For the Visual Creative (Who Has No Money)

By Caitlin Callahan

So you want to learn how to draw or design. On a budget. How?

For Illustrators and Designers

Cheap Art Lessons

Take advantage of inexpensive or free art lessons. For the aspiring illustrator, some examples include Marco Bucci’s (who himself didn’t go to art school) or Alphonso Dunn’s YouTube channels, cheaper-end art courses like on 21 Draw or college-course utilized art books like Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. For the aspiring designer, check out Envato Tuts+ free graphic design course or Robin William's book The Non-Designer's Design Book (which, surprisingly, can actually be used by designers). Both aspiring illustrators and writers can use Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning.

When you work on learning how to draw, you will have to learn the basics before you can progress. (Unless you just want to doodle and draw for fun, which is totally OK but a different beast.) Check out this video for the 11 principles of design, and recognize that to draw really well, you will have to learn various foundational things like perspective, anatomy and color theory. Aspiring designers will also use the 11 principles of design, but their “foundational things” will look a bit different, compared to illustrators.

Cheap Art Materials

What should you use to draw? What should you use to design? If you have an Apple iPhone or iPad, you can download Procreate, a very, very popular illustration program that runs for $12.99. You can also go to Walmart and pick up a sketchbook and a pencil set for less than $20 — that is, if you don’t mind going traditional. This is especially recommended if you’re interested in paints, watercolors or like-minded mediums. For the aspiring graphic designer, your options are less feasible. But if you can’t pay for the industry star, Adobe Suite, even with available discounts, you can try out free programs like Canva.

More Resources:

Learn How to Draw for Beginners - Episode 1

Drawabox Lesson 0, Part 1: What is Drawabox?

48 essential free resources for graphic designers

What is Graphic Design? Ep1/45 [Beginners Guide to Graphic Design]

And Then, Coloring Books

Coloring books are fabulous. But if you don’t have money to go all-out on them, don’t sweat. Faber-Castelli and Crayola have free adult print-out coloring pages. Of course, this assumes you have a home printer and that you won’t be printing out enough pages to make a huge dent in your ink supply.

Alternatively, you can purchase a wealth of cheap coloring books in places like Amazon, Walmart, or Target for a good price. 

Or, pull out that Procreate program you bought earlier and download some digital coloring pages. You can take that program and color on the go.

Don’t Buy Fancy Supplies if You Don’t Have Money and Aren’t Committed

I initially wrote this subtitle as, don’t buy “if you don’t have Monet,” and yeah, I like the French painter and all, but I don’t think he’s a necessary component of your purchase capabilities.

The point is, if you’re broke and don’t (currently) have a specific or sizeable artistic passion, you don’t need to go and buy Copics. Buy Crayolas to see if you even like markers.

Of course, there is a reason for buying quality. Later. What I’m saying is, don’t get quality when you can’t. Sometimes, you just can’t right now. Save up like you’re buying a Porsche and wait, buying cheaper alternatives: Crayolas.

I have the Crayolas.

Or buy only a handful of Copics and consider trying out monochromatic art, like the challenge presented in the Colored Pencil magazine.

Don’t Revert to AI

This one’s a bit tongue-and-cheek, but dear readers, if you haven’t noticed already, the art community mostly hates AI. Why? Because they say the art it creates is theft as well as soulless and leaves creatives jobless. If you want to be creative, don’t type it into existence. Work for it a little. Undertake the artistic process. Art can be therapeutic if not stressful exciting. Yes, AI is the quickest and cheapest way to make art. But it’s not you making art. It’s the robot making art. If you want to be truly creative on a budget, check out the options above and don’t revert to AI art. At least, that’s what Hayao Miyazaki would probably say to you.

(But then … if you are going to use it, why are you perusing this article? Why aren’t you on OpenAI right now?)

Final Thoughts

I hope these tips will help you get started. Art doesn’t have to be crazy expensive. Today we have so many options that make art accessible.

Caitlin Callahan is a fellow creative who is earning her B.A. in writing. She writes for Fastweb as a student contributor and copyedits for a local union magazine. She grew up with both visual and verbal forms of art and hopes others can be inspired by her own art journey.