Inspiring Storytellers

hollywood-voodoo:

rattlecat:

hollywood-voodoo:

I wish I was one of those people who could just draw a million things daily. Like, how do people do that??

I draw a small sketch and I’m done for the rest of the week and I wanna sleep for 10,000 years. It’s so rare I go on a drawing binge.

HOW DO YOU NERDS DO IT??

You start small. Daily. You doodle daily. Literally ‘doodle daily’. 

Not ‘make a masterpiece daily’ or even ‘finish a sketch a day’ daily. Just literally train your brain to want a stylus in your hand for 5-10 minutes a day. Doodle lines, doodle eyes, doodle bullshit poop emojis or watch speedpaints and trace over the screenshots or doodle tongues or teeth or full bodies or whatever. Anything that is literally a painless doodle.

 It takes about two weeks for you to start feeling the effects of it, but it works. And the more you keep at it, the faster it is to lunge into it. 

I also name every canvas I draw on the current date, that way I am constantly looking at whether or not I really AM drawing every day. After a while, you start ‘affording’ yourself days, because you find yourself wanting to doodle more and more daily, so you wind up doing 5 sketches one day and pretty much affording a week of art block because you did all that in one day.

This was the first New Years resolution I made in 2013 and stuck to because I was sick of the whole ‘drawing one doodle every 2-3 months’ and I wanted to do something with my art. It is still to this day the best thing I ever took the time out of my year to do. I don’t draw daily now, but when I get back into the drawing gig, I can binge on it like crazy for 2 weeks before going on another rest. Trust me. It is SUPER WORTH IT.

This is my current 2015 year, and these are only the raw files of finished pieces I’ve done, or pieces I never plan on working on again. I have a separate folder for WIPs, and the folders I listed above are exclusively for pieces I made a final copy of to post online/give to a client/sell/print/whatever. I tend to keep a month’s worth of WIPs in the WIP folder solely to give me motivation to try and finish as many as I can, and also to keep my momentum up when I feel like I’m not doing enough.

Nothing makes me happier knowing I can actually fill out one of those fucking ‘A picture a month’ memes that goes around every year now. It is so worth it.

Start small. Start today. Start NOW.

Okay I’m a little too concerned with all this. I need just put in my two cents here, as I’m the op and all.

Drawing daily is great, and I’ve also actually been organising my digital art in folders by year since 2010. It’s a great method to really motivate ones’ self to produce a little more art. I’m not knocking this persons’ helpful tips or their encouraging addition to my post but…

The above method is not the only answer. This routine can actually be harmful for some individuals; especially those who can’t put in the time or effort on a regular basis. Especially those who are sensitive to “failure” and setting rigid goals.

Art is a fluid, organic, and personal experience for every individual. Sometimes it can be unhealthy and damaging to put yourself into a routine where you expect set results. It’s okay to be tired, it’s okay to take regular breaks– Especially if you’re prone to rsi or carpal tunnel. Exercises to stretch and strengthen your wrists can only do so much.

Drawing and honing in on your artistic skills is rewarding but also exhausting. Not just physically. If you need to take a break for your physical and/or emotional wellbeing, take one. Taking a break sometimes helps. I often see a jump in improvement if I sit back and let myself analyse my art and how I approach it for a few days. I have a wonderful friend who refers to this as the “cocooning stage”. Y’know. Like the thing with butterflies.

My original post was just a silly little whine about how as much as I love art, I find it tiring at times– especially considering this was personal, I was factoring in a lot of my mental and physical disabilities as well.

So, if you’re a hobbyist artist especially (because unhealthy methods are sadly pushed onto industry artists), don’t expect solid results for such a perpetually shifting, organic pursuit and…