"The Busy excuse"

[IrishWhiskey]

Hey guys! 

There has been something on my mind recently regarding how I seemingly avoid art for days on end and my excuse is i am too busy. I actually see this said by a lot of people and i start to wounder are we just avoiding art and making a stupid excuse to help ourselves feel better about wasting time.

I'll use myself as an example:

At the moment I am in college (not art related) Monday-Friday and working a job Saturday-Sunday so that's nine to five every day of the week. I have college work i do in the evenings so there is that but I think I use this as an excuse to say i'm exhausted and relax in my spare time. 

I could get up before eight every morning and fit art in there but to hell with that! i think i would start to hate art if i tried something like this!

I could fit it in during the day but then you just feel like you are neglecting your college work (or whatever it may be).

I know if you really love art you will make it happen but there is this "excuse" that is building and building that I and so many others are hiding behind that i think is becoming a real problem and I'm starting to hate myself for being the one adding the blocks to this shit!

oh god this sounds like a rant.......... THIS IS NOT A RANT!! 

This is merely an observation and some kind of self evaluation haha

I would love to hear you thoughts on this and what is your excuse?  

I'll shut up now.. 

[DK]

I wouldn't say getting better is about how many hours you can spend in a day on art; your brain can only hold so much information at any given moment. It's better to actually learn something and retain that knowledge. I see a lot of people doing mindless studies but aren't actually learning anything from them. Like doing a copy and calling that a study, isn't going to get you that far.

For me it's about consistency. Can you spend 3-4 hrs a day and actually retain some of that knowledge such as doing a study and applying it? For me that's more important than spending 8-12 hrs a day just doing mindless studies. Take anatomy for example, do you remember the names of the bones and muscles and how to draw them without looking at anything? That should be the goal, retaining what you've learned and applying it constantly.

I also think that if you go spend 8-12 hrs a day just drawing, you're going to start to hate it or burn yourself out, which will lead to procrastination and avoiding doing art altogether. I'm not trying to say be lazy, just use your time efficiently. Target/pinpoint exactly what you want to learn each day.

[smrr]

Yes! Dennis was on point 100% with what he wrote!

I couldn't have said it any better myself, coming from a person who'd done exactly that and studied 8-12 hrs a day until burnout :D

[Adam Lina]

I was going to reply to this thread but Im too busy ;P

[IrishWhiskey]

@Dennis Kutsenko, I see where your coming from and I agree with you. I understand that its about quality not quantity but what I mean to say is if you don't do any art for the day/week/month because of your "busy schedule" and you sort of fall into a trap of excuses and keep putting it off. this apply's for any other skill/hobbies really. 

@Smrr, judging by your sketchbook burnout is the magic formula 

@Adam Lina, Well there it is folks! take a good look at it while you can! THAT!!! right there.......is the best comment i have ever seen! 
I also like how you commented to say you were not going to comment haha 10/10

[Tristan Berndt]

If you feel as if you are making excuses, you probably are and only you can address them.

I sort of disagree with Dennis about hating drawing if you work too hard. If you’re lucky enough to be at an atelier you tend to learn fairly quickly that you can manage to stay focused and work hard for long periods of time and not burn out. It requires a willingness to get used to the initial fatigue you feel and structured way of working. When you are put through hardship, you develop a tolerance for it.

I’m at the atelier 12 hours on weekdays and collectively 6 hours over the weekend. On weekends I do all my laundry, cook all my food for the week, workout, read books and even though I’m exhausted from the week’s hard work, I go to the atelier for evening life drawing and anatomy studies. I even manage to find time to work digitally. At first it feels hard but you adapt over time.

You need to find out what your limits are and you will never find out if you don’t push yourself to the edge. Now some people will not be able to deal with 12 hours every day but to say that long hours will definitely lead to burning out is just flat out wrong. You need to figure these things out for yourself. Maybe you can handle it, maybe you can’t. But don’t automatically assume you can’t if you haven’t given it a shot (or two).

If you are noticing that you aren’t learning or retaining knowledge when studying, figure out the best way to fix that. The solution isn’t always to just study less. Sometimes you just need to switch subjects and your brain feels refreshed. At the atelier we take 5 minute breaks every 25 minutes during our long pose figure drawings. This is both so that the model doesn’t tire out but also so we can spend time cleaning up our drawings, walk around, see what other people are doing and to sit down and relax for a short time. This keeps you going for much longer and makes you more efficient when you’re on the clock.

Also, don't listen too much to people on the internet. Think for yourself because my and other people's experiences are only our own and won't always translate universally.

[DK]

My point was that it's more important to spend your time efficiently and to retain what you study in the longterm, instead of cramming a bunch of material in and forgetting it all in a couple weeks.
If you go about it correctly I'm sure you could use those 12 hours efficiently, but most of the time people don't.

Here is an article on the matter that I've posted before, but let me know what you think:
https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/2013/11/16/memory/

I'm also not trying to say you can't enjoy or maintain those 12 hrs but it's definitely something you have to work at by starting small and easing into it instead of doing the 12 hrs right off the bat; which probably will get you burned out and is something I've had experience with in the past. For someone who might have a fulltime job doing something other than art, but strives to learn it, they might not have that 12 hr luxury, so they can use their time efficiently instead; to study and retain at least a few fundamental things a day.

[meat]

Dennis' got points there man, totally agree. Just do something, and make sure you're paying attention and learning while doing it - and have unwavering faith that this is the right way to go, even tho the road looks long.

[IrishWhiskey]

@Tristan, Dennis and meat. 
OK so what you guys are saying is that even if you can only work an hour or two a day, make sure you fully commit to concentrating on what your doing and not to just mindlessly pump out a bunch of studies where you retained nothing?

Applying what I learned is really something I have to start doing too

@Dennis, cool article! its amazing what your brain can choose to remember and what to forget. I actually had a maths exam in college yesterday and a question came up that was the exact same question as was in a maths book I studied the night before , I knew the answer was 128 by just looking at the sum but it took me awhile to figure out how to get that answer haha