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Alyss Erulisse
•
9mo
added comment inProject - Get Your Tools and Start Playing
Asked for help
It is my first day practicing my drawing in a long while. Sadly, I struggle to stay consistent in my practice because of neural dysregulation and perfectionistic tendencies that push me to repeatedly burnout. My drawing will slow to a crawl as I over-focus, and I'll suffer some combination of boredom and frustration that makes it hard to show up the next day. If I'm not disappointed with the results of my practice, I can end up holding them so precious that I can't touch the rest of the notebook in fear I'll somehow damage them. It is exasperating, and my first goal is to get out of my own way and make drawing something I enjoy. I'd love to know how to make it the meditative practice Stan says it can be.
Wes McBride
9mo
I used to do that with sketchbooks--draw a good drawing then get scared of "ruining" the book. It's a normal fear a lot of artists have gone through.
Ming Cho Lee (a famous theatre and opera designer, way before your time; head of Yale's very prestigious theater design program) had the same fear of perfection. He used to sketch on yellow legal pads so he wouldn't take his drawings so seriously.
I used to use printer paper for the same reason. It's cheap and you only have to think about one page at a time.
I also find col-erase pencils (I use indigo, but a lot of artists I know prefer different colors. I think Stan said he likes red for preliminary drawings in one of the videos.) take the edge off for some reason. And, if you like a drawing you start, you can finish it off with pencil (or ink), take a picture, and drop out the initial col-erase lines.
Also, I usually start a drawing session by doing something simple and fun, and that I don't care about messing up. Stan's "Mario mushrooms" warmup (the last video in "Getting Started") is a blast. Super silly, funny when I mess something up, and at the same time the whole page tends to look kind of cool.
Curious to know how many people are learning gesture drawing and the overhand grip at the same time. From some of the comments, I know that gesture in itself is a difficult undertaking and I thought that adding the overhand grip for the first time could increase the difficulty.
I found the overhand grip made gesture easier--particularly if I was drawing large. The overhand grip almost forces you to use your whole arm. Stan's advice to think about "C", "S", and "I" movements was very helpful when I was getting used to this grip. These motions are easier to control with the overhand grip. Full ellipses can be trickier because your line width will vary--but you can still block ellipses in lightly for gesture.
Once you get used to the overhand grip you'll be amazed how much quicker it is than trying to use a tripod grip for everything. Drawing with the side of the tip lets you block in much larger areas and you can switch from thick to thin lines just by rotating the direction you drag the pencil.
