Free Friday Newsletter About Drawing
#144 - An Interesting Way Our Survival Instincts Influence Our Art (Part 1)
How our survival instincts benefit our art. Use this freedom in your art! It is okay to deviate from realism in search of beauty in idealization and simplification.
#143 - Things To Be On The Lookout For If You Want To Stay Motivated To Draw
It is sometimes a miracle that we draw at all. Sometimes, it’s a miracle we draw at all!
#142 - Art Is Not Just Pretty Objects, But Also A Conversation The Artist Has With Their Audience
And that is good news, even for us introverts. There have been Kickstarters I didn’t want to support because I didn’t like the creator behind them or the group they were a part of.
#141 - Artists, Remove Yourself From Fast-Paced Scrolling On Social Media, Slow Down And Notice What That Does For Your Creative Routine
The anti-dote to social media induced short attention spans. As I repeatedly try to draw it in different ways, the reference image slowly reveals its secrets to me. It tells me which landmarks I need to get exactly right for the drawing to look right and which aspects of a drawing I can have fun with.
#140 - Does Theoretical Knowledge Hamper The Creativity Of The Artist And Prevent Them From Coming Up With Original Ideas?
And is ignorance bliss? I once had discussions with fellow students about whether knowledge hampered creativity. We were learning all these theories, and would that prevent us from coming up with original new theories?
#139 - While Drawing Should I Measure And Construct Accurately, Or Should I Freehand-Draw?
Which method is “better”? The Answer is yes. If you have questions you would like me to answer, don’t hesitate to contact me!
#138 - Drawings You Want To Make Versus Drawings Others Will Like
Can what you want to make and what others like be the same?You will run into this sometime. For example, you’ve drawn in a “realist” style, and now you feel it isn’t as challenging, but people compliment you on it, so you keep drawing in that style, even though secretly, you’d rather draw something else.
#137 - Insane Advantages Of Copying Other Artists
Rembrandt did it! When you copy masters, you learn what things look like and how the masters went about composition, simplification, and idealization. You discover their thought processes. You learn how they thought while they drew. And THAT you take with you when you start making original work for an audience.
#136 - The Difference Between Evolutions And Revolutions And What They Mean For Your Art Process
When is something revolutionary, and when is it evolutionary? Deciding you want to develop a drawing habit is a revolution for you, even if others have gone that path before you. Improvements to that habit are evolutions.
#135 - Do Not Make Topical Sketchbooks, Because That Is Too Ambitious, And Sketchbooks Should Be For Fun And Play
Do This Instead! Do this instead: dedicate each
page spread to a specific type of practice. The page spread will look good, as will the sequence of page spreads.
#134 - THIS Is Part Of Your Creative Routine Too
When you do not feel like drawing, do this instead. On the desk, you see a sketchbook, my favorite pens within reach, reference images, an iPad for putting on reference images, YouTube, Netflix, or Spotify, a headset, an art book that inspires me to draw if I need it, reading glasses, and there is a comfy chair.
#133 - As You Create Art, Consciously Notice How Various Aspects Of It Make You Feel
And what makes you feel better! You’re an adult, and you want to learn a new skill. You go in search of information. Say you like to learn to draw. The advice you see everywhere is to draw every day and practice fundamentals.
#132 - Seek Not To Create Beauty, But To See Beauty In What You Create
Curate what you pay attention to. You can choose the stories about your art you want to listen to. Listen to the ones that you control, the ones that make you happy and keep you motivated.
#131 - The Opposite Of A Good Rule Can Also Be A Good Rule
Or What happens when you “break the rules.”I see attempts at rule-following in art a lot. People want to know the right proportions of humans and such, the idea that if you follow the rules, you will make great art.
#130 - Do Not Just Look Up Art Tutorials Online, Also DO Them If You Want To Become A Better Artist
Bookmarking tutorials is just a form of procrastination. Rembrandt just had access to a few prints his master owned. He learned by copying these. Look at all the information we have at our disposal now! Any image ever made is one click away, as are all the books ever written. Teachers put out vast amounts of information.
#129 - A Free New Drawing Workbook Is Now Available On My Website
A workbook with great warm-up drawing exercises that are short, fun, help you improve quickly and result in great sketchbook pages. The drawing workbook is centered around daily warm-ups and quick memory drawing exercises to start the creative day, which should take only fifteen to thirty minutes each day. It consists of twelve types of assignments that get progressively harder, and you can go through them at your own pace, staying with one assignment until it becomes too easy or boring, in which case you should move to the next assignment.
#128 - You Get Better At The Things You Repeat, Keep Practicing
So repeat the things you want to become better at! You shouldn’t do exactly what I do—you most likely have other creative goals—but instead, focus on what you want to become good at and practice that a lot.
#127 - Why Amateur Artists Have An Unfair Advantage Over The Professionals
The things you can do when you don’t have a boss! Going unscripted and improvising is way more fun and usually yields far more expressive, lively, original, and surprising results. You can not do that with customers because they want specific things. But your personal work can be.
#126 - How Going For Wrong Proportions On Purpose Can IMPROVE Your Art
You CAN have fun with proportions. This one considers whether you should care about “correct” proportions. Spoiler alert: there is no such thing as a “correct” proportion.
#125 - The EASY Drawing Exercise 99% Of You CRAVE
This exercise seems to be popular among art students and I kind of wish it wasn’t. Among them were the 3D reference models I had on “Practice Drawing This” designed to draw from, as I wanted to take another path.
#124 - Can You Draw Boxes WITHOUT Using Perspective Grids?
I discuss whether you must create a perspective grid with vanishing points to draw believable boxes in three dimensions.
#123 - WHY Should Artists Do Circle And Ellipse Warm-Ups?
A great warm-up routine. #122 - Another Way To Practice Drawing Boxes That Can Be Very Helpful In Constructing Boxes Quickly Later
I wanted to do them with a particular angle in mind: I wanted to highlight an aspect of the drawing exercise that you might not have considered before.
#121 - Practicing Drawing Organic Forms For Fun And Skill Improvement, And Beautiful Sketchbook Pages
If you do this exercise, it should result in a cool-looking sketchbook page, which is motivating and will make you want to draw tomorrow.
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