How do you organise your drawing practicec

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi everyone

I am curious to hear how you all organise your study. Do you focus on one type of study per day/week/month?  are there specific ones you do every day?

I don’t have a specific weekly structure in place, so I want to work on setting one out. I am not working on any one of the practices (outlined below) for enough time over each month overall, and I am unsure what would be a good way to go about creating a weekly and monthly structure.

I find I tend to scatter all my drawing practices throughout the week than what may be appropriate. I too am perhaps working on too many different things at a time, rather than limiting to just a few areas of focus. I am relatively new to drawing so I am very keen to improve, which is what contributes to this scattering, and also feeling overwhelmed by it all.

The drawing practices I’ve been working on generally on monthly basis are:

1) the most basics of basics – drawing straight and curved lines, cubes, cylinders, spheres and trying to “move” them in various ways in space’; 2) observational drawing; 3) portrait drawing (though I have’t been working on this much of recently, and I do just full portraits, not yet focusing on specific forms); 4) more recently gesture drawing; 5) old masters studies; 6) trying to do some drawing form imagination, which I struggle with immensely.

So yes, keen to up my drawing game, and in part that is improving your practice.

Thanks in advance for sharing, and of course, keep drawing!

[Jaylene]

You seem to be very organized about how you practice drawing all ready.  I can’t think of anything you are leaving out.  I don’t know if this will help with creating a drawing plan, but what helps me is keeping to the same style sketchbook and having the goal of finishing one sketchbook every three months.  The one I have been using is an 11×14 80 page sketchbook and I try to use both back and front of the sheets unless I want a very nice finished drawing.  This may not seem like a lot of work but its in addition to oil painting and my full time non-art work.  I have about 7 finished sketchbooks now.  A hundred page sketchbook was always a significant part of the grade each semester I took drawing.  The instructor didn’t grade on the quality of the drawings just on the number of pages so we could work on anything we wanted.  I find that I automatically cover a lot of different subjects styles and drawing exercises automatically just to fill up the pages.

Your question is a good one and I look forward to the different responses.

 

 

 

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Jaylene 🙂

I think in the broadest sense it is, but in the specifics it isn’t so much 😂

I really like that goal. I think it helps to create accountability an reinforces the need of volume in your drawing practice. I came across this idea a while back through an illustration podcast I love – 3 point perspective. They recommended 6-7 100page ones a year. I fully admit I have not been sticking with the goal. I will proceed to get back into this, but I think your recommendation would be better fitting for me at this stage. If I can do more, then even better!

I find I don’t do enough quick studies for head and observational drawings. I’m a slower paced drawer, so my tendency is to prefer ones on the longer side, but it means I don’t get the volume I need in. I tighten up when I have to work with short time frames, eg. 2-5min gestures and head drawings. I want to push myself to get better at this to help loosen myself and build more confidence.

Ah yes I oil paint too. It is tricky fitting in all the art studies and work commitments. I’m hoping this period we are in will give me the ability to develop even more artistic endurance, as I find often I don’t get as much done as what time permits because I start to cumulatively feel burned out. The whole art gig is relatively new to me, so I try to take that into account.

How do you balance out your time spent drawing and painting? When I get stuck into painting, it is all-consuming. I hyperfocus and I find it is all I want to do artistically for days, even weeks straight, at the sacrifice of time spent drawing. And vica versa. I’m too trying to find how to schedule and balance that out.

Fun times!

[Jaylene]

Its a great accountability goal because its so easy to measure.  I wish the brand/style of sketchbook I like had 100 pages.  Its just so much more impressive than 80.  On the other hand I like looking at them all accumulating on a shelf, all neat and organized like I know what I am doing.  I tend to oil paint on the weekends due to the need for a larger dedicated block of time.  I have my sketchbook and a larger long term charcoal drawings for during the week.  I try to keep track of my time spent on art in my planner, (actually making marks) with the goal of 20 hours per week.  To be honest I very seldom meet this goal, but its very satisfying when I do.  Uninterrupted time is so important and so hard to get, and everything takes so much longer than one would think.  With that in mind I usually use my sketchbook however the spirit moves me.  Sometimes I am following along with a NMA class, sometimes I am using the timed figure drawing sessions, sometimes its random stuff off of Pinterest.  As for artist endurance, that’s a real thing!  I wish mine were better.  My city used to offer life sessions during the summers on weekends.  4 hours with a 5 min break every 20 min and it left me completely  exhausted afterwards.  Sadly the life sessions were discontinued so the city could have more children’s art programs.  I hope to be good enough someday I can work full time as an artist after I retire from my day job. If that doesn’t work out at least know I spent my time well.  I would not worry how you spend your art time as long as you are making marks on something.  I don’t think watching youtube counts if you know what I mean.  Just spend a lot of time.  I look forward to hearing your ideas and how you manage.  Good luck to you.

[Josseline Jeria]

Indeed 🙂 Which brand and style of sketchbook do you like? I draw (and write notes) in various different books. I two or so separate strathmore toned spiral books, a random journal, and a lovely soft leather bound sketchbook my husband passed onto me. He got it close to two decades ago in Rome, when he visited there as a teen. It is handmade, several hundred pages, lovely warm-toned paper, finer tooth than cold pressed but less smooth than bond paper. I love it as it feels very personal and intimate when I use it. I’m looking to find sketchbooks with a similar feel that aren’t prohibitively expensive. I should do the same with shelving them together. They tend to float all over my apartment.

I think 20 hours is a good goal. Averages to about 3 hours a day, weekends that can cover a couple extra hours to allow for days during the week where you may only be able to get in 30-1hour or so. As many artists, we have the tendency to be perfectionists. The 80-90% achievement of your goal is what I’ve been suggested to focus on. If I can get 100%, then great! but if you can’t do not beate yourself over it and feel you’ve failed yourself. having that room to allow for less than 100% allows you room for the disruptions life can bring, more busier time periods, or not having the mental capacity to do so because of circumstances in your life.

I haven’t been actively tracking my time spent – I probably should. There are times that I stay up far too late getting caught up with painting, study, or a longer drawing study. Everything DOES take longer than expected for me. I have to allow extra time for error in estimation. I’ve done very little work with charcoal. I initially didn’t find it an easy medium to work with. But I want to get some experience in. Do you do any particular charcoal studies? portraits? figures? I’ve been tending to do master studies, observation, basics, and try to draw from imagination but I am supremely terrible at it – I want to improve my ability doing so.

Oh yes those full days at an art school/atelier are tough! I did two workshops in January this year, 2 and 3 day, back to back, so a full week. The days were 9-3 with a 3o0min lunch break. The two day was a portrait with a live model, so 5min break every 20mins. The 3 day was a still life, which meant we essentially worked straight through. I was SPENT by the end of the week. I admire students who work like this every week for years. I would like to, but finances for now limit this possibility. Hopefully in the future I can, even if for 2 days or so a week. I’m trying to build my art endurance, and indeed it has been over the past year, so that’s reassuring.

Likewise – aspiration to be a  full time artist but satisfied that it would all have been time well spent. It is a form of work that feels deeply satisfying- not work for the sake of money but for pure personal joy. And thanks for that. I do worry at times that I’m not practicing in the right way, but any practice counts 🙂

Thanks and to you too 🙂 I’m having a few slower days for my mental health, but it’s back to fuller devotion very soon.

 

 

[Jaylene]

My favorite sketchbook is hard back, spiral bound, 11×14 inches style, the brand is Art Alternatives.  The paper has a tiny bit of tooth so its perfect for graphite which I like best, but is ok for pastel, pen and ink, even markers if I am careful.  The paper is way too thin for any kind water media though.  Its cheep enough for circles and lines and gesture drawing exercises and nice enough for more finished graphite work and sturdy enough to take anywhere.  I also love strathmore’s mixed media sketchbooks.  I have one for oil swatches and color experiments.  I coated the pages with acrylic medium first.   Strathmore’s toned sketchbooks are great too.  Your husband’s sketchbook sounds amazing.  How cool!  I hope you post some of your work.

Charcoal is so messy that I usually use Canson paper sheets attached to boards on an easel.  I literally hated it at first but I started a program called Language of Drawing put out by a trompe l’oeil painter, Anthony Waichulis and it started to grow on me.  I did hundreds of charcoal and white pastel gradations.  Apparently charcoal/pastel is most like painting but without the bother of paint and brushes.  That’s what I have been told, but I’m too much of a beginner to say for myself.  Then I came across an internet drawing course on Bargue Plates.  The New Masters Academy now has a course on Bargue Plates.  This is from a French 19 century drawing course by Charles Bargue.  Its a series of prints made from etchings of various classical casts that are meant to be copied in charcoal using the sight-size method.  Its in the public domain so if you google Bargue Plates you will see what I mean.  Lots of people say its not real art and I understand where they are coming from, but its so satisfying to me to make an reasonably accurate copy.   So to each his/her own.  I really want to get good at drawing portraits and work through Steve Huston’s head construction course.  As you can see I am rather chaotic about how I practice, which maybe why I got so attached to the type of sketchbook I use.  Its the only constant.  The only thing I have to show for all my effort really.  sigh.

I have been so unmotivated and undisciplined these last few weeks with all that is going on.  You have really motivated me to get back on the horse so to speak.  I hope you and your family are doing well.  Take care of yourself and let art be therapy for right now.  Goals will always be there.  I try to not worry about them.  Take good care of yourself.

[Josseline Jeria]

Sounds like a perfect type of sketchbook for non-specific sketchbook work. I like ones that you feel you can do line and basic form work. I’ve not tried the Strathmore ones, I think I’ll pick one up soon for colour work. I want to create some colour swatches with varying value and two colour combinations for the main colours  I consistently use in my palette. Yeah he’s pretty great haha. He’s an emergency physician, so he’s frontline. Fortunately things aren’t terrible here yet (Australia) so hoping they don’t escalate much further.

If charcoal is more like paints, I’m sold. I find I tighten up when I draw with pencil. Strangely not as much with pens, especially fineliners. I played with fabercastell pitt brush pens yesterday – lots of fun. I think using charcoal on loose paper on an easel is better – I prefer to stand where possible, so that’s a bonus. I can’t imagine that the bargue plates and those kind of sight size exercises are necessarily for artistic expression. They’d be great as strict training exercises. I think that’s a good approach – to detach the artistic expression side of it because we can get lost in that and not focus enough on the fact that what you are wanting to achieve is training. There’s a person on the forums that will be doing sight size drawings like the Bargue plates for the 100-day challenge. I think it’s a great idea.

I’ve done his beginner’s section – it’s good 🙂 I think I’m more of an anatomy type of learner, as I find it much easier to understand and visualise what I am trying to draw with that kind of knowledge, but at the same time more broad constructive approach I think is just as valuable. I want to get back to the Russian course. I started and got up to the measurement part and haven’t continued. Oh don’t worry, I’m pretty chaotic as well. All the different drawing practices as well as all the painting. Hence why I wanted to see what others do here. My evidence is like yours as well. Sketchbook and course work books (I have one for the beginners head drawing course and a separate one for the Colour Bootcamp course), and the dozens of paintings on paper, loose sheets of canvas, canvas panels and stretched canvas floating all around my apartment. I have some things up to see to help remind me what I’ve done, why I do it and why I need to keep working to improve.

Absolutely understandable. I was in a good work flow before this hit so I had that momentum to help, but it all started to catch up on me the past week, as as such I’ve had very low volume art work days the past couple. But even if I just do a few sketches, that’s success for me. We are fortunate that we are all quite well. Art began as a form of mental health therapy for me 🙂 so that will always be my number one reason for pursuing it. Thank you for your kind last words, I’ll remember all these. Take care of yourself and your family. We’ll touch base somewhere on the forum sometime 🙂

 

 

[Jaylene]

Everyone really appreciates your husbands hard work right now!  Hopefully we will all get through these difficult times soon.  I look forward to getting more art done.  I enjoyed this exchange very much and look forward to seeing you and your work around the forum.

[Josseline Jeria]

Thank you, I will pass it on. I’m sure we will.

Me too! and likewise 🙂

[Author]

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