So this week I decided to discipline myself in a couple of ways. Firstly in terms of my sugar intake (my wife’s idea) - We both agreed not to have any sugary snacks during the day, since most of the food we consume has sugar in it anyway. We figured that if we could go the whole working day without sugary snacks then even when we come home we would moderate our sugar. Worked for me! I felt really good. Although I’m slim and active I know I’m not immune to things like Diabetes and I also don’t like dentists so it’s a good idea to reduce my sugar intake.
The second way I disciplined myself was with regards to drawing. I caught myself doodling way too much from my imagination and not really learning anything new.
Since I started drawing again 3 years ago I have struggled with using reference as I want my work to be cartoony - that’s the work I’m attracted to. Last week I realised that my mind was empty and my imagination was starving so I knew I had to do something about it.
I know there are loads of artists who can draw without reference and I would love to be one of those, but they have invested at least some time into drawing from reference no doubt and I need to do the same.
So this week I drew only what I could see - either objects from real life or people from photographs. I tried to copy these references as accurately as I could but in a simplified line drawing format. It was incredibly difficult on Monday but as the week went on it became more and more natural - this was the hope. I am a huge believer in the need to transform your thinking and so I wanted to trick my brain into getting used to drawing from pictures so that it would naturally think of looking for picture to draw.
One of the things I found this week was that I was naturally using much less lines, I didn’t have to think too much as I could see what I wanted to draw. I know that when I use reference for characters I won’t be copying them exactly but I will be endeavouring to use fewer lines and to slow down a bit before putting lines down.
Another thing I found was that I just went for it as I didn’t have to think overthink anatomy or anything. Again, I know it won’t be that simple when using images as reference for characters but it has made me want to get to a stage where I don’t have to overthink anatomy because I’ve drawn the figure so many times and understand certain ‘rules’ - regular life drawing will probably help this.
Anyway, enough yammering. Here are some of the drawings I did based on reference:
