Most children enjoy drawing and use it to express a wide range of experiences and emotions. Drawing can offer an avenue of expression where words fail. So why do many people stop drawing after the early school years? This is an examination of the early work of John Everett Millais, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, Michael Rothenstein, Gerard Hoffnung, Sarah Raphael and David Downes to investigate the reasons why these artists were able to sustain and develop their drawing skill and expressive potential while others failed. The close study of these artists early drawings reveals their sequences of progress and their eventual achievement.