Today the month ended, and I’ve done my drawings for the month (at the time of this blog entry, the final drawings have not been uploaded). So here are the stats for March with a reminder of February.
| Data Point | February | March |
| Total days ON v OFF | 19 v 9 of 28 (67.9%) | 20 v 11 of 31 (64.5%) |
| Total mins drawing | 416 mins | 556 mins |
| Total number of drawings | 14 | 20 |
| Average drawing time | 29.7 | 27.8 mins |
| Average session time | 21.9 | 27.8 mins |
| Longest session | 45 mins (once) | 72 mins* |
| Shortest session | 5 mins (once) | 10 mins (once) |
| Longest single drawing time | 50 mins (over 2 days) | 65 mins (single sitting) |
| Longest sequence of days drawing | 6 days (once) | 7 days (once) |
| Longest gap between drawing days | 2 days (once) | 7 days (once)** |
| Shortest gap between drawing days | 1 day (7 times) | 1 day (twice) |
* the longest session was in fact over the day with a bit in the morning and the bulk in the evening.
** I was actually sick for about 5 days of this 7 days.
Summary: the only real “drop” was the average drawing time but that is ok as there were a sequence of drawings where I tried to keep it within 15-20 mins because I wanted to try and get through the heads as quickly as possible. The heads are based on challenge to draw 100 heads in 10 days which obviously means not spending a long time on each head. I tried to do them quickly but then gave up as I was too slow! But maybe I will try again when I am more experienced and especially as I now have a second set of 100 heads.
Other than that, it is pretty positive across the board – more days drawing (even though the percentage is actually less) and it would have been a bit higher if I wasn’t sick for 5 days. I may even have the 70% mark! There were more total minutes drawing, longer sessions with a big increase in the time I spent on individual drawings: this is good for the next two targets of discipline and patience.
In terms of weekends, I only had one full weekend off, the weekend before I was sick the whole week. Otherwise, most weekends, I drew on one of the days but this isn’t a big thing this month because it was never part of a day 6 of a sequence of drawing days – that is the target to hit the 70% mark.
To try and build a second drawing slot, I did draw a couple times in the morning but not often. However, I did notice that doing the outline or block-in of a head was an acceptable low target for the morning with shading later in the day.
Again, the previous observation of having ready made and numbered references remains true and was super helpful. I tend to take a screen shot of each head and number it. As a result, I have zero mental energy expended in choosing an image – it is literally the next numbered one.
Other observations:
- For the heads, I tend to make the noses really long – this is evident in the last set of drawings for the month. Need to measure out better the proportions of the face furniture.
- For the first time, I have started to use blending (as opposed to shading), more specifically a paper stump to get some better values. I think I may even had use a finger at one point. It makes a difference. I even used the putty eraser for the first time and can see why I see so many artists use that – it is really effective in getting fine highlights.
- Once past the initial inertia, I noticed that I was getting lost in some of the detail of drawings (ie hair). I am getting a sense of how those who do hyper realistic drawings in charcoal and graphite can spend so much time on details.
- By the end I was developing a sequence of steps: start with a hard pencil (2H), then get progressively softer (the softest I have is 6B) as I added darker and darker bits.
- I have FINALLY finished the rubbish notebook (definitely not a sketchbook). I am so glad – the paper was too shiny when using the overhead lamp and the paper was very smooth – there were times I couldn’t feel the paper through the pencil tip.
Have I built a drawing habit and achieved Target 1?
I think so. It is part of my daily routine now; a day with drawing in it feels more natural than a day without it and it is easier and easier to pick up pencil and just draw with less inhibitions. However, there is no real end point to this target as anyone who has lost a habit knows, it is very easy to lose it!
Target 2 – Discipline
For April, I am definitely starting Target 2 only but may take a couple of days off first.
There will be an element of Target 3 (patience) anyway as part of Target 2 but I am not going to formally start it. This is because I think it would be better to get Target 2 under my belt and do a number of shorter simpler drawings before I build on the patience element with more complicated drawings.
For Target 2, I will continue with heads but expand and introduce additional classes of reference images. I know what I want to cover but, in addition to time collating them, I need to use some mental energy narrowing exactly what as I have a lot in my head! The key will be have an almost endless numbered sequence of images.
One final point – the stats table. There is nothing flash to this – it is just a table in Word, with columns – one is for the numbers 1 to 31 for the days of the month; I colour in red the weekends. The second column is where I record the number of drawings and the time. A diary or calendar is just as effective though for reasons unknown, I am not the best calendar user. See a screen shot of March:
I may need to tweak it for April and Target 2 but only if I want to be that detailed. It may be just simpler to aim for say 60 mins per day even if it is done over two sessions.
I am looking forward to next month!