Conquer your Motivation: Art Block Q&A 6

Learning any kind of creative skill can be tough. Habits, consistency, motivation, feelings, they all just seem to get in the way. My name’s Kanjon and you’re watching the Art Block, a Q&A about these things focused on art and learning to draw. We’ve got a big variety of questions sent in today, ranging from distractions to pressure to techniques. I’m excited to get into it! If you’re new, you’ll find more of this, and other creativity tips all around my channel. I’ve also just finished up a mini-course on learning digital art, where I walk you through the process of turning a sketch into a finished digital painting. Even if you don’t think you can draw, go check it out! Let’s start the Q&A.

Arionguard

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Arionguard’s up first, and asks:

Hey Kanjon! I was wondering how you deal with the that constant pressure to improve that comes with feeling like an imposter. I personally find it difficult to appreciate improvements without focusing on the next thing that I should be improving on. I was curious if you ran into this same problem and what your thoughts are and how you would deal with it.

IMPOSTER! You’ve been caught. Nah but that pressure you’re feeling, that drive to improve, is natural, whether or not that makes you feel like you fit in as an artist or not. It’s an uncomfortable feeling but a good one in the long run, since it helps us push to learn and practice. But you don’t have to go at it 100%, trying to improve all of the time. Not only is it OK to slow down, it’s a necessary part of pacing yourself. Seeking constant improvement with every piece will work for a while until it doesn’t, and you’ve hit burnout. So here’s an idea: The next time you finish a piece, you’ve probably already thought of more new things you want to practice. Write those down somewhere. And then not do them. Not right now, at least. Instead, try drawing what you just drew, again: not all the way, and not even to improve on it, just some sketching and maybe light detailing or shading. And this is key: don’t show it to anyone. It’s just for you.

That act of drawing it again does a few things: for one, it’s forcing you to slow down and appreciate what you’ve done by literally appreciating it and re-drawing some of it. It gives you a break from that pressure by allowing you to draw something you’re familiar with, since you’ve recently made it. You’ll also notice how difficult some parts might have been when you try them a second time, and might make some accidental improvements in parts you weren’t paying attention to the first time. But the main goal is to just help you slow down and be familiar with what you made, to feel that process more the second time. You can even redraw some older art too.

Henry

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Henry writes:

I do struggle with distractions. I’ve tried some apps that are advertised that help create a routine but none of them really helped. Also I got a diagnosis of being on the Autism Spectrum so I feel like this is part of what makes me struggle. Any tips/recommendations would be appreciated and have an pawsome day!

Oooh, yes: a lot of this is natural human nature. We all get distracted to some degree, and it’s important to not get upset when that happens, but to recognize it, acknowledge it with a “whoops”, and guide ourselves back to what we want to do. I’ve got ADHD, I take meds for it, but even then I still get off track a lot and have to catch myself. You mention trying some apps out: most of them don’t work for me either, and I’ve tried a ton. They always seem really neat, but then I get lost trying to really get them to work for me and trying to re-do my day-to-day. That, or I end up tuning out the notifications pretty quickly. What has worked for me is writing what I want to get done in a paper journal, or on a chalkboard I have on the wall at home. For me, I think I like that because it’s something physical, it feels more real and it sticks in a space in my mind. There’s also no way to get distracted by paper, unlike my phone. Plus it feels like drawing, maybe there’s a bit of that.

But that’s what works for me. For other people it will be different, for you it will be different. It might not always be the same thing either and that’s fine. Think about the things that you already do each day, excluding the phone and things that could cause distractions if you can. Are there things you do consistently already? Can you keep a to-do list there too? Keep it simple: if it’s sticky notes, that’s great, if it’s paper, that’s great, a notebook you keep with you: great. Don’t try to over-organize in ways that others tell you you need to unless you really want to. On the autism side, if this is a recent diagnosis, remember that it doesn’t actually change who you are: you’re still you. It might help explain some things and give you hints about why your brain works the way it does, but don’t let that label confuse you or stop you from doing what you want to do. Find advice from others with autism and see what organizational tricks they have, but don’t be surprised if you have to keep looking and trying things – we’re all different.

Thobi

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Thobi (hey I know you, hiiii) when asked, “What stops you from making art?” sent in this list:

• Working a full-time job, leaving with no energy during evenings and distracting myself with YouTube.
• Having an unorthodox drawing method of tracing 3D models, requires lots of setup and time.
• The mental block of not starting things for years are far too big.
• Once art is completed, having to share it everywhere and with everyone and feeling the reward be miniscule to the effort.

Ooooh. Lots I get to poke at here, mmyess. I’m not sure how much you meant to do this, but all four of these points tie back to one common theme, and I think that one of these… is the key. Let’s work through a few. First, the job. Yeah, I know it sucks to hear that yep, we gotta work, and sometimes that work is so consistently draining that it’s hard to do anything after. After a while drawing I’m able to get to it as a way to relax, but it took a while to reach that point. What we want to do it to make art feel less like a project, and more like a small activity. Something that probably contributes to this “project” sense is in the mental block you mention: “it’s been years since I wanted to try this thing, or that skill, can I even do it anymore?” Guilt settles in all too quickly. But the you of the past is not the you of now. You’re a different person! Your interests have probably shifted a little, what makes you excited has shifted, how you spend your time after work has shifted. The you of today gets to try things out with the circumstances of today. If you want to draw, tell yourself that you’re going to draw, it doesn’t matter how you did it before or how long it’s been: the today you is going to try drawing. It feels like a fresh start, and there’s no need to avoid it: let it be fresh. If you “discover” your old skills again (and you will), hey, neat!

OK, a lot of abstract thought, we’re two points in, what’s that theme? Time. Time spent, time not spent, time that feels memorable and time that feels wasted. Time is a huge pain for our motivation as humans, because we always worry that a task will take too long, or that it’s too late to try something, or that we won’t be as fast as someone else. We can’t pause time, but we can change how we work to use less of it. So let’s figure that out: the 3D modeling thing. If you’ve set up a scene and modeled and traced it to round it out, there’s nothing really wrong with that process if it made art, right? You made it every step. But not only does that process take a ton of time, it’s also probably not helping you learn the skills you’re after. Tracing builds skill very slowly, and you miss out on a lot of foundations of sketching. Learning and building these foundations helps tackle the time problem by making you faster, and helps tackle the energy and mental blocks by making it feel less stressful over time.

That all works well in the long run, but in the short term, what can you do? Here’s my suggestions:

1. Take some past art you’ve made and re-sketch it without tracing on top. Have the art next to you, whether that’s the original 3D scene or the finished piece. Draw it out with the lowest level of detail you can, just get the broad shapes. You can spend a few moments looking at the art to see what those broad shapes are, but then set a timer for like, a minute, and scribble that out messily on paper. Then do it again, just a minute. Even better: divide that page up into small boxes and try to fit the drawings into those boxes. The small space and small amount of time helps limit the detail, and really, it can help with frustration.
2. When you approach art day to day, try this same strategy, but with other random pictures. This is your study process: using other art, or photos, drawing it quickly and repeatedly and messily. When you start to get comfy, give yourself more time, but still keep it short.
3. Those two points lead into your own art: start sketchy, start messy, try it multiple times. Find the one that you like the most, and trace that one digitally. You can still do the 3D workflow on occasion, but don’t let it be your default. Having your sketch be the start builds some critical skills and makes drawing more approachable: it’s just a sketch, if it doesn’t work out, oh well, was only a few minutes.

All that stuff helps with your last point, too: when comparing the time spent to the reward, the trouble is often that ratio, yeah? And for small artists it’s rare to see a piece really get popular. If you make that ratio work in your favor, you’ll feel more balanced. Quicker sketches, less effort, more fun to share. And honestly people often seem to appreciate sketches a lot. The unfinished look has a life of its own.

Umbra

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Umbra says:

Often, I either have an image in my head I want to tackle but can’t bring to paper because my skill isn’t there yet, or suddenly have a blank mind on what to draw at all. I know practice helps in the long run, but it gets really demotivating sometimes.

You’re not at all alone: even after a while practicing, these thoughts can still invade. I want to poke at something in this though: the two problems you mention are almost the opposite, and we can use that to help! One of them is having the idea ready to go, and the other is having no ideas but a desire to draw. So. Any time you have an idea, instead of going right to draw it, I want you to write it down somewhere. You can keep a dedicated page in your sketchbook for it, or put a bunch of sticky notes inside the front cover. Put it there, and then, don’t draw it. Draw something else – we’ll get to that– because the creative process also involves the steps before putting that pencil on paper, and we’re aiming to make that easier for you later by building up a big cache of fun things to draw. The ideas can be as complex or as simple as you want, even something like “character eating a sandwich” is valuable.

So I just said “draw something else”… what about when your mind is blank? Or if you had that idea and can’t think of anything else? Look at those sticky notes you’ve got in your sketchbook. Have any been in there a while that you’ve not thought about? Pick one and try it out. I’ve already rambled about thumbnailing and time limits for earlier parts of this video, but use that to warm up with, and try something out with one of those ideas. If none of the ideas spark some energy, that’s OK: there’s plenty of other things to draw. There’s art studies: find art you like, try a drawing of it yourself – just for you, not to share. You can try to draw some photos you’ve taken. Maybe something you’ve drawn in the past. I’ve got this study list video if you want some help building up a collection of these kinds of things. Solving the demotivating feelings is an endless battle, but if you know how to handle that… you can make it an opportunity. When you feel stuck, look towards that list of ideas and switch it up for a bit. Jumping back and forth between study and creativity gives you that nice refresh.

Right! Next question. Sent in by–

Waiiiit! Hold on. We’re gonna pause here, because these videos end up being loooong and editing them takes quite a bit of time. The next half is almost done though, it’s written I just gotta do the video… stuff. I’ll post that in a couple of days, no long wait. I. Will. See. You. Then! For now, take care, enjoy your art pursuits today and defeat those inner demons.