Who else exercises daily? Whether it is physical or mental exercise, some form of daily practice is essential to perfect a skill- any skill. And it is the same with art.
And so I thought I'd share with you some of my daily exercises.
Since majority of my art is figurative, I like exercises that train the eye to observe human shapes. And the easiest access to a human shape that can be altered as and when necessary, is to draw your own hand. Now I know, anyone who has ever been to an art class has heard this, but here are few challenges I add to that to make the brain "sweat".
1. Use a 1 and 5 minute timer!
For this first exercise, I set myself five minute timer, with an alarm going off after the first minute. During the first minute I try to get in the general composition, the size and shape of the hand. Now this can sound a little crazy, but this exercise is designed to get to the point without worrying about unnecessary details, which quite frankly sometimes I’m guilty off. Then I use the remaining four minutes to add in a little bit more detail, some shades, lines, highlights. Suddenly, after putting so much energy into the first minute, these remaining four seem like a very long time. But, rather than slowing down, I continue working fast and so that way I am able to get in pretty much everything I want
and even have spare time to wonder what I missed.
2. Draw with the other hand
Drawing the same subject pretty much every day can get a bit boring as you can imagine. But the good thing about hands is that not only they can be rotated and shaped in different ways, but also that we have two of them. And so every now and then when I no longer find it challenging to make weird “claws”, I attempt to draw with my left hand. I can assure you it did look quite funny the first few times I tried this. But now… it is hilarious.
3. Draw your hand from a mirror
This is something new I tried just recently after going through some of my art books (thank you quarantine). And I must admit, it is one of the craziest things my brain has ever had to comprehend. I have done self-portraits from mirror before of course, but that is very different. Face is something we all look at in the mirror. A hand however, we look at directly. And so suddenly all the lines and shapes felt wrong, and out of place. It was as if my brain was trying to flip the image the other way round. How very strange that the mere reversal of something so familiar makes the brain stop and question our actions. An exercise definitely worth doing again.
For me one of the most important things is to keep challenging myself. If it becomes too easy, it is time to move forward, and these are some of my recent attempts to try and “spice up” my daily drawing exercises. I’d love to hear what you think of them, how they worked out for you if you tried them, or if you have any other suggestions for a drawing practice, I’d be very happy to give it a try as well.
Until next time...