Bipolar Art Enthusiast | Warm-up & Studies

Artists are constantly posting their warm-up sketches on social media. These sketches could make a new artist begin to worry and think to themselves, "if that's a warm-up sketch, then I am a horrible artist." Interestingly, some artists also post old pieces redone many years later to show their progress. These then renew an artist's determination that with hard work they can also improve. Therefore, what you have is a bipolar like reaction to online art that goes from one extreme of "I'll never be that good" to the other "If I work hard I can do that too." Basically, I just described my own reaction to art online

I feel that this bipolar attitude towards art will end up killing any urge I have to do art. If I do not have time to do my own art, but am constantly surrounded by amazing art, then at some point I will get discouraged and give up. I feel that overcoming this worry and fear requires the following: (1) meditation to calm the fears; (2) daily warm-up and practice; and (3) studies of other artists

Meditation

To breathe and relax, in order to calm and focus the mind. Do not let fear and anxiety overwhelm you. In the end, we are our own worst enemies where it concerns motivation and perseverance.

Daily Practice

Malcolm Gladwell posits that 10,000 hours is required for skill mastery. Therefore, if you draw an hour a day you need 1000 days or ~3 years to become a master. However, we know that it's more than just practice as it should also involve learning.

Studies

It is important to continue to learn and perfect as we do our art. Therefore, we can learn by reading or even better practicing the art of the masters.

The drawing in this blog was the realization of the above principles. It is a study of Dibujante Nocturno "Dark Bat" (visit his website at https://dibujantenocturno.bigcartel.com/)

The drawing took about 3 hours to complete. On Sunday evening, it was sketched over the course of ~30 minutes. On Monday the head was inked in ~45 minutes, and then today the inking and coloring were finished after ~1.5 hours.

Much like working out or studying, practice is what makes perfect and hopefully practice and improvement will lessen the Bipolar attitude towards art, and instead turn it into appreciation ... or the identification of new studies and warm-ups to do.