The Practice Drawing This Newsletter Archive, Dive Into The Vast Treasure Trove Of Ideas And Drawing Exercises For Artists

#36 - Marshall Vandruff Created This Free Figure Drawing Bootcamp Which You MUST Check out!

There are some amazing free educational resources out there.

Check out Marshall Vandruff’s YouTube channel!

#35 - Expand The Definition Of What You Do Creatively And Do Not Limit The Creative Space You Explore

You do not have to stick to one thing.

#34 - The Anatomy Of Habits - Why Is It So Hard To Start Drawing Every Day?

How habits work.

We do brush our teeth every day. So why is it so hard to draw every day? They are both habits, or they can be.

#33 - This Is A Cool Way For Artists To Measure How Much They Do Not Know Yet And How Much They Have To Learn Still

A cool way to measure how fast you are growing.

In another life, I was a team leader at a technology company. We were developing a new geographical mapping dataset, and we hired a young student who had an affinity with maps to look over them to find out if there were mistakes in them.

#32 - How Far Are YOU Willing To Go To Create Optimal Conditions For Creating Art?

Are your surroundings conducive to making art?

Caravaggio lived before and was an inspiration to Rembrandt. He made these still-life paintings of fruit, giving each a different texture to brag about his skills.

#31 - This Holds For Artists, Engineers, And Scientists - The Only Way To Get At The Truth Is To Question Your Assumptions

Find the truth by questioning everything.

We all have opinions on things. Things that we believe that we know for sure.

#30 - How To Use The Concept OF Balance, Yin And Yang, In Your Art Compositions And Creative Processes

How to choose between two opposing things.

In the past, artists would make these portrait drawings, drawing the facial features with excruciating detail. Artists would then draw the clothes with loose lines that suggested the texture of the fabric. The contrast makes the illustration much more interesting.

#29 - Breaks Can Make You Much More Productive As An Artist, So Take Breaks

Seriously. Rest is a part of the creative process.

My uncle would pay me a fixed price for delivery. “Great!” I thought. I’d just put in long hours, and then I would be finished much sooner and have some time off.

#28 - Are You Too Old To Become An Artist, And Are There Benefits To Starting Creating Art Later In Life?

And what is too old?

You often hear people ask if they are too old to start making art. Here are my thoughts on that.

#27 - Should You Draw Every Day, Or Is It Okay To Take Breaks?

Spoiler: no, you should not.

Often you hear people say that you should draw every day if you want to become good, but is this true?

#26 - Should Artists Create Art With Social Media In Mind?

Spoiler: no, you should not.

The topic for today: you shouldn’t make art just for social media. Social media, if you let it, will just gobble up all of your time.

#25 - The Various Stages Of Art Mastery, How To Recognize Them And What To Do At Each Stage As An Artist

What skill level are you?

I find that there are five skill levels, and for any single skill, you are somewhere on that scale.

#24 - Testing Your Art? The Only Way To Get At The Truth Is To Question Everything, And Then Test

Seeing your art as a consumer product.

The story goes that one day, Leonardo Da Vinci wanted to find out if the anatomy books were correct. So he went out in the night and stole dead bodies from the morgue, and he dissected them.

#23 - Should Artists Really Know The Rules Before They Can Break Them?

There are no rules when it comes to making art.

It’s not that he couldn’t paint symmetric fruit bowls; he had proper training at an art academy. He was perfectly capable of painting a perfectly symmetric fruit bowl.

#22 - The Media You Consume And The Things Your Senses Experience All End Up In Your Art - Curate Your Input To Control Your Output

Pay attention to what you pay attention to!

I soon figured out that it wasn’t for me. To be an editorial cartoonist, you have to make yourself angry every day, and I am just not like that.

#21 - For Artists, This Is Much Better Than A New Year Resolutions - Do This Instead Of New Year Resolutions

A better way to plan your future creative endeavours.

For years, I would have cool ideas—or so I thought—and then I would enthusiastically pile things on, which I could add to that idea until I ran the idea into the ground!

#20 - To Try New Things, Artists Should Create Experiment Campaigns With A Clear Begin, And End Evaluation

This is better than just struggling on.

One of the main things that are so cool about campaigns is that they are limited in time. A “campaign” is something with a goal, a proposed approach to reach that goal, a start, a middle, and end, and a moment to evaluate the results.

#19 - Making Art Creation Fun Can Be A Great Way To Make It Easier To Draw A Lot - Gamify Your Art Creation Process

We find play irresistable.

I recently decided to let go of producing output and just focusing on the process. Just have fun drawing, you know? Fill sketchbooks and such.

#18 - Consider The Sounds That Surround You While You Create Art And Notice How What You Listen To Affects Your Art Creation Process

Notice how your surrounding soundscape affects your artistic process.

In her remarkable book ‘Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain,’ Betty Edwards explains how you should shut out words from your mind while drawing.

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