Drawing Quotes
for Inspiration and Motivation

A collection of inspirational drawing quotes to live and work by (with shareable images!) from artists of the past and present. Please note that this page contains affiliate links to drawing books that I highly recommend.

Drawing Quotes

"In drawing, one must look for or suspect that there is more than is casually seen." -George Bridgman

Bridgman's Complete Guide to Drawing From Life

"Drawing is vision on paper." -Andrew Loomis

A hand drawing with quote: "Learning to draw rewires us to see the world differently, to love it more intimately by attending to and coming to cherish its previously invisible details." -Maria Popova

"Learning to draw rewires us to see the world differently, to love it more intimately by attending to and coming to cherish its previously invisible details." -Maria Popova

From Brainpickings: Art and the Mind’s Eye: How Drawing Trains You to See the World More Clearly and to Live with a Deeper Sense of Presence

Realistic portrait drawing with pencils and quoted text: "How you draw is a reflection of how you feel about the world. You're not capturing it, you're interpreting it." -Juliette Aristides

"How you draw is a reflection of how you feel about the world. You're not capturing it, you're interpreting it." -Juliette Aristides

Juliette Aristides' Classical Drawing Atelier: A Contemporary Guide to Traditional Studio Practice

"The ability to draw depends on one's ability to see the way an artist sees." -Betty Edwards

Colored pencils with quoted text "Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression. A species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality." -Edgar Degas

"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression. A species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality." -Edgar Degas

"The painter draws with his eyes, not with his hands." -Maurice Grosser

"It gives me such a sense of peace to draw; more than prayer, walks, anything." -Sylvia Plath

Closeup of colored pencils with quoted text: "Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist." -Georges Seurat

"Originality depends only on the character of the drawing and the vision peculiar to each artist." -Georges Seurat

"I love the quality of pencil. It helps me to get to the core of a thing." -Andrew Wyeth

Sketchbook with quote: "Drawing used to be a civilized thing to do, like reading and writing. It was taught in elementary schools. It was democratic. It was a boon to happiness." -Michael Kimmelman

"Drawing used to be a civilized thing to do, like reading and writing. It was taught in elementary schools. It was democratic. It was a boon to happiness." -Michael Kimmelman

"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation." -Henri Cartier-Bresson

Drawing pencils with quoted text: "Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see - to see correctly - and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye." -Kimon Nicolaides

"Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see - to see correctly - and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye." -Kimon Nicolaides

"I have learned that what I have not drawn, I have never really seen, and that when I start drawing an ordinary thing, I realize how extraordinary it is, sheer miracle." -Frederick Franck

"All the visible world is only light on form." -Andrew Loomis

"Drawing is not what one sees but what one can make others see." -Edgar Degas

"One must always draw, draw with the eyes, when one cannot draw with a pencil." -Balthus

"Drawing takes time. A line has time in it." -David Hockney

"It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover, to your surprise, that you have rendered something in its true character." -Camille Pissarro