30 Artists Challenge Themselves To Redraw Their Old ‘Crappy’ Drawings, Prove That Practice Makes Perfect
It's easy to compare your artworks and drawing techniques to those of the greats and feel miserable. But if you're an aspiring creator you need to understand that nobody was born a genius and everyone has to start somewhere. And nothing proves this better than the 'Draw This Again' challenge (previously here and here).
Its rules are really simple. Artists upload side-by-side images of their earlier and current works, showcasing how much they've progressed. And some of the participants are even redoing their old pencil sketches, which makes the effect of the then and now comparison so much stronger. From realistic drawings to surreal character design, scroll down to check out the improvements and the unique art they've made over the years and upvote your favorites of these beautiful drawings.
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Two Years Of Drawing Every Day
I Broke My Neck And Was Paralyzed In December, 2010. Here Is A Photo Of The First Drawing I Did In Rehab, With Assistance From My Recreational Therapist Ashley. Followed By A Self Portrait I Did 7 Years Later. I’ve Improved A Little
Found This Drawing I Did In 2008 When I Was 11 Of The Puppy We Adopted Who’s Now An Old Man
It's Been Exactly Three Years Since My First Drawing, So Decided To Do This 'Draw This Again' Challenege. Not Dissappointed
To some of these artists, there are many of us potatos.... I've been drawing since I was 11 and even though I love the art, I will never be a tenth of the artist these people are.
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"First Drawing" of the day? After 23 years ? Lack of context here...
2015 looks like an abstract. It conveys a different emotion than the 2018.
Both are beautiful but I like the first one more. It certainly takes a lot of skill to compete with photography, but ... we do have photography. The first one has more character.
Exactly - it is a massive demonstration of an artist's skill and patience to spend so much time creating an image identical to a photograph taken in 100th of a second, but ultimately pointless in modern times
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what a b******t, the first one is just an early stage of the second one which is the final version.
No?? You’d have to completely re-do the entire thing to get the first image to the second. ( I’m an artist so I would know- )
Load More Replies...Me And My Art, 6 Years Apart
Eye Improvement In 2 Years, 13 To 15 Years Old
I am mesmerized, hypnotized just looking at the tremendous detail of that beautiful blue dreamy eye!!
1 Year Improvement
Then And Now
My Drawing Improvement 2014 - 2017
Nearly 10 Years Ago I Drew Sybill Trelawney From Harry Potter, And Now I’ve Done It Again. I Pushed Myself With The Details, And I’m So Proud
This is my favourite improvement. The first picture is a lot better than I could every do, but the second is just brilliant!
I Found An Old Drawing Of Mine From When I Was Seven Of My Mad Baller Speedboat - A Hybrid Blend Of Top Fuel Dragster, Funny Car, Racing Boat, Tactical Jet Aircraft And Whatever The Hell Else I Wanted. Then I Did An Adult Version To Homage The Original
Awesome Progress
Improvement
My Drawing Improvement 2013 - 2017
A Little Evolution Trough The Time
The First One I Drew When I Was Twelve Years Old. The Second Sheet Is A 25-Year-Old Guy Who Started Drawing
A Remake Of An Old Drawing From 2014. It's Nice To See How My Art Style Changed As Well
My Drawing Progress Over The Year, Criticism And Advice Always Welcome
One Year Drawing Progress
Sometimes I Think That I Do Not Advance Or Improve, And Then I Find My Drawings From Years Ago
If I could draw as well as the first picture, I'd think I was some kind of genius!
Old Work Done Around 2008-2009 And The New Version In 2012
Improved Nutella
It's Always Nice To See How Far You've Come, And What All Of Your Time And Effort Has Ended Up As
It's Been 4 Years And I've Learned A Lot. And Honestly? I've Learned Most Of It By Watching Much Better Artists Than Me
Honestly Most People Drew Better Than Me When They Were Kids. I Just Enjoyed Drawing, So I Kept Doing It, And Improved As A Byproduct
Did A Re-Draw Of My First Ever Digital Painting From 2012. Pretty Cool To See How Far I’ve Come
I Got Inspired To Remake A Drawing I Made 7 Years Ago For A Friend
This Was So Much Fun To Draw! I Used The First Pic I Ever Drew With Photoshop And Did It Again. Any Improvement?
Recently I Came Across A Super Old Drawing Of Mine And I Thought It Could Be Fun To Redraw Or Paint The Thing. I Added Some Details Though To Make It Look Nicer Besides The Whole Rendering Part And Everything Else
Redesigned A Character That Was Created In 2010, Called Semira, Now Called Lily. I Find It Very Cool To Remake Old Designs, 'Cause It's Easier To See How I Have Evolved
Note: this post originally had 139 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
in some cases it also shows how far modern technology has come too. great pics
I wish there were more hand drawn stuff... Even though they're beautiful, tehcnology improves, and it's easier to delete mistakes you've made, but handmade will always be nicer for me, with flaws and all.
am gritting my teeth here and posting a pic i painted from National Geographo 1967 . i still have the original photograph and have the original cover with the Afgan girl - which i somewhere started to paint refugee-5b...d58cab.jpg 
Some of them look like photograph and many are photoshopped or drawn in computer program,maube I am mistaken😊
Yee, that’s how good they are! I only think 2 or 3 of them were digitally done, though it takes just as much effort as traditional art ^^ as for the photographs, none of them are. They are just extremely realistic!
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I don't think any of the originals were crappy. You have to start somewhere. The growth of these artists is amazing.
"Practice makes perfect." No it doesn't.. I could draw 24/7 for 10 years and my drawings would still be c**p
Me too. It would take a miracle for me to be able to do the "before" pictures .
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Let's face it: Most (if not all) of these were talented to begin with! :)
Art is 10% talent and 90% practice. None of these artists would have gotten where they are on pure talent.
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The drawings are amazing, and the talent is certainly there, but I must say that I hate hyper-realism. It's just so pointless to me.
why spend 50 hours to make something that looks like a photo??
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I liked the most those showing progress between many years. The 1 to 1 show already that someone could draw really well, while to ones drawn between many years hsow not only super progress but also determination and passion that the author thrived in drawing so many years :) Kudos, I neved could draw and never will draw as brilliantly as all those people!
I really enjoy these. It's great to see the different takes on the same subject, and the artists have good reason to be proud. However I would love to see something like this with more stringent rules (or in some cases just more documentation). I suspect that many have taken significantly more time with the upgraded versions, and certainly many of them use better technology (e.g. hand-drawn to tablet, paint to photoshop). Wouldn't it be cool to compare what you can do now in conditions more closely modelling the originals?
They... aren’t? I’d say I’m easily outraged when it comes to over-sexualization but none of these are that bad??
Load More Replies... This hyper realistic stuff just doesn't appeal to me. I somehow find it really boring. I don't say it's not an amazing feat, but they all look the same...
It does take a lot of skill to do it, but I appreciate art with imagination and originality behind it more.
Load More Replies... in some cases it also shows how far modern technology has come too. great pics
I wish there were more hand drawn stuff... Even though they're beautiful, tehcnology improves, and it's easier to delete mistakes you've made, but handmade will always be nicer for me, with flaws and all.
am gritting my teeth here and posting a pic i painted from National Geographo 1967 . i still have the original photograph and have the original cover with the Afgan girl - which i somewhere started to paint refugee-5b...d58cab.jpg
Some of them look like photograph and many are photoshopped or drawn in computer program,maube I am mistaken😊
Yee, that’s how good they are! I only think 2 or 3 of them were digitally done, though it takes just as much effort as traditional art ^^ as for the photographs, none of them are. They are just extremely realistic!
Load More Replies... I don't think any of the originals were crappy. You have to start somewhere. The growth of these artists is amazing.
"Practice makes perfect." No it doesn't.. I could draw 24/7 for 10 years and my drawings would still be c**p
Me too. It would take a miracle for me to be able to do the "before" pictures .
Load More Replies... Let's face it: Most (if not all) of these were talented to begin with! :)
Art is 10% talent and 90% practice. None of these artists would have gotten where they are on pure talent.
Load More Replies... The drawings are amazing, and the talent is certainly there, but I must say that I hate hyper-realism. It's just so pointless to me.
why spend 50 hours to make something that looks like a photo??
Load More Replies... I liked the most those showing progress between many years. The 1 to 1 show already that someone could draw really well, while to ones drawn between many years hsow not only super progress but also determination and passion that the author thrived in drawing so many years :) Kudos, I neved could draw and never will draw as brilliantly as all those people!
I really enjoy these. It's great to see the different takes on the same subject, and the artists have good reason to be proud. However I would love to see something like this with more stringent rules (or in some cases just more documentation). I suspect that many have taken significantly more time with the upgraded versions, and certainly many of them use better technology (e.g. hand-drawn to tablet, paint to photoshop). Wouldn't it be cool to compare what you can do now in conditions more closely modelling the originals?
They... aren’t? I’d say I’m easily outraged when it comes to over-sexualization but none of these are that bad??
Load More Replies... This hyper realistic stuff just doesn't appeal to me. I somehow find it really boring. I don't say it's not an amazing feat, but they all look the same...
It does take a lot of skill to do it, but I appreciate art with imagination and originality behind it more.
Load More Replies...