What's up, Scribble Ninjas?
If you're reading this, you are probably into sketching or wanting to sketch. I'm assuming that you are creative. But creative people have problems, (actually a lot of problems), but specifically with being motivated. It's hardly fair that we should be expected to go on with our artistic career just after making something really, really terribly horrible. We want to give up immediately and all further thoughts of practicing are abandoned. Our world loses meaning and you push your pen (or pencil) away, disgusted. But in truth, the thing you just create isn't terrible. It's another stepping stone to getting better.
However, improving takes a long time. We need an extra boost, like if, say, we work on drawing hands for two days and the fingers still look like plates or if the eye style you have been trying to perfect is not quite perfect yet. It's hard to recover.
So, in light that we have picked a very stressful and self-beating-up kind of job, here are five things to help you enjoy improving:
1. Focus on only one aspect at a time.
2. Timelapse yourself.
Pick the thing you find yourself drawing over and over again. Body shapes, interesting faces, expressive animals. Just whatever you do well. And then timelapse yourself drawing them. First of all, it's fun. It pumps you up. Gets you full of energy to go and draw seven more. Secondly, you can watch the video to see what things you actually do well and which skills still need improvement. It makes it easier to pick the next thing to spend your practicing time on. I use the Framelapse app on my tablet for timelapsing and it works extremely well. Anyone can do this, people. If you've got a phone, a laptop, camera... you get me. If you a uninspired artist, do yourself a favor and timelapse. This will help you feel better about yourself.
3. Do a scribble challenge!
What is a scribble challenge, you ask? Basically, grab a pen, close your eyes and randomly drawing squiggles on a page of your notebook. Open your eyes, see what your pen has drawn for you to work with. Is it shapely? Do not you see a character emerging already?
Stare at it for a long time until you see a something. Make it a picture, even if it doesn't want to be one. Fight it until you actually can call the drawing a complete one. This may take some time, but it helps you think outside the box and unconsciously improve while having fun at the same time.
(The last step is to feel proud about your masterpiece, in case you didn't know).
4. Look at your oldest notebooks then at your newest.
You cannot do this and then tell me that it makes you feel worse. It can't. I don't care if you've started drawing thirty years or thirty days ago, you have improved. Feel good about that. Celebrate when you finish a project, no matter how insignificant it is. It's important to you. Every animal or eye or tower you construct on paper, it all helps you down the line.
5. Doodle.
Doodling frees up my mind instantly. All of the sudden I am not bogged down by the pressure of getting every little detail right. There is no right. There is nothing to compare to, which I think is the most important thing. It's just you, the pen and some paper, making something cool. It gives your mind a break but at the same time you can identify certain shapes you are attracted, what kinds of lines you like. Hard or soft? Straight or wiggly? It's just a really fun way to unwind. And don't tell me that you don't know how to doodle. It is a survival skill we learned by the age of three.
What things do you do to have fun while improving? Is there anything you would add to the list? Do you use any of these methods with other creative endeavors?
Let me know in the comments!
Keep scribbling, Ninjas!
- J.E. JAYNES
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