You have been drawing for weeks. You are putting in the hours. But when you look at your sketchbook, you feel like you are in the exact same place you were a month ago.
The truth is simple: doodling for hours without a plan will not make you a better artist. It feels like progress, but it is just maintenance. If you want to level up, you have to stop doodling and start drilling.
The only good thing about this, I find, since I want to be positive, is that if you constantly doodle, you will at the very least develop some muscle memory that will just make your sketching faster.
The Trap of Comfort
We love to doodle because it feels safe. You put on a podcast, grab a pen, and let your hand wander across the page. It is relaxing. It is therapeutic. But it is also autopilot….
When you doodle, you rely on the shapes and lines you already know how to make. You are not challenging your brain. You are not stretching your coordination. You are just reinforcing the habits you already have. I have this happen often, first off correct me if I am wrong, but you will always start with what you are most comfortable with or used to, right? In my case, I always start with the jawline, or the eye. It is like my starting point, but I felt like it limits me for my creative growth.
Real improvement requires friction. It requires you to do the things you are bad at until you are good at them. So start from a different reference point, or just do something completely different in all.
The Science of Rewiring
Doodling is passive. Deliberate practice is active.
When you engage in deliberate practice, you are forcing your brain to create new neural pathways. You are teaching your hand to make a movement it has never made before. This is exhausting because it is supposed to be. If your brain doesn’t feel tired, you aren’t practicing. You’re just drawing.
Pick something you would want to learn or recreate.
The Blueprint: Breaking the Massive into the Tiny
The reason most people fail to improve is that they try to learn everything at once. You don’t learn how to draw a person. You learn how to draw an eye. Then you learn how to draw a nose. Then you learn how to draw a jawline.
If you want to master portraits, stop trying to draw full faces.
- Isolate the Skill: Pick one tiny, specific problem. Do not draw a face. Draw the curve of an eyelid. (In this case, this advice does not apply to me, due to me always starting with an eye.)
- Drill the Shape: Draw that eyelid fifty times. Don’t worry about shading. Don’t worry about lighting. Just focus on the movement of your hand.
- Evaluate: Look at your attempts. Which ones failed? Why? Adjust your grip or your pressure and do it again.
The Action: The 15 Minute Drill
I know you want to jump into a big piece. You want to see the result. But I want you to try this tomorrow.
Before you start your main project, set a timer for fifteen minutes. During those fifteen minutes, you are not allowed to draw a picture. You are only allowed to practice one specific mechanic. Draw straight lines. Draw perfect circles. Practice the crosshatching technique that always makes your work look messy.
Do this until the timer goes off. Only then can you start your “real” work. You will be surprised at how much sharper your lines are when you actually sit down to create.
Come to think of it, 15 minutes is too much, but I would still recommend you do that.