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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?

2:20 PM, Monday August 16th 2021

If you think about it in terms of writing. You can know a language, words and grammar, usage etc. It doesn't mean you can write new, interesting, compelling stories. To do that you need to be creative. You need to play inbetween the languages rules. Some naturally do it, some learn to. A good story requires both but it is the story not the word that are of interest.

Same applies to drawing and painting. You can have lots of technical skills such as drawing quality lines, perspective ability etc but can you create something new and interesting? To do that you need creative skills. This can be much harder than aquiring the technical skills ( that's why I included the blank page video ) because it seems to the uninitiated that your drawings are useless, childish etc. The truth is that's how you start out though. As your technical skills improve they will bring you closer to being able to bring your vision into being, but you have to start at the beginning using the skills you have. Don't wait till you are ready, you will be wasting valuable time.

I found the Netflix documentary "The art of design" really interesting. Particularly the "Christoph Niemann: Illustration" one. Creativity is a core ability for solving visual problems.

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