The holidays take up a lot of time one way or another, and it’s easy to lose our creative drive as holiday demands drive us in 15 different directions. Speaking for myself, I need to get back into my drawing and was looking for a way to jump-start my drawing efforts again. I’m quite sure a variation of this will work just fine with writing as well.
I wanted to make it fun, something I wanted to do, AND relatively painless. So I gave myself a challenge. I gathered up all my calendars from 2008 and a couple for 2009 I’d been mailed as fundraisers and stacked them on my drawing desk. My challenge is to draw one animal – yes, all my calendars are animals – every day AT my drawing desk. That’s an important part.
My drawing desk is in the room with all my art supplies, so if I’m feeling I might not do justice to a wolf in pen and ink, I can always grab my pastels. That’s the obvious. The secondary gain is that once I’m at my drawing desk, where my other current projects lie, it makes it much easier for me to park my butt there and settle into some of the more time-consuming projects I have to do.
I’m no stranger to procrastination, so while I may be wanting to pace the room awhile before settling down to work on some serious illustrations, or finding the opportune time to clear out and dust an entire bookcase shelf by shelf, I’ll already be sitting there in work mode. Tricky, eh?
That’s my plan anyway. Maybe it’ll work for you, too! My own challenge is on, and here’s my first sketch.
Still A Dreamer 