How to Draw From Imagination: An Artist’s Secrets

Are you frustrated by your inability to draw from your imagination? If you find yourself stuck in a cycle of endlessly copying tutorials and reference photos, then this article is for you!

This struggle affects many budding artists who yearn for the freedom to express their creativity but can’t seem to tap into it. In this article, we’ll explore the root causes of this challenge and equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to finally draw from your imagination, unleashing the vibrant visions that dance in your mind.

Why This is a Tough Problem to Solve

I never understood why this was a problem, to be quite honest. I’ve heard from plenty of people who struggle with this exact problem, but I couldn’t see where the kink in the process was until this class. While preparing for the How to Draw From Your Imagination class on Foxsy, I had a realization. I couldn’t relate to this particular problem because I have been drawing since I was a kid, and kids instinctively know what to do. It’s adults who struggle with difficulty accessing their imagination. It’s a learned skill, but one I learned so long ago by following instinct. No wonder I was so confused!

Why Kids Have Better Imaginations Than You

So what is the big reveal? It comes down to two things:

1. Kids know how and have fun instinctively. As adults, that instinct can be stifled by learned behaviors and patterns.

2. Kids are unapologetic copycats. They have absolutely zero hesitation copying everything they see, because that’s how we learn. Kids will draw freely, but they’ll happily draw The Hulk fighting a T-Rex on fire. They’ll obsessively copy drawing after drawing of their favorite Disney princesses. But somewhere along the way, we get the notion in our heads that copying is inherently bad.

What is Imagination, Anyway?

The main thing stopping you from accessing your imagination is that you’re fundamentally misunderstanding what imagination is.

When I asked our Foxsy students at the beginning of the class how they defined “imagination”, many of them said something along the lines of, “creating something from nothing”, or “not using references to make a drawing”.

Aha! I think I know where the problem lies.

You might see an artist draw off the cuff and think it looks like a magic trick; pulling fantastical illustrations out of thin air. But you’re missing something crucial.

Imagination is pulling elements from everything you’ve ever absorbed. What you can’t see is how the artist develops a rich imagination—and I’m about to dish the details.

Connecting the Dots

When you draw from imagination, you aren’t conjuring it all from the ether. You’re connecting dots in your mind to get the idea. Everyone is influenced by a variety of factors, such as favorite media, lived experiences, culture, language, world events, and more. The more time you spend with something, the more dots you have in your head to create potential connections.

You aren’t creating the dots. Just collecting and connecting them to get ideas.

A Case Study From a Dungeon Master

Let me share an example of what connecting the dots looks like.

A few years back, I ran a Dungeons & Dragons game. As Game Master, I had the option to run a module straight from one of the official D&D books, but I wanted something more… imaginative.

I decided I wanted a nautical, seafaring adventure for my players. So I rummaged around in my influences and pulled out what seemed like a good fit. I found the official D&D book closest to my vision, The Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and bought it. Then I decided I wanted to build my campaign with heavy influences from (the cheeky, fantastical adventures and over the top themes) The Pirates of the Caribbean movies and The Legend of Zelda: Windwaker (the feeling of exploring an unknown map, discovering many islands and their secrets)—both of which were childhood favorites.

In the end, we had a comfy mix of a variety of influences that, when combined, resulted in a unique feeling game that didn’t require me to imagine up every single feature.

Imitate to Create

To be a creative, you must learn how to copy like an artist. Pull bits from here and there across several different influences and add your own spin to make it your own. Copy techniques or styles you see from masters to weave into your own creations.

But How Do You Know What to Draw?

Now that you know your imagination is more about connecting dots than conjuring them, you could walk away from this article as a better artist. But how do you know what to draw?

The answer is frustratingly simple: draw whatever you want. Draw what feels fun.

This comes back to the heart of why kids intuitively have rich imaginations. They’re not trying to impress anyone, get likes, or prove something to themselves. Kids draw because it’s fun. It feels good. They are interested, engaged, and excited about drawing whatever comes into their heads.

Fun Powers Your Art

Fun is essential to a healthy drawing practice. If you’re not having fun… well, what’s the point? You won’t be motivated to pull out your sketchbook if your drawings are incongruent to your passions. As for me, I love drawing people, characters, and animals. Someone else might be entirely focused on space-related subjects, while another might be fascinated with drawing mechanical objects like cars.

So ask yourself: what do you want to draw? What subjects excited you the most? There is no wrong answer here.

How Do You Actually Draw Your Favorite Things?

The answer is practice. Irritating, but no less true. But there’s a little more to it.

In order to draw things from your imagination, you must build a rich internal reference library. Imagine your mind is an attic full of boxes. Each box has dots, points of data that you have learned or gathered in your life. Every time you practice drawing from imagination or from reference, you’re adding dots to a variety of boxes.

It’s your job as an artist to build up a robust reference library that you can draw upon (no pun intended) when you need it.

Building Your Internal Reference Library

Ok, but how do you add to your reference library? How do you go from a no-nothing to knowledgeable?

Put it All On the Table

Let’s say you want to learn how to draw dogs. The first step is to get out your sketchbook and fill a page with drawings of dogs WITHOUT looking up references. You need to take stock of what you already have in the “dog” box so you can see where the gaps in your knowledge are. It’s okay if your page is full of funky, misshapen dogs. We all start somewhere, and there’s nothing to be ashamed about being a beginner.

Study, Practice, Repeat

Then all you have to do is study dogs. Draw them—a LOT. Use references that focus on different parts of dog anatomy, like body shape, ears, tail, paws, teeth, coat types, etc.

If you focus on drawing dogs, you’ll start filling the box labeled “dogs” in your internal reference library. Every time you practice drawing pups, you’ll add more and more dots to the dog box. And every time, drawing dogs will get a little big easier. Eventually, you’ll have enough experience to pull up dogs and create them from memory.

A Personal Case Study

Similarly, my journey in drawing began with my love for characters. It all started with The Little Mermaid as a child. I began drawing Ariel frequently, and my fascination led me to design other mermaids from my imagination—each with their own hair, tail, and story.

By nurturing this passion, I gradually built my mental reference library and grew confident in my ability to draw people—particularly women—from memory. This process mirrors how focusing on a specific subject can expand your artistic capabilities.

What You’ll Gain If You Follow This Process

If you follow this process and use fun to guide your practice, you will find your skills developing before your very eyes. When you draw your favorite subjects, they will get easier, more intuitive, and faster.

The process certainly takes a while and requires a lot of practice, but in the end, you’ll find that you can draw just about anything if you set your mind to it. It’s just a matter of how you focus on it, how you practice it, and building your own internal reference library. The further you get as an artist, the wider your reference library grows, and the broader the possibilities for you to draw from your imagination.

Dive Deeper Into Your Imagination

If this is resonating with you and you’re beginning to see all of the potential that your imagination can uncover, then you might be interested in the class that inspired this blog post: How to Draw from Your Imagination on Foxsy. This 2-hour class touches on all of these subjects and much more, including how to spend your attention wisely, the struggles of social media, where to find inspiration, and much more.

You can access the class here, either as a Foxsy member or via a class pass.

Take your imagination to the next level and see how you can completely revolutionize your drawing practice today!