Little things can make all the difference

Recently, I´ve been very fed up with my
inconsistent routine of drawing. There are way too many
days that just go by without anything properly
done. And most days, when I start doing some feeble
lines, I get distracted or demoralized way too easy.

As I can see from pretty old diary entries, this problem
has been with me since I started to take art seriously.
It´s the common "fear of the white sheet"-problem -
getting started takes up WAY too much force
and energy most days.

So I decided to finally change this forever.
I swore to myself that whatever might come,
I will draw at least two hours a days; one hour
at the beginning of the day (that doesn´t mean the
morning hours, obviously...) and one right before bedtime.



I choo-choo-choose this silly tagline



I am not talking about two hours of illustration work.
I tried to set myself certain work times or work lenghts, but
this didn´t work at all (I am not good at being my own mean
grumpy boss). Those hours are purely for sketching: without
any expectations of quality or quantity. It´s all about
drawing for a complete and uninterupted hour.

Cheep cheep!



This is an almost athletical training - first and
foremost it´s an attempt to break my chronic lethargy
in drawing. By developing this routine I hope to really
get used to the ACT of drawing. During this hour,
what I draw, how I draw it and how much I draw
is completely unimportant. It´s a ritual to get into
the day, and to end the day.

Mr. Jurk Racing Team

So far, it worked very well. After an hour,
I always find myself in a very good mood - it´s
emotionally uplifting and just huge fun. And each time
it is easier and easier to start; after two times it stopped
feeling like something forced and I even looked forward
to the next session.

Maybe you need a tissue, my dear.


Drawing much and often has always been an
idealistic vision for myself; yet, I found it incredibly
hard to really keep doing it the way I wanted.
Now, I feel that my brain reacts to this routine
very fast - after drawing at night, I continue thinking
about drawing (just like most other things you do
right before bedtime stay in your mind).

I did this on some rare occasions in the past,
and noticed an extreme boost in quality in my drawings,
both within the single sessions and from day to day.

As Bobby Chiu says in one of his YouTube videos,
"art is only 10% talent and 90% practice". He also says
wise things as "If you take care of your art,
your art suddenly starts taking care of you."
And it´s true. I can´t just sit around and wait for
the passion for drawing come back to me again -
as love in general, it demands work and attention.
Passion is not passive.