I need to draw more often, because just wanting to be proficient will not an artist make.
Yesterday I posted about creative projects I am working on, and one of them is drawing. Yet, I’m doing a pretty lousy job of working on it.
As an author, I know the trick to writing well is, first, to write a lot. And to keep writing a lot. This is hardly a secret, as almost any and every book/blog/magazine about writing exhorts writers to WRITE EVERY DAY. Some people think they are exempt from practice, but they really aren’t. Writing every day is necessary.
Of course that can take many forms, and yes, writing a blog post or a long facebook rant or fanfic on tumblr counts. It all counts. But you still gotta do it.
One of the more popular techniques for getting people to write every day is the practice of writing “morning pages.” It was first brought to widespread attention in the book The Artist’s Way, but it’s not esoteric and is simply a variation of basic “write daily!!!” advice: you sit down first thing after you wake up and write, longhand, three pages of something. Anything. Everything. Doesn’t matter what as long as you are writing. Three pages. Every day.
Some people get a little mystical about doing it longhand or first thing after you wake up (before you pee? before coffee? no bueno), but that’s all secondary to the fact that the practice will get you writing every day. That’s the real goal. Dress it up with “revealing your subconscious” or whatever, that’s nice, but keep in mind that the point of it is to get you writing every day.
Personally I’ve left that type of structured practice in the dust since I literally write almost from the time I get up to when I go to bed. There really does come a point when you can shove your practice around to suit your needs and schedule, but truly, that comes after the years and years of wailing and gnashing of teeth. (I started writing every day when I was about seven years old and learned to touch type. I’m 48 now. Let’s NOT do the math, okay?)
I was thinking about all of that as I wrote out my list of projects, and somewhere along the way I realized that “morning pages” is a practice that can be applied to nearly any artistic endeavor. If the goal is to do the thing, “morning pages” gets it done.
I’ve decided to do “morning pages” as a drawing practice. Every morning I have some free time, 15-30 minutes depending on how many times I hit snooze, and I can use this for drawing.
I’ve got a super cheap sketch pad I have not ever used because it is super cheap. I don’t even know how I came by owning it, but here it is, waiting to be used for something like this.I have a lot of drawing tools like pencils and charcoal and pastels. I have oodles of reference images to use.
For accountability reasons I’ll add at the end of each of these daily blog posts s lug of my morning pages practice.
If I can blog every day, then I can draw every day.