Why Do People Draw? Top 5 Drawing Books to Learn Drawing and Master Your Artistic Skills
Why Drawing Matters More Than Ever
There's something deeply human about putting pencil to paper. Long before we had alphabets or smartphones, our ancestors were sketching bison on cave walls and mapping their world through visual marks. Drawing isn't just an art form. It's how humans have processed, understood, and communicated their experiences for over 40,000 years.
Fast forward to today's digital age
You might think traditional drawing would have faded into obsolescence. Instead, something fascinating has happened. Even as we've gained access to every digital art tool imaginable, the demand for physical drawing books, sketchpads, and traditional art instruction has surged. Why?
Because drawing by hand does something screens can't replicate. It slows us down. It connects our thoughts directly to our hands without the intermediary of software menus and undo buttons. It forces us to see, really see, the world around us. And in an era of constant digital stimulation, that tangible connection to paper and graphite feels almost revolutionary.
Whether you're picking up a pencil for the first time…
Or, looking to refine techniques you've practiced for years, the right drawing book can transform your approach to art. But here's the thing: even the best instruction becomes frustrating when your book won't stay open, when you're fighting the binding while trying to follow a demonstration, or when you can't see the full illustration because half of it disappears into the spine.
That's exactly why we transformed the most trusted drawing instruction books into spiral-bound editions at Lay It Flat. When your book stays perfectly open to the page you're working on, something shifts. You can focus entirely on learning the technique, not wrestling with pages that want to flip closed. You can prop your book at an angle that matches the angle of your easel or drawing surface. You can see every detail of those step-by-step illustrations without craning your neck or breaking your concentration.
From Cave Walls to Digital Tablets: Why Drawing Books Still Matter
The history of drawing instruction is almost as old as drawing itself. Ancient Egyptian artists used grid systems to maintain proportions. Renaissance masters like Leonardo da Vinci filled notebooks with anatomical studies and technique notes that students copied to learn their craft. Art academies formalized drawing education, creating systematic approaches that are still taught today.
But something shifted in the late 20th century. As art education was cut from school budgets and apprenticeship models faded, aspiring artists increasingly turned to books to fill that gap. The best drawing instruction books became stand-ins for the master-apprentice relationship, offering structured guidance that had previously required years of formal training or studio work.
Then came the digital revolution. Photoshop, Procreate, digital tablets, and AI art generators. You might expect this would make drawing books obsolete. Instead, we've seen the opposite. Here's why traditional drawing instruction remains not just relevant, but essential:
The Foundation Still Matters
Digital tools are amazing, but they work best when you understand fundamental principles: proportion, perspective, light and shadow, and composition. These aren't software-specific skills. They're foundational visual literacy skills that translate across every medium. A drawing book teaches you to see and understand form in ways that simply using digital shortcuts never will.
Physical Practice Builds Different Neural Pathways
Research in neuroscience shows that handwriting and drawing engage our brains differently than typing or digital creation. The physical act of drawing, the resistance of pencil on paper, and the irreversibility of ink create deeper learning and muscle memory. When you draw traditionally first, those skills transfer seamlessly to digital work. The reverse isn't always true.
No Batteries Required
Your drawing book doesn't need charging. It doesn't have software updates that change the interface you've finally mastered. It won't become obsolete in two years. A quality drawing instruction book from the 1980s is just as helpful today as when it was published because the fundamentals of seeing and mark-making haven't changed.
The Joy of Constraints
Digital art offers infinite undo buttons and layers. That's powerful, but it can also be paralyzing. Traditional drawing forces you to commit, to problem-solve, to work with "mistakes" and turn them into features. These constraints actually accelerate learning in ways that consequence-free digital work sometimes can't.
Why Spiral-Bound Drawing Books Change Everything
Here's a scenario every artist knows too well: You're trying to follow a step-by-step demonstration. The book shows perfect hand positioning for shading techniques. But your copy won't stay open. You're using your elbow, a coffee mug, or a small mountain of other books to keep your page visible. By the time you've wrestled the binding into submission, you've lost your train of thought.
Or this one: You're working from a reference illustration, looking back and forth between your paper and the book. But the binding creates a valley down the center, and half the example image is distorted or hidden. You're trying to learn foreshortening, but you literally can't see the full demonstration of the technique.
This is where spiral binding becomes more than a convenience. It becomes a learning tool itself.
See Every Detail
When your instruction book lies completely flat, you can see every line of those detailed drawings. The whole composition is visible. Subtle shading techniques aren't lost in the binding. That reference sketch you're studying appears exactly as the artist intended, not warped by a curved page.
Work at Your Easel
Spiral-bound books prop open at any angle. Place your instruction book on a bookstand next to your easel. Position it so it matches your eye level. You're not hunched over a desk fighting with pages anymore. Your posture improves, your neck doesn't hurt, and you can work in whatever position best suits your drawing setup.
Follow Step-by-Step Exercises
Many of the best drawing books build skills through sequential exercises. Try drawing this sphere. Now this cylinder. Now combine them into more complex forms. With a spiral-bound book, you can keep your place effortlessly. The book stays open to the exercise you're working on. No bookmarks falling out, no losing your page when you set the book down to focus on your drawing.
Better Reference While You Draw
Drawing requires constant back-and-forth between your work and your reference or instruction. When your book fights you, it breaks your flow state. When it stays exactly where you position it, you can maintain that crucial connection between seeing and doing that makes practice effective.
Durability for Studio Life
Art studios are messy places. Pencil shavings, eraser dust, charcoal smudges, and the occasional spilled coffee are occupational hazards. Spiral-bound books are simply tougher. They handle being opened repeatedly to the same well-loved pages. They survive the casual chaos of creative work better than perfect-bound spines that crack and pages that tear loose.
Top 5 Drawing Books for Every Skill Level
1. 30-Minute Drawing for Beginners
Who It's For:
Complete beginners who feel overwhelmed by the idea of "learning to draw" or busy adults who want to develop a creative practice but think they don't have time.
Why You'll Love It:
The title isn't just marketing. This book genuinely structures lessons around 30-minute sessions, making it perfect for fitting art practice into real life. Lara understands that most aspiring artists aren't art students with hours of free time. You're squeezing creativity between work, family, and everything else that fills your days.
What makes this book special is its democratic approach to subject matter. Rather than forcing you to spend weeks on basic shapes before you can draw anything interesting, Lara introduces landscapes, still lifes, and figures right from the start. Each lesson builds skills progressively, but you're creating recognizable drawings from day one, not just spheres and cylinders.
The step-by-step format breaks down what seems complex into manageable stages. You're never left wondering, "but how did they get from that rough sketch to this finished piece?" Every intermediate step is shown and explained. And because your spiral-bound copy stays open perfectly, you can actually see all those stages clearly while you work.
This is the book for anyone who's ever said, "I wish I could draw," but felt like learning would take years of dedicated study. Spoiler: it doesn't. Thirty minutes a day with this book, and you'll surprise yourself with how quickly your skills develop.
2. Draw 50 Animals
Who It's For:
Kids and adults who want to draw recognizable subjects quickly, animal lovers, and anyone looking for a fun, achievement-focused practice that builds confidence.
Why You'll Love It:
Lee J. Ames created something brilliant with his "Draw 50" series, and this animal volume might be the most beloved of them all. The method is deceptively simple: each animal breaks down into six steps, starting with basic shapes and progressively adding detail until you've created a surprisingly lifelike creature.
What makes this approach so effective is how it demystifies drawing. That elephant that seemed impossibly complex? It starts with a few circles and ovals. The fierce tiger? Simple curves that gradually take shape. By showing you exactly how to build up from foundational forms, Ames teaches you not just to copy, but to understand how things are constructed.
The variety here is fantastic. Fifty different animals mean fifty opportunities to practice seeing basic shapes in complex forms, understanding proportions, and developing your observational skills. Some readers work methodically, one animal per day. Others jump around, drawing whatever creature calls to them in the moment. Both approaches work because each drawing is self-contained.
Parents love this book for working with kids because it delivers quick wins. In fifteen minutes, your child has drawn a recognizable penguin or horse. That sense of accomplishment is addictive and builds artistic confidence faster than any amount of abstract shape practice.
And here's where the spiral binding really shines: you can prop this book open while you draw, glancing at each step without losing your place or fighting the binding. When you're in flow, moving from step to step, that seamless reference makes all the difference.
3. Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
Who It's For:
True beginners who want comprehensive instruction, adults returning to art after years away, anyone who wants to understand the "why" behind techniques, not just the "how."
Why You'll Love It:
Mark and Mary Willenbrink approach teaching the way you'd want a patient to be encouraged to guide you. This isn't a book that assumes you know anything about art. It starts with truly foundational concepts: how to hold a pencil, what different pencils do, and how to see shapes in complex objects.
But don't mistake "beginner-friendly" for "shallow." This book teaches you to see like an artist. The Willenbrinks excel at explaining concepts like value (the lights and darks that create form), proportion (getting sizes and relationships right), and perspective (making flat drawings feel three-dimensional). These aren't just memorization techniques. There are ways of understanding how vision and representation work.
The exercises build systematically. You start with simple still-life objects and learn to render basic forms convincingly. Then you progress to landscapes, adding atmospheric perspective and composition. Eventually, you tackle more complex subjects with the confidence that comes from understanding fundamental principles.
What reviewers consistently praise is how un-intimidating this book feels. Many people approach drawing with anxiety, convinced they "can't draw" or that art requires innate talent they don't possess. The Willenbrinks gently dismantle that belief. They show you that drawing is a learnable skill built on observation and practice, not magic.
The clear, step-by-step demonstrations benefit enormously from spiral binding. When you're learning value scales or practicing contour drawing, you need to see the full example without the binding cutting through the middle of the demonstration. Your book stays open to the exact page you're working on, making it feel like having an instructor right beside you.
4. How to Draw People
Who It's For:
Artists ready to tackle the most challenging subject in drawing, portrait enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to capture the people in their lives on paper.
Why You'll Love It:
Figure drawing is notoriously difficult. The human form is incredibly complex, and our brains are hardwired to notice when something looks "off" in a face or body. We can forgive a wonky perspective in a landscape, but a slightly misplaced eye in a portrait? Instantly uncanny.
Barbara understands this challenge and addresses it head-on. Rather than overwhelming you with anatomy textbook detail, she focuses on practical observation and proportion. How do you measure facial features relative to each other? Where does the ear sit in relation to the eye? How do you capture a likeness without getting lost in minutiae?
The book covers both portraits and full figures, teaching you to see the underlying structure before adding detail. She emphasizes gesture and movement, helping your drawings feel alive rather than stiff. Her approach balances classical training with accessible, modern instruction.
What makes this book invaluable is its focus on real people rather than idealized forms. The author shows you how to draw different ages, body types, and features. Your drawings will look like actual humans, not generic mannequins. This relevance makes practice more engaging because you're drawing the world you actually see around you.
For a subject this detail-oriented, having your instruction book lie completely flat is essential. When you're checking the proportions of facial features or studying the angle of a shoulder in a demonstration, you need to see every line clearly. The spiral binding ensures that nothing is lost in the valley of a traditional book binding, making those subtle but crucial details visible while you work.
5. Keys to Drawing
Who It's For:
Serious learners who want deep understanding, intermediate artists looking to break through plateaus, and anyone willing to invest time in skill-building that will transform their abilities.
Why You'll Love It:
This is the drawing book that professional artists and art teachers consistently recommend. First published in 1985, it has remained continuously in print and beloved because Dodson nailed something essential: he teaches you not just what to do, but how to see.
The "keys" in the title refer to fundamental skills that unlock all other drawing abilities. These include edge awareness (understanding where one form ends and another begins), space consciousness (comprehending the shapes between and around objects), proportional relationships, light logic, and more. Master these keys, and you can draw anything.
What sets this book apart is its emphasis on perceptual skills over techniques. Dodson gives you exercises that literally change how your brain processes visual information. The famous "upside down drawing" exercise, for instance, trains your brain to see shapes and lines rather than symbols. That shift from symbolic thinking to actual seeing is the breakthrough moment for most developing artists.
The exercises are challenging but achievable. Dodson doesn't coddle you or promise instant results. He asks you to observe carefully, practice deliberately, and stick with exercises that might feel frustrating at first. But students who commit to this book report a genuine transformation in their abilities.
Because this is a skills-building manual rather than a subject-based guide, you'll return to it repeatedly. Even experienced artists keep Keys to Drawing on their shelves and revisit exercises when they feel stuck. It's not a book you work through once and set aside. It's a training manual you'll reference throughout your artistic development.
The spiral binding makes this practical, hands-on approach actually usable. When you're doing contour drawing exercises or practicing value studies, you need your reference material to be stable and visible. Your book keeps the exercise description and examples open, allowing you to move fluidly between reading the instructions and applying them to your work.
Building Your Drawing Practice with Lay It Flat Books
Here's the beautiful thing about having these books in spiral-bound format: you can actually use multiple references simultaneously without creating a chaotic pile of volumes competing for desk space.
Start Your Session with Structure
Begin with a 30-minute exercise from Eli Lara's beginner book. This warms up your hand and gets you into a creative mindset without overwhelming you. The time-limited structure keeps you focused and prevents perfectionism from sabotaging practice.
Build Specific Skills
Struggling with faces? Open Barbara's figure drawing book to the facial proportions section. Keep it propped beside your workspace while you practice. Having a stable, clear reference makes skill-building sessions infinitely more productive than trying to balance a book that wants to close while you're drawing.
Apply Fundamental Principles
While you're practicing from other books, keep Keys to Drawing nearby. When something isn't working in your drawing, flip to the relevant key in Dodson and run a quick diagnostic. Is your edge awareness off? Are your proportions skewed? Having that deeper understanding accessible transforms frustration into targeted practice.
Quick Wins for Motivation
On days when you're low on creative energy, grab Draw 50 Animals and spend fifteen minutes rendering a creature that delights you. These achievement-focused sessions keep your practice consistent without demanding the mental bandwidth required for deeper study. Consistency beats intensity in skill development, and quick wins keep you coming back.
Drawing in the Modern Era: Digital and Traditional Together
A common question: if you're planning to work digitally, do you still need drawing books and traditional practice?
Absolutely yes. Here's why the artists creating the most compelling digital work almost universally have strong traditional foundations:
Understanding Comes Before Tools
Digital art programs give you amazing tools: layers, blend modes, transformation tools, and filters. But they don't teach you how light falls on a form, how to create convincing depth, or how to construct compelling compositions. Those fundamentals stem from understanding principles that apply across media. Drawing books teach those principles.
Physical Practice Is Different
The proprioception of traditional drawing, the feeling of moving your hand across paper, engages your brain and builds muscle memory differently than working on a screen. Many digital artists keep sketchbooks specifically to maintain that connection and continue developing their foundational skills through physical drawing.
Problem-Solving Without Shortcuts
Traditional drawing forces you to solve problems. You can't just undo, flip, or filter your way out of a mistake. You have to understand why something isn't working and how to fix it. That problem-solving ability transfers to digital work, making you a more thoughtful, skilled digital artist.
Portability and Accessibility
Your sketchbook and pencil go anywhere. No charging, no screen glare, no software issues. Many professional artists use traditional sketching for concept development, then move to digital for final execution. That hybrid workflow combines the best of both worlds.
Start Drawing Today
The beautiful secret about drawing is that you don't need to wait for the perfect time, the perfect setup, or the perfect amount of knowledge. You just need to start.
Pick up a pencil. Open one of these books (and yes, enjoy how it actually stays open). Look around you and try to capture something on paper. Your first attempts won't be perfect. That's not just okay, it's essential. Every artist you admire created countless awkward, imperfect drawings on their way to mastery.
What matters is consistent practice, curiosity about the world around you, and the willingness to see your mistakes as information rather than failures. These spiral-bound drawing books from Lay It Flat remove one common barrier to practice: the frustration of fighting with books that won't cooperate. When your tools support your learning rather than hinder it, practice becomes genuinely enjoyable.
Ready to transform those "I wish I could draw" thoughts into "I am learning to draw" reality? Check out our complete collection of spiral-bound drawing books designed to support your artistic journey from first sketch to confident creation.
Your artistic practice is waiting. And unlike digital files or apps, these books will still be on your shelf, still valuable, still teaching, decades from now. That's the enduring power of great instruction that stays flat, stays open, and stays relevant.
