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Can't abide by the 50% rule

12:07 PM, Wednesday December 8th 2021

I find it really hard to draw leisurely anymore.

I still find it fun to draw... until I realise how bad my drawings are. Everything I draw looks crappy. Feels like the more I know, the more I can spot my mistakes, and yet I'm unable to correct them. I end up trashing every piece of drawing I do.

Sorry for the negativity, but does anyone know how to overcome this challenge? I know I won't improve if I don't draw, but it's an uphill battle between "technique" and ignorant "enjoyment" now.

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7 users agree
5:31 PM, Wednesday December 8th 2021

I can understand this feeling 100%. I have just started to try and learn to draw for the first time in my life and now that I want to produce something good, all the stuff I do looks bad to me or I can see the flaws. What I am trying to do is train myself see the flaws AND the successes. Sometimes the success is very small. I drew a face and it is really bad, but the tip of the nose is correct or the left eye (not the right eye also, no, no, that would be time for a party!) looks good. I take all the work I do in a week, check it out, look for the good and the bad, staple it all together, date it, and throw it in a box. My plan is to check it out in a year and look at my progress then. I did some gesture drawing the other day. Filled 5 pages with drawings and came away with "Well the head and neck on that one is not bad. Yeah". Progress. Tiny, tiny, progress.

10:20 PM, Saturday January 22nd 2022
edited at 10:24 PM, Jan 22nd 2022

I really like your advice here, Drusk. I would like to add something that I learned from Feng Zhu of FZD School of Design. He discusses it in this great video (Design Cinema – EP 89 - Just Draw!), but I'll summarize what I took away.

This is the lesson: some things are harder to draw than others. The more we recognize something and are familiar with it, the more accurately we can critique it. Another thing that determines the difficulty in drawing something is the permitted margin of error before it starts to look incorrect. For example, portraits are more difficult to draw than tree roots because 1) we are very familiar with people's faces and spot errors very quickly (but most people don't spend a lot of time studying and looking at tree roots) and 2) there is very little criteria about what a "correct" tree root looks like, so the margin of error is huge; you can draw them with pretty much any orientation or thickness or texture and they're likely going to come out looking like . . . well, tree roots: in fact, the more crazy you draw them, the more interesting they may look. Faces have a very low tolerance for errors (especially if the person you're drawing is well known to yourself or the public in general), and roots have a very high tolerance for errors.

In the video I mentioned above, Feng gives a great overview of the difficulty levels of drawing various things; he recommends beginners start with drawing things that allow a high margin of error. When you feel you are succeeding, you have more fun and confidence and you're more likely to stick with it. The act of drawing (even if what you're drawing isn't exactly what you hope to draw some day) is also helping you to improve your hand-eye coordination and you slowly level up. Over time you can draw more and more difficult things correctly as your skills progress.

Of course, anyone can draw anything they want. I'm not here to tell anyone what they can and can't draw, but Feng's advice seems very good to me. I don't always follow it (sometimes you just have to dive into drawing complex, familiar things with a low margin of error because you love it and want to try, and learn what you can), but with this principle tucked away in my brain, I am able to be less hard on myself when the drawing doesn't turn out as well as I'd like it to; after all, I'm only a level 5 artist trying to draw a level 49 subject :)

edited at 10:24 PM, Jan 22nd 2022
4:50 PM, Sunday January 23rd 2022

Thanks NathanP for the link I will definitely check it out. I was talking about that very thing just the other day to a friend. I was focused on the difficulty of the human face because our brains are so hardwired to recognize it and how there is a low tolerance for mistakes. I had never really thought about other things being on a scale of difficulty before. I think I have naturally drifted to drawing easier subjects due to low confidence. I'm am working more on people now and it can be intimidating knowing that a mistake can be easily recognizable. Having said that, I am a big fan of occasionally attempting something well beyond your current skill level, just to push your abilities and confidence.

5:31 PM, Monday January 24th 2022

You're welcome, Drusk. Feng has so much incredible advice and content on his YouTube channel.

Happy drawing.

11:28 AM, Thursday December 9th 2021

Thanks, that's actually encouraging :) Changed the way I look at things. I think I;m going to stop doing full fledged pieces, and start working on my own practices. This way I don't spend hours on end on a crappy drawing anymore.

4:01 PM, Thursday December 9th 2021

Glad it helped. After re-reading my own message, I realized that I didn't quite answer your question. Here is one idea that I use any time I need to regularly do something that I don't necessarily want to do but need to do, like cleaning. I set a timer for a short amount of time, 10 or 15 minutes for example. Then I start doing the thing. I tell myself that if the the timer goes off and I don't want to continue, it's fine, I did some work today. If I do feel like continuing, I just turn off the timer and keep going. Feels great to keep going, but totally quilt free if you stop.

3 users agree
1:43 PM, Wednesday December 8th 2021

I think this is something a lot of artists experience. Your technical and observational skills will develop at varying rates so, at times, you'll be able to recognise more issues with your work than you can really deal with. This doesn't persist forever, as long as you keep working. I think you just need to power through, holding close the knowledge that you are improving, even if you can't see that immediately. Even if you dislike a drawing and trash it, you've still learned something from creating it, which will influence your next drawing :) I definitely feel similarly frustrated at times, and it helps to remind myself to keep a long-term perspective. Make sure you don't skimp on the 50% rule, since your ability to create the drawings you want to create won't improve significantly through just homework exercises!

1 users agree
6:41 PM, Thursday January 13th 2022

i did not quite understand the 50% rule at first. I had to think about this a moment... But I realised the 50% rule is as much important as the course itself. This 50% rule is not about the outcome of the drawing, its about the process itself, to enjoy it again, take on your fear for failure of outcome. Its not ment to be perfect, draw again, evolve in the process, learn and just draw, without worrying about the outcome, because if you succeed the first time, you did not learn new things. the 50% is about also loving this part of being an artist, so you are open to learn. its ok to make mistakes. Each of us has his own obstacles to overcome, and this you will find and try to overcome in the 50% ... after years of practice you will still think it is not good enough, but that is ok, that is the urge you need to get better. it doesn't mean you did not evolve. just check the first and last drawing of a year for example.

0 users agree
12:59 AM, Saturday December 18th 2021

I go through this alot. I'm going through it right now. for me it's been trying to define my goals that has me moving. I was having alot of trouble with the 50% rule as I didn't know exactly what about art was inspiring or fun to me other than getting better. That's not verry reliable if ur gonna bang on urself about every bad drawing u make. I needed a different reason to get better. I may end up with a multitude.

I think I'm getting somewhere but it's taken alot of thinking.

If u'd like to discuss it and do some back and-forthing u can find me on the art or writers amino @The Sybil. Who knows. Maybe we can get somewhere with it.

Anyway. I wish u luck with ur art and life and

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