Write It Down!
We do a lot. We just think we don't.We define “drawing” as “doing something,” and sometimes life gets in the way, and we do lots of other things, but we don’t draw a lot, so we feel we haven’t done anything.
But we do a lot. We eat, sleep, go shopping, go to work, go to school, do the dishes, hang out with friends, work out, take care of our children, file taxes, do house maintenance, clean the house, watch movies, waste time on social media.
Every day, we do a lot. We just think we don’t because we define “doing something” as drawing.
I often have that when I’m working on the Practice Drawing This website. I write, I program, I design variable 3D models. And sometimes, that means I draw slightly less. And it becomes easy to think I didn’t do anything just because I didn’t draw a lot.
At the end of the day, write down what you did that day. You don’t need fancy, schmancy productivity apps for that; you already have one - your sketchbook! Write down the things you did do, and marvel at how much you got done.
Even if you spent eight hours on social media, that is what you did with your time.
(Want to draw more? Spending less time on social media is an option. But then again, so is spending less time writing newsletters.)
Over the past few weeks, I didn’t draw as much as I had wanted to, as I focused on improving my practice drawing. I documented the improvements in the newsletter articles, writing down what I did, and gained satisfaction from seeing the results of my efforts. AND get to let people know about some cool new things on the website. Two birds with one stone!
Big Announcement!
We’re starting an Artists’ MasterMind!
If you don’t know what a MasterMind is, in short, it works as follows: a group of peers come together each month to discuss what they did last month, each member presenting what they did, what worked, what didn’t, and what their challenges are. The group then engages in discussion, offering tips and advice. Each member then formulates what they are going to try next month. A month later, it gets reviewed.
Such a system serves as a means for peers to assist one another in overcoming challenges and also acts as an accountability mechanism. You don’t want to be the only one who did nothing.
Everyone decides on their own goals and objectives, and ultimately determines what they will try. Each member remains in firm control of their own journey but can use the Mastermind as a place to reflect on it monthly.
Entrepreneurs often join Masterminds. Usually, these Masterminds are expensive, but people who are part of them often rave about them.
This one will forever be free, of course. And it will be focused on artists. Anything goes; it’s about your goals. Whether you want to become better at drawing from imagination, make a comic, or figure out how to make a living from art, it’s all about what you want to achieve in the end.
If all goes well, the Artists’ Mastermind will provide a friendly environment where peers support one another and hold each other accountable.
It is free, and you can join or leave at any time, of course, if it isn’t working for you.
Regarding size, I’m not sure yet. Existing Masterminds keep things small, so if the group becomes too large, we might need to split into several smaller groups.
There will, of course, have to be rules of courtesy, but the people on the Discord server have all turned out to be kind. It’s a friendly environment.
How it will work: On Discord , there is now a section called “Artists’ Mastermind”, with a channel called #2025-09. In that channel, you are free to create your own thread. There is also a channel called #explainer.
Since it’s the first month we’re doing this, it may be a bit different, but the idea is to, each month, in the new month’s channel, create a thread, as a first post, post what your plans are for that month, also referring to the feedback you got from last month. You then have the opportunity to post progress in your own thread, mentioning both successes and failures.
At the end of the month, we all come together over a few days, read each other’s threads, take notes, comment, offer advice and encouragement, discuss, and so on.
You can do all of this at your own pace, in your own time. There are no fixed times and dates; other than that, we roughly round off the previous month and start the new one around the first of the following month.
You can decide to skip months, of course, if life gets in the way. This is not supposed to be another chore, but rather something that will help you move forward.
Then, at the end, I create a new channel for the next month, and we repeat the process. The older channel remains available for reference as we define our new artistic goals for the next month. I will gradually move the month channels to an archive section unless people prefer the channels for previous months to be removed.
This is my current idea of how it should work. If you have ideas on how we can better structure this, your input and suggestions are welcome.
Join us in the Artist’s Mastermind over at our Discord ! Or check it out in a month to see if it’s something you’d care to join.
This Week
The questionnaire I put out was loud and clear. You got to spend fifty virtual euros on new features on the Practice Drawing This website, and you spent much of it on 3D models.
Much more to come soon, but here are four new 3D models.
Mollusc Shell
Inspired by posts like this one by rafaelaraujo2222. He shows insane construction skills and probably uses a ruler, calculator and advanced math to do that. Insane skills. 
Improvements
I have a whole backlog of improvements I need to make to the website. Small things. But annoying things.
For example, the Animators Stopwatch didn’t work well on my mobile phone: the beeps came almost a second too late, which made the whole thing useless. The start beep must be precisely aligned with the timer, as it signals the beginning of the motion with your own body.
I also improved the loop input a bit. It is now clearer that setting it to zero turns off looping. The control is also easier to use.
Someone rightfully mentioned that when you rotate a 3D model, the angles should be shown in degrees, not radians. That was changed.
Yours sincerely,
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