How to Get Motivated to Draw Again
Last year, on the vivid, shining morn of January i, waking upwards in a comfy, warm bed in the Due north Carolina mountains, with the renewed sense of power and hope that comes on New year's Day, I alleged my resolution for 2017:"THIS is the twelvemonth. This is the twelvemonth I volition drawevery single day."
Information technology's now the beginning of 2018, and*spoiler alert* I didn't fulfill that resolution. I didn't draw every mean solar day of 2017.There were nigh ten days I didn't draw, and then I drew somewhere around 355 days last year.Some other failed resolution. Another hopeless twelvemonth, some other waste, right?
Actually, I believe my 2017 resolution was far from a failure.I believe it was a huge success. I drew 355 days! That'south more than I've ever drawn in a unmarried year. I filled up 3 entire sketchbooks. That'due south more sketchbooks than I've ever filled up before! I tried out new tools and mediums, and evolved my artistic fashion into something that feels even more similar me than before, even when I thought I had already figured information technology out!
Then yes, if you wanna get all technical and nitpicky, I didn't achieve my goal. Fine, whatever, some other New Yr's resolution in the graveyard.Only here'south the of import part: that failed resolution led me to draw more than I ever have before. I succeeded in the long run by improving my creative life and growing my artistic exercise.
Now at the start of this fresh new year, I'm reflecting back, trying to figure out why I was more successful in 2017 than 2016. And that's when I discovered the one thing that helped me draw *about* every day last year.
Commit to a Drawing Series Publicly
Drawing *most* every day for a year is a long time. We'll start out strong for sure, total of ideas and brimming with motivation. But how practice nosotros keep the momentum going?
The nigh common thing I hear from people who don't draw consistently is that they but don't know what to draw each day. They sit downwards with the intention of drawing, merely they open up their sketchbook and the blank page merely stares at them. So open, so white, so BLANK. What to possibly fill information technology with?
Here's my cloak-and-dagger weapon to combating this problem: committing publicly to drawing projects and serial.
This came in many forms for me, only nearly often was some sort of cartoon challenge or theme on Instagram. I started or participated in a total of 12 drawing series terminal year.Some were personal series I started myself, like my travel journals, and some were drawing challenges started by other artists and joined in by thousands of other creatives.
Here are the drawing projects I committed to publicly last yr:
- #mightcouldinnyc : seven drawings
- #mightcouldinindia : 19 drawings
- #inktober2017 //#mightcoulddrawclothes : thirty drawings
- #mightcouldinhyrule : 4 drawings
- #mightcouldroadtrip : 19 drawings
- #mightcouldinvietnam : thirteen drawings
- #mightcouldinseattle : 11 drawings
- #wikillo : three drawings
- #marchmeetthemaker : 3 drawings
- #meettheartist : ane drawing
- #mightcouldcopic : 34 drawings
- #lillifecomic : 39 drawings
I stuck with some of these serial from beginning to end, like my travel journals and Inktober. Others, I started with high energy, but soon the excitement wore off and I lost interest and got bored. So I stopped that series. Just that doesn't mean that series was a waste of time! It was still worth it to starting time the series, fifty-fifty if you only did it a couple times.Information technology got you drawing that day and that'south what counts.We desire to savour the procedure of drawing, and then don't go along drawing a serial if you start to detest it. Plow the page, and offset a new series!
In total, these 12 serial produced 185 full drawings. That's almost half the yr, right there! All because of a bunch of random drawing serial I decided to commit to and see where they went.Some went somewhere interesting, some didn't. But they all got me drawing.
Why Does This Piece of work?
So why does committing publicly to drawing series piece of work? Why not only depict something unlike each day? Why not proceed your drawing series secret?This concept works for three reasons:
1. Y'all've given yourself constraints
Now when y'all sit downwards to draw, yous won't be equally dislocated or overwhelmed about what to draw.You'll take a set of limitations to work within and a direction to follow. These guidelines help to jumpstart new ideas by narrowing down the options, rather than sitting downwardly to a blank folio with limitless possibilities.
2. You've made it public and held yourself accountable
When yous make your drawing series public (by announcing it on Instagram or Facebook, for example) you lot've declared your intentions to the whole globe. Now if you don't depict, you won't be the merely ane who knows it.This boost of accountability volition be an actress layer of motivation for you to draw each mean solar day.
three. You've opened yourself upwardly for feedback and joined a creative customs
Whenever yous push something out into the world, y'all're opening yourself upward for feedback. This may be a scary at first, and I tin't promise no one will say something negative about your work. Just in my experience, the internet environment I've shaped and molded for myself has been very nurturing, inspiring, and supportive. Yous tin create that environment too by choosing which groups you join and who you follow.Join a positive and open creative community, and their feedback and encouragement will help continue you lot motivated.
Bonus Lesson: Don't Let Skid Ups Bring Yous Down
Ok, and so we made the resolution to draw every day with all the determination we could muster and all the proficient intentions in the earth. We committed to a agglomeration of drawing series publicly. We gave ourselves constraints, held ourselves accountable, and joined a creative community.Merely hither we are on January 9th, and nosotros've already missed a day. Curses!
Here'southward the existent hush-hush to drawing consistently: Who cares?! You didn't draw yesterday, you lot missed ane twenty-four hours. Ok, and so what? That was yesterday, and today is today.Nosotros tin't permit one skid up bring this whole thing crashing downwardly.Information technology's pretty much guaranteed that you will slip up. I already have! For existent. I forgot to draw on January 6th. Oops.
Information technology'south ok. No one is perfect. We all make mistakes.Consistency is what we're really aiming for, and we can keep it up past forgetting the tiny missteps and focusing on the big picture. Aye, we forgot to depict yesterday. Nosotros tin can't go back, and we can't change that. Just today is a new day with fresh promise and the opportunity to rebound.
We can even so depict today.
Source: https://might-could.com/essays/this-one-thing-helped-me-draw-almost-every-day-in-2017/
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