12-07-2013, 04:14 AM
My short-term long-term goal is, by the time I finish my PhD, to be a "proficient" artist. I believe proficiency is considered to be achieved after about 4000 hours of work. So, since I have about four years left until I graduate, I should try to log about 1000 hours a year--or 20 hours a week.
Of course, I do this all the time--I'm always setting complicated goals for myself to become the Bestest Evar at something, and usually my goals are a little too lofty or involved, so I end up dropping my practice completely.
Thinking in terms of thousands of hours is a bit too big to keep in mind during my daily practice(10 hours logged so far, yay!), so instead I'm going to focus on seeing how many days I can go without skipping my art practice. In order for a day to count, I'll have to log at least one hour of practice. Ideally I'll try to get in 2-3 hours so I can make my 20 hrs/wk, but I think it's best right now to try to establish a regular routine. I like this goal because I can give myself a pat on the back (and maybe...ice cream?) every time I get a whole week, a month, six months, etc. I think maybe I can stick with it if I use this method.
So far I've got four days under my belt and man, am I tired! I decided to start with learning figure drawing, since from what I've seen that seems to be a good way to learn the fundamentals. I've always liked my figures best out of anything I've drawn, but I've always just drawn what I see, rather than actually thinking about how the human body is constructed and how I might build a figure from scratch. It's much harder than I thought. o_o But, if I keep up with my daily practice, I think I'll be able to work through it. I will start posting weekly sketchbook updates soon.
Of course, I do this all the time--I'm always setting complicated goals for myself to become the Bestest Evar at something, and usually my goals are a little too lofty or involved, so I end up dropping my practice completely.
Thinking in terms of thousands of hours is a bit too big to keep in mind during my daily practice(10 hours logged so far, yay!), so instead I'm going to focus on seeing how many days I can go without skipping my art practice. In order for a day to count, I'll have to log at least one hour of practice. Ideally I'll try to get in 2-3 hours so I can make my 20 hrs/wk, but I think it's best right now to try to establish a regular routine. I like this goal because I can give myself a pat on the back (and maybe...ice cream?) every time I get a whole week, a month, six months, etc. I think maybe I can stick with it if I use this method.
So far I've got four days under my belt and man, am I tired! I decided to start with learning figure drawing, since from what I've seen that seems to be a good way to learn the fundamentals. I've always liked my figures best out of anything I've drawn, but I've always just drawn what I see, rather than actually thinking about how the human body is constructed and how I might build a figure from scratch. It's much harder than I thought. o_o But, if I keep up with my daily practice, I think I'll be able to work through it. I will start posting weekly sketchbook updates soon.