On the 5th of July, I decided to try and sketch once a day. The motivation came up after seeing some YouTubers doing so as a challenge. I actually wanted to do this for a while, and several people i respect made the argument before explaining why I should, but it never worked to drive me to actually do it.
The main issues I felt sketching once a day would solve were:
- I didn’t draw on actual real live paper in forever;
- I had many unused art supplies begging to be used, which made me feel guilty;
- I needed to make something of my mornings. I’m not much of a morning person, but I knew rolling out of bed right into work was taking a toll on me. Plus, often I wake up way earlier than the very last minute to run to work, so I could use this as my “get-out-of-bed” motivator;
- I also need practice;
- I could at least go to bed at night thinking I at least did one thing in the day;
- I could become excited about what to draw next and subvert the dread I grew when it came to drawing;
However, watching a couple of YouTubers showing off their sketchbooks really drove the last bullet point home: I needed to find fun back into drawing for myself, first and foremost. Drawing was hardly fun anymore.
So I picked up a really cheap sketchbook I had since forever and got to it. I decided to start with a couple OC’s, then practice men a bit, then I did some fanart.
This was indeed pretty fun! I decided to post them on Instagram too to get my @waffleboxed Instagram and Facebook page so they wouldn’t be empty anymore either, and it contributed to my eagerness to get out of bed and take pictures & share what I had done.
So, all things considered, I think this exercise was a fine success. 😇
Round-up of what I shared:
I’d need better lighting & set-up for instagram-worthy fancy shots
I didn’t post full character sketches every day, but I did try to sketch a tiny bit every day. On days where I was a work (working part-time currently), I wouldn’t share or post anything because it felt a bit too silly since I spent less time on it.
So I’ve drawn every day between July 5th and August 2nd. Woot!
I took a week of vacation, then. Coming back to my sketches made me realize that I’ve drawn well into my comfort zone the entire time, and to improve, I really need to step out of it. I want to get better at:
- Cool looking men;
- A more realistic style;
- Dynamic poses and;
- A more fluid style (I think my style is too stiff).
I also intend on using these tricks in my next sketches, too.
PS: Follow my Facebook page to interact with my character drawings, too! I host polls for them, in which two characters from a google sheet list (you can add some too) compete to be drawn next, lol. It’s fun! Join us!!