Check Out NMA    About our Partnership    Collapse this Ad
View Full Submission View Parent Comment
0 users agree
12:11 PM, Sunday May 10th 2020

I wondered about this myself, then decided I was overthinking it. So I made a basic separation: 50% goes towards learning, 50% to everything else. So whether I'm doodling or working on a project, any activity that isn't explicitely about learning technique, theory or soft skills goes into the other half.

I'm not great yet at enforcing this, but there is already more structure to my learning than I've had before. I figure it's best to throw as much time as you reasonably can to learning, because once you have success you'll struggle to find time to learn. And the 50/50 rule seems very reasonable, at least this early in my development.

12:41 PM, Sunday May 10th 2020

Yeah that's how I approached it as well. But then thoughts like "I'm doodling but I repeat same doodles trying to see how I can improve them. So what am I doing now..?" made me write this post. Uh

Thanks though

8:19 AM, Monday May 11th 2020
edited at 8:20 AM, May 11th 2020

Well, doodling is not a single activity. You can doodle for different reasons. When I do character design, I doodle characters towards some basic descriptions. If I'm trying to construct a scene, I doodle different compositions.

Likewise, you can doodle for educational purposes. But then I think it should be focused and with specific outcomes in mind. For example, I'm working on basic shapes, so I might doodle for 30 minutes using basic shapes as my foundation. But if I deviate and just doodle anything, I'd miss the point. Also, if I doodle while watching TV, that isn't focused and thus also misses the point.

So, whatever the activity, I want to to be focused on an educational need and with an outcome that brings me closer to that need. It's not about repetition. If the activity doesn't fit into that description, it belongs in the other 50%.

edited at 8:20 AM, May 11th 2020

Remember that when you agree with something another user has written, you are putting your own reputation behind it.

Consider the following:

  • If it's homework feedback, does it address each section of the lesson/challenge, or only briefly touch upon one or two exercises?
  • Does it provide clearly defined next steps for the student to follow?
  • Have you read through it thoroughly, or are you simply agreeing so the student earns a superficial badge?
  • Replies you agree with will be visible in your sketchbook

Agreeing blindly just to be nice is a good way to get your permissions associated with this function revoked, so make sure that you genuinely feel that the response is beneficial to the student.

The recommendation below is an advertisement. Most of the links here are part of Amazon's affiliate program (unless otherwise stated), which helps support this website. It's also more than that - it's a hand-picked recommendation of something we've used ourselves, or know to be of impeccable quality. If you're interested, here is a full list.
Marshall Vandruff's Perspective Course

Marshall Vandruff's Perspective Course

Marshall Vandruff is a ubiquitous name in art instruction - not just through his work on the Draftsmen podcast and his other collaborations with Proko, but in his own right. He's been teaching anatomy, gesture, and perspective for decades, and a number of my own friends have taken his classes at the Laguna College of Art and Design (back around 2010), and had only good things to say about him. Not just as an instructor, but as a wonderful person as well.

Many of you will be familiar with his extremely cheap 1994 Perspective Drawing lectures, but here he kicks it up to a whole new level.

We use cookies in conjunction with Google Analytics to anonymously track how our website is used.

This data is not shared with any other parties or sold to anyone. They are also disabled until consent is provided by clicking the button below, and this consent can be revoked at any time by clicking the "Revoke Analytics Cookie Consent" link in our website footer.

Note that we also use cookies internally to help reduce abuse by bots - these cannot be disabled, but are not used in any way that violate users' privacy and are not shared with any others - they are simply used to confirm that you are indeed a human user.

You can read more about what we do with them, read our privacy policy.