Weekly Art Practice - Week 1

The way I titled this post implies that I’ll post one of these every week… I don’t think that’s feasible. I have most of the first week of January off so this week is already easier than every week which will follow this year. I think it’s more likely that I’ll try to summarise one or two weeks a month, or I’ll summarise a whole month of practice all at once. It will be difficult to find 15-30 minutes for art every day along with writing and blog management time.

But since I have the time now, I’ll detail how this first week of the Jacob Drawfee Schedule went for me.

Theme for week 1: Squirrels.

Day 1 - Drawing from imagination

Squirrels have been one of my obsessions since moving into my most recent apartment. We have a large back patio with an active squirrel highway (telephone line) that provides a lot of entertainment. I have collected a lot of photographs of squirrels hanging out and in the summer we put out water to help them stay hydrated so they come by more often.

I’ve been trying to draw squirrels for the last year but even with their small form I feel like there is always something lacking from my sketches. They felt like the perfect first theme, giving me a chance to finally troubleshoot what about the squirrel makes them difficult for me to draw. On Sunday I filled a page in my sketchbook with different squirrel attempts while sketching for 15 minutes.

Day 2 - Speed sketching

I prepared for day 2 in advance by preparing a Pinterest board of squirrel photographs as day 2 is basically quick figure drawing. Using references but mostly to grasp shapes and movement of the subject. It did take some time to collect images so I suspect this will be something I’m trying to rush through before every new week starts.

I set my timer to 15 minutes again. I probably spent too much time on the first page squirrels, somewhere in the 2-4 minute zone on each. This didn’t feel like enough so I did a 2nd page where I forced myself to move through them a little faster.

These felt pretty messy but it was interesting to see these squirrels next to my day 1 non-reference squirrels and see how much of a difference that makes already.

Day 3 - Reference Drawing

I switched to the iPad for day 3 because I knew I’d want the ability to draw over reference images. I find this extremely helpful when trying to really get the anatomy and proper shape down from a reference. I chose 4 photos to start with and didn’t give myself a time limit. The goal for the day was 15 minutes but I think I spent closer to 20 minutes on each one.

I was honestly very happy with the first study. I felt like I got the shapes right and captured a good squirrel face. 3 and 4 were tougher. In 3 I struggled to get the head right and 4 was so different from the other that I could barely get the proportion right. Hence breaking the image into sections and trying to figure it out from there. Overall I think I spent 2 hours from gathering the images to finalising the last one.

Day 4 - Style study

I was really excited for day 4 which is for study from other artists. This is to help identify how other artists simplify the harder parts of the subject and which parts they focus on. I know that this is one of my main weaknesses, I often feel trapped between trying to stick to the details of realism or going so simple I love the main features of a creature. Conveniently I already had a Pinterest board of squirrel art from last year. Downside, there isn’t as much cartoon squirrel art as I would like.

I chose a few and started to approach them in the same way I did the reference photos. Try to figure out the central shapes, especially the ones that persisted between different artists. The small very simplified squirrels probably ended up being the most helpful as they often came in large groups.

After sketching the reference images, I went and grabbed some more photos and then tried to draw the new photo while using the styles I was copying. This felt like a good stretch to try to apply the style I had been working from to something new instead of just trying to mimic the same image.

Day 5 - Drawing from imagination, take 2

Day 5 was scary for me, felt like a test day. This day is meant to be an application of what you’d learned from the past 3 days of drawing from references. I was scared that it would feel like day 1 and that I would be uncomfortable putting pencil to paper without a reference to look at.

In hopes of not getting afraid of the blank page I wrote down a few actions that a squirrel could be doing, jump, sleep, climb, run, sit. I looked back and my past few days of pages and then started drawing.

I was honestly rather surprised with the results. I felt like I finally had a good grasp of squirrel faces and proportions, even managed to try out multiple poses without references. Sure none of them were super dynamic but we’re trying one thing pre week. I’m mostly shocked at how much difference 3 days made:

Conclusion

I feel like this first week is proof that this is a viable practice approach! I am still afraid of being able to commit to it every week for a year. And lowering how much time I can spend on each day will probably make progress slower (I’m aiming for 15-30 minutes every day instead of the 1-2 hours I did this week). But now that I’m familiar with what’s needed each day I feel like that direction will be enough to carry me through most days.

Now to prepare for week 2: Pangolins.