How to Everyday

Progress is hard to see when you're taking small steps towards a goal, but keep at it everyday and practice to see how much you'll improve

Hey! It's me Phi

Continuing on from last week's post of 2 Years of Sketches in 3 Minutes, I wanted to share a few thoughts for those of you who want or are thinking about trying something like this to get better at drawing.

TLDR; don’t think and JUST DRAW!

This boils down to tiny habit building. Taking tiny steps. Making progress over perfection. Improving 1% each day to be better. There's tons of books about it and actionable things you can do to implement this into your life. What I did was no different, but there were a few unexpected outcomes.

Identifying the issue

I've been keeping sketchbooks for awhile, and I would doodle here and there. However, filling sketchbooks, cover to cover, has always been the challenge that held me back. I suspect this is mainly because of two things...

Confidence - when I would sketch I'd be too critical and judgmental of the things I put down on paper. My sketchbook was made of pristine, precious, perfectly white… and I felt a need to live up to those same expectation. I was afraid to fail.

one of many fails

Habit - doing it everyday was not in my life. I would wait for that perfect subject matter, that spark of inspiration, or that perfect time when I sit down and draw. But it never came. I made excuses to not sit down and do the work, so naturally I only dabbled, and sketched here and there.

How to draw everyday? Here's the secret sauce…

JUST DRAW! without judgement, expectations, or too much thinking. Draw because you want to, and don’t think too much about it. Just start, use what you have (even if its Silly scents markers), and just draw! Once you feel the habit start building, then you can start adding more deliberate practice into your routine, and things you want to improve on.

Other tips

• Make it first - Start somewhere familiar. Find a time where you can build off of an existing habit. Think of something you already do everyday and tell yourself... right after I do this habit, I'll open my sketchbook. For example, after I sit down for coffee, I will sketch for the day.

  

• Start small - sit down and sketch for 2 minutes. It can be a napkin sketch of an idea, or just practicing drawing ellipses. Once you get going, you'll be surprised at how 2 minutes can turn into 2 hrs. You’ll want to draw for longer.

  

  literally tiny sketches

• Learn and fail often - Having a deliberate thing you want to learn or get better at helps. For example... drawing hands! or learning perspective! or just putting pen to paper! This way you don't have to think about what to draw, because what you're doing is more studying than trying to impress with a beautiful sketch. You’ll fail but that’s what you’re here for, and that’s how you’ll learn and get better.

  

  my quest to learn the Pentel Brush Pen

• Carry EVERYWHERE - bring your sketchbook like its your phone. Better yet, replace your camera phone with your sketchbook. Instead of taking a picture, try sketching it instead. Sure you might not use it, but when you do have the itch to sketch you’ll be ready and it’ll be right there waiting for you.

  

  even when you’re out for a beer

• My BuJo IS my sketchbook - I don't keep 2 separate books for this. It all lives in the same place, to make things more simple. This has also bee helpful with not making my sketchbook this precious thing. I write my todo’s next to my sketches next to my appointments next to my notes.

  

  Rainwater meeting got sidetracked with camper sketches

• Show Your Work! - I truly believe this… and learned it from Austin Kleon ‘s book with the same title. So many good gems and a book I re-read often. There is also something about posting that gives you a little more flame under your ass to keep up the habit. You have accountability, and hopefully motivation to keep it up. The danger here is to not think too much about it when you post it… no expectations for likes, exposure, or comments. Just post to share!

  

  credit photo via austinkleon.com

• Replace scrolling with sketching - for when you do show your work, often times its easy to get side tracked into the doom scroll. The moment I realize my thumb is doing that, I try to shut it off. Even better, it can be a punishment to draw more e.g. every time I doom scroll… I will sketch for the same amount of time I was scrolling. Just imagine how many hours you’d be drawing instead of looking at your phone :)

  

  #inktober for 4 years = 4 months of drawing everyday for 5 min

What I didn't expect

At the end of this exercise experiment, I would find myself leaving Instagram, and other social media platforms. I stopped posting. Why? I think I lost what it means for me to sketch. I wasn’t following my tips I wrote above. I was sketching to post, to chase likes, and to get some positive reinforcements. Sketching everyday felt like a chore. I started to not like the act of doing it everyday because it was for social media rather than sketching for myself… and this didn't feel that great to me. Despite all of the positive things and value I was getting out of the platform, the desire to sketch for myself outweighed its benefits.

So what’s next?! Well… Substack of course. This is also another experiment, and I'm not sure where this platform will take me. And ofc it’s a social platform, so there's that to come to terms with. I'm still try to sketch everyday and practice to get better BUT this time on here I post when I want to share, and don't when I want to keep it to myself. This time it’s on my own terms and that feels good!

But remember...

We create things because we enjoy the process. So do it for yourself, and try not to lose your why. That is... why you want to do this in the first place.

It's not about posting, stats, likes, analytics, or algorithms. It's easy to get caught up in all this stuff these days. And it's HARD to do something everyday with all the life things, distractions, and limited time we have. Consistency is important. Even more important than quality and quantity in some cases. We all strive for quality of course, but sometimes our skill just isn't there yet… and that’s OK. It requires ALOT of practice, consistent practice, everyday. Some days you will be sucky, and you might not be feeling like sketching, or be too judgmental about your effort, or feel like you’re not improving or making progress. That will be normal. On those days… my wife and I always say... you guessed it… do it sucky. It’s better than not doing it at all.

doing it sucky… eyes closed

I believe anything worth doing is going to be hard, and practicing everyday will yield the progress we all look for to get better.