11 Things You Can Do To Create More Time To Make Art
This is a transcript of a podcast . The YouTube Version can be viewed here:
Where do you find the time to draw? That is what this podcast is about, where I present 11 tips on things you can do to make time to draw.
In the video that accompanies this podcast episode, you can see me draw using the free art flashcards app that you can find on the Practice Drawing This website. See? I managed to squeeze in drawing time while making YouTube videos. The link is in the description.
Welcome to the Practice Drawing This podcast designed to listen to while drawing! Let’s start.
Tip number 1: Record A Calendar What You Spend Time On
This is perhaps the most important thing to start with. Each day, for a week, record all the things you did that day and try to record accurately how much time you spent on it. Ideally, you do this on a calendar. It can be a digital calendar. The advantage of using a calendar is that you can use different colors for the different activities. This allows you to see at a glance where you are unnecessarily losing time.
It’s only for a week. You can take a large sheet of paper and divide it into 7 columns, one for each day of the week, and then divide each column into areas marking time.
Really do try it. You will be surprised at where you lose time.
There are things you can not move around. You do need to sleep. You do need to go to school. You do need to go to work.
Some things are choices but are good for you, like working out, which is healthy for you, so they tend to be immutable, too.
But you’ll be surprised how much time you lose procrastinating, watching videos, scrolling social media, et cetera.
To be clear, you do need down time. You do need rest. That’s healthy for you.
But you might find some things you can skip doing, and find time to draw that way.
Tip number 2: Stop Scrolling On Social Media
Tip two is kind of part of tip one, one could say. If you look at what you waste time on, this is probably a big component. Don’t say you are not on social media. Statistically, you are. When I am in a subway, almost everyone is on their phone, scrolling.
I separate this one out because it requires more effort. These platforms are designed to be addictive.
What’s the harm? It fills your brain with garbage. It is literally better for your brain, and even more so for your creativity, to do nothing. To stare into empty space. To be bored. That is when your subconscious gets to work and comes up with creative ideas!
You might think there is no harm in consuming all that fast food for the brain, but there is. It’s literally better to do nothing and be bored.
Few other activities are like that. Even watching movies can be defended. These movies tend to be crafted well, they tend to point out some idea about how to live life. As an artist, you can study how they are made and learn from them.
And! You can draw while watching them!
None of that is true. Social media is just garbage that destroys your brain, your creativity. That’s why I wanted to single that one out. Even if you don’t do tip one and record things you do on a calendar to figure out what to ditch, do dispose of social media.
You are probably thinking, “but why am I then watching a YouTube video right now, one with this podcast?” Well, good question.
YouTube is not social media. YouTube is basically a video blogging site. There’s some good stuff on YouTube. And! You can draw while listening to YouTube videos. I do that a lot. My drawing habit consists of turning on my phone, quickly finding videos I want to listen to — YouTube knows my taste — and adding them to my private Watch Later list. Then, I put on my head phones, grab my drawing tools, start playing these videos, and I listen to them while I draw.
I can not do that with social media feeds. They are different. They try to capture my attention with garbage. Stay away from these.
I am on social media, but if you look, you will see that I am trying to get people of those platforms and into their sketchbooks. Like I am trying to do right now, with you.
Which brings us to tip number 3:
Tip number 3: Carry A Sketchbook With You
The best sketchbook is the one you have with you. Try to always have at least a sketchbook and pen with you. It can be a small one that fits in your pocket, or it can be a bigger one that fits in the bag you always have with you. I carry a bag by default, and it fits an A5-sized sketchbook.
Also, larger sketchbooks can easily become too heavy, so you leave them at home.
Having a sketchbook with you allows you to draw anywhere, at any time. You are also allowed to write in it! When it comes to sketchbooking, there are no rules.
You can draw from life, make finished pieces, stunning art, quick sketches to note down interesting things you saw with just enough detail that you can resurrect it in a tight finished drawing based on the info when back in your studio. You can write down ideas, snippets of dialog you overheard, you can do lots of studies for a character or prop or environment design. You can do hard practice like drawing boxes or doing dexterity exercises.
When you have a sketchbook with you, you can always draw when there is a small hole in your day and a space where you can do so.
You can practice drawing without drawing tools, there are exercises you can do, most notably memory drawing exercises for which you don’t need drawing tools per se, but in most cases, you do need drawing tools to be able to draw in the first place, and having drawing tools with you just makes it possible to draw in unusual moments and spaces.
So always carry a sketchbook and drawing tool with you.
Tip number 4: Be Among People Where It Is Normal To Draw
This tip relates to tip 3 a bit. What’s the point of having a sketchbook with you if you are apprehensive about pulling it out because you are among people who don’t draw?
I never draw when I am with family or friends. Which is a pity. They probably wouldn’t mind! With some friends who also draw, it is okay to pull out your sketchbook or for them to do so. You’re thankful because it gives you an excuse to also pull out your sketchbook and start drawing.
But generally, it can be a good idea to meet up with other artists who want to draw.
A word on that; we are an introvert lot. We have to be. You have to be an introvert to enjoy being alone in your sketchbook for a long time. So what you’ll see happening if you join a group of artists, especially ones you don’t know personally, is that we barely greet each other. But we do take ques from others and open up our sketchbooks to draw, too. We don’t look over each other’s shoulders, we leave each other alone, and we draw. At the end, we tend to show each other how our pages came out, and maybe a group photo.
Why is this so great? Because it provides an environment where taking out your sketchbook is normalized! It’s the normal thing to do! You feel silly pulling out your sketchbook while being with friends—at least I do. But when among other artists who are already drawing, the natural thing to do is to pull out your sketchbook, too.
It provides a space where the normal behavior is the desired behavior: you want to draw in your sketchbook, and it is that much easier if everyone around you is doing the same.
Live YouTube sessions can sometimes kind of create that effect. You’ll have the YouTube creator talking, you see them draw as they answer questions in the chat, and the other people watching the video are drawing, too. It feels like you’re with the other artists, hanging out while you draw.
Like I mentioned before, I also like to draw while listening to YouTube videos. Which brings us to tip number 5:
Tip number 5: Draw While Doing Other Things Like Watching Television
Many things don’t require your eyes and hands. You can indeed sit with other people, or even friends and family if you dare, and draw. You can draw while listening to music or a podcast or listening to a YouTube video or listening to a television program. News, for example, can be suitable for that. You can hear the news and don’t need to see the anchor. You can draw while waiting for a bus, waiting for a meal in a restaurant, waiting in the doctor’s waiting room, during a lunch break.
See why having a sketchbook with you comes in handy? To be able to draw during those moments, you need drawing tools within reach in the first place.
But you can find moments where you are doing something else, and think, “could I also be drawing right now?”
Tip number 6: Block Time Into Your Agenda For Drawing
There’s this interesting thing, for me at least, where people think you are doing nothing when you want to draw. They often tend to think you can drop that and do something else for them, or have a cup of coffee with them.
If you are at work, no one will ask you to drop what you’re doing to grab a cup of coffee. But drawing is often seen as “doing nothing” and people often think it normal to ask you to drop that and do something else instead.
One thing you can do is block in time in your agenda. It has a way of working for some reason as it changes your mindset. If people ask if you can tag along to do something, you’re more prone to say, “no, I’m doing something at the moment.” Do this at least until it becomes your normal reaction to someone asking you.
Reserve fixed times during the day where you draw and where only very critical things can get in the way. If a friend or family member for example has a health crisis, that would be a good moment to drop your drawing and help them. Their health is still more important.
That means there is one caveat: if you have children, especially young ones, you will know what I mean. The child’s health and well-being takes precedence over everything, including your own health and certainly including your drawing habit.
You often hear productivity gurus say that you should for example do a specific thing, like morning pages (writing) first thing in the morning. Those people don’t have kids, they don’t get it. You can only do that if there are no more important things, like the health and well-being of this little person who depends on you entirely for their survival.
So when you have children, especially young ones, babies, this tip doesn’t hold for you. You simply can not block in parts of the day to draw. You can not guarantee you have that time. The baby might need you.
Many of the other tips in this podcast do still work, though.
But if you can, decide on parts of the day when you will draw, and block them in your agenda, and don’t allow others to claim that time.
Tip number 7: Draw When Waiting Somewhere
Maybe you are somewhere and it isn’t a time you blocked in to draw, but you are waiting for, say, a bus, or a meal at a restaurant, or in the waiting room of a doctor, et cetera. This is where your portable sketchbook comes in handy! Whip it out and start drawing!
I tend to feel self-conscious with people around me. I don’t like it if they look in my sketchbook while I’m drawing. I mean, it kind of is rude, right? You don’t look over their shoulder as they write in their diaries? A sketchbook is just as personal, but they usually don’t realize that and you have to be more protective. Here is what you can do:
One: Add text to your pages. Seriously! They understand about text being private, and they will hesitate to keep looking.
Two: Try to have a wall behind you so no one can sneak up on you behind your back.
Three: have a private and a public sketchbook, meaning you have a sketchbook you can show people, and a sketchbook you keep to yourself. I myself do that with one sketchbook: the front of the sketchbook is the part others are allowed to see, and the back of the sketchbook is the part where I experiment and think through ideas, where I am allowed to have “bad” drawings, as no one will see. When you see someone trying to take a peek, I can quickly flip to the front and they see pages designed to be public.
Tip number 8: Simplify Your Life
Focus is about saying no to things. Focus is about doing a few things so you can do them well. It’s good to choose no more than three priorities in your life. If you’re learning to program, have plans to write a novel, and a screenplay, and you’re working on a painting, and you’re volunteering for a good cause next to your job and workout routine and taking care of your family and going out with friends and learning to play the piano.... that is too much.
If you do all those things, you spread yourself thin. And in the visual arts especially, it takes a lot of time to become good at creating art. It means you have to make some tough choices, hard decisions and start saying no to certain things.
Having said that, it can also be about how you define “the thing you do.” If I define my focus as “drawing”, then anything not drawing-related pulls me away from the goal of spending a lot of time doing that.
But in my case, for example, the focus is “figuring things out”, which holds for drawing as I try to figure out how Kim Jung Gi did what he did when he drew these amazing things apparently from imagination, but it also holds for my YouTube channel as I try to figure out how to do YouTube in the first place, raise awareness for the cool, unique things I made that can be found on Practice Drawing This.
Figuring things out. It’s what has driven me to jump out of bed and continue where I left off yesterday all my life, whether it was figuring out how to make a 3D engine, design a computer language, or how to render in pen and ink, or how the hell marketing works. They may all look like different things, but they are all about figuring things out. They may seem It is one thing. The focus is on one thing.
So depending on how you define “what you do”, you can bring several activities under one umbrella, make it one thing and maintain focus that way.
But try to limit the things that don’t fall under that umbrella so you have time for the things you do want to focus on.
Tip number 9: Prepare, Make It Easy For Yourself
This one is about making it easier to start drawing if you have a little time.
To make it easier to start, you can prepare things. You can prepare a workspace, have all your drawing tools ready to be used so that all you have to do is sit down and start drawing. The sketchbook you have with you makes it easier to start drawing if you find yourself having to waste time while being somewhere.
Another thing you can do is prepare simple things for the next day. If at the end of the day you find you have a few simple tasks, leave them until tomorrow! You have some pencil lines you want to erase from an inked piece? Pencil that needs to be sharpened? Paper that needs to be folded? Leave it until tomorrow. It will make it that much easier to start.
Making it easier to start means it is easy to quickly do something if you have a few minutes to spare. After you started, it is easier to keep going.
Sorry for the shameless plug, again, but my free art flashcards app is exceptionally suited for this. I use it for this. I have a portable sketchbook, two pens (one red, one black, G-TEC C4 pens, always with me), and my mobile phone with the art flashcards page opened in the browser. It takes me seconds to grab the pens, open the sketchbook, open the art flashcards page and start drawing. I don’t have to look for reference or anything, it’s all there.
Tip number 10: Avoid Small-Talk
Listen, if you are an artist, chances are you are an introvert like me. And we introverts hate small-talk, especially as it also takes time away from the thing we want to do.
If you are a parent, you probably recognize this: you’re at school, waiting for your child to come out, and other parents are standing there, and to kill time, they start a nonsense conversation with you. Don’t get me wrong, the parents at my child’s school were nice, but it’s such a waste of time, isn’t it? When there were parties at that school were parents were supposed to hang out and socialize, I thusly preferred to take a walk around the block and find a quiet space where I could draw.
Sometimes you can’t avoid small-talk. You’re waiting outside school for a few minutes, you can’t go elsewhere for a few minutes. But when you have an hour or more to spare, you can hang out and chit-chat, or leave and grab a cup of coffee somewhere and draw a bit, and then return.
You don’t have to kill time with small-talk. You can also leave and do some drawing in private somewhere else.
Tip number 11: Go To Bed Early, Get Up At 5AM
This for the parents with very young kids, who can’t block time in a day to draw: it turns out you can! But it will cost you. Here’s how it works: you go to bed early, say, nine in the evening, or earlier even, just after you put your child to bed. And then you wake up at four or five in the morning and voila! You have two to three hours before your child wakes up! Time you can block in to only spend drawing! Because here’s the thing: the whole world is still sleeping! No one will try to claim your time. It’s really, really cool. You should try it. You make yourself a coffee, and you sense the whole world is sleeping. No phones, no email, nothing on television. And you are fresh and rested! You can be very productive in these early hours. And what are you giving up? Two, maybe three hours in the evening, during which you are too tired to draw anyway.
Here’s what you give up: you give up everything adults do in the evening. Going out for dinner with friends? Watching a sports match in the evening? Forget about it! In the summer it’s even still light at ten, so you get the bonus of feeling sorry for yourself as you realize the entire world is outside enjoying the warm summer evening, glass of wine, glass of beer in hand. And you are in bed, struggling to try to fall asleep. Because initially you will struggle to go to sleep that early. But if you stick to it, your brain will accept it, and you can fall asleep early, and then wake up early.
It’s not easy to sustain because the entire world expects you to be available in the evening, but if you manage it, you have two to three hours extra to create art every day! All the other things you have to do that day you will be happy to do as you already drew for a few hours in the morning. You gave your best hours to your art creation habit.
That concludes the list of tips that hopefully help you make more time to draw.
Thank you for listening to this podcast, and until next time!