Thursday, August 19, 2021

“I want to make drawings I can be proud of showing.” 

 

I get it. One of the biggest hurdles between your drawing skills now and where you want them to be, is doing the right exercises. 

 

For years I took drawing classes, and my skills only grew just a little. And when I created drawings, I liked that it took a long time and lots of erasing.

 

It’s easy to look at other people and see how their drawings look “better” than yours. Then, you try to make your drawings look like theirs.

 

Here’s what I’ve found: you and the artists you admire spend about the same time drawing a picture. Let's say 30 mins. 

 

The difference is you took 30 minutes drawing that picture and they took 1000’s of hours drawing that same picture.

 

They’ve put in YEARS of practice to get to the point where they can draw a picture and capture lots of likeness in the same time it takes you or less. 

 

I bet if you look at some of their earliest drawings… They weren’t very good either.

 

That's good news for you!

 

Instead of focusing on the final product and burning so much energy on making a “perfect” drawing, just enjoy the process and do more drawing.

 

I LOVE when I see people improving their skills week after week. I LOVE to see the progress.

 

Maybe you go through a progression like this:

 

Drawing 1 👇

Learn how to focus only on enjoying the process

 

Drawing 2 👇

Learn how to focus on drawing what you actually see

 

Drawing 3 👇

Learn how to draw without looking at the paper

 

Drawing 4 👇

Learn how to draw using a pen and no eraser

 

Thinking about the last best drawing you made, what was it of? Why do you think it went so well?