A Note About Daily Drawing

Art is like everything else in life, in order to be good at it you’ve got to practice. There are many different ways to practice, but the worst advice (at least to me anyway) has to be the draw every day advice. 

This has been said to me many different times and ways. Basically, the theory is that if you spend ten to fifteen minutes each day doing little sketches and doodles, over time you’ll get progressively better and improve your skills. Now I’m not going to discredit the theory, because truth be told it’s not terrible advice. What I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t always promote good practice.

 So what does that mean? Well, if you draw the same thing thirty days in a row, what exactly are you learning? Yes, your drawing of that one subject will improve. But my thinking is that if you don’t already understand proportion, perspective, and light and shadow (all key parts to a good drawing) you’re not learning anything, you’re just reinforcing bad habits. Spending 30 days focusing on learning and practicing perspective is excellent practice, or focusing on different body types, and so on and so forth. I guess what I’m trying to say is in order to practice well you need to have something that you are practicing. While it’s perfectly fine to draw for personal pleasure or as a pastime, meaningful practice with the intent of improving is not aimlessly drawing for the sake of it.

Drawing is like everything else in life, practice makes perfect. Focus on what you struggle with when you practice. It’s going to be hard, and frustrating, and you’ll want to give up. Stick with it though. One of these days you’ll make a line and then say “huh, that actually looks pretty good.” When that day comes, all that practice will suddenly be worth it.