Drawing Productivity Tips

[radiator]

Wanted to see if anyone has any kind of warm up routines or specific practices to keep productive when it comes to drawing/painting etc (or really any other creative endeavour).

My problem has always been that I'm not the speediest artist at the best of times, but also that almost every single time I sit down to draw I have to spend/waste 2-3 hours, sometimes even an entire day, churning out complete and utter shit and banging my head against a brick wall until I feel like I can actually produce anything halfway decent, and often by the time I'm through the barrier and have found my mojo again it's late and time for bed. I'll sometimes spend ages and ages grafting away on a picture that I think is really working, before suddenly the scales fall from my eyes and I realise its unsalvageable crap. This knowledge starts to play on my mind and really puts me off even bothering to try because I know I'll have to go through the whole painful process before I can even do anything worthwhile. Its enormously frustrating and is a large part of the reason that I have never seriously pursued a career in comics or illustration.

Now, largely this is down to not practising enough and having long periods of inactivity (which I am trying to address) - but it isn't just this, as often one day I'll be really productive, then the very next day it's like I have completely forgotten how to hold a pencil again.

So any tips or habits over creatives and professionals have of how to get round this would be much appreciated. Or even just some reassurance that it isn't just me that has this problem...

[Darren Stephens]

It certainly isn't just you, Radiator. Sometimes I don't even get as far as sitting down to draw.....! 

[Dark Jimbo]

I'll sometimes spend ages and ages grafting away on a picture that I think is really working, before suddenly the scales fall from my eyes and I realise its unsalvageable crap.

Oh God, how I know that pain...

[The Legendary Shark]

From a writing perspective, my biggest problem was sitting down to write and just watching the cursor flashing on and off for ages. I got around this by always finishing off halfway through a word. For example, one of the things I'm writing currently ends, "Dust filled the stale air, shot through with an ever increasing number of sunbeams as the bunker finally began to crack ap" So, the next time I start I can just jump straight in and don't have to think how to start. Whether you could do something similar with artwork, I don't know.

Or I just start writing in Notepad - disconnected words and sentences, whatever comes into my head to warm me up. Just nonsense and random sentences, literary scribbling, I guess, before switching to the main document. Somehow, it's like turning on the hot tap and letting the cold water flush out of the pipe before I put the plug in the plughole.

But that's writing, which is easier to alter than artwork. Still hurts when you have dump whole pages of text, though.

[Jake Lynch]

Radiator, I feel for you, bro, an honest confession. Take heart. I've been lucky enough to receive loads of 'wisdom', one of the best coming from Andy Diggle - don't fuss over ever line ad neauseum, comics are supposed to be fun.

My own limited insight would be the artists version of something an author once said; 'don't get it right, get it writ'!
No matter how you feel about it, see it through and simply reaffirm to yourself that you can do it. Improving is simply a matter of practise. Quitting mid flow may tell you you can't.

EVERYONE has the sort of days you are talking about.  The hardest thing to do in art is to make it look easy. Don't be too hard on yourself, pal and GOOD LUCK!

[radiator]

Thanks man. Your kind response kind of makes me think my initial post maybe came off as a bit overwrought and self-pitying. 

Don't get me wrong, I still love drawing - that weird flow state you get into sometimes where it feels effortless is by far the best buzz I know of - I just wish it was easier to get there. Most skills in life, you get the basics down and its learned. You may improve with practice and eventually master that skill, but you never forget the basics. Drawing just seems to me to be so mercurial by comparison. You would think by now that I could reach an acceptable level even on an off day, but its really not the case. Most days it feels as if I genuinely have amnesia, and have to force myself to relearn everything from scratch. The thought of having to draw on command, or draw with someone watching, gives me serious anxiety.

On a positive note, I recently switched to using a smaller sketchbook after using large (A4+) format ones for as long as I can remember. Not only is it much more portable (so I'm much more likely to carry it around with me) there's the unexpected benefit that the smaller pages seem more inviting and less daunting somehow, so I've been a lot more productive the last few months. It's strange how even a small change like that can alter productivity. I'd love to hear other little practical tips or warm up techniques if people have them, no matter how obscure they seem.

[blackmocco]

Radiator, I draw all fucking day for a living and yet when it comes to personal artwork, it's more intimidating than ever. It's like the day job has done nothing to warm me up or prepare me for something that's not the day job. I suppose it's some weird detachment because it's something I have to do versus something I want to do. (That also sounds self-pitying. Not intended. I know how lucky I am.)

To be honest, I wish I could apply some of that detachment to my personal work because at least then there'd be some discipline and distance to not self-criticize. So hard not to pick your own work apart.

I absolutely agree with you about the smaller sketchbook too. I had great fun with last year's Inktober courtesy of a tiny notebook I could carry anywhere.

[radiator]

Radiator, I draw all fucking day for a living and yet when it comes to personal artwork, it's more intimidating than ever. It's like the day job has done nothing to warm me up or prepare me for something that's not the day job. I suppose it's some weird detachment because it's something I have to do versus something I want to do.

Haha, I know exactly what you mean. I'm also a professional artist (of sorts) and though I work hard and care about my job, it's 'just work' - I don't have an ego about it, or really get stressed out by it. But being in a creative, hands-on mindset all day every day doesn't seem to help me keep limbered up for drawing one iota. It's kinda baffling.

I also don't want it to sound like I'm some sort of tortured genius/perfectionist who tosses out perfectly good drawings, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm old enough to be objective about my own work and there without a doubt days when I literally cannot draw to save my life.

[Dark Jimbo]

On a positive note, I recently switched to using a smaller sketchbook after using large (A4+) format ones for as long as I can remember. Not only is it much more portable (so I'm much more likely to carry it around with me) there's the unexpected benefit that the smaller pages seem more inviting and less daunting somehow...

I like notebooks and diaries (as opposed to sketchbooks)- likewise they're generally a nice portable size, and the ruled lines, dates and other pre-printed gubbins completely take the pressure off sketching. I suppose you couldn't really scan in what you do, but I almost never do that anyway, frankly. I do a huge amount of sketching and doodling on the backs of envelopes, too, and probably for similar reasons.

[blackmocco]

Yeah, I can't think of a more terrifying place to start than the first sheet of a good quality sketchbook. Horrifying. I just like drawing on copy paper. There's enough to get in order simply trying to do a good drawing without worrying about ruining an expensive sketchbook with sub-par drawings.

[Conceptulist]

From a writing perspective, my biggest problem was sitting down to write and just watching the cursor flashing on and off for ages. I got around this by always finishing off halfway through a word. For example, one of the things I'm writing currently ends, "Dust filled the stale air, shot through with an ever increasing number of sunbeams as the bunker finally began to crack ap" So, the next time I start I can just jump straight in and don't have to think how to start. Whether you could do something similar with artwork, I don't know.

Or I just start writing in Notepad - disconnected words and sentences, whatever comes into my head to warm me up. Just nonsense and random sentences, literary scribbling, I guess, before switching to the main document. Somehow, it's like turning on the hot tap and letting the cold water flush out of the pipe before I put the plug in the plughole.

But that's writing, which is easier to alter than artwork. Still hurts when you have dump whole pages of text, though.

Have you ever had that moment when you read through a script, and think: 'this is bloody awful!' before laying out a plain of improvement, like a general planning a congruous, complex set of tactics?

[radiator]

Yeah, I can't think of a more terrifying place to start than the first sheet of a good quality sketchbook. Horrifying. I just like drawing on copy paper. There's enough to get in order simply trying to do a good drawing without worrying about ruining an expensive sketchbook with sub-par drawings.

Ha, too true. I think that's the galling thing, when you see someone's sketchbook and it's a thing of beauty, whereas I would cringe myself inside out if a fellow artist looked through my own... There's like one or two nice pages, and everything else is a load of smudgy, barely-decipherable gibberish.

I could never, ever get on with doing comic pages or illustrations in the pre-digital world. I would pencil and erase so many times that the surface of the paper or board would start fraying and disintegrating.

I should say though, on the positive side, I still feel like my skills improve with everything I do, year on year. I certainly don't feel like I'm actively getting worse or stagnating. So at least there's that. It just conversely feels harder and harder to get into the right frame of mind as time goes on...

[blackmocco]

Sometimes I can barely look at my own sketchbook and figure out what exactly I had in mind. Haha! I just have to remind myself (and this does help) that this is just for me, no-one else. It's not for anyone else to look at therefore it doesn't matter if there's ten pages of scribbly shite followed by half a page of something somewhat acceptable. I couldn't have gotten there without what preceded it.

By the way, took me a long time to figure out that all those artist sketchbooks we inevitably end up buying manage to edit out the pages of shite they all had to slog through.** Took me even longer to figure out I don't really like looking through other artists' sketchbooks as I'd rather see their finished work instead.

I think the hardest thing about getting older and doing this is being so much more aware of how little time you have to do it. There's always shit in your way as an adult and certainly when the likes of family and kids come into it, it's next to impossible to get consistent quality time with it and get into that zone. You really have to fight for that time sometimes and when you get it, all you worry about is "oh shit, I've only two hours: GO!" Think it's safe to say most of us can't always get creative under those circumstances. Unless, perversely enough, it's for the day job and it's a deadline... <sigh>

**Except Moebius and Claire Wendling, I guess. Wendling posts drawings she sketched on a scrap of paper while waiting at the post office. It's enough to make you cry sometimes.

[blackmocco]

Which brings up another whole cacophony of problems: I rarely get inspired by seeing the likes of Wendling or Moebius, etc. As much as I adore their artwork and abilities, I find myself horribly intimidated that no matter how hard I try and how hard I work, I'll never be at a level like that. It gets worse: I feel heartened when I see bad artwork because I can look at it and say "well, I think I'm better than that". And yes, I'm well aware of how pathetic that must sound.

[radiator]

I wouldn't feel too bad - I know exactly where you're coming from, on all counts.