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I just started drawing. How do I apply the 50% rule and how do I get more into art?

9:19 PM, Sunday August 15th 2021

I am currently on the 250 box challenge and I think I feel the beggining of burnout. Almost everyday I spend at least a couple of hours on the exercises, pretty much ignoring the 50% rule.

There are things I want to draw but on my own I can only make childish doodles.

I thought 'just get through drawabox, learn the basics first. Then get more specific with faces and clothing and whatnot. After that I'll draw all the characters and places in my head'.

I understand this is the exact mindset I was advised to avoid but what am I supposed to do?

The advise about 'just enjoy drawing' seems to be aimed towards people who can at least make a sketch.

Right now I literary can't draw. And there is only so much satisfaction to be gained from ugly stick figures and 'abstract' drawing (meaning I just make random shapes to pass the time).

So I guess my question is: at this point what do I draw for fun?

Also I've been drawing for a month now give or take and I feel clueless about art. My only interactions (?) so far have been drawabox (which I am thankfull I found as early as I did) and a bunch of Steven Zapata's videos. I feel as though I am looking at a mansion through a small window. I picked up a couple of technical terms but that's it.

Honestly I'm not sure how to frame the question other than 'how do I get more into art'?

I don't want to just watch speed painting or look at incredibly impressive art online. I don't want to just consume it as entertainment. I guess I want to understand it better along with the community at large.

Lastly how do I educate myself on the different techniques and stages of drawing? Not for practice but just to know the names or details, so I can start thinking about what I am and am not interested in.

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11:24 PM, Sunday August 15th 2021

The 50% rule asks you to attempt to draw what you want to be able to draw even if you can't draw. It actually tests a completely different aspect from technical skills. It helps you break through to creating rather than just copying, following instruction or consuming.

To me the fun bit can be a bit misleading, it can be really hard work because your brain isn't used to creating without instruction. Each time you attempt to draw for yourself, that's how I would put it, you gain a bit more insight into it and therefore improve. Eventually your brain will start casting off the shackles and lead you on your art journey.

So if you draw a doodle. Assess how good a doodle it is and see how it could be improved to be more pleasing. That's enough to help you improve and start switching the creative side of your brain on. Just an example.

BTW. A month is nothing. Unfortunately art is a long term project. I would recommend the book "The war of art" as a good book the dispels some of the myths around artistic progression.

Hope this helps.

5:32 AM, Monday August 16th 2021

But in order to improve my drawings I need to improve in general. Assessing a doodle only tells me that I don't have technical skills yet.

To me the solution is: more practice, more drawabox, look into other cources, look into youtube videos that I think might help etc. I'll get to all that in time but right now I don't want to burnout, get tired and give up.

To rephrase my question: How do I enjoy drawing for the sake of it when I am months away from drawings that aren't hideous, oversimplified and childish? How do I keep myself interested through this initial learning point? I'm super excited about later lessons but I need short-term motivation.

11:20 AM, Monday August 16th 2021
edited at 12:10 PM, Aug 16th 2021

In short, because if you are just starting out and have no natural talent, you have to start somewhere. It is perhaps worth reviewing what Uncomfortable says about the 50% rule.

The 50% rule is not about creating drawings that you are going to hang on the wall. It's about experimenting, seeing and working things out for yourself, finding out what you like/don't like, what sort of art keeps you interested. It is not about creating good drawings, although you might surprise yourself.

Say for example you like landscapes and want to draw landscapes. Find yourself a good reference or go out into nature. Sit down and draw it. Look at what you have drawn and compare it to what you were looking at. Then ask yourself. Is it accurate? Have I captured something here? Would it look better in a different aspect ratio? Etc Etc.

"Assessing a doodle only tells me that I don't have technical skills yet."

It actually says that you don't have the creative skills yet and that is one of the skills that the 50% rule is trying to build. Look at all the art books which help you turn letters into animals. This is the same sort of thing.

If you are starting out it is best to listen to teacher ( Uncofmortable, not me ).

"Draw the things you'd draw if you were the most skilled artist in the world; draw the things your brain insists you're not ready to tackle just yet."

Also worth watching this video from Uncomfortable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgl6Ll3K3gw

edited at 12:10 PM, Aug 16th 2021
1:20 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

Thank you for taking the time to answer.I think my problem was that I tried to draw from imagination and was disappointed when I couldn't recreate what was in my head. Because that's what I found most interesting, taking characters from my head and placing them on paper.

Honestly I missed or forgot the part that advised to draw from reference. Maybe I just decided that first I need to learn to draw confidently and learn construction and shading and then learn how to draw the human body and then etc etc.

I'll just grab some references and see what comes out.

Last thing: what do you mean by creative skills?

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11:37 PM, Sunday August 15th 2021
edited at 11:38 PM, Aug 15th 2021

Try figure drawing using primitive shapes (boxes, cylinders, spheres)! Not only will you improve your basic drawing skills, but you will see HUGE improvements in your spatial awareness and basic anatomy skills for drawing items later. In general that's just a good skill anyways, to boil complex shapes down to simple shapes that you can then build off from. If you google "Figure Drawing simple shapes" you will get the idea. It's difficult when you first start, but you will learn to appreciate how much you can visually represent with these simples shapes!

edited at 11:38 PM, Aug 15th 2021
11:41 PM, Sunday August 15th 2021

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=video&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwid-InFmbTyAhVTOH0KHaotCCMQtwJ6BAgDEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DWQKqH8FUdgc&usg=AOvVaw27oxz7A01o2FTJ28NUEEUy

This is a great videa on drawing cylinders in perspective, which is probably the only skill you haven't practiced yet up to this point. Once you can draw boxes and cylinders in perspective you will be off to the races!

7:18 AM, Monday August 16th 2021

Thank you, this looks very interesting. Although it reminds me of the final drawabox lessons. Isn't this a bit advanced? I'll just look up tutorials and see what I can do.

2:39 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

you actually do start going over some cylinder material in lesson 2, but if the cylinders look too intimidating just stick to boxes! the way i see it drawing these basic primitive drawings with simple shapes is basically the 250 box challenge with application! And to your second question about this looking like the final lesson, yes in that you start with primitives, but with that lesson you use the simple shapes to influence your decision making for the more complex shapes. I think that is really what they are trying to show with the 250 box challenge, once you lay down the simple framework, youre decision making for more complex shapes is greatly simplified!

2:49 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

https://imgur.com/a/wIOQgXc

Here are some example ideas to get you started! I did these for a different website called ArtWod (also great website), but the first image you can see I'm just playing with basic shapes and the second I'm applying the basic shapes to show a simplified figure drawing. A ruler will help you immensely in these early stages to help build shape knowledge and working in perspective, drawing lines towards the vanishing point. Hope all this helps mate! Again if cylinders look terrible, just stick to the boxes

1 users agree
5:47 AM, Tuesday August 17th 2021

Here are a couple links which I hope can help you a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLqWX7onVmU

https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/why-is-it-so-hard-to-draw-from-imagination-heres-how-to-do-it--cms-22967

The first video gives some great advice on confidence building things to sketch, such as cool rock formations, trees, etc. The take away is that natural subjects such as these allow for more imperfections than say a sleek new sports car, which would be a very advanced subject.

The second link is a bit lengthy, but it explains what drawing from memory is, and the difficulties that arise. For example if you say wanted to draw a dragon with wings from memory you would need to first draw studies of how wings work, scale patterns on reptiles, joints in animals etc. Memory drawing complex subjects requires alot of understanding not just of the act of drawing, but also how things work in reality. So at this point sketch what ever you want to sketch but use reference - either photographic or a physical object.

Also one thing to understand about motivation is that it has peaks and valleys. To boost our motivation it is very helpful to have an emotional reason/ answer to the question "Why do I want to learn to draw?". An emotional reason will be much stronger than a logical reason.

I hope some of this was useful!

Good luck! Live long and prosper!

11:48 AM, Tuesday August 17th 2021

Yes this helps, thank you. Having a "difficulty tier" of references is reassuring. I also realized on my own that drawing from imagination might be hard for a beginner. Although the article is informative it is also daunting. I'll come back to it later on.

And thank you for the advise on motivation. I'll keep it in mind next time I reach a low point.

11:17 PM, Saturday January 22nd 2022

Both are great resources. Love Feng's videos: they're so practical and inspiring.

1 users agree
8:11 PM, Wednesday August 18th 2021

I'm a beginner and started out as stick figure/doodler! My initial strategy (before Draw a Box and the 50% rule) was to focus on the fundamentals so I can ultimately have the speed to jot down my imagination on paper; after a month or so, drawing was not fun. I felt the burnout, didn't feel creative, and still wasn't confident in what I knew about art or my art style.

What really helped me take a sledgehammer to my drawing barrier is Sycra's video on Iterative Drawing. It's about an hour long with awesome advice, but TLDR: You draw the same thing over and over again while analyzing & trying out various things with the intent of making the drawing better/more accurate.

People have pointed out iterative drawing is more beneficial when you're a little more confident in drawing figures/objects. In that sense, it didn't apply to me, but I liked the principles of iterative drawing enough that I did it anyway by starting out with simple stick figures/shapes from simple real life reference photos. Even with simple lines/scribbles, the mileage I got out of it helped reduce my fear in drawing something bad/making mistakes while increasing my confidence to do more, and that was worth the experience.

This isn't an example of drawing for fun; it's moreso a "just draw" exercise outside of Draw a Box that doesn't leave you with only one drawing you're "meh" about because you're not as skilled as you want to be (it's also extremely satisfying to compare your first and last drawing after experimenting/adjusting so many times). Once you get comfortable with drawing to the best of your ability, I think you'll find drawing a bit more fun and will want to create more. Draw a Box has the same mindset, but you gotta listen to what Uncomfortable says and make sure to draw outside of the lessons.

My preference of fun is scribbling a basic concept of what I want to draw in a thumbnail. I draw thumbnail after thumbnail until I find something I really want to blow up and actually complete and go from there. This is where I discovered my love for movement and landscapes! I keep a sketchbook/digital files of all my thumbnails in the event I come back and want to flesh out something else. It's also a way to document your progress as an artist.

As for education and learning what you're interested in, I found this chart from this video to be helpful. There's value in learning all fundamentals, but if you don't have the time, focus on the fundamentals that pertain to the art career you're pursuing and go from there.

I hope this was helpful, and good luck!

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10:27 PM, Sunday August 15th 2021

I'm new in drawing too, and i spend my 50% of time doing gesture drawing. I'm not really into anatomy study, i'm just do gesture drawing trying to capture the motion, force and flow of a pose. After 3 months drawing gesture i become much better.

Other thing i like to draw are flowers and leafs, not realistic flowers, but illustration.

You can watch Proko's videos about gesture here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74HR59yFZ7Y&list=PLtG4P3lq8RHGuMuprDarMz_Y9Fbw_d2ws

About flowers and nature drawing, John Muir Laws is my bet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50H7B-1w7Ws&list=PL-Lj3-2nfJsKJTpFNB5h96BcgswFv5pR4

That is the way i have fun drawing!

6:06 AM, Monday August 16th 2021

Thanks for the recommendation but do I just pick up a subject and go with it even though I know nothing about shading or construction etc?

Also you mention anatomy study, another reply recomended figure drawing. I know terms like perspective and construction but I am largely ignorant. How do I learn all the different subjects and techniques? How did you find and decide on gestures and nature? 'Look it up' seems to be the obvious answer but I'm asking if there is an article or video that lays it all out for me.

12:34 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

You're welcome!

I either know nothing about shading and i begin understand construction now. I just do 20 poses, 1 minute each...and do my best to capture the gesture. Then when i start learn anatomy - study of human body parts - and draw human body (figure drawing), my drawing wont be so stiff.

About decide between gesture and nature...my suggest is watch the videos in the links in my previous post. I like both, cause a leaf, a petal have a gesture too..and they are very thin, much more easy to bend and twist. Gesture drawing apply the same principle of band and twist but in 3D.

Here a link to my first try in gesture drawing and more recently ones...i'm far from being good, but improved a lot in only 3 months. http://imgur.com/a/8QbWeWA

Good luck in your journey!

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12:24 AM, Monday August 16th 2021

I done some automatic drawing and doodling, that got old pretty quick. I'm now in the same boat as you, last thing that I found fun was thinking of a random item and Google image searching "pen drawing of x" then attempting to draw one of the results that didn't look crazy complicated.

6:29 AM, Monday August 16th 2021
edited at 1:49 PM, Aug 16th 2021

Thanks, I'll definitely give this a shot. Are you still feeling this way though? (tired, burned out, hitting a dead end etc.)

edited at 1:49 PM, Aug 16th 2021
11:44 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

I just started this as a way to relax after programming instead of playing video games. Being burned out is my default.

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12:52 PM, Thursday August 19th 2021

Hi ANEST, this may not be what you are looking for, but when I started drawing I had a lot of fun with Carla Sonheim's books. I see she has some free stuff on her website: https://www.carlasonheim.com/product-category/classes/free-classes/

I believe the most important thing is not to judge your own work, but to focus on the activity itself, not the end result. The activity should be fun, regardless of the final product. Or maybe even without a finished product.

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9:34 PM, Wednesday October 27th 2021

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