I suffered severe burn out when I focused so much on my craft, i started ignoreing all other aspects of life. My health and social life gravely suffered. My mental health was trash. I no longer do that. I have a stable job that is in the tech field and I use my animation skills to make stuff for the company i work for. It's not glamorous, and it's definatly not where my early 20 year old self would have thought I would end up. But now I animate and draw on my own time, putting my body and health first. I've never been more happier. Sure, my output as an artist has vastly decreased, but it's a lot less stressful.
I 100% relate to this. My eyes finally opened up one day, wondering why I spent so much time and focus on drawing and developing fictional characters instead of focusing and developing myself. So I took a long break, and I mean half a month or longer without drawing. Went into a spiral thinking if Art was the right career choice since it’s a sedentary life style. But I realized that I can change that, and Art has always made me happy. I’ve recently gotten back to drawing again, and I can’t tell you how much I needed that break. My head is clear and my Art is looking and feeling so much better. The biggest take away is definitely quality over quantity. Take your time on one piece of work, work slow so you can really learn what you’re putting down. - also make sure you take care of yourself and make sure you’re feeling good before you focus your time on your OC’s and world developing :) you come first, and your work will only feel good when you yourself are feeling good. That’s the reality.
I feel this. Went through massive burnout, had some bad jobs damage my confidence, etc. I finally just broke, mentally and physically. I now work at a job that's fairly low stress and I make art and animation for them. It's not glamorous either, hahah. I don't get bragging rights, but eh, it allows me to still be creative without killing myself (most of the time, lol). I use my free time to care more for myself, my health and my loved ones. That is more important to me these days than being a rockstar.
@@CharacterDesignForge DRAW EVERYDAY MAN, YOU CAN DO IT. Don't go back on your words, BURN OUT until you're charred, and keep drawing with the own coal of your burned flesh and bones.
Whenever i try to do any form of "draw everyday" advice i get burn out extremely quickly and my work suffers for it. I shall draw at my own pace and i think my work does better for it and im more proud of a drawing that i took 4 to 5 days to work on than something i was suited to scribble in to suit a self inserted quota... I just like doing me :3
Bad jokes aside I love that you mention disability and circumstances as a reason not to draw every day, it used to really stress me out seeing draw every day advice without room for that
In all seriousness, I "drew every day" from middle school through college, teaching myself in the margins of my notebooks how to do anatomy and hair and face shapes. It wasn't until the last few months where I happened to have 2-3 hour chunks of time throughout the week where I get to sit and focus on art that I have grown wildly in my technical skill and pushing myself. It isn't a dedicated time frame by any means, but the lack of time constraint itself (ie flipping the page for the next set of notes) has allowed me to move forward
I use to sketch on my homework but then I would become attached to my sketches and not want to throw out all the old homework I didn’t need anymore, but my mom wouldn’t let me keep it. So I stopped doodling on the edges so I didn’t have to lose anything.
@@dragonofepics7324 One of the best things you can do there at that point is to save them in the best way possible and date them to be able to look back on in the future
For this year I made a goal to draw everyday. I made sure to have a few conditions to help myself avoid burnout. It didn't have to be a finished drawing, it didn't have to be a new drawing (I could continue working on an older drawing), and it doesn't have to be anything complex. If I just doodled a tiny dinosaur that day then I count it. My goal was to get myself back into the drawing habit, because last year I would go weeks or without drawing something. Using this method has helped me fix my drawing droughts and has even helped improve my creativity. It's something I am doing just for me and to relax. EDIT: Also I remembered something, I expanded it to where isn't necessarily just drawing, but rather just doing something creative every day. For focusing on improving quality and technique I will use dedicated short-term art challenges/projects.
Yea exactly! When my workload wasn't much I was able to create a few finished pieces a day but when uni started to weigh on me I simply switched to small doodles or even just analysing forms, watching speedpaints and tutorials
Omg im doing the same exact thing! There are some days where I draw like 2 fully rendered illustrations a day, there are days where I just work on one piece for few days in a row, days where I just doodle, sketch, change media. Its a wild ride really and im glad I decided to do something like that :] It for sure made me get into a routine and understand my boundaries as an artist better
beginners need a higher volume of stimulus because their skills demand less of them. as someone's skills approach intermediate level, quality of work should replace quantity, since their ability becomes more demanding of their time/energy. the puppy analogy is good, as i think its more important for beginners to learn to enjoy the process regardless of technical skill. it's an easy trap to fall into technical grinding for it's own sake first, rather than using it as a supplement to your own creativity.
Thank you for this room-temperature take! I have ADHD - my brain makes accomplishments feel less rewarding than they would to other people. Because of that, I have always struggled to keep on track with long-term projects. It's overwhelming and disheartening seeing peers post beautiful art everyday. It's tempting to think "I'm not doing that, so I must be a failure." That's not true at all! I wrote, drew, and published my first graphic novel in 14 months, and I was able to do that because I found a balance between holding myself accountable and taking care of myself. Toward the end of the project, I mostly worked/edited in my spare time in a few-hour long sessions 2-3 times a week. With reminders flying in from my calendar every 2 weeks, I eventually crawled passed the finish line. For the first time in my art career, I'm feeling very accomplished! I know it's frustrating and exhausting, but you can't race toward the finish line. You want to be your future self RIGHT NOW, but it's not going to happen like that. Growth and accomplishments happen very gradually, and it's up to you to find a way to be okay with that. Figure out what systems do and don't work for you. Find a way to hold yourself accountable, but also forgive yourself when you didn't meet your goal for the week/day. Take care of your physical and mental health and you will be surprised what a difference it makes! Other thoughts: About prioritizing your project and discipline, I agree completely! It takes focus and dedication to complete your work and meet your goals. But at the same time, if you lack experience, you may overestimate what you can get done, forget to create a buffer for your comic, etc. Start small, and don't go public with your updating schedule unless you are confident you will stick with it. Yes yes yes I love the part about "you're still an artist if you're not drawing, but you do other stuff." I've had to learn skills like marketing and budgeting, stuff to help me actually sell what I create. There are many non-art skills to learn that will help your art career. When I draw regularly, I alternate between studies, and then drawing what I want from my head. If I'm serious about an illustration, I will use reference, but I typically don't. For me it takes a lot of time and energy worrying about minor details when I would rather just complete the piece in a reasonable amount of time. It's okay to refine story skills over art, or expressions over anatomy. That's what makes your style yours! Great vid, thanks again for the tips!
this comment resonates with me so much! i don't have adhd but i absolutely struggle with making myself complete long-term projects and goals and giving up on stuff halfway through - this past year is the first time in my life i've tried to seriously rectify that, and everything you said here is exactly what i've learned in that time. especially the bit about having to be okay with not immediately being where you want to be, and holding yourself accountable while also taking care of yourself. (that can be really hard but honestly doubly as important if you're a perfectionist/workaholic). for me it wasn't art-related, since art is just something i do for fun, but you're correct on all counts here imo
thank you for sharing advice! i have adhd + other things, including chronic fatigue, and it's giving me some semblance of hope that i can find balance as well :') it can be so very hard, i hope i get the balance that you had!
I watched tons of your videos when i started drawing, and I took that "if you don't draw everyday its like you don't care about it" to heart. I'm a girl that likes a bit of monotony, and i was forcing myself to draw for a whole year, every morning after breakfast, even if i didn't feel like it, even if i was tired cuz i have an actual job, even if i didn't know what to draw. But lately, because of reasons, i've had some times i don't draw, a day, 2 days, once i spent a whole week without drawing. And i was feeling awful, like I was wasting my time, telling myself "you're not drawing rn, this time you're spending resting its time you could use to imprive drawing", and i suffered because of it. But I've noticed that when i take a day off like once a week, i feel so fresh. And i notice it on my drawings, when i go nonstop for days i end up not liking them, but after resting for a bit i came out with a banger sketch im really proud of. Now that I'm a bit more comfortable with my drawing (1.5 years rn), i wanted to start a webcomic project, but it's probably too big for me, and i have a lot of trouble making small projects, as i usually end up scope creeping the hell out of it, and dropping it althogether. Anyways, thank you so much for your videos, you have no idea how much they've inspired me to keep drawing, even if i'm still just a beginner.
You're not the only one who gave this kind of 'advice', I found a lot of professionals in the industry and creators of shows would say that, draw every day. It really messed me up following it.
I used to draw every day, I actually drew 5-10 hours every day from I was 17 to I was 22 (I started late lol). Then I got burned out, balancing a failing relationship, taking care of a large dog, going to college and having a job. but instead of taking a break I got mad at myself, because I wasn't imrpoving as fast as I used to. so at 23 I stopped drawing. And I only sporadically picked up the pencil again until now. I am 30 now, and I am finally found my passion again for drawing. Not surprisingly it came back as soon as I decided to untangle the mess from my early 20's. I am now in a good place mentally, and while I do have a 40hr workweek and I still have pets to take care of, drawing is just this fun personal challenge now - it's no longer an accumulation of stress and high expectations. If I get good I get good, and I do take steps to improve my technique - but I no longer measure my self worth in my output. Drawing regurlarily is good - and you can't be productive if you ignore other aspects of your life and health
Drawing has and always will be a hobby for me. It relaxes me, and makes me happy. While I do want to get better, and focus on improving, I know that if I draw too much it will start stressing me out and I won’t get as much enjoyment out of it, so drawing regularly vs drawing daily works much better for me!
I want to say thank you so much for touching on people with chronic illness, especially fibromyalgia. I have had fibro for almost my whole life. I have always powered through it, but I find in my older age I just can't do it anymore. Younger artists are running circles around me, EVERY video on here says to draw nonstop, everyday if you want to "git good bro". I just can't do it ;_;. I save every ounce of my creative energy for my 8 hours of work at my job, and then I have to just stop. Ontop of this, I had some really hard years that burnt the hell out of me. I've all but stopped making art outside of work and it's slowly dried my whole soul up. I want to do more, but my pain limits me. I feel like a loser all the time. No one really gets what it's like to suffer for your craft so badly that you can't do it anymore, even though you want to. Again, thank you for this vid. Its the only one I have found where anyone mentions illness and art. I wish more people talked about it so I could know I'm not struggling alone.
Absolutely Shawnna! A lot of that relentless energy that younger folks have is just not sustainable through our lives- and I have an opinion on how the thinking and things you do outside of your art still fuels it in it's own way, even when it's something unpleasant- sort of like a the agitating sand that becomes a pearl. Honestly, art gets easier to execute but harder to do as time goes on at least for me. You're definitely not a loser, I would say evaluate what kind of goal would be fulfilling and accomplishable in your circumstance, and not measure it against everyone else. Even if that's one piece or sketchbook or something a year, or even less- that's why this video was important to me to make, is to just push back on all the negativity all of that hustle talk can generate- both emotionally AND practically.
I was part of an online forum years ago that encouraged people to draw every day. I did it for a couple of weeks and then had to take a break. I said something about it on the page and was ridiculed for not drawing daily, and told I was basically a bad artist and not going to grow or learn anything unless I drew daily. I don’t mind people who are into the daily practice, but ridiculing people who work differently is so rude. Anyway, now that I’ve gotten my tangentially related personal anecdote out, thanks for making an update, Brookes! I agree, and I think that focused practice at reasonable intervals is better than drawing daily just to say you did.
Those kind of artists are nothing but sheeps! They can't think for themselves, and they can't even question anything. They would just go along with anything what is told to them no matter how ridiculous it is! They should never be rude to another artist who works on art differently.
This video hit at a perfect time. I was just talking to my GF a couple of days ago about this exact thing. I have gotten to a point now where I don't draw everyday. I often think about drawing when I'm not actively doing it and think about project steps etc but the physical act of drawing isn't something I do daily anymore nor feel like I HAVE to really. There are so many other sides to being a working artist that I kind of just need to prioritize things as they come.
Draw regularly AND **draw for fun!** I find it's much more motivating and relieving when I force myself to stop trying to "achieve" something with my work and do something for the sake of playing. It's really easy to forget to have fun, and I start feeling kind of bad about what I'm doing if I'm just forcing myself to draw for the sake of drawing, and sometimes I'll find myself at the end of the week with pages full of drawings that don't go anywhere. I will agree that it's definitely good to draw every day if you have a problem with procrastination and feel like you're having a hard time sitting down at the drawing table though. But I also agree it's better to do that to build the habit of being productive, and then find ways to be creative and have fun with it so you can make more and enjoy what you're producing
2:36 i used to have chronic pain every day. I still get flare ups and am trying to get a checkup with a GI. i would suggest getting an ipad if you want to do digital cuz you can draw in bed, make sure to have good entertainment to keep your mind off of stuff, take your pain seriously its not imaginary even if you parents dont think so, draw for fun alot not just practice or you will burn out. you can always do projects like the 10 challenge or 100 challenge and you dont have to follow the time limit. thats too stressful and sometimes impossible if you are *behind* in your art goals, just remember that people who dont have pain actually would be behind as well if they had pain. They dont know what its like. my heart is with you, take care
Finally some inclusive, reasonable, and context-conscious advice... I'm so tired of hot takes. I'd like to add that for artists living in severely poor social environments (i.e. abusive situations), there's a lot of time and energy that is randomly allocated to dealing with that situation-- to however degree the the toxicity is, it's sincerely out of their control until they can manage to get to a better space and heal. There are survival strategies one can employ to more efficiently deal, but it only grabs a relative foothold in what will always be a losing game. Not to say this hasn't been touched on in the video... just underlining it for those in that situation, who are prone to needlessly blaming themselves for not being able to get as much done as those in healthy and productive environments.
Thank you for addressing chronic fatigue!!! The ‘draw every day’ thing started to become high pressure and it made exploring art not fun anymore. Draw regularly is something I can do and actually lets me create and learn more!
sadly late to this comment but having someone actually address people like me is wonderful to see. I get so tired. so exhausted. I physically can't do what other people can in regards to art. I've TRIED and it's burned me out beyond repair (I used to want to be a writer and cannot stomach the thought of writing anymore because of this). "draw every day" is such garbage advice - people should draw when they CAN and WANT to. if that happens to be every day, awesome, good for them. if not? that's valid too.
As a chronically ill person, I really appreciate this! From my own experience, I will also add that regularly pushing yourself to draw to the point of physical/emotional discomfort or pain and leaving a drawing session feeling sick or negative is a GREAT way to burn yourself out Pavlov-style.
I'm a writer who couldn't draw a stick figure to save her life, but this advice rings true in any form of creativity. I've heard "write every day" just as much as I'm sure artists hear "draw every day" but I think your take on it is a much healthier way to grow your craft as a creative person.
I think this video is the first video in my 30 years of life where someone said "chronic fatigue" and recognised it as a real thing. I've gotten to the point where I've stopped calling myself an artist, because as someone once said to me, "Don't artists... do art?". I hate that I still keep getting inspiration, but will never have the motivation to use any of it. I once tried drawing every day. by day 6 I found myself so miserable that it genuinely hurt my ability to do art again for years. That mindset, that if I couldn't do ti every day, then I must just not be trying enough, not want it enough. It messed me up badly. And that moment never stops being something I remember when I try to draw. That feeling comes back every time. Every snigle time. And it takes away any joy I could have for drawing. When I draw spontatniously and somehow forget to feel like shit, those are great times, but so rare. I don't think I'll ever figure out how to purposely do that, to move past that horrible experience. Those 6 days of hell. Draw everyday isn't just bad advice. It's life ruining advice. But dont worry, I didn't get that advice from your channel. I got it from many other places. I can't blame a single place or person.
A while back, I think I took your advice and started drawing everyday, especially b/c of that last bit. B/c I should care, I figured. And I did draw everyday for over a year. But, I guess I wasnt pushing myself enough or in the right ways. What started out as an hour of figure studies, and later turned into a schedule for different exercises daily, turned into "I drew a box... That's it." I was losing steam and felt rudderless. Plus stuff in my personal life was affecting me, my grandmother's Alzheimer's and passing, my mother and sister getting t-boned at a stop light, my own scare with cancer and a huge surgery... I missed a day, then another, then a whole week. I tried saying "Just draw when you can." To "Draw more often." And eventually "I just don't feel like it anymore." I'd say that, yeah, I got overwhelmed, but I also lost my passion. Anything I drew creatively and posted was ignored, and I didnt even want to draw for myself. I dont think I've actually drawn anything for a while now, especially with the hot mess that was 2020. I'm just trying to find my own way back to art and drawing.
i feel you I got myself back with a really soft challenge of "do anything creative today" I just have to start a drawing - if I don't feel like it I stop. Sometimes I wouldn't draw, I'd prefer cross stitching. Eventually with enough time you will start to feel motivated to draw, please hold this feeling and think of it as much as you can. You will teach your brain how to like drawing again. Good luck on your journey 💛
I'm really glad you made this video. I used to beat myself up for not constantly drawing, but once I realized that there's more to being an artist than the actual action of putting something on paper, it really helped me to improve my work and the health of my relationship with art. My mental health causes me to be avoidant of drawing, and in those periods of time I like to become a sponge and just take in inspiration that will later be useful when I'm creating again.
I really appreciate what you said in this video. I always felt down on myself when people would say "You need to draw every day!" or "You need to get faster at drawing, practice practice practice!". I am fairly sure I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as I struggle to have the energy to even do something as simple as playing a game on my phone. I have many other heath issues as well and it hurts to want to draw but you don't have anything in you to give to the paper. Thank you again for your advice and message. I feel a lot better about not drawing as much and it's inspired me to even try a little harder!
Lately I’ve been drawing most days. Which is crazy to me. It’s wild because I used to need external pressure to even create anything, school requirements or art show deadlines or whatever. But now, ADHD has just decided that it’s time to hyperfixate on some characters of mine and for the time being, I’m drawing them nearly-daily. There’s the plus of realizing I can draw on my phone, like, I’m not a digital artist usually but by using some apps, I feel liberated from being confined to traditional art. When I feel like “I wanna draw,” or “what if there was art of this character doing this thing” I just immediately start. None of that ‘searching for materials and OOPS pencil’s low on lead and UGH I wish I could put my ref on the same page I’m drawing on but one’s in a sketchbook and one’s on my computer’ nonsense that can be an executive dysfunction nightmare. Of course, I can imagine that soon it’ll be far less regular. The hyperfixation will shift, it always does. But yeah, “draw regularly.” That I can do. I’m not looking to draw professionally either, it’s just a hobby that I love. So regularly is… enough, that sounds like the kind of discipline my brain can manage without becoming stressed by this fun hobby of mine. As for being creative? Oh god. I don’t think there’s a second I’m not creatively thinking. From mentally designing worlds and headcanons to actively drawing/writing to finding references/researching to thinking about stories I wanna write or even just creative silly jokes… I dunno if my brain can turn off the creative thought process. My retail job gets slow? I’m either reading or doodling or daydreaming. My dreams are WILD too so it’s even going on when I sleep. xD Creative people gonna create. It’s kinda what we do! And that’s a good thing, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
As one of the many people with limited mental energy, i appreciate you saying this! I am by no means a professional artist and i likely never will be, as i just straight up cannot handle drawing that often for that long. I have tried doing daily things before; pretty much exactly as you mentioned, it ended up often being literally just a circle on a post-it note, so what was even the point of that? It would just lead me to burnout because it turned into a check-mark on a to-do list instead of a fun hobby. Indeed, drawing regularly has worked much better for me than drawing every day, as that means i actually WANT to draw instead of feeling like i SHOULD, and that makes a world of a difference.
it makes me happy that you are talking about this since ive struggled alot with my art and how much i've spent on it. every art advice video i would watch would say things like 'draw every day' and it made me feel like i should just give up drawing and trying to get better since there was all these people 100 times better then me and i couldnt even bother to draw regularly and i would just get into this minde set that i shouldnt come back to drawing since its been so long since ive drawn so my art will suck when i come back to it. what also didnt help is that i get into these depressive states and not draw/anything for weeks or a month. i know that if i want to draw and get better i should and i will spend more time with it but i want to do it at my own pace and be ok if i accidentally forget or am not able to draw all the time. this video really helped me, thank you. Edit: recently got diagnosed with adhd and that also ties into all the struggles I've haf
On April I did the "Draw every day" thing, it was fun but after two months in I felt exhausted and lost the passion I had (also started to feel like my ideas were running out)
Your webcomic example is really interesting, if I had one, with no 'backup' episodes, I would freak at the "you have one week to do a comic, each week, all the steps!" A little bit of a 'breather' or the soothing voice at the back of your head that says that its okay if you didn't finish the script in the same amount of hours, or that if it takes you a day more to finish, or two, that you won't disappoint anyone, would definitely keep me sane.
*Thank you for your reconsideration on the advice I wish more people could empathize with the fact that:* -Not everybody is able bodied and neurotypical - Schoolwork and Jobs eat up mayor portions of your days - Not everyone has acces to healthy food to get energy or other basic necessary needs like decent housing or an understanding environment. - Not getting any attention or appreciation for your efforts can be especially draining and so is toxic postivety. - Life is hard enough as it is without people berating you because you're supposedly ''not trying hard enough"'.
Thank you for this, I've suffered from burnout regularly for years and always felt guilty for not drawing or crafting like I wanted to. I always have ideas and am taking in reference and learning things, but I have a full-time job that is not art-related and it's really hard to balance that with art and other responsibilities. But I make it work and draw as regularly as I can. I have set aside more time to go back to the fundamentals and whenever I have the opportunity to commit several hours in a row to some form of I art I do so. I do wish that I could spend more time or had more energy, but I know that I'm not the only person who struggles with low energy levels after an 8 hour day.
I love the honesty, this is true and I feel like too many artists beat themselves up over drawing daily instead of just loving to draw and striving to improve in all aspects of life and art without stress. It’s a marathon.
I honestly like the sound of drawing regularly instead of drawing every day, it makes you feel like you have more control and freedom, not to mention less stress. :) Drawing every day makes it sound like you must or something.. and it feels stressful and could give you issues of burning out etc. This is my opinion and how I feel alone, not sure others would agree on this.
Yup, I wrote an article about this same topic. No one can go 100% every day. And I don’t know any skill that people should practice every single day. Nice video! 👍🏻
Thank you for mentioning chronic pain! I started drawing again and it definitely made my muscles flare up. It's reassuring to hear you say that it's okay to take a day to care for myself instead of pushing. 🙏🏼
*I appreciate you mentioning physical disability;* I draw for 1-6 hours almost every day, but I'm narcoleptic, with chronic, relentless nerve pain from a crippling spinal cord injury, so I don't feel bad about taking a day off when I need to. (Plus I can't draw nearly as well when I'm asleep 😝)
I like doodling everyday, because it's personally therapeutic. But a full drawing is maybe every few days or weeks. I do it mostly to have nice lil doodles for myself ♡
this video has good advice. i started taking art more seriously about 2 years ago, and soon i'm technichally going to be doing it professionally because i'll be taking comissions. drawing every day has never worked for me, likely because of depression and getting burnt out easily, but in those 2 years i've never not drawn regularly and i still improved quickly.
Ngl, I haven't drawn in months. However I feel that my drawings look better. I draw every so often now, usually with random prompt (for example: drawing a sci-fi setting). Once again I draw as a hobby, I don't want to be in a career with art, so its different for me.
Woah, never thought I'd watch an art video that considers those with chronic fatigue. Not that I expect them to, it's just... validating, hearing that it's okay if I can't draw every single day. I don't think I can ever have the artistic output of the artists I so admire, but I'm holding out hope that there's _some_ kind of art career where I can produce in spite of my limitations. :)
It can be stressful trying to improve, while also getting older. I often become paranoid about stagnation and fret about not focusing on certain areas I need to improve upon. I've come to realize recently that art isn't always a leisurely escape, and often requires conscious effort if improvement is a high priority to you.
Many have this misconception that artist SHOULD BE perfect, logic and complete, and if they are not drawing everyday, taking heavy risks or improving all the time, they are not pRoGrEsSinG. What makes a complete artist? Aren't we a canvas in progress. People think that artist dont have difficulties, challenging routines, discapacity whether physical, mental or psychological.
Thank you so much for making a point early to acknowledge those of us with disabilities. I have narcolepsy, and while the physical exhaustion is bad enough, there is a spiritual exhaustion that comes with having time constantly stolen from me, particularly when it comes to longer-term projects. I’m still reckoning with no longer being able to identify as someone who can crank out art on a predictable schedule and/or timeline. It’s invisible, but the effect is almost akin to an amputation. I will keep this video in mind for the next time I feel like a useless waste of potential. Thanks Brookes, wishing you all the best. 💚
My personal drawing goal is "a finished piece or two a week, and/or a collection of sketches for practice or later pieces." It's been working out for me well so far, and even as I've had lower output this past week I'm still not suffering the mental health toll of falling behind due to having gotten a small bit ahead. It's still certainly not one-size-fits-all, but for me, focusing on overall output rather than input goals like "draw an hour a day" work out a whole lot better.
Heard the "draw everydary" advice so many times. It always made me wonder, "well, what should I be drawing?" As well as "but should I be drawing everyday?" Now, I'll just spend whenever I can drawing random small things like a bunch of hands, eyes, trees, or leaves. Instead of worrying about a large masterpiece for all the time.
I love this video. I could draw daily back in middle school through high school, and it was super motivating to see all of my works culminated on Instagram or in my sketchbook, but since college…I have produced almost zero original work. It was demotivating and I felt incredibly confused about whether or not the title of “artist” really belonged to me. But in reality, just as you’ve mentioned in your video, there’s so much more to making an artist than drawing daily. I was competing hard in all of my creative courses even ones not directly related to drawing - and my skills have been able to flourish. It’s helped also me to let go of my title as an “artist” and just be myself without labels. Now that Summer has come around, I have an abundance of time and now find myself desiring to draw and create. This video has helped me to process my thoughts and I can safely feel as though I’m not demotivated in the way that I thought that I was - I was doing exactly what I needed to be doing to be a better drawer without drawing. Thanks for the great video and amazing advice! ❤
Thank you for this , you actually just justified a habit I’ve been trying to change for years , I’ve been breaking my back for awhile trying to make sure I m drawing every day while working a 12 hour night shift job , reprioritizing so I just focus on it when I do have time is definitely a game changer
This is all relative to a person’s passion and commitment. Some people can do the same thing every single day and enjoy it no matter what. The opposite also applies. Personally, I take incredibly long breaks but I still do ‘mental studies’ so, despite being technically out of practice, I come back with new knowledge every time. I tend to try to mentally study perspective and anatomy specifically in my mind as I go through my daily life. I also try to analyze other peoples art when I see it and apply techniques and methods to my own when I come back. This works with art and music I’ve found.
I find that it's best that I take a break from drawing after a good run of consistent drawing. Seems to me every time I come back to it my mind has had time to churn those hours into improvement. Especially if I have a different artistic venture I can turn to that I find relaxing and enjoyable. I tend to recommend that it can be even better to have more than one artistic output, there is so much one can lend to the other. Photography is one of mine, and while there are similarities between it and illustration, it allows me to stay sharp in my creativity and work on new skills while letting others have a bit of a rest. Like trying to figure out how to render something, or draw something in a specific perspective, meanwhile I'm putting even more emphasis on composition and what I find meaningful in an image. Especially so shooting film photography. Anyway, good video and agree far more with this video than the younger version of yourself. And discipline is KEY in all of this. :)
Its great to take breaks from large projects because my results always turn out better. I don't think I've skipped a drawing day in years (most days I doodle). Sometimes I'll scribble on a napkin for fun or something. You made a good point though. I think I'll continue drawing the way I do since it's for fun, but for larger projects I'll keep your weekly quota advice in mind.
I'm 25 and this is very helpful. I just graduated with a bachelor's of digital /illustration and design. And I still want to improve my artwork because right now I feel like I'm not comfortable. Thank you
i'm so appreciative of the fact that one of the first things you address is that some people aren't physically able to draw every day. I'm one of those people; i have fibromyalgia. if i push myself to draw too often or even for too long in one sitting, i am in horrible pain for weeks on end. and being unable to use your hands in any capacity is extremely debilitating. it's refreshing to see advice that isn't exclusionary. art is for everyone, and we should be supportive of every kind of person who wants to pursue it.
Thank you for making this video. I'd like to add that there are other factors that may make it unrealistic to draw every day; a demanding job or family with small children would be some examples. Or, combine a demanding job with a family, and drawing every day becomes particularly difficult. I'd personally *love* to be able to draw more often, but I'm dealing with a difficult job situation and mental health, which leaves me really mentally fatigued, despite the fact that I'd like to practice more often. When people say that I should be drawing every day, I feel like less of an artist because, yes, I'd be able to improve faster, but I just. Don't. Have. Time.
This is really encouraging. I was drawing everyday and was fine until the stress of selling a house, buying a house, and moving with three kids really made drawing feel chore like. I still feel almost a pain when I attempt to draw and I feel like I'm gonna produce a lot of garbage before I get to draw happily again. Hearing "draw everyday" has given me a rough time lately.
Appreciate you mentioning us less able bodied artists clawing to keep up with the hustle culture. I’m young, but have bad fibro/AS. I’m mostly bedridden and invented a set up that allows me to work laying down because sitting is too painful. Art helps distract from pain and I’m dedicated, but sometimes I’m just debilitated by it all. Best wishes to everyone and their art. 🎨❤️
I'm glad that TH-cam recommended me this. As of late, I've been burned out and can't manage to make a simple sketch. I wanted to improve rapidly when it comes to my art, but it ended up doing the opposite where now I can't be bothered to pick up my pen and sketch something without feeling like I'm a failure. I do plan on taking a break before heading back to school this fall, so hopefully I'll be able to feel better again so I can come back with a new found love of art.
I've come from a classically trained drawing and painting background, and moving over to animation 5 years ago was a huge philosophical shift. Everything needed to be relearned: character design for animation, shape design and shape language, colour theory for heroes and villains and NPCs or neutral characters, software mastery (TVPaint, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro), and understanding the 12 principles of animation and of course shorthand versus tie-ins. I love beautifully rendered artwork, but as a professional animator, my theories and thoughts turn to animating loops and scenes and how can a character best be designed for time, efficiency and audience retention. Drawing everyday is great for warming up, shape design, expressions (can you push your character's expressions (squash and stretch too)), and life drawing characters and BGs. Great video Brookes.
Thank you so much for including fibromyalgia. I have both psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia and I sincerely feel seen and understood. You've just gained a forever fan.
Thank you for this video! I was just thinking to myself in the shower that I should draw today (trying to draw every day) but wasn't feeling it... Drawing regularly is a much less pressuring mantra that puts value on the non-visible growth leading to artistic improvement. :)
My rules to creating wonderful works of art: - Don't worry about perfection! - Take breaks often! - Never trace someone else's art without permission! (Don't trace for commissions and never claim that artist's work as your own. Also, be transparent if you did choose to trace for practice. Please don't post traced art online.) - Use reference images! - Practice makes progress! (Practice when you have extra free time and when feel like you are in the mood to draw.) - Don't rush through the creative process! - Be confident in your abilities! (Your art is great and there'll always be someone to support you with kind words.) - Take breaks from social media! - Don't worry about likes/dislikes/retweets/etc. (Those numbers mean nothing. Pay attention to any positive feedback you receive instead!)
Nice! Thanks for making this! I would also add that WHAT you draw is important too. Depending on one's goals, what you draw will either help you or hinder you.
they way I practice is already mentioned in the video at the end. I have drawing breaks regularly. Since I am working at a mindless job, I can have my thoughts focus on "how I would draw" and "what I want to draw" when I come home, while I am at work. But I often don't have the energy left to so. So by accident I improved my technical and creative aspect of drawing without even drawing. How that works? Well, sometimes letting the references/tutorials and your previous drawing practices sink in by just thinking about it, you can also improve your skills. When I watch 2-3 tutorials on how to turn hands for example, the next day at work I can think about possible ideas and ways I could draw them. Even if I don't for 4 -5 days back to back, the moment I'm in the flow, all that thought process really shows on my canvas. Drawing everyday is just not good at all for me. Its exhausting and degrades the quality everytime I try to stick to it. I wish I could draw more often because Experience is still important, but only thinking about drawing can make you Improve too. I definitely don't recommend having long breaks like I do when wanting to do it seriously, but I kinda don't have a choice. but It definitely helps to have regular drawing sessions instead of every day. I didn't start drawing until I got my drawing display 2 years ago. I watched so many tutorials and references beforehand and could start out very fast in digital art, and it took me only one thing to do. thinking. (if you have that time of course). Also I kinda analyse everything of every animate and inanimate objects to the grids at all times, which I learned how to improve from just watching tutorials here and there. There is one tip i can give about that: for example recently I didn't know how to draw ears and wanted to improve that, but i didn't want to look up references of ears. So everytime I spoke with someone or just saw into the direction of someone, I took a quick glimpse of someone's ears and kinda build a mental library of different shapes but retained the general structure. I am pretty sure a lot of artists do that, but newcomes think you have to try out and find out how to do it by yourself, which isn't true. Reference is everywhere every second. it's not cheating
Thanks so much for sharing your journey. The distinction between unhealthy output expectation and excuse was crazy helpful! Something I definitely needed to hear so I can let myself off the hook whilst reading anatomy. ….now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to reorganise my aardvark photo collection 😋
I love that you re did the draw every day video with what you have learned now! I think it's great that this advice works for some people. Personally drawing every day helps me to keep going as an artist. I struggle with a lot of mental health and physical pain so drawing can sometimes be very hard. If I didn't force myself to draw every day I think I would have given up a long time ago. I've been drawing every day for at least 30 min. for over 6 years and it's worked for me and helped me get to where I am now. It's so true that that doesn't work for everyone and I love the approach you have on this video of that everyone is different! I just wanted to share my experience. Keep up the incredible content I love it! 👍
Thank you. I've got a chronic illness that makes it hard to do anything everyday, and I'm doing my best, but Inktober seems to already be a little dangerous for me, considering I slept for 13 hours last night. I've only attempted this kind of challenge once before, in July. It's something called Four Weeks of Four, or FWoF, and I pushed myself way too hard the first week, which meant I couldn't do the next three weeks, and I was still sick after the challenge ended. I had planned to do one extravagant art piece a week, alongside one at least 1k one-shot every week. I went all in, and did more than my body could handle. The art was too taxing on my body, and the fic fried my brain even further, and I was bedridden for the next two weeks, and for three weeks after that I was too exhausted to function normally. Meaning i made my health dramatically worse for over a month and only did one week of a four week challenge. From that experience, I learned that I absolutely can not write consistently or I run the risk of mental exhaustion, and I needed to figure out what I could do regarding art. Because of that, I decided to make Whumptober an art prompt rather than do both Inktober and Whumptober. So, now that Inktober has started, I have decided to combine Linktober, Inktober, Whumptober, and LU-Linktober prompts into one art piece (only the LU-Linktober prompt is mandatory because I need to fulfill it to post it where I want to post it, the other three are just for fun, and if I find working them in too hard, I won't bother), and I'm doing OCtober on the side. If my health declines in any way, OCtober will be the first thing I axe, as I'm not putting much effort into it anyway. And if my health seems to decline dramatically, I will take a break from art for at least two days. All art will be digital so i can do it on my phone and in bed, so my back pain doesn't flare because I sat in a chair for too long, and so i can immediately stop and post when I start to feel sick, rather than fiddling with my camera to get a good photo while my body protests. On Day 1, I established what I could do. I can do flat colors (my art is lineless), and a shitty sketch for OCtober. Day 2 I pushed myself a little. I can do a full body piece with two characters, a background, and proper shading, and a good sketch for OCtober, however it exhausted me so badly that I slept for 13 hours and still was unable to stay awake without pain or struggle for even 3 hours. Day 3 established that I can do a full bust piece with a simple background and full shading with relative ease in under 4 hours even with my body protesting. The sketch can be completed in 20 minutes if I put no effort in. Two of those minutes were trying to find the break in my line that made the fill-bucket go haywire. So now, if I'm doing a full body piece it will not have complex shading and the background will be simple. If I finish early, I can put some effort into making the OCtober sketch a mediocre piece, but I will not do any complex shading in fear for my health. I've established boundaries that will help me draw everyday, but I'm not sure my health will be stable enough to do this all month. We'll see. For context as to how bad my health is, I've missed two weeks of school, and we've only been in session for seven weeks. I don't think I can physically do a full week of school without extreme pain or sleeping at least 20 hours afterward. Only three days in and I've seen dramatic improvement in my speed, but the improvement is not worth damaging my body. I'm glad that I've finally got someone saying that it's okay not to draw everyday. Everywhere I look it seems like a rite of passage to be able to draw everyday, most seem uncaring, or even mocking, if someone can't. My family tends to call it laziness, even when I have proof that it's not. At least now that little part of me that whispers that I'm a failure can finally shut up. I'll draw regularly, and if that's the best that I can offer, I'll make peace with it. Anyway, best of luck to all those doing Inktober or Whumptober! Please take care of your health.
I have multiple health problems that cause chronic fatigue. Since April this year I've been setting myself monthly goals and it's working out well. Last month it was "something that relates to improving representative drawing skills five times a week." This month it's "six developed drawings - not perfect and totally successful but with a range of values and developed textures." Next month it will probably be "do this online course I already bought AND THAT'S IT - REST." It keeps me from making excuses and from burning out. The dishes are piling up, though. LOL
i see this advice given a lot without the nuance you added to it today. as someone with a disability, it's great seeing this video, i think it's important that people know this. not everybody can draw every day, and not everybody benefits from it the same way. thank you!
Very true words. Rest is just as much a part of the creative process as the active act of putting lines on the paper, and everyone learns and works at their own pace!
*I always interpreted the "draw every day" as just "pick up the pencil and start on something, doodle something, even just a circle. *Since I have ADHD it's hard to tell when I'm actually tired/need a break vs when my brain is just having trouble getting started, so I'll always try to doodle smth rly simple to kick it into gear
I draw mostly every day, but sometimes it's just little doodle in my school manuals with some pens. But, I do some complete drawings regularly. I finish them during the week cause I don't like taking too long for a piece 🥲I sometimes do though
I loved that you used your redesign seal for the thumbnail, lol. It definitely fits the mindset that a lot of people feel when pressuring themselves to draw constantly.
Ill admit: ive been watching this channel for a while, but i havent gone back through all your old videos--kind of glad i missed the old one, it seems like it wouldve caused me a lot of anxiety, lol. I mean, even though im technically a hobbyist and likely to stay in that category for a long time, haha (tho i do still draw regularly--its just that retail work eats up a lot of my time, hope thats not just an excuse lol)
A speedrunner I follow on twitch put it best for me. "You can practice for 10 hours and get nowhere but tired, but you can do 30 minutes of focused practice and progress faster." So it's not about the amount you draw, it's about making when you draw count. I have several mental health problems and I would never be able to draw every day, no matter how hard I tried.
I find that observing is a very important process for getting better at drawing. so if it's an off day where you wanted to draw something, take the time to observe something instead. I find it helpful to follow the edges of object to get a sense of scale. or following the branches of a tree and how they twist and turn, you don't even have to draw you just have to look, and take in your surroundings. I find it a helpful relaxing exercise
I’m not able to draw a lot because of health stuff and school and this video was really encouraging because I just can’t draw everyday. I don’t have the time or energy. But I do try to draw when I can! And I think that’s really all I can do
I drew, drew and drew every day for hours for years once I put in my head as a teen that I wanted to be a concept artist. Also, I studied, studied, and studied. I focused all my life on that, because people told me I had to draw every day, study nonstop, and that every minute I wasn't drawing, someone was, and that would accumulate and they would get the job, not I. The thing is, I drew and studied and did it wrong, VERY wrong, I developed bad habits, ended in the hospital n my hand is messed up by it even nowadays - works just fine. Then one day, I noticed I didn't love drawing anymore. I didn't even like it, did I ever liked it before? I don't remember, I didn't even remember why I started anymore, and I couldn't draw my own illustrations because... I did mostly studies so I actually unlearned how to creatively draw, all those years, and I was still on this level... Not only that, suddenly... I kinda I wanted to have a life? Something I never did - my whole childhood and teen years, it was a study for school n my parents' dream n drawing for my own dreams - and anime and video games. Now I wanted to go out with friends. I wanted to have friends. One day I wanted to have a family. But an artist can't have friends, go out drinking?! Why are you having weekends? You should be grinding! Anyway, in summary, had a very harsh mental breakdown as my whole life was drawing, and I didn't like it anymore, I didn't want to make the sacrifice of expending every hour of my day locked away in a room drawing, so what? There is nothing more to live than that. I went through all the stages of grief, trying to bargain with this reality. Then I decided I wouldn't draw or write anymore unless I actually wanted. And so I stopped drawing. It took me over a year or so but I finally got over that I wouldn't be drawing anymore, that all those ideas I had wouldn't be realized. I moved on, reconnected with old friends, with my parents who I didn't speak for years, actually started talking with all my family I always avoided - because they wouldn't help me achieve what I needed, only studying would - tried a bunch of different hobbies, took care of myself, relearned how to talk with people, to enjoy life, to go out. The hardest thing was that now I didn't know what I wanted to do in life so I jumped from class to class: logistics, engineering, cooking, teaching, firefigher, and more ... I actually thought I found my feet in architecture, and I was so so happy, so happy so, that at the begging of this year, 2 years since that breakdown, I went back to writing, and then after a few months, drawing... And I LOVE IT. Now, I just finished the third semester, and now with better info and contacts I am not sure if architecture is for me, there might be some better options out there, I am eyeing marketing... But most importantly... I am eyeing being an illustrator... If I am going to dedicate myself hard in some professional, suffer with it as work is work and working sucks, why not do it while doing something I love the most? I just, want to try again you know? I can't shake the feeling, that maybe, if I do this right this time... but I am already 22 years old... For all that studying my drawing is... okay. I have the opportunity of getting a major and where I live there is not Concept Art focused major, I could do design... game development... but I don't think that is a good idea, I should focus, I could invest all that time and money in art classes, but again, my parents really want me to get a degree and, I agree with them, it is nice to have one nowadays and who knows if I will have the opportunity to get one still later? What if I actually don't like drawing as a work? I just can't help but think that, if I had the right guidance, I could be a pro artist now, I could be working in the game industry, somewhere. And if I didn't like it, I - prob with 23~25 - could still change paths. Going solely after art now with 22 and risking not liking it is too dangerous, I think. So I am thinking of marketing since it is something I like, while also being kinda adjacent - would be dope working for some developer in the marketing I think~ - and doing the illustrator thing on the side, and if it works I do the jump. So, I am so so SO glad more videos like these are coming out around now, I am glad, and also kind envious of the young kids nowadays, they have so much info, good info, on how to be an artist, a healthy and happy AND SO BETTER AND MORE PRODUCTIVE ONE and the steps they gotta take to work in the industry, not just "just draw alot", no! Please! Don't "just draw a lot". Be smart! Work smarter not harder. And fail faster. I had to learn all by myself n figure it out, and I was a stupid kid. So so so many bad tutorials and tips... - no I couldn't take classes with actual teachers n stuff.
Very true, daily drawing when I was starting out is when I was able to form better results in my drawing. I kept things simple, the goal was to get into a habit of drawing daily. I made a ton of attempts and did manage to stay on the daily drawing trend that lasted me about 5 months the longest. It's when I made the mistake of doing way more work than what I was used to in a day, where I burnt out. While I wasn't truly able to keep up the daily drawing habit, I did improve my muscle memory, and that was a good trade-off for me (minus the burnout). I still think 2019 was the best year for me, I made the most progress in terms of quality and quantity! But I dealt with massive burnout because I thought drawing daily for a consistent amount of time, that I could up the ante with the workload. I was very hard on myself in 2020 because I created less art compared to the third year of my art journey (2017) which made me think I was moving backward. But as I looked back on 2020 with a less negative outlook long passed after New Years: I was more experimental in 2020, I let go of a lot of negative thought patterns I used to have, and while there was less, I have a lot of favorites from a so-called "bad year".
Thank you for mentioning mental health. I thought i was having a very long bout of art block. But it turns out I have been struggling with depression for a while. I have a lot of creativity in my mind but it's hard to get it out a lot of times.
personally the main reason i would say no to drawing every day is because i think its wise to recognize how much work your art involves. having guaranteed time off of it might help you keep up with your time on.
Thank you sooo much for making these clarifications. Me and a lot if my friends have struggled a lot by mental health and chronic pain, respectfully. I have autism and my hyperfocus means I draw a lot, but not everyone has that drive! 😅 And I've kind of been a butt to others about it too. 😑
Hey Brookes, you're the first person I discovered when I started drawing 2 years ago. Although everything you said in this video is technically true, I still say your past video is a better way to approach things, at least for beginners. The draw everyday advice, especially the "harsh" words in which you put it, made me develop discipline required to learn new information. If I were to see exceptions and comforting words like in this video, I don't think I would have implemented the advice into my life. So my point is, I think you should always be harsh and upfront when it comes to beginners, even if you're not necessarily telling the truth. Thanks for all your tutorials ❤
I think it's true because for many beginners the most important thing they need to do is take it seriously and not be lazy. Drawing every day isn't the only way to be "serious" at art, but it's a good way to start taking art seriously. After a bit of drawing every day, an artist may eventually realize that they DO take their art seriously, but don't actually need to draw every day. And, they'll know how to get back into art seriously after taking breaks rather than just dropping things by getting lazy for a bit.
Breaks are imperative. A good night's sleep in the middle of working on a piece is the difference between a decent piece and a good piece, as when you return to it with a fresh eye, you will notice issues you did not before. Taking distance from your work is incredibly important. All my work I've been ultimately happy with has been with plenty of breaks during the process. And your performance will only improve if those breaks are physical. To me, long walks around the town are not just good exercise, but they are still a form of work - I constantly think about one piece or another, solve design challenges in my head, think about the background and how it will influence the character, etc. Without exercise, the artist feels miserable and the work suffers.
"Draw every day" & "Draw regularly." Quite a difference; I'll stick with drawing regularly. Breaks are definitely needed.
@StrayBard Art sounds like an awesome book to read. who's the author? tried looking it up and there's a few different ones
Well said
I agree
@StrayBard Art who is it by
Don’t get burnt out
I suffered severe burn out when I focused so much on my craft, i started ignoreing all other aspects of life. My health and social life gravely suffered. My mental health was trash.
I no longer do that. I have a stable job that is in the tech field and I use my animation skills to make stuff for the company i work for. It's not glamorous, and it's definatly not where my early 20 year old self would have thought I would end up.
But now I animate and draw on my own time, putting my body and health first. I've never been more happier.
Sure, my output as an artist has vastly decreased, but it's a lot less stressful.
Look after yourself
I 100% relate to this. My eyes finally opened up one day, wondering why I spent so much time and focus on drawing and developing fictional characters instead of focusing and developing myself. So I took a long break, and I mean half a month or longer without drawing. Went into a spiral thinking if Art was the right career choice since it’s a sedentary life style. But I realized that I can change that, and Art has always made me happy. I’ve recently gotten back to drawing again, and I can’t tell you how much I needed that break. My head is clear and my Art is looking and feeling so much better. The biggest take away is definitely quality over quantity. Take your time on one piece of work, work slow so you can really learn what you’re putting down. - also make sure you take care of yourself and make sure you’re feeling good before you focus your time on your OC’s and world developing :) you come first, and your work will only feel good when you yourself are feeling good. That’s the reality.
I feel this. Went through massive burnout, had some bad jobs damage my confidence, etc. I finally just broke, mentally and physically. I now work at a job that's fairly low stress and I make art and animation for them. It's not glamorous either, hahah. I don't get bragging rights, but eh, it allows me to still be creative without killing myself (most of the time, lol). I use my free time to care more for myself, my health and my loved ones. That is more important to me these days than being a rockstar.
Yeah I do that a lot to and I am not even a pro artist so I have no idea why I am putting soo much pressure on myself
Good for you. I'm glad you're happy.
Anybody who can look back at their old advice, realize it was wrong, and come at it with a new perspective has my respect. Good for you man.
If we ain't growin, what are we doin out here
@@CharacterDesignForge DRAW EVERYDAY MAN, YOU CAN DO IT. Don't go back on your words, BURN OUT until you're charred, and keep drawing with the own coal of your burned flesh and bones.
@@YskarAlbumLuna hoping this is a joke
Whenever i try to do any form of "draw everyday" advice i get burn out extremely quickly and my work suffers for it. I shall draw at my own pace and i think my work does better for it and im more proud of a drawing that i took 4 to 5 days to work on than something i was suited to scribble in to suit a self inserted quota... I just like doing me :3
i draw everyday but i dont count days i just do it frequintly enoughf to be once a day
cause i have so much free time
@@louzo5175 and thats your own pace i got no issue with that. But i got an issue when people push themselves unneededly
Yup. I’m more of a draw every second day type of guy.
Bad jokes aside I love that you mention disability and circumstances as a reason not to draw every day, it used to really stress me out seeing draw every day advice without room for that
222 liles
230
seems more like an excuse rather than a reason. unless you were completely incapable of using your arms, there's no reason for you to stop drawing
In all seriousness, I "drew every day" from middle school through college, teaching myself in the margins of my notebooks how to do anatomy and hair and face shapes. It wasn't until the last few months where I happened to have 2-3 hour chunks of time throughout the week where I get to sit and focus on art that I have grown wildly in my technical skill and pushing myself. It isn't a dedicated time frame by any means, but the lack of time constraint itself (ie flipping the page for the next set of notes) has allowed me to move forward
YES THIS !!!!
I use to sketch on my homework but then I would become attached to my sketches and not want to throw out all the old homework I didn’t need anymore, but my mom wouldn’t let me keep it. So I stopped doodling on the edges so I didn’t have to lose anything.
I guess that now I’m legally an adult I could pick it up again. Just keep whatever notes I end up doodling on.
@@dragonofepics7324 One of the best things you can do there at that point is to save them in the best way possible and date them to be able to look back on in the future
For this year I made a goal to draw everyday. I made sure to have a few conditions to help myself avoid burnout.
It didn't have to be a finished drawing, it didn't have to be a new drawing (I could continue working on an older drawing), and it doesn't have to be anything complex. If I just doodled a tiny dinosaur that day then I count it.
My goal was to get myself back into the drawing habit, because last year I would go weeks or without drawing something.
Using this method has helped me fix my drawing droughts and has even helped improve my creativity. It's something I am doing just for me and to relax.
EDIT: Also I remembered something, I expanded it to where isn't necessarily just drawing, but rather just doing something creative every day.
For focusing on improving quality and technique I will use dedicated short-term art challenges/projects.
Yea exactly! When my workload wasn't much I was able to create a few finished pieces a day but when uni started to weigh on me I simply switched to small doodles or even just analysing forms, watching speedpaints and tutorials
Omg im doing the same exact thing! There are some days where I draw like 2 fully rendered illustrations a day, there are days where I just work on one piece for few days in a row, days where I just doodle, sketch, change media. Its a wild ride really and im glad I decided to do something like that :]
It for sure made me get into a routine and understand my boundaries as an artist better
beginners need a higher volume of stimulus because their skills demand less of them. as someone's skills approach intermediate level, quality of work should replace quantity, since their ability becomes more demanding of their time/energy. the puppy analogy is good, as i think its more important for beginners to learn to enjoy the process regardless of technical skill. it's an easy trap to fall into technical grinding for it's own sake first, rather than using it as a supplement to your own creativity.
Thank you for this room-temperature take! I have ADHD - my brain makes accomplishments feel less rewarding than they would to other people. Because of that, I have always struggled to keep on track with long-term projects. It's overwhelming and disheartening seeing peers post beautiful art everyday. It's tempting to think "I'm not doing that, so I must be a failure." That's not true at all!
I wrote, drew, and published my first graphic novel in 14 months, and I was able to do that because I found a balance between holding myself accountable and taking care of myself. Toward the end of the project, I mostly worked/edited in my spare time in a few-hour long sessions 2-3 times a week. With reminders flying in from my calendar every 2 weeks, I eventually crawled passed the finish line. For the first time in my art career, I'm feeling very accomplished!
I know it's frustrating and exhausting, but you can't race toward the finish line. You want to be your future self RIGHT NOW, but it's not going to happen like that. Growth and accomplishments happen very gradually, and it's up to you to find a way to be okay with that. Figure out what systems do and don't work for you. Find a way to hold yourself accountable, but also forgive yourself when you didn't meet your goal for the week/day. Take care of your physical and mental health and you will be surprised what a difference it makes!
Other thoughts: About prioritizing your project and discipline, I agree completely! It takes focus and dedication to complete your work and meet your goals. But at the same time, if you lack experience, you may overestimate what you can get done, forget to create a buffer for your comic, etc. Start small, and don't go public with your updating schedule unless you are confident you will stick with it.
Yes yes yes I love the part about "you're still an artist if you're not drawing, but you do other stuff." I've had to learn skills like marketing and budgeting, stuff to help me actually sell what I create. There are many non-art skills to learn that will help your art career.
When I draw regularly, I alternate between studies, and then drawing what I want from my head. If I'm serious about an illustration, I will use reference, but I typically don't. For me it takes a lot of time and energy worrying about minor details when I would rather just complete the piece in a reasonable amount of time. It's okay to refine story skills over art, or expressions over anatomy. That's what makes your style yours!
Great vid, thanks again for the tips!
this comment resonates with me so much! i don't have adhd but i absolutely struggle with making myself complete long-term projects and goals and giving up on stuff halfway through - this past year is the first time in my life i've tried to seriously rectify that, and everything you said here is exactly what i've learned in that time. especially the bit about having to be okay with not immediately being where you want to be, and holding yourself accountable while also taking care of yourself. (that can be really hard but honestly doubly as important if you're a perfectionist/workaholic). for me it wasn't art-related, since art is just something i do for fun, but you're correct on all counts here imo
make a TLDR next time
thank you for sharing advice! i have adhd + other things, including chronic fatigue, and it's giving me some semblance of hope that i can find balance as well :') it can be so very hard, i hope i get the balance that you had!
I watched tons of your videos when i started drawing, and I took that "if you don't draw everyday its like you don't care about it" to heart. I'm a girl that likes a bit of monotony, and i was forcing myself to draw for a whole year, every morning after breakfast, even if i didn't feel like it, even if i was tired cuz i have an actual job, even if i didn't know what to draw.
But lately, because of reasons, i've had some times i don't draw, a day, 2 days, once i spent a whole week without drawing. And i was feeling awful, like I was wasting my time, telling myself "you're not drawing rn, this time you're spending resting its time you could use to imprive drawing", and i suffered because of it.
But I've noticed that when i take a day off like once a week, i feel so fresh. And i notice it on my drawings, when i go nonstop for days i end up not liking them, but after resting for a bit i came out with a banger sketch im really proud of.
Now that I'm a bit more comfortable with my drawing (1.5 years rn), i wanted to start a webcomic project, but it's probably too big for me, and i have a lot of trouble making small projects, as i usually end up scope creeping the hell out of it, and dropping it althogether.
Anyways, thank you so much for your videos, you have no idea how much they've inspired me to keep drawing, even if i'm still just a beginner.
You're not the only one who gave this kind of 'advice', I found a lot of professionals in the industry and creators of shows would say that, draw every day. It really messed me up following it.
I used to draw every day, I actually drew 5-10 hours every day from I was 17 to I was 22 (I started late lol). Then I got burned out, balancing a failing relationship, taking care of a large dog, going to college and having a job. but instead of taking a break I got mad at myself, because I wasn't imrpoving as fast as I used to. so at 23 I stopped drawing. And I only sporadically picked up the pencil again until now. I am 30 now, and I am finally found my passion again for drawing. Not surprisingly it came back as soon as I decided to untangle the mess from my early 20's. I am now in a good place mentally, and while I do have a 40hr workweek and I still have pets to take care of, drawing is just this fun personal challenge now - it's no longer an accumulation of stress and high expectations. If I get good I get good, and I do take steps to improve my technique - but I no longer measure my self worth in my output. Drawing regurlarily is good - and you can't be productive if you ignore other aspects of your life and health
shows this video to several of my art professors
Oh don’t worry, the amount of times I’ve heard of paid professors using my free videos during class, they’ll show it to you
@@CharacterDesignForge HJKSDGH GOD
@@CharacterDesignForge yup 💀 one of old my high school art teachers played one of your videos in class
Drawing has and always will be a hobby for me. It relaxes me, and makes me happy. While I do want to get better, and focus on improving, I know that if I draw too much it will start stressing me out and I won’t get as much enjoyment out of it, so drawing regularly vs drawing daily works much better for me!
I want to say thank you so much for touching on people with chronic illness, especially fibromyalgia. I have had fibro for almost my whole life. I have always powered through it, but I find in my older age I just can't do it anymore. Younger artists are running circles around me, EVERY video on here says to draw nonstop, everyday if you want to "git good bro". I just can't do it ;_;. I save every ounce of my creative energy for my 8 hours of work at my job, and then I have to just stop. Ontop of this, I had some really hard years that burnt the hell out of me. I've all but stopped making art outside of work and it's slowly dried my whole soul up. I want to do more, but my pain limits me. I feel like a loser all the time. No one really gets what it's like to suffer for your craft so badly that you can't do it anymore, even though you want to.
Again, thank you for this vid. Its the only one I have found where anyone mentions illness and art. I wish more people talked about it so I could know I'm not struggling alone.
Absolutely Shawnna! A lot of that relentless energy that younger folks have is just not sustainable through our lives- and I have an opinion on how the thinking and things you do outside of your art still fuels it in it's own way, even when it's something unpleasant- sort of like a the agitating sand that becomes a pearl. Honestly, art gets easier to execute but harder to do as time goes on at least for me. You're definitely not a loser, I would say evaluate what kind of goal would be fulfilling and accomplishable in your circumstance, and not measure it against everyone else. Even if that's one piece or sketchbook or something a year, or even less- that's why this video was important to me to make, is to just push back on all the negativity all of that hustle talk can generate- both emotionally AND practically.
I was part of an online forum years ago that encouraged people to draw every day. I did it for a couple of weeks and then had to take a break. I said something about it on the page and was ridiculed for not drawing daily, and told I was basically a bad artist and not going to grow or learn anything unless I drew daily. I don’t mind people who are into the daily practice, but ridiculing people who work differently is so rude.
Anyway, now that I’ve gotten my tangentially related personal anecdote out, thanks for making an update, Brookes! I agree, and I think that focused practice at reasonable intervals is better than drawing daily just to say you did.
Those kind of artists are nothing but sheeps! They can't think for themselves, and they can't even question anything. They would just go along with anything what is told to them no matter how ridiculous it is! They should never be rude to another artist who works on art differently.
thats just rude...
This video hit at a perfect time. I was just talking to my GF a couple of days ago about this exact thing. I have gotten to a point now where I don't draw everyday. I often think about drawing when I'm not actively doing it and think about project steps etc but the physical act of drawing isn't something I do daily anymore nor feel like I HAVE to really. There are so many other sides to being a working artist that I kind of just need to prioritize things as they come.
I draw when I feel like it, and it just so happens that the drawing shows up almost every day
Draw regularly AND **draw for fun!**
I find it's much more motivating and relieving when I force myself to stop trying to "achieve" something with my work and do something for the sake of playing.
It's really easy to forget to have fun, and I start feeling kind of bad about what I'm doing if I'm just forcing myself to draw for the sake of drawing, and sometimes I'll find myself at the end of the week with pages full of drawings that don't go anywhere.
I will agree that it's definitely good to draw every day if you have a problem with procrastination and feel like you're having a hard time sitting down at the drawing table though. But I also agree it's better to do that to build the habit of being productive, and then find ways to be creative and have fun with it so you can make more and enjoy what you're producing
2:36 i used to have chronic pain every day. I still get flare ups and am trying to get a checkup with a GI. i would suggest getting an ipad if you want to do digital cuz you can draw in bed, make sure to have good entertainment to keep your mind off of stuff, take your pain seriously its not imaginary even if you parents dont think so, draw for fun alot not just practice or you will burn out.
you can always do projects like the 10 challenge or 100 challenge and you dont have to follow the time limit. thats too stressful and sometimes impossible
if you are *behind* in your art goals, just remember that people who dont have pain actually would be behind as well if they had pain. They dont know what its like.
my heart is with you, take care
Finally some inclusive, reasonable, and context-conscious advice... I'm so tired of hot takes.
I'd like to add that for artists living in severely poor social environments (i.e. abusive situations), there's a lot of time and energy that is randomly allocated to dealing with that situation-- to however degree the the toxicity is, it's sincerely out of their control until they can manage to get to a better space and heal. There are survival strategies one can employ to more efficiently deal, but it only grabs a relative foothold in what will always be a losing game. Not to say this hasn't been touched on in the video... just underlining it for those in that situation, who are prone to needlessly blaming themselves for not being able to get as much done as those in healthy and productive environments.
Thank you for addressing chronic fatigue!!! The ‘draw every day’ thing started to become high pressure and it made exploring art not fun anymore. Draw regularly is something I can do and actually lets me create and learn more!
sadly late to this comment but having someone actually address people like me is wonderful to see. I get so tired. so exhausted. I physically can't do what other people can in regards to art. I've TRIED and it's burned me out beyond repair (I used to want to be a writer and cannot stomach the thought of writing anymore because of this). "draw every day" is such garbage advice - people should draw when they CAN and WANT to. if that happens to be every day, awesome, good for them. if not? that's valid too.
As a chronically ill person, I really appreciate this! From my own experience, I will also add that regularly pushing yourself to draw to the point of physical/emotional discomfort or pain and leaving a drawing session feeling sick or negative is a GREAT way to burn yourself out Pavlov-style.
I'm a writer who couldn't draw a stick figure to save her life, but this advice rings true in any form of creativity. I've heard "write every day" just as much as I'm sure artists hear "draw every day" but I think your take on it is a much healthier way to grow your craft as a creative person.
I think this video is the first video in my 30 years of life where someone said "chronic fatigue" and recognised it as a real thing. I've gotten to the point where I've stopped calling myself an artist, because as someone once said to me, "Don't artists... do art?". I hate that I still keep getting inspiration, but will never have the motivation to use any of it.
I once tried drawing every day. by day 6 I found myself so miserable that it genuinely hurt my ability to do art again for years. That mindset, that if I couldn't do ti every day, then I must just not be trying enough, not want it enough. It messed me up badly. And that moment never stops being something I remember when I try to draw. That feeling comes back every time. Every snigle time. And it takes away any joy I could have for drawing. When I draw spontatniously and somehow forget to feel like shit, those are great times, but so rare. I don't think I'll ever figure out how to purposely do that, to move past that horrible experience. Those 6 days of hell.
Draw everyday isn't just bad advice. It's life ruining advice. But dont worry, I didn't get that advice from your channel. I got it from many other places. I can't blame a single place or person.
A while back, I think I took your advice and started drawing everyday, especially b/c of that last bit. B/c I should care, I figured. And I did draw everyday for over a year. But, I guess I wasnt pushing myself enough or in the right ways. What started out as an hour of figure studies, and later turned into a schedule for different exercises daily, turned into "I drew a box... That's it." I was losing steam and felt rudderless.
Plus stuff in my personal life was affecting me, my grandmother's Alzheimer's and passing, my mother and sister getting t-boned at a stop light, my own scare with cancer and a huge surgery... I missed a day, then another, then a whole week. I tried saying "Just draw when you can." To "Draw more often." And eventually "I just don't feel like it anymore."
I'd say that, yeah, I got overwhelmed, but I also lost my passion. Anything I drew creatively and posted was ignored, and I didnt even want to draw for myself. I dont think I've actually drawn anything for a while now, especially with the hot mess that was 2020.
I'm just trying to find my own way back to art and drawing.
i feel you
I got myself back with a really soft challenge of "do anything creative today"
I just have to start a drawing - if I don't feel like it I stop. Sometimes I wouldn't draw, I'd prefer cross stitching.
Eventually with enough time you will start to feel motivated to draw, please hold this feeling and think of it as much as you can. You will teach your brain how to like drawing again.
Good luck on your journey 💛
I'm really glad you made this video. I used to beat myself up for not constantly drawing, but once I realized that there's more to being an artist than the actual action of putting something on paper, it really helped me to improve my work and the health of my relationship with art. My mental health causes me to be avoidant of drawing, and in those periods of time I like to become a sponge and just take in inspiration that will later be useful when I'm creating again.
I really appreciate what you said in this video. I always felt down on myself when people would say "You need to draw every day!" or "You need to get faster at drawing, practice practice practice!". I am fairly sure I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome as I struggle to have the energy to even do something as simple as playing a game on my phone. I have many other heath issues as well and it hurts to want to draw but you don't have anything in you to give to the paper.
Thank you again for your advice and message. I feel a lot better about not drawing as much and it's inspired me to even try a little harder!
"I'm not the most incendiary person" Brookes you gotta keep that forge lit somehow 🤔
Lately I’ve been drawing most days. Which is crazy to me. It’s wild because I used to need external pressure to even create anything, school requirements or art show deadlines or whatever. But now, ADHD has just decided that it’s time to hyperfixate on some characters of mine and for the time being, I’m drawing them nearly-daily. There’s the plus of realizing I can draw on my phone, like, I’m not a digital artist usually but by using some apps, I feel liberated from being confined to traditional art. When I feel like “I wanna draw,” or “what if there was art of this character doing this thing” I just immediately start. None of that ‘searching for materials and OOPS pencil’s low on lead and UGH I wish I could put my ref on the same page I’m drawing on but one’s in a sketchbook and one’s on my computer’ nonsense that can be an executive dysfunction nightmare.
Of course, I can imagine that soon it’ll be far less regular. The hyperfixation will shift, it always does. But yeah, “draw regularly.” That I can do. I’m not looking to draw professionally either, it’s just a hobby that I love. So regularly is… enough, that sounds like the kind of discipline my brain can manage without becoming stressed by this fun hobby of mine.
As for being creative? Oh god. I don’t think there’s a second I’m not creatively thinking. From mentally designing worlds and headcanons to actively drawing/writing to finding references/researching to thinking about stories I wanna write or even just creative silly jokes… I dunno if my brain can turn off the creative thought process. My retail job gets slow? I’m either reading or doodling or daydreaming. My dreams are WILD too so it’s even going on when I sleep. xD Creative people gonna create. It’s kinda what we do! And that’s a good thing, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
As one of the many people with limited mental energy, i appreciate you saying this! I am by no means a professional artist and i likely never will be, as i just straight up cannot handle drawing that often for that long. I have tried doing daily things before; pretty much exactly as you mentioned, it ended up often being literally just a circle on a post-it note, so what was even the point of that? It would just lead me to burnout because it turned into a check-mark on a to-do list instead of a fun hobby.
Indeed, drawing regularly has worked much better for me than drawing every day, as that means i actually WANT to draw instead of feeling like i SHOULD, and that makes a world of a difference.
it makes me happy that you are talking about this since ive struggled alot with my art and how much i've spent on it. every art advice video i would watch would say things like 'draw every day' and it made me feel like i should just give up drawing and trying to get better since there was all these people 100 times better then me and i couldnt even bother to draw regularly and i would just get into this minde set that i shouldnt come back to drawing since its been so long since ive drawn so my art will suck when i come back to it. what also didnt help is that i get into these depressive states and not draw/anything for weeks or a month. i know that if i want to draw and get better i should and i will spend more time with it but i want to do it at my own pace and be ok if i accidentally forget or am not able to draw all the time. this video really helped me, thank you.
Edit: recently got diagnosed with adhd and that also ties into all the struggles I've haf
On April I did the "Draw every day" thing, it was fun but after two months in I felt exhausted and lost the passion I had (also started to feel like my ideas were running out)
Your webcomic example is really interesting, if I had one, with no 'backup' episodes, I would freak at the "you have one week to do a comic, each week, all the steps!" A little bit of a 'breather' or the soothing voice at the back of your head that says that its okay if you didn't finish the script in the same amount of hours, or that if it takes you a day more to finish, or two, that you won't disappoint anyone, would definitely keep me sane.
*Thank you for your reconsideration on the advice I wish more people could empathize with the fact that:*
-Not everybody is able bodied and neurotypical
- Schoolwork and Jobs eat up mayor portions of your days
- Not everyone has acces to healthy food to get energy or other basic necessary needs like decent housing or an understanding environment.
- Not getting any attention or appreciation for your efforts can be especially draining and so is toxic postivety.
- Life is hard enough as it is without people berating you because you're supposedly ''not trying hard enough"'.
Thank you for this, I've suffered from burnout regularly for years and always felt guilty for not drawing or crafting like I wanted to. I always have ideas and am taking in reference and learning things, but I have a full-time job that is not art-related and it's really hard to balance that with art and other responsibilities. But I make it work and draw as regularly as I can. I have set aside more time to go back to the fundamentals and whenever I have the opportunity to commit several hours in a row to some form of I art I do so. I do wish that I could spend more time or had more energy, but I know that I'm not the only person who struggles with low energy levels after an 8 hour day.
I love the honesty, this is true and I feel like too many artists beat themselves up over drawing daily instead of just loving to draw and striving to improve in all aspects of life and art without stress. It’s a marathon.
I honestly like the sound of drawing regularly instead of drawing every day, it makes you feel like you have more control and freedom, not to mention less stress. :) Drawing every day makes it sound like you must or something.. and it feels stressful and could give you issues of burning out etc. This is my opinion and how I feel alone, not sure others would agree on this.
Brookes you should do a character design analysis on the tf2 cast
Real cool to leave yourself open to revisiting some ideas as you age & gain more insight and nuance. Appreciate this take on the matter!
Yup, I wrote an article about this same topic. No one can go 100% every day. And I don’t know any skill that people should practice every single day. Nice video! 👍🏻
Thank you for mentioning chronic pain! I started drawing again and it definitely made my muscles flare up. It's reassuring to hear you say that it's okay to take a day to care for myself instead of pushing. 🙏🏼
*I appreciate you mentioning physical disability;* I draw for 1-6 hours almost every day, but I'm narcoleptic, with chronic, relentless nerve pain from a crippling spinal cord injury, so I don't feel bad about taking a day off when I need to. (Plus I can't draw nearly as well when I'm asleep 😝)
I like doodling everyday, because it's personally therapeutic. But a full drawing is maybe every few days or weeks. I do it mostly to have nice lil doodles for myself ♡
this video has good advice. i started taking art more seriously about 2 years ago, and soon i'm technichally going to be doing it professionally because i'll be taking comissions. drawing every day has never worked for me, likely because of depression and getting burnt out easily, but in those 2 years i've never not drawn regularly and i still improved quickly.
Ngl, I haven't drawn in months. However I feel that my drawings look better. I draw every so often now, usually with random prompt (for example: drawing a sci-fi setting). Once again I draw as a hobby, I don't want to be in a career with art, so its different for me.
Woah, never thought I'd watch an art video that considers those with chronic fatigue. Not that I expect them to, it's just... validating, hearing that it's okay if I can't draw every single day.
I don't think I can ever have the artistic output of the artists I so admire, but I'm holding out hope that there's _some_ kind of art career where I can produce in spite of my limitations. :)
There are quite a few pros who can put just as much time into thinking and input as drawing and not actually do as much drawing! All the best to you!
@@CharacterDesignForge Thank you so much!
It can be stressful trying to improve, while also getting older. I often become paranoid about stagnation and fret about not focusing on certain areas I need to improve upon. I've come to realize recently that art isn't always a leisurely escape, and often requires conscious effort if improvement is a high priority to you.
Many have this misconception that artist SHOULD BE perfect, logic and complete, and if they are not drawing everyday, taking heavy risks or improving all the time, they are not pRoGrEsSinG. What makes a complete artist? Aren't we a canvas in progress. People think that artist dont have difficulties, challenging routines, discapacity whether physical, mental or psychological.
Thank you so much for making a point early to acknowledge those of us with disabilities. I have narcolepsy, and while the physical exhaustion is bad enough, there is a spiritual exhaustion that comes with having time constantly stolen from me, particularly when it comes to longer-term projects. I’m still reckoning with no longer being able to identify as someone who can crank out art on a predictable schedule and/or timeline. It’s invisible, but the effect is almost akin to an amputation. I will keep this video in mind for the next time I feel like a useless waste of potential. Thanks Brookes, wishing you all the best. 💚
My personal drawing goal is "a finished piece or two a week, and/or a collection of sketches for practice or later pieces." It's been working out for me well so far, and even as I've had lower output this past week I'm still not suffering the mental health toll of falling behind due to having gotten a small bit ahead. It's still certainly not one-size-fits-all, but for me, focusing on overall output rather than input goals like "draw an hour a day" work out a whole lot better.
Heard the "draw everydary" advice so many times. It always made me wonder, "well, what should I be drawing?" As well as "but should I be drawing everyday?" Now, I'll just spend whenever I can drawing random small things like a bunch of hands, eyes, trees, or leaves. Instead of worrying about a large masterpiece for all the time.
I love this video. I could draw daily back in middle school through high school, and it was super motivating to see all of my works culminated on Instagram or in my sketchbook, but since college…I have produced almost zero original work. It was demotivating and I felt incredibly confused about whether or not the title of “artist” really belonged to me. But in reality, just as you’ve mentioned in your video, there’s so much more to making an artist than drawing daily. I was competing hard in all of my creative courses even ones not directly related to drawing - and my skills have been able to flourish. It’s helped also me to let go of my title as an “artist” and just be myself without labels. Now that Summer has come around, I have an abundance of time and now find myself desiring to draw and create. This video has helped me to process my thoughts and I can safely feel as though I’m not demotivated in the way that I thought that I was - I was doing exactly what I needed to be doing to be a better drawer without drawing. Thanks for the great video and amazing advice! ❤
Thank you for this , you actually just justified a habit I’ve been trying to change for years , I’ve been breaking my back for awhile trying to make sure I m drawing every day while working a 12 hour night shift job , reprioritizing so I just focus on it when I do have time is definitely a game changer
I realise it was a very small part of this video, but "purposeful procrastination" is a really interesting term. I like it.
This is all relative to a person’s passion and commitment. Some people can do the same thing every single day and enjoy it no matter what. The opposite also applies.
Personally, I take incredibly long breaks but I still do ‘mental studies’ so, despite being technically out of practice, I come back with new knowledge every time. I tend to try to mentally study perspective and anatomy specifically in my mind as I go through my daily life. I also try to analyze other peoples art when I see it and apply techniques and methods to my own when I come back.
This works with art and music I’ve found.
I find that it's best that I take a break from drawing after a good run of consistent drawing. Seems to me every time I come back to it my mind has had time to churn those hours into improvement. Especially if I have a different artistic venture I can turn to that I find relaxing and enjoyable. I tend to recommend that it can be even better to have more than one artistic output, there is so much one can lend to the other. Photography is one of mine, and while there are similarities between it and illustration, it allows me to stay sharp in my creativity and work on new skills while letting others have a bit of a rest. Like trying to figure out how to render something, or draw something in a specific perspective, meanwhile I'm putting even more emphasis on composition and what I find meaningful in an image. Especially so shooting film photography.
Anyway, good video and agree far more with this video than the younger version of yourself. And discipline is KEY in all of this. :)
Its great to take breaks from large projects because my results always turn out better.
I don't think I've skipped a drawing day in years (most days I doodle). Sometimes I'll scribble on a napkin for fun or something. You made a good point though. I think I'll continue drawing the way I do since it's for fun, but for larger projects I'll keep your weekly quota advice in mind.
I'm 25 and this is very helpful. I just graduated with a bachelor's of digital /illustration and design. And I still want to improve my artwork because right now I feel like I'm not comfortable. Thank you
i'm so appreciative of the fact that one of the first things you address is that some people aren't physically able to draw every day. I'm one of those people; i have fibromyalgia. if i push myself to draw too often or even for too long in one sitting, i am in horrible pain for weeks on end. and being unable to use your hands in any capacity is extremely debilitating.
it's refreshing to see advice that isn't exclusionary. art is for everyone, and we should be supportive of every kind of person who wants to pursue it.
Thank you for making this video. I'd like to add that there are other factors that may make it unrealistic to draw every day; a demanding job or family with small children would be some examples. Or, combine a demanding job with a family, and drawing every day becomes particularly difficult. I'd personally *love* to be able to draw more often, but I'm dealing with a difficult job situation and mental health, which leaves me really mentally fatigued, despite the fact that I'd like to practice more often. When people say that I should be drawing every day, I feel like less of an artist because, yes, I'd be able to improve faster, but I just. Don't. Have. Time.
This is really encouraging. I was drawing everyday and was fine until the stress of selling a house, buying a house, and moving with three kids really made drawing feel chore like. I still feel almost a pain when I attempt to draw and I feel like I'm gonna produce a lot of garbage before I get to draw happily again.
Hearing "draw everyday" has given me a rough time lately.
Appreciate you mentioning us less able bodied artists clawing to keep up with the hustle culture. I’m young, but have bad fibro/AS. I’m mostly bedridden and invented a set up that allows me to work laying down because sitting is too painful. Art helps distract from pain and I’m dedicated, but sometimes I’m just debilitated by it all. Best wishes to everyone and their art. 🎨❤️
I'm glad that TH-cam recommended me this. As of late, I've been burned out and can't manage to make a simple sketch. I wanted to improve rapidly when it comes to my art, but it ended up doing the opposite where now I can't be bothered to pick up my pen and sketch something without feeling like I'm a failure.
I do plan on taking a break before heading back to school this fall, so hopefully I'll be able to feel better again so I can come back with a new found love of art.
I've come from a classically trained drawing and painting background, and moving over to animation 5 years ago was a huge philosophical shift. Everything needed to be relearned: character design for animation, shape design and shape language, colour theory for heroes and villains and NPCs or neutral characters, software mastery (TVPaint, Toon Boom Harmony and Storyboard Pro), and understanding the 12 principles of animation and of course shorthand versus tie-ins. I love beautifully rendered artwork, but as a professional animator, my theories and thoughts turn to animating loops and scenes and how can a character best be designed for time, efficiency and audience retention.
Drawing everyday is great for warming up, shape design, expressions (can you push your character's expressions (squash and stretch too)), and life drawing characters and BGs.
Great video Brookes.
Thank you so much for including fibromyalgia. I have both psoriatic arthritis and fibromyalgia and I sincerely feel seen and understood. You've just gained a forever fan.
Thank you for this video! I was just thinking to myself in the shower that I should draw today (trying to draw every day) but wasn't feeling it... Drawing regularly is a much less pressuring mantra that puts value on the non-visible growth leading to artistic improvement. :)
My rules to creating wonderful works of art:
- Don't worry about perfection!
- Take breaks often!
- Never trace someone else's art without permission! (Don't trace for commissions and never claim that artist's work as your own. Also, be transparent if you did choose to trace for practice. Please don't post traced art online.)
- Use reference images!
- Practice makes progress! (Practice when you have extra free time and when feel like you are in the mood to draw.)
- Don't rush through the creative process!
- Be confident in your abilities! (Your art is great and there'll always be someone to support you with kind words.)
- Take breaks from social media!
- Don't worry about likes/dislikes/retweets/etc. (Those numbers mean nothing. Pay attention to any positive feedback you receive instead!)
Feel free to add to this list if you'd like.
Nice! Thanks for making this! I would also add that WHAT you draw is important too. Depending on one's goals, what you draw will either help you or hinder you.
Had to drop a like when you said chronic fatigue and fibro. I love that you're understanding of it omg I wish more were like you
they way I practice is already mentioned in the video at the end. I have drawing breaks regularly. Since I am working at a mindless job, I can have my thoughts focus on "how I would draw" and "what I want to draw" when I come home, while I am at work. But I often don't have the energy left to so. So by accident I improved my technical and creative aspect of drawing without even drawing. How that works? Well, sometimes letting the references/tutorials and your previous drawing practices sink in by just thinking about it, you can also improve your skills. When I watch 2-3 tutorials on how to turn hands for example, the next day at work I can think about possible ideas and ways I could draw them. Even if I don't for 4 -5 days back to back, the moment I'm in the flow, all that thought process really shows on my canvas. Drawing everyday is just not good at all for me. Its exhausting and degrades the quality everytime I try to stick to it. I wish I could draw more often because Experience is still important, but only thinking about drawing can make you Improve too. I definitely don't recommend having long breaks like I do when wanting to do it seriously, but I kinda don't have a choice. but It definitely helps to have regular drawing sessions instead of every day.
I didn't start drawing until I got my drawing display 2 years ago. I watched so many tutorials and references beforehand and could start out very fast in digital art, and it took me only one thing to do. thinking. (if you have that time of course). Also I kinda analyse everything of every animate and inanimate objects to the grids at all times, which I learned how to improve from just watching tutorials here and there. There is one tip i can give about that: for example recently I didn't know how to draw ears and wanted to improve that, but i didn't want to look up references of ears. So everytime I spoke with someone or just saw into the direction of someone, I took a quick glimpse of someone's ears and kinda build a mental library of different shapes but retained the general structure. I am pretty sure a lot of artists do that, but newcomes think you have to try out and find out how to do it by yourself, which isn't true. Reference is everywhere every second. it's not cheating
Thanks so much for sharing your journey. The distinction between unhealthy output expectation and excuse was crazy helpful! Something I definitely needed to hear so I can let myself off the hook whilst reading anatomy. ….now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to reorganise my aardvark photo collection 😋
I love that you re did the draw every day video with what you have learned now! I think it's great that this advice works for some people. Personally drawing every day helps me to keep going as an artist. I struggle with a lot of mental health and physical pain so drawing can sometimes be very hard. If I didn't force myself to draw every day I think I would have given up a long time ago. I've been drawing every day for at least 30 min. for over 6 years and it's worked for me and helped me get to where I am now. It's so true that that doesn't work for everyone and I love the approach you have on this video of that everyone is different! I just wanted to share my experience. Keep up the incredible content I love it! 👍
Thank you. I've got a chronic illness that makes it hard to do anything everyday, and I'm doing my best, but Inktober seems to already be a little dangerous for me, considering I slept for 13 hours last night.
I've only attempted this kind of challenge once before, in July. It's something called Four Weeks of Four, or FWoF, and I pushed myself way too hard the first week, which meant I couldn't do the next three weeks, and I was still sick after the challenge ended. I had planned to do one extravagant art piece a week, alongside one at least 1k one-shot every week. I went all in, and did more than my body could handle. The art was too taxing on my body, and the fic fried my brain even further, and I was bedridden for the next two weeks, and for three weeks after that I was too exhausted to function normally. Meaning i made my health dramatically worse for over a month and only did one week of a four week challenge.
From that experience, I learned that I absolutely can not write consistently or I run the risk of mental exhaustion, and I needed to figure out what I could do regarding art. Because of that, I decided to make Whumptober an art prompt rather than do both Inktober and Whumptober.
So, now that Inktober has started, I have decided to combine Linktober, Inktober, Whumptober, and LU-Linktober prompts into one art piece (only the LU-Linktober prompt is mandatory because I need to fulfill it to post it where I want to post it, the other three are just for fun, and if I find working them in too hard, I won't bother), and I'm doing OCtober on the side.
If my health declines in any way, OCtober will be the first thing I axe, as I'm not putting much effort into it anyway. And if my health seems to decline dramatically, I will take a break from art for at least two days. All art will be digital so i can do it on my phone and in bed, so my back pain doesn't flare because I sat in a chair for too long, and so i can immediately stop and post when I start to feel sick, rather than fiddling with my camera to get a good photo while my body protests.
On Day 1, I established what I could do. I can do flat colors (my art is lineless), and a shitty sketch for OCtober.
Day 2 I pushed myself a little. I can do a full body piece with two characters, a background, and proper shading, and a good sketch for OCtober, however it exhausted me so badly that I slept for 13 hours and still was unable to stay awake without pain or struggle for even 3 hours.
Day 3 established that I can do a full bust piece with a simple background and full shading with relative ease in under 4 hours even with my body protesting. The sketch can be completed in 20 minutes if I put no effort in. Two of those minutes were trying to find the break in my line that made the fill-bucket go haywire.
So now, if I'm doing a full body piece it will not have complex shading and the background will be simple. If I finish early, I can put some effort into making the OCtober sketch a mediocre piece, but I will not do any complex shading in fear for my health.
I've established boundaries that will help me draw everyday, but I'm not sure my health will be stable enough to do this all month. We'll see.
For context as to how bad my health is, I've missed two weeks of school, and we've only been in session for seven weeks. I don't think I can physically do a full week of school without extreme pain or sleeping at least 20 hours afterward.
Only three days in and I've seen dramatic improvement in my speed, but the improvement is not worth damaging my body. I'm glad that I've finally got someone saying that it's okay not to draw everyday. Everywhere I look it seems like a rite of passage to be able to draw everyday, most seem uncaring, or even mocking, if someone can't. My family tends to call it laziness, even when I have proof that it's not. At least now that little part of me that whispers that I'm a failure can finally shut up. I'll draw regularly, and if that's the best that I can offer, I'll make peace with it.
Anyway, best of luck to all those doing Inktober or Whumptober! Please take care of your health.
People who love to draw (like me) can realize how artists need their breaks to keep their creativity
I have multiple health problems that cause chronic fatigue. Since April this year I've been setting myself monthly goals and it's working out well. Last month it was "something that relates to improving representative drawing skills five times a week." This month it's "six developed drawings - not perfect and totally successful but with a range of values and developed textures." Next month it will probably be "do this online course I already bought AND THAT'S IT - REST." It keeps me from making excuses and from burning out. The dishes are piling up, though. LOL
Sometimes I can make multiple drawings in a day, sometimes I can't draw at all.
i see this advice given a lot without the nuance you added to it today. as someone with a disability, it's great seeing this video, i think it's important that people know this. not everybody can draw every day, and not everybody benefits from it the same way. thank you!
Very true words. Rest is just as much a part of the creative process as the active act of putting lines on the paper, and everyone learns and works at their own pace!
"So... am I less of an artist for not drawing Wednesday? Absolutely!" is actually so so relatable though XD
*I always interpreted the "draw every day" as just "pick up the pencil and start on something, doodle something, even just a circle.
*Since I have ADHD it's hard to tell when I'm actually tired/need a break vs when my brain is just having trouble getting started, so I'll always try to doodle smth rly simple to kick it into gear
This was so wise and refreshing, thank you
I draw mostly every day, but sometimes it's just little doodle in my school manuals with some pens.
But, I do some complete drawings regularly. I finish them during the week cause I don't like taking too long for a piece 🥲I sometimes do though
Nice, I love people who can put nuance on thoughts.
I loved that you used your redesign seal for the thumbnail, lol. It definitely fits the mindset that a lot of people feel when pressuring themselves to draw constantly.
Ill admit: ive been watching this channel for a while, but i havent gone back through all your old videos--kind of glad i missed the old one, it seems like it wouldve caused me a lot of anxiety, lol. I mean, even though im technically a hobbyist and likely to stay in that category for a long time, haha (tho i do still draw regularly--its just that retail work eats up a lot of my time, hope thats not just an excuse lol)
A speedrunner I follow on twitch put it best for me.
"You can practice for 10 hours and get nowhere but tired, but you can do 30 minutes of focused practice and progress faster."
So it's not about the amount you draw, it's about making when you draw count.
I have several mental health problems and I would never be able to draw every day, no matter how hard I tried.
I find that observing is a very important process for getting better at drawing. so if it's an off day where you wanted to draw something, take the time to observe something instead. I find it helpful to follow the edges of object to get a sense of scale. or following the branches of a tree and how they twist and turn, you don't even have to draw you just have to look, and take in your surroundings. I find it a helpful relaxing exercise
As a discouraged perfectionist thank you so much for this
I’m not able to draw a lot because of health stuff and school and this video was really encouraging because I just can’t draw everyday. I don’t have the time or energy. But I do try to draw when I can! And I think that’s really all I can do
This was, as ever, great advice. Also, incredibly insightful especially for someone at the beginning of their creative journey. Thanks!
I drew, drew and drew every day for hours for years once I put in my head as a teen that I wanted to be a concept artist. Also, I studied, studied, and studied. I focused all my life on that, because people told me I had to draw every day, study nonstop, and that every minute I wasn't drawing, someone was, and that would accumulate and they would get the job, not I.
The thing is, I drew and studied and did it wrong, VERY wrong, I developed bad habits, ended in the hospital n my hand is messed up by it even nowadays - works just fine.
Then one day, I noticed I didn't love drawing anymore.
I didn't even like it, did I ever liked it before? I don't remember, I didn't even remember why I started anymore, and I couldn't draw my own illustrations because... I did mostly studies so I actually unlearned how to creatively draw, all those years, and I was still on this level... Not only that, suddenly... I kinda I wanted to have a life? Something I never did - my whole childhood and teen years, it was a study for school n my parents' dream n drawing for my own dreams - and anime and video games. Now I wanted to go out with friends. I wanted to have friends. One day I wanted to have a family.
But an artist can't have friends, go out drinking?! Why are you having weekends? You should be grinding!
Anyway, in summary, had a very harsh mental breakdown as my whole life was drawing, and I didn't like it anymore, I didn't want to make the sacrifice of expending every hour of my day locked away in a room drawing, so what? There is nothing more to live than that.
I went through all the stages of grief, trying to bargain with this reality.
Then I decided I wouldn't draw or write anymore unless I actually wanted.
And so I stopped drawing.
It took me over a year or so but I finally got over that I wouldn't be drawing anymore, that all those ideas I had wouldn't be realized. I moved on, reconnected with old friends, with my parents who I didn't speak for years, actually started talking with all my family I always avoided - because they wouldn't help me achieve what I needed, only studying would - tried a bunch of different hobbies, took care of myself, relearned how to talk with people, to enjoy life, to go out.
The hardest thing was that now I didn't know what I wanted to do in life so I jumped from class to class: logistics, engineering, cooking, teaching, firefigher, and more ... I actually thought I found my feet in architecture, and I was so so happy, so happy so, that at the begging of this year, 2 years since that breakdown, I went back to writing, and then after a few months, drawing... And I LOVE IT.
Now, I just finished the third semester, and now with better info and contacts I am not sure if architecture is for me, there might be some better options out there, I am eyeing marketing... But most importantly... I am eyeing being an illustrator... If I am going to dedicate myself hard in some professional, suffer with it as work is work and working sucks, why not do it while doing something I love the most?
I just, want to try again you know? I can't shake the feeling, that maybe, if I do this right this time... but I am already 22 years old... For all that studying my drawing is... okay.
I have the opportunity of getting a major and where I live there is not Concept Art focused major, I could do design... game development... but I don't think that is a good idea, I should focus, I could invest all that time and money in art classes, but again, my parents really want me to get a degree and, I agree with them, it is nice to have one nowadays and who knows if I will have the opportunity to get one still later? What if I actually don't like drawing as a work?
I just can't help but think that, if I had the right guidance, I could be a pro artist now, I could be working in the game industry, somewhere. And if I didn't like it, I - prob with 23~25 - could still change paths.
Going solely after art now with 22 and risking not liking it is too dangerous, I think.
So I am thinking of marketing since it is something I like, while also being kinda adjacent - would be dope working for some developer in the marketing I think~ - and doing the illustrator thing on the side, and if it works I do the jump.
So, I am so so SO glad more videos like these are coming out around now, I am glad, and also kind envious of the young kids nowadays, they have so much info, good info, on how to be an artist, a healthy and happy AND SO BETTER AND MORE PRODUCTIVE ONE and the steps they gotta take to work in the industry, not just "just draw alot", no! Please! Don't "just draw a lot". Be smart! Work smarter not harder. And fail faster.
I had to learn all by myself n figure it out, and I was a stupid kid. So so so many bad tutorials and tips... - no I couldn't take classes with actual teachers n stuff.
Very true, daily drawing when I was starting out is when I was able to form better results in my drawing. I kept things simple, the goal was to get into a habit of drawing daily. I made a ton of attempts and did manage to stay on the daily drawing trend that lasted me about 5 months the longest. It's when I made the mistake of doing way more work than what I was used to in a day, where I burnt out. While I wasn't truly able to keep up the daily drawing habit, I did improve my muscle memory, and that was a good trade-off for me (minus the burnout).
I still think 2019 was the best year for me, I made the most progress in terms of quality and quantity! But I dealt with massive burnout because I thought drawing daily for a consistent amount of time, that I could up the ante with the workload. I was very hard on myself in 2020 because I created less art compared to the third year of my art journey (2017) which made me think I was moving backward. But as I looked back on 2020 with a less negative outlook long passed after New Years: I was more experimental in 2020, I let go of a lot of negative thought patterns I used to have, and while there was less, I have a lot of favorites from a so-called "bad year".
haven’t drawn in like 4 days and it’s the best
Thank you for mentioning mental health. I thought i was having a very long bout of art block. But it turns out I have been struggling with depression for a while. I have a lot of creativity in my mind but it's hard to get it out a lot of times.
personally the main reason i would say no to drawing every day is because i think its wise to recognize how much work your art involves. having guaranteed time off of it might help you keep up with your time on.
Thank you sooo much for making these clarifications. Me and a lot if my friends have struggled a lot by mental health and chronic pain, respectfully.
I have autism and my hyperfocus means I draw a lot, but not everyone has that drive! 😅 And I've kind of been a butt to others about it too. 😑
Hey Brookes, you're the first person I discovered when I started drawing 2 years ago. Although everything you said in this video is technically true, I still say your past video is a better way to approach things, at least for beginners.
The draw everyday advice, especially the "harsh" words in which you put it, made me develop discipline required to learn new information. If I were to see exceptions and comforting words like in this video, I don't think I would have implemented the advice into my life.
So my point is, I think you should always be harsh and upfront when it comes to beginners, even if you're not necessarily telling the truth.
Thanks for all your tutorials ❤
I think it's true because for many beginners the most important thing they need to do is take it seriously and not be lazy. Drawing every day isn't the only way to be "serious" at art, but it's a good way to start taking art seriously. After a bit of drawing every day, an artist may eventually realize that they DO take their art seriously, but don't actually need to draw every day. And, they'll know how to get back into art seriously after taking breaks rather than just dropping things by getting lazy for a bit.
Breaks are imperative. A good night's sleep in the middle of working on a piece is the difference between a decent piece and a good piece, as when you return to it with a fresh eye, you will notice issues you did not before. Taking distance from your work is incredibly important. All my work I've been ultimately happy with has been with plenty of breaks during the process. And your performance will only improve if those breaks are physical. To me, long walks around the town are not just good exercise, but they are still a form of work - I constantly think about one piece or another, solve design challenges in my head, think about the background and how it will influence the character, etc. Without exercise, the artist feels miserable and the work suffers.
I'd say "make a habit of drawing." Drawing everyday even for a fully healthy and able person sounds like a shortcut to burning out.