There was a failed thread recently asking about new developments in learning how to draw. But learning to draw doesn't change - you look, you draw, and if it isn't working you study or you ask for advice. Then you try again.How about motivation & discipline? Any bright ideas? How do (you) make sure you're sitting down and actually drawing every day, or even more than once a day? Yeah yeah I know, JUST DRAW, but sometimes your brain gets in your way. What do you do to make sure your brain stays outta the way? How do you make sure it reaches for the pencil not the phone?Some things I tried that worked:> Keep small sketchbook in my bag for shitty doodles and drawing from life. Small break, small doodle.> Keep the small sketchbook on my nightstand so first thing I do when I wake up is a shitty drawing instead of doomscrolling> Draw late at night when my brain is too exhausted for questions and self-doubt> When picking up my phone, open a tutorial video or my gallery of saved images instead of a social media feedI've also thought about setting up a chatbot just to remind me of my goals and to tell me to sit down and draw, and to remind me how much I enjoyed drawing in the past. I don't use AI for anything, but having one say "come on Anon, you can do it, you always feel better after 15 minutes of line of action" might be a rare good use. Haven't tried it tho.What smart (or dumb) solutions do you use? There was an anon here a few years ago who set up a 'motivation shop' with his favorite Waifu in Zenkit kanban (I think his was staffed by Shoko Komi). It was real neat, with pics of the waifu offering encouragement and admonishment. It was basically a wall of cute GIFs with lists of drawing project interspersed with cheerleading. I tried one with my fav waifu and it kinda worked - opening it put me in a good headspace to want to draw. But Zenkit nuked their free tier and no other kanban supports GIFs.Motivation & Discipline thread.
I use toggl for generic goals (spend x hours drawing) and todoist for specific things (study x). not just for drawing but basically everything. Works well for me. Other than that eat well, sleep well, block all social media forever and don't play video games until the evening.
Ok let’s make this very simple. If you need to figure out ways to “motivate” yourself and spend more time drawing, then you are fucked. You will not succeed. Pack it up, go home, it’s over. Drawing is such an intense and time consuming activity that you CANNOT do it if you are relying on “willpower”, or hacks to try and boost your willpower.FORTUNATELY, it’s not as hopeless as it seems. By making changes to your environment and how you approach drawing, you can change things so that you naturally want to spend more time drawing anyway. But the point is that you need to figure out what works for you and what changes you need to make in order to draw out your natural motivation. If you’re unmotivated then you cannot trick or force yourself to become motivated. That’s not going to work. You need to make objective changes to the environment that naturally increase your motivation instead.A big simple one is making sure that your drawing environment, whatever and wherever that is, is as comfortable and easily accessible as possible. There should be no physical barriers between you and drawing. For me, getting a portable tablet that I could whip out anywhere anytime was massive in encouraging me to draw more. For other people, they might need to rearrange their daily schedules a bit, draw in the morning instead of the night, stuff like that. Whatever works for you. Just make sure that it’s physically easy for you to draw, when you want to do it.There’s also the matter of how you actually approach drawing itself and what you’re actually doing when you put pencil to paper. For me, “gamifying” it as much as possible is big for keeping me motivated, like that box drawing game people have been sharing recently. Short, individual exercises with immediate feedback on accuracy. I like that a lot. Other people might prefer a different structure. Experiment and find the one that works for you.
>>8033869The tl;dr is that a “lack of motivation” is never the problem in and of itself, but rather it’s always a SYMPTOM of a deeper underlying problem you need to fix. Make objective changes to your environment and your approach and the motivation will come naturally.
>>8033863I'm making a videogame, and paid the steam fee and all, so I have deadlines and people asking for more game. I do take breaks, but generally am drawing a lot more as the game needs a lot of art!
>>8033868Oh yeah I know toggl, I use it to track work hours and stuff. It's real helpful to see how many hours I drew or worked or exercised each week>>8033869>>8033871Yeah unfortunately I agree with you. I AM fucked right now because I'm mostly relying on motivation. As my skills got better my motivation and consistency have kinda gone the other way even though drawing should be easier now. Now I have bigger projects I wanna make and paid work I gotta draw for clients and here I am trying to force and 'motivate' myself like a sucker. I could've titled the thread "how do I get back my love of drawing where the fuck did it go?" but I wanted a wider discussion.My drawing environment's kinda shit, gotta jump through a couple annoying hoops every time I wanna draw, digital or analog. Like you say, I've been thinking about buying a portable drawing tablet with enough power to do my client work so I can draw it at the library or the diner or lying on the fucking couch at a friend's house or whatever.You saying "lack of motivation" as a symptom of a deeper underlying problem is very sharp, you know your stuff. I'm gonna try some environment changes. Thanks for posting.
>>8033863The best solution, which I heard from several working pros, is just to have a dedicated workspace. And not like a corner of your room, but an actual room, a space just for your art. The most productive I ever was when during my senior year in college when I had a studio space all to myself. Currently working on converting my garage into a studio space so i can get back to having that.
>>8033868>>8034003these two are pretty much all you need. Your brain is a very complex machine, yet also deceptively easy to manipulate. Having a dedicated space is the equivalent of having a task manager open for your mind that automatically closes all background tasks and prioritizes tasks specific to that space for being opened. If your work space is also your sleeping/relaxing/jacking off/gaming space your brain will be filled with many distractions or processes competing for your attention which can end up exhausting your working capacity faster than if you just had a dedicated room. In addition to having tracking tools and goals, a daily ritual that you perform that breaks inertia is very important. If going to the gym is your goal for example, it'd just be putting on your gym clothes. For drawing, many pros say that even just drawing a line to break inertia is huge. By repeatedly breaking inertia with small easy actions, especially on days when you most don't want to do it, you condition your brain's executive functioning which trickles down into conscientiousness which is one of the most important things to have for success
I am gonna try something different. Instead of focusing on a single muscle, spending time, and feeling disappointed because I don't have the ability to appreciate the subtle details. This is what leads to de-motivation. For example, drawing a single sculpture or a figure is really bad because:1. You won't be able to figure out what is wrong your drawing, because it's this one central thing and you don't have the necessary perception to actually see the nuances.2. You are still missing the big picture because there is no such thing as a figure or a sculpture in vacuum.I tried and gave up every single time, getting dejected. Then I saw this guide written by some rando on the internet. Picrel related.Essentially, beginners should always focus on the big picture, draw full scenes, with many lights, shades, shadows, forms, etc. Simply them as much as you can, use shapes to compose the scene, then slow refine the entire big picture. You don't wanna start adding facial feature to characters in your scene, with blocking out the basic furniture, pose, etc. You don't even think about it. When you have an entire scene, your brain gets more information. It can fill in the blanks more easily. Refinement will sort themselves out automatically with practice.And the best part: Your drawing has much more going on, the drawing is alive. I will start posting my progress soon. A shitty figure is really lame to look at, even a well drawn figure doesn't do much to your motivation. But if you look at a poorly drawn scene, with lots of entities interacting, cause and effects, all fitting somewhat together, you will feel motivated. TLDR: Focus on the big picture. If you wanna draw your fav. fictional character, draw an entire scene which includes your character as just another entity. This will also help you are working on something bigger like a video game, or comic. You can start using the big picture drawings directly, because they can act as stubs.
Looking at reference pictures on non social media sites inspires me to draw a lot more than browsing twitter. Even if it's somewhere like pinterest, the lack of numbers keeps me from getting demotivated by jealousy. It's just me and the art. Art makes me happy. Numbers do not
>>8034039For some reason, I genuinely feel that the whole:>Human beings require social connectionis a psyop deployed to keep us wasting time caring about our respective position in a herd, and ensuring the survival or religion and other -isms.
>>8034045It really isn't. There was a japanese comedian,Nasubi, who locked himself in a room for a TV thing and went without socialization for 15 months, and remains kinda fucked up even decades later. Like your muscles, your brain is a use-it-or-lose-it machine, and if you don't socialize, that part of your brain withers. There are other benefits to socialization, the real question isn't so much>do I need to be social?so much as>how much socializing do I need?
drawing is at minimum a 1 hour commitment if you are /int/ or above. There's no such thing as just doing tiny little shitty doodles for anything other than storing ideas for later.
You need a very big project so you can procrastinate by working on smaller projects instead.
>>8034045You're fucking autistic, bro. Humans are social beings and it's not even close to being zero sum. The problem is "line must go up" creatures who hijack those interactions for profit.
>>8034084>>8034094nta, i've gone through many periods of isolation in my life. people dont want me around, its just a fact, they hate and humiliate me at every opportunity. why would i attempt to learn a skill like socialization when nothing comes of it? i am always the one that has to put in 100% of the effort for no return but pain
>>8034220
>>8034224sounds like more retarded nonsense, not worth the effort, those people dont exist and you live in a fairytale.
Drawing for other people makes things faster. Having other responsibilities makes me want to draw as a way to avoid them.Does anyone ITT have ADHD med experience? How did it effect your art?
>>8034225You're the retard if you think your narrow band of experience is reflective of the vast entirety of the world.
>>8034230but all that matters is my "narrow band of experience," thats my world. i cant come to terms with it so whats the point? i have listened to all your platitudes and useless pieces of "advice" and i have only recieved punishment for it. it goes back to middleschool when people would egg me on to do stupid shit, you are just doing the same thing now knowing im a "retard" who is incapable of winning, and that i should feel heckin bad for not contorting myself into a "successful socialized person."
>>8034233Oh, you have a victim complex.Sorry, in this case, you're right - the problem is you.
>>8034237ok so how do i fix it then? i have tried everything, do you suggest that i just try suicide or something? cause my brain will atrophy and explode from not talking to people or whatever?
>>8034240You have to fix yourself. If you bring a self-loathing woe-is-me everything-is-shit vibe to a relationship, you're just going to get that same shit reflected back at you with some added resentment.I'm not a therapist, so I'm not going to pretend I can tell you how to fix your shit.
>>8033863What worked for me was breaking it all down into successive chunks from tiny to big, then picking specific fundamentals and complementary subjects to work on. Ex:>Gesture>Line Quality>Animals and humans in motion>Form>Perspective>Simple household objects, room interiors, cars, feet, weapons, etc. I've found what really helps is just drawing from life, taking the time to fill up several pages with lines and shapes, and copying what you think is cool. If you're not comfortable with certain fundamentals or mediums, take baby steps until you're comfortable to fail and properly learn from your mistakes. That's why I'm not touching painting/color until I really improve at values and light/shading. It's why I didn't touch forms for a while until I grinded out tons of shapes and lines.
>>8034243not true, there is no "fixing yourself," other people that i know are bigger assholes and more miserable than me do just fine, in fact they have gotten wins over me in the past and humiliated me. you and people like that are gonna get whats coming to you one of these days and youre not gonna like it when the shoe in on the other foot, and I'll make sure to add in a little "resentment" just for good measure when i do.
>>8034245>not true, there is no "fixing yourself,"Not with that attitude.>you and people like that are gonna get whats coming to you one of these days and youre not gonna like it when the shoe in on the other foot, and I'll make sure to add in a little "resentment" just for good measure when i do.Because I...told you you're wrong? Lol, ok. Bring it. I don't know what you think you're going to do to me or why, but go off I guess.
>>8034253i hope you kill yourself, i will manifest it for you tonight.
>>8034255I'm starting to see why you don't have friends
>>8034257if you think i would act like this irl im starting to see why you talk in platitudes and useless zingers. you have nothing going on in your head and cannot imagine someone having a hard time socializing, i became bitter because of the way i was treated you stupid fucking redditor.
>>8034258
>>8034268idk what thats supposed to mean but it doesnt change the fact that youre a stupid fucking redditor who should kill himself
[spoiler]>>8034084You can't change me mind on this stuff. It is based on years of observation, and reflection. Social relationships are only useful it you actually gain some profit from it. Relationships for the sake of relationships or a fear of missing out is a psyop. A true man has no obligations to anyone or anybody external to him. He does what he wants, if he wants a relationship then he acts upon that wish. If he doesn't want a relationship, he simply forget about it. He doesn't do shit because:1. he "should" do it according to an external entity2. everybody else does it3. fear of missing out (because everybody else does it)>What does love mean to you?Now what imagery came into your mind? I can guarantee you it's from the entertainment you consume. 99% of the stuff we feel as intrinsic actually came from either religion or entertainment. Being social = fulfilled? Says who? Your parents? Your Country? Your Religion? Some research?"Humans" are social creature. This generalization is my problem. Human beings are unique, some like to draw, some like to dance, some like to murder, etc. Similarly, some people simply like engaging with other people more than themselves. Some people like to live with themselves, just observing, taking information, reflecting upon it, etc. TLDR: You should do whatever you actually want to do. If you want to believe in a higher cause then do it. If you wanna ride the chaos, do it. If you wanna socialize do it. But don't do it because somebody else said you must or you are missing out if you don't. You only got 100 years on this earth, you gotta do your own experiments, create hypothesis, test them, improve them, replace them when new information is gained. There is no such thing as reinventing the wheel. If human beings are truly social, then you can come to that conclusion on your own, or you can arrive at a contradiction. It's your job to act on your own conclusion and see if it fits the future observations.
>>8034298well good for you
>>8034085Incorrect. The purpose of the shitty doodles is to put me in the mood to draw more during the day. It's not meant to be the entire drawing practice. It's an engine starter.
>>8033863Dedicated studio is KING. Go into debt if you have to.
>>8033863My secret special technique is to rage draw. I learned this from kim jung gi. It's me against the world and the pencil is my weapon.
>>8034352Did this for a bit and yeah it was amazing for productivity. But the only artist studios in these parts closed down and I live in a city where rents are fucking disgusting. Trying to make my normal living space work.>>8034352Rage is good fuel yeah, a lot of people draw outta spite or to prove something
>>8034355sorry anon that last one should've been a (you)
>>8034350must be nice being so malleable
There are only 2 options in life. Do it, or don't do it.
>>8034427“Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”― Henry Ford
>>8034427>force myself to do it>be miserable the whole way>remember that exact feeling when i think about forcing myself again
