By Jeramiah Townsend

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After my nice relaxing weekend I came into my office, going over the many emails I get every day. One of those emails reminded me of a regularly asked question "Where's the best place to learn how to draw?"

When I was young I very much wanted to learn to draw. Thankfully my mother, a talented lady, helped me out. Soon I was drawing cartoons and copying pictures from the latest Disney movie boxes. What I realized later was that I developed a lot of bad drawing habits along the way. When you are a mostly self-taught artist (when you teach yourself how to draw) you will inevitably develop some bad habits - but don't worry about it - that's just part of life. Live and learn. When you find out you did something wrong, correct it. Learn from your mistakes and move on. Nobody is perfect.

Here are 3 ways you can teach yourself how to draw:

1) The search engines. Try typing in something like "how to draw" or "how to line draw" or "online drawing classes", or my favorite, "learn how to draw at jtdraws.com" (;P) You will be amazed at how many results will show up with online drawing tutorials. There are some resources that are excellent... and some that aren't, so don't stop at the first site you come across. Look at a few and choose the best one from there.

2) Online video sites, such as YouTube, have lots of great drawing tutorials. Chances are when you made a search on one of the search engines it popped up an option to go to one of these sites. A drawing video is an excellent way to see how to draw. Let's face it- drawing is a visual art, and if you want to learn it, one of the best ways is to see how someone does it in real life. Art videos make that happen.

3) Drawing communities can provide many great drawing resources and feedback from many artists - all in one place. I highly recommend joining the best drawing communities you can find. Skip the social sites and join a community with the best artists you can find. As a warning, most drawing communities I have seen do have nudity at the sites. You can see my thoughts on this difficult subject HERE.

 *****  Bonus TIP  *****

As a bonus drawing tip, the best way to teach yourself how to draw is practice. Draw every day for 10 to 15 minutes a day. Draw whatever you see. Draw the door knob in the room, draw furniture, draw stuffed animals, draw computers, draw pictures on the wall, draw yourself in the mirror - draw whatever you can find. Keep these sketches in a drawing pad of some sort so you can look back and see your progress.

Practice is the best way you can teach yourself how to draw.

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