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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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#1
Two Years Of Drawing Every Day
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#2
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. Iâve Improved A Little
#3
Found This Drawing I Did In 2008 When I Was 11 Of The Puppy We Adopted Whoâs Now An Old Man
#4
It's Been Exactly Three Years Since My First Drawing, So Decided To Do This 'Draw This Again' Challenege. Not Dissappointed
#5
Me And My Art, 6 Years Apart
#6
Eye Improvement In 2 Years, 13 To 15 Years Old
Soozie Poozie 7 years ago
I am mesmerized, hypnotized just looking at the tremendous detail of that beautiful blue dreamy eye!!
#7
1 Year Improvement
#8
Then And Now
Tony Moon 7 years ago
It looks like a mix of several types with a bit of their own thrown in. Pretty amazing transformation.
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Honesty Olishia 7 years ago
Originally I agree with you, but the second one just feels more real to me.
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Kerri Russ 7 years ago
The style of the 2015 pencil sketch is much more original than the 2018, which looks Disney-fied.
#9
My Drawing Improvement 2014 - 2017
#10
Nearly 10 Years Ago I Drew Sybill Trelawney From Harry Potter, And Now Iâve Done It Again. I Pushed Myself With The Details, And Iâm So Proud
Perry Swift 7 years ago
This is my favourite improvement. The first picture is a lot better than I could every do, but the second is just brilliant!
#11
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
#12
Awesome Progress
#14
My Drawing Improvement 2013 - 2017
#15
A Little Evolution Trough The Time
#16
The First One I Drew When I Was Twelve Years Old. The Second Sheet Is A 25-Year-Old Guy Who Started Drawing
#17
A Remake Of An Old Drawing From 2014. It's Nice To See How My Art Style Changed As Well
#18
My Drawing Progress Over The Year, Criticism And Advice Always Welcome
#19
One Year Drawing Progress
#20
Sometimes I Think That I Do Not Advance Or Improve, And Then I Find My Drawings From Years Ago
Perry Swift 7 years ago
If I could draw as well as the first picture, I'd think I was some kind of genius!
#21
Old Work Done Around 2008-2009 And The New Version In 2012
#22
Improved Nutella
#23
It's Always Nice To See How Far You've Come, And What All Of Your Time And Effort Has Ended Up As
#24
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
#25
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
#26
Did A Re-Draw Of My First Ever Digital Painting From 2012. Pretty Cool To See How Far Iâve Come
#27
I Got Inspired To Remake A Drawing I Made 7 Years Ago For A Friend
#28
This Was So Much Fun To Draw! I Used The First Pic I Ever Drew With Photoshop And Did It Again. Any Improvement?
#29
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
#30
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
#31
May 2014 To May 2018 - Four Years Of Practice With Colored Pencils
#32
One Year Of Practice (1 Hour Each Night)
Heather Johnson 7 years ago
I hope you're proud because that is amazing progress! Very talented!
#33
So Satisfying. Watercolors
#34
2.5 Years Between The 1st And 2nd Picture
#37
Elephant Before And After
Random Panda 7 years ago
The art style of the first one fits the concept better imo. But the second one is impressive.
#38
My Mom Found One Of My Old Sketch Books From 1999 And The Drawing On The Left Was A Little Gem I Found In There. I Drew The One On The Left At Age 9 And The One On The Right At Age 19
#39
Draw This Owl Again
#40
I've Never Really Redrawn An Old Artwork Of Mine Even Though I Love Seeing Them From Other Artists. So I Gave It A Shot And Tried To Keep Pose And Palette Similar. 12 Years Of Difference
#41
My Progress In 7 Years
Lauren Baker 7 years ago
Ya that's crazy! I can shade pretty well but my cars are squares on 2 circles! Great drawing. Amazing shading/lighting/reflection!!!!
#42
I Redrew My Childhood Drawing
#43
Gosh, I Was So Proud Of This Back In 2013. And I Really Did Improve In The Past Three Years
#44
Coloring Improvement Over A Year
#45
3 Years Apart
#46
Draw This Again: Drowning Maiden
#47
I'd Seen People Do This Before And I Always Wanted To Try It Myself Some Time. To Make It Fair I Stuck To The Same Conditions: No References, No Color And The Same Pose
#48
This Should Give You A Lesson: Never Give Up! You Can Do It
#49
Here Is The Remake Of A Self-Portrait I Did Back In 2010, Before I Did Any Digital Work, All Inks And Cross-Hatching Back Then
#50
My Drawing Progress From 2015 To 2017
#51
1 Year Difference (Progress)
#52
7-Year-Old Me Vs Now Me
#53
Had So Much Fun Doing This, I'm Glad I've Improved
#54
My First "Draw This Again", And I'm Really Proud Of The Result
#55
I Don't Remember When I Did The First Drawing, But At That Time I Didn't Draw With Tablet, It Was With Mouse, And My Pulse Is Horrible. I Hate The First Drawing But I Think That The Difference Is So Incredible
#56
Left: When I Was 15 Years Old. Right: More Than 2 Decades Later
#57
So In My 12-Year-Old Mind Preppy Equaled A School Girl Outfit. It Was Very Fun Redrawing This! Huge Confidence Booster
#58
This Just Goes To Show You What Practice Can Do! If You Just Stick With It, You'll Improve
#59
I Really Enjoy To "Restore" My Old Characters Of Elementary And Middle School And Only Now I Realize How Synthesized And Anatomically Incorrect They Are
#60
One Of My Old Drawing, Which I Didnât Throw Away - Today I Can Do Comparison Of My Progress
Linda Something 7 years ago
It kind of looks like a young Leo and young Kate, who grew up a bit in the second drawing. Nice work! :)
#61
Not Sure When The First One Was Made, May Be 1994 Or Something. Anyway, A Bit Of Progress Since Then
#62
I Still Can't Draw Hands But I'm Getting There
#63
So I Opened My Drawing Time Capsule From 10 Years Ago. I'm Not Sure If That Black Thing Is A Mouth Or A Mustache
#64
Re-Draw Of An Older Drawing From 2003
#65
A Huge Progress In 4 Years
#66
It Only Took 13 Years To Get Around To Doing This. Better Late Than Never, Right?
#67
Zero Improvement, Right?
#68
Organizing My Files, I Found This Drawing Which Is One Of The First Digital Drawings I Made, 13 Years Ago, In Paint. I Thought It Would Be Fun To Redo It And See The Result
#69
Ocelot And Dog 6 Years Apart
#70
I Found This Drawing Book I Had When I Was 4 So I'm Like "Ok I'm Gonna Draw It Again And See What Happens"
#71
Somewhere In There Were 5 Years Where I Had Stopped Drawing Altogether, And I Wish I Hadnât Because I Think I Would Have Improved Even More. All That To Say, Keep Drawing And You Will Get Better
#72
Well, I Tried To Draw Jessica Alba Again
#73
Draw This Again - Cintia Dicker
#74
Honestly, I Feel Like This 2015 Is The Best I'm Gonna Get, But Who Knows. Maybe In Few Years I'll Draw Him Again And Look Back And Cringe At The 2015 One Too
#76
I Didn't Practice All This 8 Years. I Started To Draw Last Year Again
#77
I Did A Draw It Again Meme Thing
#78
1 Year Progress, Actually I'm Kinda Proud
#80
This Isn't A Strict Redo, But It's More Or Less The Same Thing! Both Mirror Studies Of My Face
#83
I Think I've Improved A Lot
Kerri Russ 7 years ago
I'm alone in this, I know, but I LOVE The Last Airbender! Great job on both!
#84
I Hope, I Have Learned Something At The Last 10 Years
#85
Pirates Of The Caribbean - Draw This Again Edition
#86
One Year Improvement
#87
I Decided To Recreate One Of My First Hair Drawings To See The Difference
#88
Three Years Of Difference. What Do You Think? Can You Tell The Differences?
Ashley Say Wha?!? 7 years ago
That's one brave man! I'd nope it out of there in a heartbeat l!
#89
Characters From Dragon Ball Z. In Both Version I Used A4 Paper And Colour Pencils
#91
Well, Could Be A Higher Improvement Considering The Time-Frame, But I Am Still Glad That I Improved After All
Ila Chakravarthy 5 years ago
I gotta say, I think the overall character design is more accurate in 2009.
#92
I've Got Nothing To Post Lately And I'm So Slow At Finishing Art Trades, So Here's A Quick Sketchy Redraw
#93
Improvement In 14 Years
#95
When I Was About 11 Or 12, We Made A Wildly Derivative Card Game Called Rakafikimon With 2 Friends. I Found The Cards The Other Day And Have Decided To Work Up Each Character Into A Fully Illustrated Design
#96
I Can't Believe It's Been Four Years Already. I Still Remember Typing Out The Words 'Can't Wait To Do It Again In Another 4 Years'
#97
Sometimes I Get Close To A "Realistic" Territory, Even Though It's The Same Character, He Looks Different
#100
For Comparison
#101
A Lot Has Changed In A Decade! Though The New One Is Just A Speed Paint So It Could Have Been Better. I Cringe At My Older Drawings
#102
Huge Improvement In Just Two Years
Marcia Ferris 7 years ago
To my eye this is a change in style. They are both well done but 2015 is my favourite.
#103
When I Dig Through Old Art I Can See Clear Phases Of Different Styles I Tried Out. When I Was Younger I Drew A Full On Anime Style, Which I Got Teased A Lot For So I Ended Up Switching To A More Realistic Style As I Got Older
#104
2013 Vs 2018
#105
247 Days Of Practice. Still Struggling With Adding Correct Values/Shading And Hair. Helpful Feedback Would Be Greatly Appreciated
Hanna Hella 7 years ago
Just keep drawing, you learn to 'see' the more you practise. Good job so far!
#106
The Progress I Made In A Few Months. Critique Appreciated
BoredDragonfly 7 years ago
Well done. I don't like to give critique because I can't draw at all. But since you asked for it, my positive critique: The lines of the t-shirt are too hard in comparison to the face and neck (imho), which are so soft. Plus I would add more details like shadows and folds in the t-shirt, like you did in the first drawing. And I would have placed the ears a little higher. Just my opinion. But a 1000 times better than I would be able to draw. So, good job!
#107
I've Wanted To Do Another Daenerys For Ages And Seeing Other People's Before And After Memes Inspired Me
#108
2 Years Painting Progression
#110
Wow I Made A Huge Progress In A Year, Didn't I
Ani Pancake 7 years ago
Both are awesome but I really like the cartoon style of the first one. Try develope that, you might be illustrating the next Rick and Morty :)
#111
Draw Again
#114
Draw This Again Geisha
#115
I Just Realized That Two Years Ago I Started Draw, And The Demonic Bride Was One Of My First Illustrations. So... I Wanted To See How Changed My Skills
#118
The First One Was Done In 2012 After Seeing The Avengers, The Second One Now In 2018 After Seeing Thor Ragnarok And Infinity War
#123
I Painted This Vampire For Drawtober, It Reminded Me Of Something I'd Painted A While Back
BoredDragonfly 7 years ago
Absolutely no hate! But to me, these are two different characters and 2 different styles. But we'll done!! The details in the second one are amazing!
#126
Here Is A Draw This Again Challenge That I Made For My Very First Ever Digital Painting! I've Come A Long Way
#127
The Right One Is How I Wanted The Left One To Look Like. I Think It's A Lot Better In The Technical Sense Too (Light, Style), Do You?
#128
That's The Very First Drawing I Made On My Tablet, At That Time I Had No Idea How To Use It
Lina Maverick 7 years ago
Is it just me, or is the first one a little bit like an optical illusion? The mouth makes my eyes out of focus.
#129
This Old Artwork Is Actually Far From The Best Of All My Works From 2016, But It Has A Special Meaning For Me
Jess Moseley 7 years ago
These are both wonderful! slightly different styles here but both amazing, the color shading is great on the newer one!
#132
First One Done September 2006, Second Done June 2017. I'm So Scared People Will Say The Left One Looks Better
#133
My 2 Year Progress
#134
I Can't Believe I Was So Terrible In 2015, How Did My Teachers Even Like That Drawing
#137
First Digital Drawing And A Digital Drawing After 1 Year
Add New Image
What do you think ?
stellermatt 7 years ago
in some cases it also shows how far modern technology has come too. great pics
Warbu 7 years ago
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.
diane a 7 years ago
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 
Riina Lazovskaja 7 years ago
Some of them look like photograph and many are photoshopped or drawn in computer program,maube I am mistaken😊
Patricia Ross 7 years ago (edited)
I don't think any of the originals were crappy. You have to start somewhere. The growth of these artists is amazing.
Caroline Murphy 7 years ago
"Practice makes perfect." No it doesn't.. I could draw 24/7 for 10 years and my drawings would still be c**p
Kenny Kulbiski 7 years ago
Me too. It would take a miracle for me to be able to do the "before" pictures .
Load More Replies... SykesDaMan 7 years ago
Let's face it: Most (if not all) of these were talented to begin with! :)
Random Panda 7 years ago
Art is 10% talent and 90% practice. None of these artists would have gotten where they are on pure talent.
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Aahzmandus Pervect 7 years ago
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.
diane a 7 years ago
why spend 50 hours to make something that looks like a photo??
Load More Replies...
Alusair Alustriel 7 years ago
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!
Parmeisan 7 years ago
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?
Tiari 7 years ago (edited)
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...
Random Panda 7 years ago
It does take a lot of skill to do it, but I appreciate art with imagination and originality behind it more.
Load More Replies... stellermatt 7 years ago
in some cases it also shows how far modern technology has come too. great pics
Warbu 7 years ago
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.
diane a 7 years ago
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
Riina Lazovskaja 7 years ago
Some of them look like photograph and many are photoshopped or drawn in computer program,maube I am mistaken😊
Patricia Ross 7 years ago (edited)
I don't think any of the originals were crappy. You have to start somewhere. The growth of these artists is amazing.
Caroline Murphy 7 years ago
"Practice makes perfect." No it doesn't.. I could draw 24/7 for 10 years and my drawings would still be c**p
Kenny Kulbiski 7 years ago
Me too. It would take a miracle for me to be able to do the "before" pictures .
Load More Replies... SykesDaMan 7 years ago
Let's face it: Most (if not all) of these were talented to begin with! :)
Random Panda 7 years ago
Art is 10% talent and 90% practice. None of these artists would have gotten where they are on pure talent.
Load More Replies... Aahzmandus Pervect 7 years ago
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.
diane a 7 years ago
why spend 50 hours to make something that looks like a photo??
Load More Replies... Alusair Alustriel 7 years ago
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!
Parmeisan 7 years ago
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?
Tiari 7 years ago (edited)
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...
Random Panda 7 years ago
It does take a lot of skill to do it, but I appreciate art with imagination and originality behind it more.
Load More Replies... You May Like 30 People Draw Their Dreams And Others Offer Their Explanations The Horror Of Sleep Paralysis Hallucinations Revealed In 46 Dark Drawings 40 Famous Paintings That Changed Art Forever And Cost A Fortune Doing It
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