Learn to embrace mistakes, understand your expectations, and use failed drawings to improve your artistic practice.
When you're learning to draw or paint, it's easy to become frustrated when the result doesn't match what you had in mind. You imagined a beautiful drawing, you had a clear idea of what you wanted to create, and yet something went wrong along the way. You look at the result and think, I'm not good enough, or simply, I've ruined it.
But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what you really mean when you say a drawing has failed?
Why Are We So Afraid of Making Mistakes When Drawing?
Most of the time, when we call a drawing bad, we're comparing it to something else: the image we had in our mind, the work of an artist we admire, or an ideal we've built over time of what our own art should look like.
There's a gap between what we hoped to create and what actually ended up on the paper, and it's this gap that often makes us judge our work so harshly.
Having expectations isn't necessarily a bad thing. They can give us direction and help us understand what we'd like to achieve. The problem starts when those expectations become so overwhelming that we can no longer see the small steps that would help us get there. Instead of noticing what we've learned or what has improved, we focus entirely on the distance between where we are and where we want to be.
And that's when making art stops being enjoyable and starts feeling like a test we have to pass.
What Can a Failed Drawing Teach You?
Making mistakes is an essential part of learning to draw, but simply making mistakes isn't enough. We also need to take the time to understand what happened and why the result didn't work as we expected.
Perhaps the proportions feel wrong, the shadows don't create enough volume, or the drawing lacks the energy you wanted to capture. Maybe you played it too safe, or perhaps you tried a completely new approach that didn't work this time.
Instead of treating these things as proof that you aren't a good artist, you can use them as clues to understand what to explore next.
A drawing that doesn't meet your expectations isn't necessarily a failure. It can be valuable information about what you're learning and where you want to go.
This is also why constantly staying within your comfort zone can slow your progress. If you only repeat what you already know how to do, you might avoid some frustration, but you'll also miss opportunities to discover new ways of drawing, experiment with different materials, and develop your own artistic voice.
How to Change the Way You Look at Your Drawings
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The next time you feel disappointed with a drawing, try changing the question you ask yourself. Instead of immediately deciding that it's bad, take a step back and ask: Compared to what?
What were you hoping to achieve? Where did the result differ from your intention? Are you comparing your drawing to someone else's work, or to an ideal that might not yet be within reach?
These questions can help you separate the drawing itself from the judgement you're making about it. You might discover that the drawing isn't as bad as you thought, or you might identify something specific you'd like to improve. Either way, you've moved away from a vague feeling of failure towards something you can actually work with.
A Simple Exercise to Try in Your Next Drawing Session
Choose a drawing you're disappointed with and spend a few minutes looking at it again, without trying to fix anything. Identify one thing that didn't turn out as you hoped, then think about what might have caused it and what you could try differently next time.
Don't make a long list of everything that's wrong. Focus on one thing you can explore in your next drawing.
The goal isn't to convince yourself that every drawing is good, or to stop caring about the quality of your work. It's to learn how to look at your drawings with curiosity rather than judgement, so that even a frustrating experience can help you move forward.
Learning to Draw Means Giving Yourself Permission to Experiment
I often talk about keeping the joy of creating alive, and it's something I have to remind myself of, too. Drawing and painting don't have to be successful every time to be worthwhile. Sometimes, the most interesting discoveries come from trying something unfamiliar, making a mess, and finding a way forward when things don't go according to plan.
If you want to improve your drawing skills, you need more than technical knowledge. You also need the freedom to experiment, to make mistakes, and to learn from what you see in front of you.
Because the goal isn't to avoid failure altogether. It's to become curious enough about your mistakes that they no longer stop you from creating.
Want to see more?
If you'd like to explore this idea further, I talk about it in my video, The More You Fail, The Better You Get, while working on an expressive horse painting with oil pastels. It's a personal reflection on why we fear making mistakes, and how learning to embrace them can help us grow as artists.