Ways to become better at drawing now!

As artists, we are always looking for ways to improve ourselves. There are many ways to accomplish this. These are easy habits that you can implement in your busy lives that I also follow.

Practice

Of course this is going to be on the top of the list! Practice is the way we improve any skill. So, repeating it here just means it's unavoidable. The thing where many, including how my practice time was ineffective was because I didn't do so with intent.

When it comes to practicing or simply building a habit, it becomes easier when you use your time thoughtfully. Perhaps it's helpful to ask questions like, what do I need to specifically practice? What is the approach that I need to take in order to grasp understanding of the subject?

Let's say you want to get better at drawing the human figure. Maybe, start at the fundamentals and study shape, lighting and anatomy. Look at your reference and break it down in shapes. Decide where the light is coming from. The internet is full of so many resources to aid in growth and it's up to you to do the research.

Tracing

Tracing is not entirely taboo. In my opinion, just don't share these things or sell items that were traced. Please refrain from doing this as it can be viewed poorly. Think of the practice as training wheels. It should be used as a tool for understanding. When tracing, you train yourself to follow the lines of the form/subject that you are drawing but, this is even more helpful when being intuitive or thoughtful with this tool. Here's how.

After tracing, and thinking about how certain lines felt, try to recreate the same picture without tracing and compare how you did. This is something that can be practiced over and over again until you build the muscle memory to know longer need this assistance.

Schedule time

Let it be your time that you schedule for yourself. If you find it hard to take time to draw, make it commitment for a fraction of time of 7-10 minutes each day. You may be surprised to see that you occasionally surpass an hour of meditative drawing!

Warm up

Warm ups do not need to be fancy or intricate finished pieces. Some of ways I like to warm up are my drawing various lines, shapes and squiggles or loose figure drawings. This helps remind me to remain ludic. Actually, I may sound a bit contradictory here but, I'd say when warming up, give your brain a break and just allow the pencil to do it's thing. I can't recall where I learned this method but, if I'm stressed and blocked, this is my go to and is effective in meditation as well.

Are you up for the challenge?

Let's do this! Let's keep each other accountable and take at least 7-10 minutes each day to draw for a month. Do not become get discouraged if you aren't liking what you see, keep practicing! How else will you learn from mistakes?

Like if you're willing to join this challenge and invite your friends!

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Much love and God bless