We're often taught that mistakes in art are to be avoided. Even kids are brought up to be perfectionists: to scrub it out and start again if their artwork doesn't go the way they planned.
Of course, there are many occasions when mistakes need to be corrected. If you're a pro artist submitting work to a client, you're going to want to make sure it's perfect. But there is a place for mistakes in art too, particularly in the process of learning and developing skills.
There are strong arguments for practising scribble art before you learn to draw, and creative scribble exercises can also help experienced artists to loosen up and find fresh inspiration.
With that in mind, I'll suggest below seven popular scribble art exercises to try yourself for turning mistakes into art and building your creativity in the process. For more ideas, see our list of five-minute quick creative exercises. And if you prefer to make digital scribbles rather than work on paper, see our pick of the best drawing tablets.
A great creative exercise is just to scribble and see what comes out. This alone can be satisfying – therapeutic even. There's nothing like a good scribble to help recover from a bad day. But you could also try turning your scribbles into something. This is also something you can try if you have some mistakes that you started drawing and stopped.
The idea is to turn your mistakes or random scribbles into something by filling in the gaps. Don't set out with a conscious objective in mind or even try to make the lines look like anything real, just connect the lines to round them off, following your own flow.
The artist CWG. "I don't really know what this is but it's fun for me to look at" he says in one example demo, and I totally agree.
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Your next exercise could be to try to make your random lines or scribbles look like something real. The self-taught Canadian portrait artist Darlene Nguyen shows an example in the video above.
The great thing about scribbling is that it can help you overcome perfectionism. Don't get me wrong – sometimes you want perfectionism, but holding up 'perfect' as an ideal can hold you back. Turning scribbles into drawings also forces you to draw things in new ways that wouldn't normally be intuitive: for example people in new positions, which can be a great cure for artist's block.
03. Blind contour drawings
Blind making blind contour drawing is a technique often taught at art schools, so don't think that I'm just making these ideas up! The reason why they're used is because they're actually really helpful because it can improve your powers of observation while removing your fear of making mistakes and of uncomfortable situations.
There are a couple of ways to approach this task, but the idea is to draw a subject in front of you without taking your eyes off it. That is, you don't look at the paper on front of you to see what you pencil or pen is doing. Keep your eyes on your subject. Think about how it looks; examine its every detail.
Initially you'll want to try to draw only the outline without taking your pen or pencil off your paper to avoid losing your place. For more challenge you can try looking at your subject without drawing for a minute, studying it intently, then close your eyes completely when you draw (use a blindfold if you find it too tempting to cheat!). Many artists recommend repeating the same exercise with the same object many times.
04. Make a mess with colour
(Image credit: By Ruhey via Getty Images)
Doodles and scribble art doesn't have to be in black and white. Kids love to layer scribbles in different colours, and kids know best about this.
Apply random lines, scribbles and splashes. And aim to move your whole arm, perhaps even your whole body, to help you loosen up. Water-reactive crayons or pens, or the best watercolour pencils are great for this, or even water soluble paint. For this, you'll want some cheap mixed-media paper or student watercolour paper.
You could try using other tools tool: using a candle as a crayon can create texture, and you could also try moving the paper to create drips.
It's a great way to learn about colour because you'll start to see which colours go muddy when mixed together which combinations you like without the pressure to be creating anything in particular. Look for combinations of colour and texture that please you and which you might want to use in a more intentional piece of art. These discoveries can help you build confidence.
05. Experiment with layers
(Image credit: Stella Levi via Getty Images)
The next step in using colour could be to add shapes on top of your abstract background. As in the previous exercise, use random applications of colour to cover a large area, then layer large shapes on top of it.
Try creating colour contrast by adding hot colours on cool colours. Don't worry about using colours that would normally be considered to clash or to combine poorly (see our piece on colour theory). The idea is here is that there are no rules. That way you learn what combinations you can get away with using your media. Remember to make notes of what combinations you like for future reference. If you're using art-quality tools, make notes of the pigment details too.
06. Find a face
Explore painting abstract faces with watercolors - YouTube
Like our second exercise, this is all about turning spontaneous scribbles into something more figurative but with colour work. You could give yourself an objective to find and bring out a particular object – say a face like in the example from Robert Joyner above. Or it can be more fun to simply see what you can find in your abstract composition – if you look for long enough, you might find that you discover quite complex images in your dabs of crayon, pencil or paint.
This makes it a bit like a Rorschach test. What you see and somebody else sees might be very different. Just focus on bringing out something recognisable in your image and to develop it to make it more clear. Use random colours and try mixing wet and dry materials with no fear about combinations that might work.
If you worried about messing up and you have a photo scanner and an art printer, you could always make a copy of your work so you can have several goes on the same piece.
07. Refine your scribble art
A lot of Jackson Pollock's art looked like random chaos of paint thrown on a canvas, but he combined the physically expressive dynamic spontaneity of drip and pour techniques with deliberate and controlled method. So one you've freed your creativity by allowing yourself to make mistakes and to scribble, it's time to refine the process.
You try repeating the same exercises but adding a little more intentionality to create a sense of balance in the results. Think about composition. If one portion of your canvas feels overloaded, you might want to more add elements elsewhere to balance them out, for example. Continue to make notes of what combinations and effects you like so you can then incorporate them intentionally in other pieces, whether you go on to make figurative or abstract art.
Why do scribble art?
Scribbling is often though of as what children do, but it can be a good idea for adults who want to learn to draw to start by scribbling. After all, that's how scribbling is how children learn to draw – why not adults?
Scribbling might sound easy since we think of it as a mistake, but actually many adults find it had to do. You still need to hold a pencil correctly and learn to escape from repetitive patterns like only drawing straight lines or circles.
The practice of scribbling can help you overcome the inevitable frustration that comes if you start out trying to draw real objects or scenes that are true to life. It also helps build muscle memory and hand-eye coordination, helps you get familiar with art materials without fretting about a technique and encourages you to start making unique marks on a paper or canvas without worrying that there's a right shape to make.
How to do scribble art
The beauty of scribble art is that there's almost no barrier to entry since you don't need to know any technique or have any experience to begin. You don't necessarily need any equipment other than a pen and pencil and paper either (see our pick of the best pencils for artists and the best pens for artists).
If you want to work digitally, any drawing or painting app will do to start with, although you might want to upgrade to the best digital art software when your practice advances so that you have access to a wider variety of brushes and media.
Remember that scribble exercises are aren't quick fixes. They can help you develop your eye, coordination, technique and style over time. That means they need repetition and variation. Lots of it!
Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.
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