Learning to See

Inspiration and practical advice for aspiring realist artists

  • Home
  • About
  • The Keys to Colour
  • Learn with me
  • My Work
  • Contact me

Five Reasons You Should Accept My Daily Drawing Challenge

October 2, 2013 By: Paul9 Comments

“Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired.” – Martha Graham, dancer and choreographer.

There’s something about sharing a struggle that makes it easier.

There’s something about sharing a struggle that unites people, too.

And if you’re anything like me, you will have days when it’s a struggle to keep your practice going.

There are days when it seems like you flow along and nothing can go wrong (although not so many of those in my experience). Then there are days where it feels like you’re wading through treacle, and every inch of forward progress must be paid for in frustration, doubt and sweat.

I have a lot more of those.

I do find though, that sharing the daily struggle with a group of like minded people can make the world of difference on those ‘wading through treacle’ days. It can make the difference between keeping going and letting it slide.

Why Sharing Your Practice Helps

  1. It keeps you accountable. If you’ve committed publicly to a bunch of people that you’re going to draw every day – and more, to show what you’ve done – it can be just the kick you need to finally get your sketchpad out and draw something.
  2. It keeps you inspired. It’s much easier to practice when you’re feeling inspired. But inspiration is fickle, too inclined to abandon us if we don’t feed it regularly. Sometimes seeing someone pushing ahead with something can be just what you need to light your fire.
  3. It gives you ideas. None of us can create in a vacuum. Seeing what other people are working on can be a great way to keep our ideas fresh and moving forwards. It can give us ideas for simple exericses that we can do that will help us keep moving forwards.
  4. It keeps you motivated. Seeing that other people find this thing difficult too can help us get over the negative feelings that can result when we miss a few days. Too often, we end up feeling like it’s some personal problem we have. We’re lazy. We’re just not committed enough. Seeing that other people share the same feelings helps you to see that it’s not just you.

So I’ve come up with an idea, a way to share our struggle – and to share our inspiration.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing my daily practice. Every day, I’ve been taking pictures of my daily practice drawings and sticking them up on Google Plus. Often they’re not that great. But they’re evidence that I’ve made the effort to sit down and practice every day.

It’s been working pretty well, but if I’m going to stick at it, I need your help. I need you to join me.

So here’s my challenge to you:

I want you to commit to drawing something every day for the next two weeks. That’s all, just the next 14 days.

For two weeks, every day, draw something. Then take a picture of it. Then show it.

Here’s how:

I’ve just set up a regular practice community on Google plus. It’s free to join. All you have to do is click on this link and join up:

Daily Art Practice Community

And I’ve got something a bit special to encourage you..

I said there were five reasons, but I’ve only listed four so far. So here’s the fifth one:

At the end of the two weeks, on the 15th of October, I’m going to give away two free memberships – for life – to Creative Triggers, the core skills art practice community I run. We have almost 200 members on Creative Triggers now, and many of them are posting their practice daily on the forum.

That’s how I know this sharing thing works, that’s how I know it keeps you motivated and striving towards your artistic goals.

At the end of the two weeks, I’m going to pick two winners, people who have posted every day – or nearly every day – and have helped encourage other people to do the same by commenting on their posts too.

All you have to do is show up once a day, every day for two weeks, and help your fellow artists.

I think you can do it.

Actually, I’m sure you can. Here’s the link again:

Daily Art Practice Community

Best wishes,

Paul

Posted: October 2nd 2013

Free Value Tutorials

Subscribe: Join over 10,000 other artists and get free updates. I'll also email you THREE FREE value tutorials that will help you bring your pictures to life.

Thanks! Now check your email. Your first value exercise is on its way.

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please try again.

Powered by ConvertKit

About Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you along on
yours.

Comments

  1. 1

    Kleckerlabor says

    October 2, 2013 at 1:00 pm

    Nice idea, iam in

    Reply
  2. 2

    Jim Heiney says

    October 2, 2013 at 4:50 pm

    Count me in. Off to sign up!

    Reply
  3. 3

    Paul says

    October 2, 2013 at 8:06 pm

    Great! Thanks for signing up 🙂

    Reply
  4. 4

    Charity Munoz says

    October 2, 2013 at 9:36 pm

    Signed up! Now for that drawing part . . .

    Reply
  5. 5

    Paul says

    October 3, 2013 at 9:22 am

    Well done Charity! Looking forward to seeing you in the group 🙂

    BTW I know I owe you an email and will get to it soon – life has been a little busy lately!

    Reply
  6. 6

    Shay says

    October 3, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    Only one drawing? Heh.

    The difficult part is scanning and posting.

    Reply
  7. 7

    Paul says

    October 3, 2013 at 10:35 pm

    That’s a fair point, Shay. I guess I’ve got used to it I’ve been doing it for so long.

    But there are quick ways to do it. If you’ve got a smartphone, you can snap them with that and upload straight to G+, or to instagram if you want to process them first.

    There’s no requirement for quality of photo 🙂

    Reply
  8. 8

    Vinicius says

    October 3, 2013 at 11:11 pm

    Hey, Paul.
    I only saw this today! I’ve just joined the community and I’ll try to post everyday anyway, but do you think I still have chance to be one of the winners of the membership? Hehehe.

    Thanks for all the help and motivation!

    Reply
  9. 9

    Paul says

    October 4, 2013 at 9:13 am

    You certainly do! It’s quality, not quantity that counts – and by that I mean involvement in the community that supports other members, not perfect copies of Bargue drawings 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Affordable monthly online workshops

Learn the Fundamentals of Painting in a Community that will Help You Grow

One month free trial

Find out more

Hi, I’m Paul

I'm a (mostly) self-taught artist. I paint realism in oils, mostly still life. I share my work, my evolving process and what knowledge I've gained on my own learning journey here, in the hope that it might help you on yours.
Read More…

paul foxton logo