Here we go again…well actually I’m stuck coming up with an appropriate topic this time around. I finished 100 days of gesture figure drawing this month, and before that it was head construction.
I think I often fall into unconscious grinding away without really thinking about what I am doing and as a result don’t improve. Maybe I should just move on to more detailed, time consuming, finished pieces. On the other hand I can see the benefit of focusing on a single subject and working at it each day. My heads, and gestures actually improved after all.
I have a favorite kind of sketchbook, it makes me feel great to complete one every three or four months. I have 7 now all lined up on a shelf. It helps to temporarily keep the “I suck” voice out of my head.
What I have learned over the past two challenges is that I am most successful if I get the work done first thing in the morning, it seems to take about 45 min to an hour to complete a sketchbook page. There seems to be a real benefit to me psychologically speaking to call a page complete and turn it over to start fresh the next day. I think it gives me the confidence to tackle longer projects. On the other hand, there were days I really hated heads and figures. If I were to set this third challenge to drawing what ever inspiration suggests, I know I would fall down the internet rabbit hole “looking for references” and waste a ton of very precious time. The challenge subject must be one that I can easily deduce if I am being representationally accurate or not otherwise I won’t have anything to measure improvement with.
Ok, I have talked myself into it. I’m going with hands and feet.
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