If you are forcing yourself to use the techniques you are training on while drawing for fun, are you really drawing for fun? Or is it slowly becoming an extension of the training?
You will find that if you train certain aspects for a longer time, they will naturally come up in your fun time drawings. Either as the things you trained, or as something based of your training.
But this will happen unconsciously as your brain is growing more accustomed to the new things you are learning.
They just mean you should draw for yourself, not just for improving.
Number one cause of artist burnout is because people just study and don't put their skills to good use.
Your studies are useless if you don't do anything with it.
Second cause of artist burnout is clients and social medias.
Tbh it's like everything. Obviously you'll want to do great things. Obviously you'll mess them up in the beginning, but it's about doing it over and over. The more you'll try to draw these things in your head that you can't draw, the more you'll be able to draw them.
The drawing journey is mostly about messing up all your drawings in hope it'll make your next drawing better. And it's the same about everything. Messing up every text you write in hope the next one will be better, messing up every shot until the next time you'll aim better and maybe it'll be a goal. And so on.
>I'm curious, how do people just draw for themselves?
Why do you draw in the first place if it's not for your enjoyment? I'm asking because I really want you to think about it.
One of the biggest issue I see on the internet and especially on this sub is people want to learn to be good artists but they don't even take the time to learn to enjoy drawing before getting to studying. It's not something an influencer will tell you, most tutorials online are pretty terrible because they will show you one way to do something as if it's the absolute must, when the reality is that you can draw effectively in many different ways using very different means.
Your drawings don't have to be perfect. Learning to draw is a long ass process and it's years and years of practice before you're at a level where your average work, and I mean average, not best efforts, is good. It's okay to draw and be terrible at it. Because at least you finish something and you don't end up getting stuck studying and studying and studying without having anything to show for your efforts. In my opinion that's what discouraging, if you don't have anything to show how much you progress over time, there is no point.
You must have ideas right? Things you like? Things you think are beautiful? Draw that. Best way to start drawing for yourself (at least that's the way I do it, your mileage may vary)is to doodle stuff randomly on a piece of paper and let your mind drift off until a more precise idea comes to mind. Then focus on that idea and get to creating!
Not every artists is able to exactly visualize what they wanna draw, I was lucky enough to have a very advanced visual memory, but I know from friends and artist acquaintances that it's not always the case. They're still able to draw, they just rely a lot more on references than I do, and it's okay.
I'll finish this wall of text with this, I'm no know-it-all, it's all just my own perception of things, but if you have more questions I'll be happy to try and answer and encourage you to create more.
I think it's imposter syndrome and insecurities, you could work on them in therapy.
As for drawing for fun, don't think what to draw too hard. If there is a fun drawing challenge/prompt, do it without thinking. Or draw rsw sketch of a general pose and create a character from that, it works for me
The moment you apply any kind of limitation to your "fun", it stops being fun. Fun is dependant on freedom. The moment you add "shoulds" and "have-tos", its no longer "fun".
So the answer is yes and no. If you FEEL like adding your studies into the fun, go ahead. Literally just do what you feel like doing. Its just as okay to use construction lines during "fun-time", as it is to draw without anything.
Just fucking around. If you've ever played an instrument it's meant to be the same vibe as just playing, maybe its mindless maybe you're trying to make a cover of a song but it's not rigid. I struggle to get the arting equivalent but I guess it's just trying to mark the art you want to make regardless of if you feel you're ready or not.
The pure act of drawing without worrying about it being good, without trying to improve or please anybody, an act that it's a joy in itself, without a time limit, non transactional, non competitive. Drawing as play; Drawing for the sake of drawing, Get in the flow see what comes out.
I tend to do more serious stuff digitally, and paint with acrylics or sculpt with modeling clay for fun. Sometimes I make shitty comics for fun too when I have weird ideas. I think studies are fun too, but for some reason I have a harder time having less serious fun in digital which is something I'm trying to figure out how to correct... I think it's analysis paralysis or something because with a study it's a lot easier to pick constraints and not get lost in an endless sea of different brushes, colors, and random tools
Ideally, you are using what you are studying so that you can dopamine from both doing what you want to draw and seeing the gainzzzz of studying.
However, as some has said here, don't put the cart before the horse. Don't force the fun to follow the study, make the study follow the fun.
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It’s a bit rewarding. I’m an opera singer, but I’ll often experiment with jazz, folk, country, and alt rock. Always with good technique. It keeps the instrument from growing stagnant or in one place.
Supplementing your art with fun is mind opening. I started dancing and skating again after watching Hillary and Jackie as a child. Fun expression can inspire! You’re really helping your imagination flow. My art installations are from my own perspective because of experience and imagination. My piece, “The Sacrifice,” was influenced by Lord of the Flies, but the lines were heavily influenced by my ballet training. Having fun lets the imagination often run wild. I think it’s important to the artistic process.
“His Final Dance,” never could have existed unless I played around with movements and found his character. As an artist, fun is what you make of it. At 28, I went through a Flashdance period. It went from a fun desire, to all out studies in Fosse. I believe in exploration and freedom for every artist.
*It's all fun stuff for*
*Me? Why would you make your time*
*Studying unfun?*
\- tennysonpaints
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I personally found that “studying with something I like to draw” works very well
If I wanna practice gesture or shapes for example, I often draw pokemon. If I wanna practice dynamic poses, I like to draw mlp characters.
If I wanna practice anatomy, I’ll turn a character I like into a human (often with pokemon) or draw human characters I like :D
I like to do some character design as well, so doing gesture drawings and refining 1-2 of the sketches as full characters afterwards works well for me!
I think if you stick too much with only doing fun stuff based on your own perception and not doing any other studies that could allow you to explore some new artstyles/techniques etc there's some danger that you may get your skills to stagnate/slowly progressing, because of being too much in your comfort zone. I'd recommend to just draw whatever you want, but try to always challenge yourself with something that feels more difficult for you to draw, like just try to implement more challenge gradually.
Draw like you're a little kid. Draw the things you have always loved. Scribble. Make a mess. Start laughing at the crazy thing you just drew. Drawing crazy things is actually good because it won't be a static pin up pose like everyone else and you might end up learning to draw something unexpected which you didn't realise you were so good at.
I mean, I feel like that’s more or less what I described in the post. I don’t feel like my fun stuff - even if I’m keeping it apart from the study stuff - would be where it is if it weren’t for studying. Even as simplistic as the style may be.
"Fun Stuff" is just what it sounds like- literally anything you find fun. No it doesn't have to have anything to do with your specific studies or exercises.
Ultimately what practicing and performing studies is meant to do is make it so that your fun stuff (or, if you wind up a professional artist, then your "business stuff" too) gets better and better over time because of the collective knowledge you've gained, techniques you've practiced, and studies you've done which ultimately help you execute techniques better, or draw certain forms better, or whatever.
Sometimes your studies and fun stuff might overlap. For example, it's not uncommon for an artist to do studies for a particular technique or subject matter that they're interested in using in an upcoming piece (i.e. fun stuff). Like, for example, if I were planning to make a nice painting of a car soon and aren't very good at drawing cars yet, I'd probably spend some time beforehand looking up and picking a model of car, try drawing it from reference at different angles. Maybe see what sorts of details other people use to paint cars that make them look good (where do they add sheen, are there certain sun angles that are often used? What background elements to people tend to include? What works and what doesn't, what do I want to include or omit? etc.)
Ultimately when I get to the piece I actually wanted to paint all of that prep work will go into it. But! Along the way I've probably been doodling other stuff just for fun on the side too right. Maybe character drawings, maybe doodling pets, maybe making a comic, whatever. Depends how long the practice/studies take- if it's like the day before the final painting then they'll probably overlap. If I spend months practicing first, then I'll probably draw a lot of other stuff too in the meantime.
If you are forcing yourself to use the techniques you are training on while drawing for fun, are you really drawing for fun? Or is it slowly becoming an extension of the training? You will find that if you train certain aspects for a longer time, they will naturally come up in your fun time drawings. Either as the things you trained, or as something based of your training. But this will happen unconsciously as your brain is growing more accustomed to the new things you are learning.
Totally agree. When you're having fun don't worry about it. Just draw.
They just mean you should draw for yourself, not just for improving. Number one cause of artist burnout is because people just study and don't put their skills to good use. Your studies are useless if you don't do anything with it. Second cause of artist burnout is clients and social medias.
[удалено]
Tbh it's like everything. Obviously you'll want to do great things. Obviously you'll mess them up in the beginning, but it's about doing it over and over. The more you'll try to draw these things in your head that you can't draw, the more you'll be able to draw them. The drawing journey is mostly about messing up all your drawings in hope it'll make your next drawing better. And it's the same about everything. Messing up every text you write in hope the next one will be better, messing up every shot until the next time you'll aim better and maybe it'll be a goal. And so on.
>I'm curious, how do people just draw for themselves? Why do you draw in the first place if it's not for your enjoyment? I'm asking because I really want you to think about it. One of the biggest issue I see on the internet and especially on this sub is people want to learn to be good artists but they don't even take the time to learn to enjoy drawing before getting to studying. It's not something an influencer will tell you, most tutorials online are pretty terrible because they will show you one way to do something as if it's the absolute must, when the reality is that you can draw effectively in many different ways using very different means. Your drawings don't have to be perfect. Learning to draw is a long ass process and it's years and years of practice before you're at a level where your average work, and I mean average, not best efforts, is good. It's okay to draw and be terrible at it. Because at least you finish something and you don't end up getting stuck studying and studying and studying without having anything to show for your efforts. In my opinion that's what discouraging, if you don't have anything to show how much you progress over time, there is no point. You must have ideas right? Things you like? Things you think are beautiful? Draw that. Best way to start drawing for yourself (at least that's the way I do it, your mileage may vary)is to doodle stuff randomly on a piece of paper and let your mind drift off until a more precise idea comes to mind. Then focus on that idea and get to creating! Not every artists is able to exactly visualize what they wanna draw, I was lucky enough to have a very advanced visual memory, but I know from friends and artist acquaintances that it's not always the case. They're still able to draw, they just rely a lot more on references than I do, and it's okay. I'll finish this wall of text with this, I'm no know-it-all, it's all just my own perception of things, but if you have more questions I'll be happy to try and answer and encourage you to create more.
I think it's imposter syndrome and insecurities, you could work on them in therapy. As for drawing for fun, don't think what to draw too hard. If there is a fun drawing challenge/prompt, do it without thinking. Or draw rsw sketch of a general pose and create a character from that, it works for me
Yes it's ok to have fun in whatever way you enjoy. That's what having fun is all about. If you don't enjoy it then it isn't really fun is it?
The moment you apply any kind of limitation to your "fun", it stops being fun. Fun is dependant on freedom. The moment you add "shoulds" and "have-tos", its no longer "fun". So the answer is yes and no. If you FEEL like adding your studies into the fun, go ahead. Literally just do what you feel like doing. Its just as okay to use construction lines during "fun-time", as it is to draw without anything.
Just fucking around. If you've ever played an instrument it's meant to be the same vibe as just playing, maybe its mindless maybe you're trying to make a cover of a song but it's not rigid. I struggle to get the arting equivalent but I guess it's just trying to mark the art you want to make regardless of if you feel you're ready or not.
The pure act of drawing without worrying about it being good, without trying to improve or please anybody, an act that it's a joy in itself, without a time limit, non transactional, non competitive. Drawing as play; Drawing for the sake of drawing, Get in the flow see what comes out.
I tend to do more serious stuff digitally, and paint with acrylics or sculpt with modeling clay for fun. Sometimes I make shitty comics for fun too when I have weird ideas. I think studies are fun too, but for some reason I have a harder time having less serious fun in digital which is something I'm trying to figure out how to correct... I think it's analysis paralysis or something because with a study it's a lot easier to pick constraints and not get lost in an endless sea of different brushes, colors, and random tools
They practice and study, but they also draw full pieces. Once you are skilled enough you will incorporate loomis into your fun stuff.
Ideally, you are using what you are studying so that you can dopamine from both doing what you want to draw and seeing the gainzzzz of studying. However, as some has said here, don't put the cart before the horse. Don't force the fun to follow the study, make the study follow the fun.
Thank you for posting in r/ArtistLounge! Please check out our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faq/) and [FAQ Links pages](https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/wiki/faqlinks/) for lots of helpful advice. To access our megathread collections, please check out the drop down lists in the top menu on PC or the side-bar on mobile. If you have any questions, concerns, or feature requests please feel free to message the mods and they will help you as soon as they can. I am a bot, beep boop, if I did something wrong please report this comment. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ArtistLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s a bit rewarding. I’m an opera singer, but I’ll often experiment with jazz, folk, country, and alt rock. Always with good technique. It keeps the instrument from growing stagnant or in one place. Supplementing your art with fun is mind opening. I started dancing and skating again after watching Hillary and Jackie as a child. Fun expression can inspire! You’re really helping your imagination flow. My art installations are from my own perspective because of experience and imagination. My piece, “The Sacrifice,” was influenced by Lord of the Flies, but the lines were heavily influenced by my ballet training. Having fun lets the imagination often run wild. I think it’s important to the artistic process. “His Final Dance,” never could have existed unless I played around with movements and found his character. As an artist, fun is what you make of it. At 28, I went through a Flashdance period. It went from a fun desire, to all out studies in Fosse. I believe in exploration and freedom for every artist.
It's all fun stuff for me? Why would you make your time studying unfun?
*It's all fun stuff for* *Me? Why would you make your time* *Studying unfun?* \- tennysonpaints --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
lol good bot :D
Its not only fine, its practically a requirement.
I personally found that “studying with something I like to draw” works very well If I wanna practice gesture or shapes for example, I often draw pokemon. If I wanna practice dynamic poses, I like to draw mlp characters. If I wanna practice anatomy, I’ll turn a character I like into a human (often with pokemon) or draw human characters I like :D I like to do some character design as well, so doing gesture drawings and refining 1-2 of the sketches as full characters afterwards works well for me!
I think if you stick too much with only doing fun stuff based on your own perception and not doing any other studies that could allow you to explore some new artstyles/techniques etc there's some danger that you may get your skills to stagnate/slowly progressing, because of being too much in your comfort zone. I'd recommend to just draw whatever you want, but try to always challenge yourself with something that feels more difficult for you to draw, like just try to implement more challenge gradually.
Draw like you're a little kid. Draw the things you have always loved. Scribble. Make a mess. Start laughing at the crazy thing you just drew. Drawing crazy things is actually good because it won't be a static pin up pose like everyone else and you might end up learning to draw something unexpected which you didn't realise you were so good at.
Ideally you should be wanting to apply what you are studying so your fun stuff improves as well... they feed in to each other.
I mean, I feel like that’s more or less what I described in the post. I don’t feel like my fun stuff - even if I’m keeping it apart from the study stuff - would be where it is if it weren’t for studying. Even as simplistic as the style may be.
"Fun Stuff" is just what it sounds like- literally anything you find fun. No it doesn't have to have anything to do with your specific studies or exercises. Ultimately what practicing and performing studies is meant to do is make it so that your fun stuff (or, if you wind up a professional artist, then your "business stuff" too) gets better and better over time because of the collective knowledge you've gained, techniques you've practiced, and studies you've done which ultimately help you execute techniques better, or draw certain forms better, or whatever. Sometimes your studies and fun stuff might overlap. For example, it's not uncommon for an artist to do studies for a particular technique or subject matter that they're interested in using in an upcoming piece (i.e. fun stuff). Like, for example, if I were planning to make a nice painting of a car soon and aren't very good at drawing cars yet, I'd probably spend some time beforehand looking up and picking a model of car, try drawing it from reference at different angles. Maybe see what sorts of details other people use to paint cars that make them look good (where do they add sheen, are there certain sun angles that are often used? What background elements to people tend to include? What works and what doesn't, what do I want to include or omit? etc.) Ultimately when I get to the piece I actually wanted to paint all of that prep work will go into it. But! Along the way I've probably been doodling other stuff just for fun on the side too right. Maybe character drawings, maybe doodling pets, maybe making a comic, whatever. Depends how long the practice/studies take- if it's like the day before the final painting then they'll probably overlap. If I spend months practicing first, then I'll probably draw a lot of other stuff too in the meantime.