Finding Freedom in Drawing from Memory
An artist’s lesson in trust and creative freedom
One of my favorite comic artists is Drew Tan — also known as Drewscape. I discovered his YouTube channel last year and began studying his work. When he started a Patreon, I joined right away.
Recently, Drew published a piece about how he writes stories and then turns them into comics. As I looked at his work, I started to feel wistful and maybe even a little sorry for myself.
Because I specialize in drawing birds and nature subjects, I’m in the habit of drawing from photo reference. When I’m working on comics, that means using photos for people, places, and everything in between. Because I rely so much on this kind of observational drawing, completing a comic can take me a long time. I have to hunt down photo reference for every scene.
Whenever I searched for advice about drawing from imagination, I was told to master forms. But for some reason, that’s not how my brain works. As I studied Drew’s comics, I realized I’d been telling myself that if I just understood better how things look, I’d be able to draw like he does.
But I do know how things look. I can draw lots of subjects accurately. I can even picture an image in my mind without looking at it. So there had to be something else holding me back.
A few days after our exchange about his post, Drew uploaded a new video called “How I Draw from Imagination.” He even started by drawing birds! I felt so touched and moved that he’d take the time to record such a detailed lesson to answer my question. I immediately tracked down the photo reference he used and tried his advice for myself.
I studied the reference photo for several minutes before I started drawing. The species was somewhat familiar — a Eurasian Blue Tit, found in Europe and the UK. Then I put the photo away and began sketching.
In my first try, I was shaking off the nerves a little. I called on my experience of years of bird art practice and my memory of the image I’d just seen. When I compared my sketch to the photo, it wasn’t bad but I could see details I’d missed.
For the second drawing, I felt more relaxed. My confidence grew and I took note of areas where I still felt unsure, like the position of the feet.
By the third sketch, my lines were more expressive and I loved the feeling of creating without the strain of matching the photo.
What This Experience Taught Me
I spend a lot of time in “not-good-enough” land. But sketching from memory showed me that I don’t give my experience and know-how enough credit. My hands and eyes knew what to do even when my mind wasn’t convinced.
I’m beginning to see that drawing from memory is a path toward drawing from imagination. It’s a kind of scaffold that lets me trust what I already know and build from there.
🪶 Do you draw from imagination? What’s helped you learn and grow in confidence? Share your thoughts in the comments.
👉 If you enjoyed this reflection, you’ll love the Insider lessons where I teach practical ways to draw birds with confidence — from anatomy studies to creative exercises like this one. Upgrade to get the full experience.
Thanks Tara. Still trying to figure out how our amazing minds work. Still thinking about it. Maybe we will discover more along the way. Drawing from memory does seem to be the same as drawing from imagination. Or maybe, if it is birds, it’s recalling all the poses of birds we’ve drawn and seen and then coming up with something new. Pretty much how AI would generate a new image. And the way AI is programmed to generate images is most probably based on how humans generate images.
The thing that does take the stress off for me is knowing that my image drawn from imagination is not going to be the same as a photo. And I allow it to be Its own thing. Often, it’s simpler or just different. I can make adjustments, add new things to it. It’s its own thing and has its own look. And I embrace that.
Oh btw, I realised that it’s funny that a fox wants to go back to a farm. It will probably eat the farmer’s chickens!
This is such a timely post, Tara! I’ve been feeling pretty stuck creatively, and just recently reminded myself that I was having a lot more fun drawing birds when I was drawing them mostly from imagination/memory rather than photo reference. I feel like when I draw directly from photo reference I try too hard to make the birds look realistic, I feel tight and constricted, and my drawings don’t have nearly the charm and energy that the imagination ones do. Plus, when I draw birds from imagination I can draw any bird, even if I don’t have my own reference images or royalty free images of them. My process (and what I’m trying to get back to) is to fill a sketchbook page of the bird of interest based off of reference photos. I usually do timed sketches, 1-2 minutes per bird, and focus on drawing them in various poses so I can get a sense of them. Most of the time I do this in pencil, but will sometimes use markers, neocolors, or even watercolor depending on my mood. Usually in that process I start getting an idea of the pose I want to draw. Once my sketch page is full, I put the reference photos and my sketches away, and draw the bird again. I might exaggerate the pose, or exaggerate features I really like. I’ll refer back to reference photos later to double check if my placement of field marks is correct, but I usually like to have my own bird very well developed before I do that. Have you ever tried a process similar to that?