On Drawing Every Day and Scheduling

[Mechanizoid]

Hello guys! I've wanted to develop art ninja skillz for a long time, but I've always kind of studied on and off. Often I got discouraged and stopped studying for a while because I felt I was failing miserably at something. This changed recently when I listened to Feng Zhou's podcast on learning on your own. He made it clear I have to really study a lot in order to improve quickly.

So, for the last few days, I've been drawing every single day. I want to make drawing every day into a habit and start logging in those hours of mileage. It isn't always so easy to build a positive habit and break old patterns, so I'd like to ask you guys for advice. What do you think is the best way to make drawing every day a regular thing? How do you go about minimizing distractions and getting into the zone of art practice?

There's been a few things that have really helped me. One is just cleaning up my room and organizing all my stuff, so that I have a clean environment to work in. The other is organizing my computer desktop to show all the stuff I'm working on. I've found that its a lot easier to get into studying when you have your stuff all organized and all you have to do is sit down and do it.

But I still haven't managed to build a reasonable schedule. I'm staying up at crazy hours drawing and getting up way late and generally having a stupid schedule. So what do your recommend for building a reasonable art schedule? Should I map everything out, and how?

At the end of the day, we build patterns (both positive and negative) through repetition, so I know the most important thing is to just keep drawing every day. Eventually it will become something I just do. Crazy hour or not, I got my study in today and I'm gonna do more tomorrow. Onward to awesome things!

[BrushNoir]

I've been thinking about this myself aswell for a long time. I actually made a post on my site about it aswell (from my own experience). There are lots of ways you can draw and study. At this point I will be trying a different route (also inspired by Feng Zhou) which is giving myself a project to work on. Since I want to get more into card art I started with Magic the Gathering projects. Googling art descriptions (Thanks john!) and do those. The CC is a project aswell which lets you study and learn a lot. Basically I stopped doing random studies since that was not working for me, I just did not know how to apply them and in the end I forgot them. Time is something you have to try out what works best for you. Same goes for sleeping. I try to keep a 7,5 hour sleep (5 cycles) to not burn out (again).

Hope this helps a bit.

[crackedskull]

Allright first thing you do is set a reasonable amount of hours that you know you have the capability of doing. Then you set a timeframe like 10 days to get those hours done.
And then you set a punishment, like 1 month without internet.
You can set harsher punishments if you want.
The punishment attaches a near future negative effect to your lazyness and procastination, thus it motivates you to work more and slack off less.
Seems to work for me.
Also dont get frustrated at results, accept it as a natural way of progression, if you dont you might end up getting too stressed out and you will burn out, thus losing productivity.
Take it in stride and keep moving.

[John]

What do you think is the best way to make drawing every day a regular thing? How do you go about minimizing distractions and getting into the zone of art practice?

I remember this old John Romita Jr. story where he asks a veteran comic book artist how does he manage to work so fast. The veteran said: "First thing you do, spend all your money, don't leave a single cent unspent. Then hit the drawing board. You'll be amazed how fast you're going to draw just to make ends meet."

It's a joke. But there's truth in it. Sometimes, the only way to get what you want is acknowledging that you're trying to get what you need. A change of perception.

Often I got discouraged and stopped studying for a while because I felt I was failing miserably at something.

It seems you're doing it the right way because that's the entire point of studying. It's getting discouraged and overcoming discouragement, figuring things out, and failing miserably over and over again until you find a rhythm to success. Otherwise, it's not studying at all, but, probably, doing an exercise or just drawing for fun. It's not that there's anything wrong with them. It's just not studying. I get you because I hate studying as well, but I hate not being good enough even more!

Wish you all the best!

[devinn]

pop adderall and study for 14hrs saturday or sunday one weekend. Use that boost to carry you through next week (not taking adderall; pre-workout,coffee, and caffeinated teas are fine)

Onward, discipline will be your driving force. Just draw. Don't even think about it: just fucking draw, bruv. You'll be tempted to masturbate, but you just gotta fight the urge.


SERIOUSLY THOUGH? Bro, just draw a lot, draw often, and slowly deviate into other things. Check your work. Trust in the fucking process. Trust in the fucking process. Trust in the fucking process.

...and remember that there are more ways than one to skin a cat.

[smrr]

Yeah I'm with @crack3d with this one man. He's got the right idea.
I'd recommend using his method as a template and then tailor it to what works for you.

All the best bruh

[OtherMuzz]

I think one thing i'll throw into this discussion.

Everyone talks about how you need to draw a lot to improve, which is true, but nobody ever talks about how drawing at not your best actually can send you backwards. I see it all the time. People putting in 12 hours a day, and they are going backwards.

Your brain is a sponge for habits, everytime you spend drawing that same dumb face with the same dumb expression that you usually do (everyone does this), you are etching that into the walls of your head, and if you do it enough you'll make a habit that will take years of active effort to overcome.

Discipline isn't just about drawing, it's about drawing only when you are 100%, doing it regularly and making sure you are pushing the limits of what you can do everytime.

[KurtJeremy]

I usually have a list that I have written the night before, so that tomorrow Ill have a list of task that I could cross off. make the list simple and take a break after every ticked off line in the list.
I find it very rewarding whenever I completely done all of my task in a day and that whats gonna keep you going i think, the momentum. at first it would be hard but keep at it!