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The Day you Became a Better Artist!
Welcome to Daily Drawing Newsletter! This is the welcome letter for those artists determined to build the habit of drawing everyday:)
If you’re not sure how you got here but are intrigued, you can sign up for the newsletter below:
Making an introduction - Habits
Habits are the silent rulers of our lives. This newsletter is about making daily drawing one of those habits.
Daily practice is essential to improving our skills as an artist. Drawing every day, even if for only a few minutes, is better than once a week. It's certainly the best way to enhance your skills and hone techniques.
So, here’s what you’re in for:
More drawing -painting-scribbling references than you’ll know what to do with! The idea, is no matter how much or little you draw, you won’t run out of inspiration😊
But how will you really benefit?
Now a days our inbox is an environment we just can’t avoid. It’s a part of too many facets of our daily lives.
So, let’s make our inbox an environment conducive to daily drawing.
You’ll receive an email from DailySktch with a bunch of references. When you open the email, the first image will be curated for speed and simplicity of line.
Just open the newsletter and start sketching!
It’s job is to break your inertia, make it easy to start, and keep, the habit of drawing every day. And if that sounds too easy, don’t worry, there’s more! With 10 references per issue and 50 per week, you’re sure to find some images inspiring and motivating.
Just a few of the references available for drawing everyday!
Shinichi Suzuki, the famous music teacher had a very simple view of practice:
“Only practice on those days that you eat!”
As powerful as habits become, they are in fact fragile in the beginning. In the beginning its OK to sacrifice quality to maintain the habit.
eg: not enough time – do it anyways. Speed sketch it. Maintain the habit.
Still struggling:
Take some tape and box out a 12 x 24 inch space on your desk or dining table. Place your sketch book and favorite pen or pencil there – nothing else.
Still struggling…Get the biggest calendar you can find with the fattest blackest chisel sharpie and start crossing off every day you do a sketch.
Remember, 5 minutes a day trumps an hour a week.
SEEING
“Learning to draw is really a matter of learning to see - to see correctly, and that means a good deal more than merely looking with the eye.”
As you're building your daily drawing habit, you are going to start to think about growth – improvement – technique.
It may seem an odd next step, but drawing well starts with seeing well. First observation, then visual translation. The world is not made up of pencil lines after all. That’s just one means of visual translation commonly used.
Some of the references will be very photographic. Can you break it down visually, distill the skill needed to make it into visual pieces? First with simple lines and shapes, then with value, edge control and transitions?
A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.
See less to understand more… That is the artist’s job.
We’ll be providing references that cover a broad range of visual translation – a whole range of how to see the world with an artists eye!
Then of course, the dessert😊 Which is of course those inspiring images that show some artistic expression – the kind of imagery that really motivates us to get out our drawing and painting materials.
Practicing
“If a certain activity, such as painting, becomes the habitual mode of expression, it may follow that taking up the painting materials and beginning to work with them will act suggestively and so presently evoke a flight into the higher state of mind”
There are many good reasons to draw everyday, but Henri expresses one of my favorites.
Its a wonderful headspace. Not only does the brain thrive where there is consistency and dependability in such habits, but the spirit thrives in the creative act.
There is something very meditative in drawing. But it’s not automatic. Of course, time and routine play a part. But there is one more important ingredient.
Lean in.
Let’s take the 10,000 hours to mastery theory. How many countless hours have you logged driving your car? For many, probably over 10,000 hours. And think about your mindset while driving. After a while driving becomes second nature, unconscious. Now compare your mental state while driving to work to that of a Daytona race car driver, pushing physical and mechanical limits around every corner!
Technically driving to work and racing around a track are both “driving practice” but realistically they are two totally different head spaces. One is on autopilot and the other is leaning in, pushing limits, maximum focus.
Now a race track forces that kind of focus. It’s external. But an artist, to achieve something similar, needs an internal force.
You must find the motivation to commit to a ritual of deep concentration. Lean in. Not a lot, just enough to be slightly past your abilities.
Doing this and the skill acquisition benefits are obvious, but even better once you start slipping ‘into the higher state of mind” that Henri talks about – you’ll fall in love with drawing and painting all over again:)
What about Creativity??
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Daily Drawing is about the craft, the skill acquisition. Creativity is very closely related to the craft of art. Many of the most prolific creatives will tell you that creativity is the result of hard work and consistent habits.
Yet, it’s still not the same.
There is a lot written on the subject and has become a very popular subject in a lot of domains this past decade or so, but here is my advice:
Process over product.
The minute creativity becomes the goal, it loses its value.
So enjoy the process, the discovery, the exploration.
The book CreativityInc. made this great point:
“Key to creativity is somewhere between the known and unknown. Linger in this sweet spot as long as possible.”
Keep in mind those things that kill creativity, namely pressure, typically time constraints.
Creativity flows from a place of space.
A daily drawing habit, being so skill oriented, can be squeezed into your schedule anywhere, and everywhere.
But the more you choose to put those skills to use for creative expression, the more space you need. Not physical space, but mental space.
So as you start to build out your own habits of drawing and painting everyday don’t forget to carve out a day here and there where you can just indulge in creative expression. No pressure, no schedule, just exploration and discovery.
A Closing...
Don't worry, the newsletter won't be this long winded!
You'll find it visually rich and linguistically poor:)
Happy Sketching,
Chad
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