The big problem people hit when drawing (esp. as adults) is that they have a well-established picture of the world, built of archetypes and symbols which they i

The big problem people hit when drawing (esp. as adults) is that they have a well-established picture of the world, built of archetypes and symbols which they impose on what they see. This pattern recognition works very well when you need to navigate the world, but gets in the way when you want to observe it as it is, rather than as you think it should be. In learning to draw you're actually trying to exclude your mind's eye completely (at least at first). So specific exercises you can try (this is the sort of thing students do in art school): Draw negative space - instead of drawing a thing, draw the shapes around it. Draw without lifting the pen - put the pen on paper, look at the object, and draw without lifting or looking at your pen. Draw textures, curves, colours - forget the class of thing you're drawing (a face, an eye) and try to truly see the specific thing in front of you. Draw unfamiliar objects - things you don't have ready-made symbols of in your mind's eye. Copy pictures you admire, and you'll notice how much artifice and craft is involved. For visual design work, another skill which is very useful and often overlooked is to learn about typographic and typesetting concepts - a lot of those ideas about balance, repetition, rhythm, are very important in visual design.