10 Practical Exercises to Train Your Creativity

"I am not a creative person". I've heard people say this statement out loud countless times in my life, and there are probably even more of those who silently carry this belief in their minds. Well sure, you might not be a creative person. Yet. Do you want to become one though? What does it even mean to be creative?

They say that we can't imagine something that we have never seen before, yet our brains have a fascinating ability to combine parts of what's already known and familiar to us into something new. We can use our imagination and resourcefulness to generate ideas and solve problems, looking at things from a fresher perspective.

Being creative is not about talent or drawing skills, but exactly about this ability to use what you have at your disposal and transform it something new and potentially better. By high levels of creativity we usually mean that someone combines ideas in a non-obvious, original way. On the physical level this means that different areas of our brains are being engaged and coordinate simultaneously, and the more often it happens, the stronger those neural paths become over time. In that sense creativity can be trained just like any muscle in our body and improved along with such cognitive functions as memory and learning.

When it comes to art, it is generally quantity over quality situation - the more you draw, the better you become, even if those are just 5-min sketches. With creativity, however, it matters how you approach it. Many of the exercises below focus on getting you out of the familiar thinking box and challenge your imagination. These will help you to set aside your thinking patterns and drawing habits, and look at things in a new way.

1. Draw with your non-dominant hand

This exercise is very self-explanatory. I remember being bored in high school and teaching myself how to write with my left hand. Interestingly enough, I have an entirely different hand-writing with my left hand then I do with my right hand, and in a weird way the same goes for drawing. It is almost like I have a whole new art style when I sketch with my non-dominant hand! I guess it is because this way you have much less precision and control over lines, so you just let go of perfectionism and allow yourself to create more freely.

2. Make a themed inspiration board

Pick a theme, it can be anything you want. Let's say it is baking, because don't we all just love carbs🥐 Find some inspiration - it can be photos of bakeries you've found online, illustrations from other artists, cutouts from a cooking magazine - and combine them all together on a virtual or physical mood board. Create a sketch or an illustration that fits into that theme and combines different elements from your example images.

3. Draw 30 circles and fill them with whatever you want.

30 sounds like a lot. That's because it is, and that's the whole point. After 10 you will probably run out of ideas and by 25 you will start spacing out. That's where magic happens! However, if you want to makes things a bit easier for yourself, you can ask a friend to give you a prompt or a theme to follow.

4. Come up with a new object out of existing 2.

An espresso maker that is also a lamp, a planter which is also a cookie jar, whatever your heart desires. Think of which functions it is going to have and how they will be implemented. Draw it in as much detail as you can.

5. Ask someone to draw you some wiggly lines.

This can be just one line or a bunch of them intersecting. Try to recognise shapes within them and fill in the blank spaces. Don't focus too much on exactly following the lines, but rather the general shape that you see. If you want to have a bit of fun with it, do it together with your friends! Make someone draw the lines and print copies of it for everyone else. In the end you can compare how different your interpretations are.

6. Find an old sketch of yours and draw its opposite.

By opposite I mean that you should make large objects small and small objects large, use straight lines instead of curvy ones and vice versa. Move things in the background forward, you can even flip individual elements upside down.

7. Trace an object in your surroundings without looking at it.

Find an object in your surroundings that you want to draw. Place your pen or pencil on the canvas/paper and start tracing the outline of the object without breaking the eye contact with it (you are not allowed to look at what you are doing until you are finished). In the beginning I caught myself looking at my drawing all the time, so it might take a bit of practise.

8. Draw an ugly artwork.

Especially if you are a perfectionist, this is going to be hard. Intentionally make lines untidy and shapes wobbly, and try to go against every correction impulse inside of you. If you are a digital artist and you suffer from the "undo" reflex (if you know you know), I recommend you try to draw this on physical paper.

9. Find alternative uses for an everyday object.

Think of an item that you use and see often - for example a kettle. Now draw as many different alternative uses of this object as you can think of: a watering can, a flower pot, a storage jar etc.

10. Draw the same object every day for a week.

Got a favourite coffee mug? Try drawing it every day. You can explore different styles and levels of detail, change mediums, draw in different sizes etc. As the time passes, try to notice details you haven’t yet.

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