Circle with stroke smoothing off, then onOnly if your app has smoothing. Look for where the smoothed line lags behind your hand.
Five tries at one arc, undoing the first fourStroke, undo, stroke again. Look for whether the fifth is better than the first or only different.
Long arc with the canvas turned to suit your wristRotate the canvas until the arc is a comfortable pull. Look for a curve that needed no second try.
Mug sketched at your lightest pressure onlySize and opacity both follow pressure. Look for a drawing that stays pale all over, with no dark slip.
One curve drawn at three zoom levelsZoomed far out, at full view and close in. Look for the zoom where your line wobbles least.
One stroke upright, one with the stylus laid overOnly if your brush reads tilt. Look for the mark widening as the stylus leans.
Page of lines with your palm resting on the screenRest your hand as you would on paper. Look for stray dots where the palm touched down.
Show all 75 exercises (68 more)
Line and pressure, continued
Pressure ramp with opacity on and size offThe same long stroke with the two settings swapped. Look for a tone that deepens with no visible step.
Pressure ramp with size on and opacity offOne long stroke from your lightest touch to your hardest. Look for a width that grows with no sudden jump.
Same stroke before and after softening the pressure curveOnly if your app lets you edit the curve. Look for faint marks coming more easily than before.
Slow square on a tablet with no screenEyes on the monitor, hand on the desk. Look for four corners that meet with no gap and no tail.
Ten freehand lines beside one from the line toolDraw yours parallel to the ruled one. Look for which end of your lines drifts away from it.
Ten strokes held at one pressureSize follows pressure, so aim for half force. Look for ten lines of one width from end to end.
Twenty strokes that each start on a dotLine the cursor up over the dot before you touch down. Look for starts that sit on it, not beside it.
Your signature at five brush sizesSame hand and pressure; only the size slider moves. Look for the size where it looks most like yours.
Layers 15
Black square at five layer opacitiesDuplicate it five times and step each layer's opacity down. Look for even steps from black to barely there.
Clean line over a sketch turned down to faintLower the sketch layer's opacity and ink on a new layer. Look for ink that fixes the sketch, not copies it.
Colour judged with the line layer hiddenFill under your line art, then hide the lines. Look for shapes that still read as the subject.
Eraser used on the top layer onlyRub through a top shape down to nothing. Look for the layers beneath left whole.
Every shadow on one layer you can switch offPaint the shadows on a layer above the colour. Look for the flat colour untouched when you hide it.
Five overlapping leaves, slid apartDraw each on its own layer across the last, then move them. Look for whole leaves with no holes.
Half an apple hidden with a layer maskPaint black on the mask, then white to bring it back. Look for the apple returning whole.
One drawing split across five layersSketch, line, flat colour, shadow, light. Look for what the picture loses each time you hide one.
One eye drawn twice on two layersShow one version, then the other. Look for the one you keep without having to think.
Shape faded out with grey on a maskBrush mid grey on the mask over one end. Look for a part that turns see-through, not gone.
Sketch brightened with an adjustment layerOnly if your app has adjustment layers. Add brightness, then hide it. Look for the original unchanged.
Three backgrounds swapped under one figurePut each background on its own layer beneath. Look for the figure's edge staying clean on all three.
Three overlapping shapes, reorderedA circle, a square and a triangle on a layer each. Drag the order. Look for which shape now covers which.
Two layers merged, then one of them changedMerge line and colour, then recolour only the colour. Look for why you kept them apart, then undo.
Wrong hand redrawn on a layer aboveTurn the old drawing faint and draw the fix over it. Look for the new hand joining at the wrist.
Selection and transform 15
Arm cut at the shoulder and turned through four posesRotate the selection about the joint. Look for a shoulder that still joins after each turn.
Brushing inside a lassoed leafSelect a leaf shape and paint straight across it. Look for a crisp edge where you drew no line.
Circle scaled with proportions locked, then freeResize it both ways. Look for the moment it stops being a circle.
Eye lassoed and movedDraw a face, select one eye and nudge it. Look for the spot where the face suddenly looks right.
Flat label distorted onto the side of a boxDrag its four corners to the box's edges. Look for letters that shrink toward the far side.
Head resized three times on one bodySelect the head and scale it up and down. Look for the size that changes the character's age.
Legs lassoed and lengthenedStretch them downward only. Look for where the stretch starts to thin or thicken the lines.
Mouth resized for three moodsSelect it and make it wide, then small, then tilted. Look for how little you needed to move.
One shape selected three waysBy lasso, by rectangle and by colour. Look for which selection left the cleanest edge.
One tree copied into a row that shrinksDuplicate, scale down, move up the canvas, repeat. Look for a row that reads as distance.
Selection inverted to paint behind a figureSelect the figure, invert, then brush the background. Look for no colour creeping over the figure.
Shadow slid away from its objectKeep the shadow on its own layer and move it down. Look for the object seeming to lift off the ground.
Tilted house straightened by rotating the selectionSelect the house, not the canvas, and turn it. Look for walls that run parallel to the canvas edge.
Whole sketch shrunk to stamp sizeSelect everything and scale it down. Look for a shape you can still name.
Window copied ten times along a wallDraw one, duplicate it, space the copies by eye. Look for gaps that match without measuring.
Brushes 15
Blurry apple with three edges sharpenedSoft blob first, then a hard brush on three edges only. Look for the edges you chose to leave lost.
Brick wall stamped with a square brushOne press for each brick, changing pressure as you go. Look for bricks that differ with no redrawing.
Brush spacing turned up until the stroke breaksOnly if your brush has a spacing setting. Look for the point where a line becomes a row of stamps.
Face blocked in with a brush wider than the noseNo stroke narrower than that. Look for a likeness made of planes, with no lines at all.
Five passes of a pale brush on one patchLow brush opacity, lifting the stylus between passes. Look for five even steps of tone.
Flat circle turned into a ball in one soft passFill a circle, then sweep a large soft brush down one side. Look for a ball, not a smudge.
Gradient by pressure, then by the opacity sliderPaint one of each side by side. Look for which gives you the smoother run from dark to light.
Grass cut out of a dark hill with the eraserGive the eraser a textured tip first. Look for erased marks as sure as painted ones.
Half of a hard edge softened with the blend toolSmudge one half and leave the other crisp. Look for a blend that keeps its colour and stays clean.
Hard and soft edge on one ballHard round brush for the cast shadow, soft round for the turn. Look for each edge sitting where it belongs.
One dot at ten brush sizesTap once at each step up the size slider. Look for the sizes you would really draw with.
Pear painted with one brush at three sizesLarge for the shape, medium for the form, small for edges. Look for how little the small size was needed.
Same leaf with a pencil, an ink and a paint brushDraw it three times. Look for the brush that changed how you drew, not only how it looks.
Swatch card of ten brushesOne stroke each from light to hard, with the name beside it. Look for three you would reach for again.
Tree with a leaf brush, then the same tree by handUse a scatter or foliage brush first. Look for what the shortcut brush could not place for you.
Color and blend modes 15
Copied square checked with DifferencePaint a copy by eye on a layer above and set it to Difference. Look for black wherever the copy matches.
Five swatches matched by eye, then sampledMix each beside its target on the colour wheel, then sample both. Look for how far off your value was.
Fog on a dark street with a Screen layerBrush pale blue on a Screen layer. Look for the darks lifting while the lights barely move.
Form painted on a Luminosity layerBrush greys on it above flat colours. Look for the hues holding while light and shade appear.
Grey cube lit with two blend layersYellow on Overlay for the light, blue on Multiply for the shade. Look for a cube that looks sunlit.
Mid tone on a Darken layerFill the layer with a mid grey. Look for lighter areas taking the tone and darker areas holding.
Multiply shadow over three flat coloursBrush grey-blue on a Multiply layer above them. Look for each flat getting darker and staying itself.
One colour bar over a grey ramp in six blend modesLay it across a black-to-white ramp and switch modes. Look for where each mode leaves the ramp alone.
One orange on an Overlay layer over a grey ballFill the layer with it. Look for the orange turning lighter on the lit side and darker in shadow.
Pear in greys with a Color layer abovePaint the form in grey, then brush hues on a Color layer. Look for light and dark staying as painted.
The same mid tone on a Lighten layerSwitch that layer's mode. Look for the darks taking the tone and the lights holding.
Shadow strength set by layer opacitySlide a Multiply shadow layer from full to nothing. Look for the strength that matches the light you meant.
Three discs of light on Add layersRed, green and blue discs overlapping on black, each set to Add. Look for overlaps lighter than either disc.
Value check with a grey layer on topFill a top layer with grey and set it to Color. Look for whether the picture still reads without hue.
White on Multiply, black on ScreenBrush white on a Multiply layer and black on a Screen layer. Look for nothing changing at all.
How this list was compiled: Original list written for Draw This Next on 2026-10-16: 75 exercises that need a tablet or a drawing app, in five groups of 15 (line and pressure, layers, selection and transform, brushes, color and blend modes), with an Easy mark on 15, three in each group. Each line says how to do the exercise and then what to look for when it is done. The exercises and the lines under them are our own; no app, device or maker is named, features are called by their general names, and an exercise that needs a feature some apps lack says so. The terms were read on 2026-10-16 at English Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0). Layers (digital image editing), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layers_(digital_image_editing): layers are stacked and their order decides the picture; a change can be applied to one layer alone; each layer has its own opacity and blend mode; what is painted black on a layer mask is hidden and grey is partly transparent; an adjustment layer applies an effect such as brightness without changing the layer under it. Blend modes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blend_modes: Multiply gives a darker result and white on it leaves the other layer as it was; Screen gives a brighter one, and by its formula black changes nothing; with Overlay the top becomes lighter where the base is light and darker where it is dark; Addition sums the two layers and is also called Linear Dodge; Darken Only keeps the smaller and Lighten Only the larger of each colour value; Difference takes one layer from the other, so equal colours give black; Color keeps the luma of the layer below and takes hue and chroma from the top; Luminosity keeps the hue and chroma below and takes the luma of the top. Graphics tablet, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_tablet: software can use the stylus's pressure, and sometimes its tilt, to change brush size, opacity and other attributes. Licence: own work
How it works
Digital drawing practice is half drawing and half learning what paper never had: pressure settings, layers, selections, brushes and blend modes. Each exercise here isolates one of them.
Read the full guide
What a tablet adds to practice
A stylus reports how hard you press, and an app can turn that into brush size, opacity or both. Layers are stacked and their order decides the picture; a change to one leaves the rest alone. A selection lets you move or resize a part after it is drawn.
Four blend modes to learn first
Multiply darkens, and white on it changes nothing. Screen lightens, and black on it changes nothing. Overlay shows a colour lighter where the layer beneath is light and darker where it is dark. Color keeps the light and dark beneath and swaps in its own hue.
Repeat an exercise on a fresh layer and keep the earlier tries in view beside it. The row shows whether you are improving.
Mode names change between apps: Add may be listed as Addition or Linear Dodge. Go by what the mode does.
Questions and answers
How do you practice digital drawing?
One tool at a time. Repeat a pressure exercise until the stroke does what you meant, then move to layers, then selections. A short repeat tests a single thing; a long painting tests all of them at once.
What are good digital drawing exercises for beginners?
The Easy group: a pressure ramp, three overlapping shapes reordered on their layers, an eye lassoed and moved, one dot at ten brush sizes, white brushed on a Multiply layer. None of them needs a finished picture.
Are digital art exercises different from drawing on paper?
Partly. Drills for aim and steady curves are the same on any surface. A drawing app adds what paper cannot do: a brush that changes with a setting, a part moved after it is drawn, a shadow switched off.
Do you need a pressure-sensitive stylus?
Only for the exercises that test pressure, such as the two ramps and the mug sketched at your lightest touch. The layer, selection and blend mode exercises work with any stylus, a mouse or a finger.