hand lettering to create delicate art pieces. Still from the Skillshare class Illustrated Lettering: Drawing Intricate Floral Forms by Gemma O’Brien

Hand drawn floral lettering begins with selecting botanical and a typeface. You can incorporate any flowers, leaves or berries you like, including one large “hero” flower to anchor the piece. Learn to use collage and illustration skills to then create intricate designs with just pencil, paper and ink.

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9. Draw Character Motion Within Illustration

illustrated battle scene of medieval soldiers in active positions and waving swords and spears — A still image can convey so much motion, but it requires certain techniques and skill to make that movement believable. Still from the Skillshare class Characters in Motion: Capturing Motion in Illustration by Patrick Brown

Showing characters' motion in illustration requires some knowledge of anatomy, but begins with the simplest of lines and shapes. You’ll be guided through the steps of portraying a superhero or villain in action, first establishing the character and scene structure in pencil and then transferring the image into Photoshop.

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🎨 Artist Insight: Create a Solid Character Structure Before Polishing Digitally
“Having a solid drawing underneath your work is essential to creating polished, professional digital art. The process of establishing structure in pencil and sketching the fine details will heighten the quality and depth of your work once you transfer your drawing to Photoshop,” says digital artist Patrick Brown.

10. Draw an Ink Fairy Tale

Artist drawing an ink fantasy scene with a frog, mushroom house, dragonfly, moth and plant matter on white paper on a wooden work surface with a lit candle — Let your imagination run wild and manifest a fantastic scene with just pens, paper and a pencil. Still from the Skillshare class Intuitive Drawing: Illustrate Your Own Ink Fairy Tale by Gio Vescovi

Intuitive drawing is about using your creativity to learn more about yourself. This class is designed to be a relaxing way to turn your dreams and wishes into drawings while practicing some advanced techniques. All you need is drawing paper, fineline ink pens, a hard sketching pencil and an eraser.

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11. Draw With Hatching Techniques

Layers of white paper covered in hatchmarks of various colors and patterns, as well as drawings of different types of brushes, pens, pencils and a straight edge — Hatchmarks are an incredibly simple yet effective way of adding depth, shade and texture to your drawings. Still from the Skillshare class Improve Your Ink Drawing With Hatching Techniques by Jen Dixon

Build on your drawing skills with hatching techniques, which express unique tones, patterns, shades and textures in your work. Use linear hatching, crosshatching and contour mark-making to increase your confidence and enhance your personal style. Grab several pens of different sizes, colors and ink types, as well as some sheets of paper, and get started!

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Enjoy Practicing These Advanced Techniques!

Anyone can draw, and draw well. With the advanced techniques listed in this article, you can determine some personal artistic goals or enhance the areas where you want to improve. As the instructors advise, concentrate on some universal skills, give each drawing a solid base structure and don't overthink. Most importantly, have fun!

Written By

Katie Mitchell

Katie lives in Michigan with her husband, kids and pets. She enjoys cooking, travel and live music.