Maybe Someday...

I hear this statement a lot: “I’m too busy to become a good artist.” Or, “I had to stop doing artwork when my children came along.” Life is very busy. As a result, many people either give up, or postpone their artistic development until retirement. Once retirement is reached, they may believe that its too late to become as good as they had hoped. I’ve seen this over and over again in workshops I've taught. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When I decided to get back into art, I was working almost full time while going to school for graphic design. Let me just say that graphic design is not the same as fine art. When it comes to fine art, I’m essentially self-taught. My graphic design training didn’t contribute much to my drawing and painting skills. However, during these very busy times I was still able to develop as a fine artist, and I did it through daily sketching; sketching from life that is. And it only took about 10-20 minutes a day. I would sketch anything from trees out my window to a fork on the table. And it worked! The truth is, it doesn’t matter WHAT you draw, just that you train your eye to see shapes and proportions and your hand to accurately replicate what your eye is seeing.

Staying in the Game

You can develop your artistic skills and maintain them even with a busy schedule. While it may not be as ideal as being a full-time student at an atelier, it will keep your eye and mind fresh so that when you have more time to dedicate to your art, you will be miles ahead of the person who totally leaves art behind. Trust me, as a father of five who has had to do many things over the years to make ends meet, this works. Here are some ideas from my own experience:

If working a full-time job, sketch on your lunch breaks:

• Sketch co-workers in the breakroom. You may want to ask them first, depending on how obvious it may be that you are drawing them. Co-workers don’t need to pose or sit still, just do gesture sketches of them as they converse with others. A great challenge!
• Sketch the interior or exterior architecture of your work building. I once worked in a really old building that had very interesting plumbing in the back room.
• Go to a local park and sketch trees or anything else you find.
• Sketch interesting buildings or street scenes. You can develop a more complex sketch of the same scene over several days.
• Sit in your car and sketch the top of your face in the rear-view mirror, or sketch the above ideas if it’s cold out.
• If in a rural area, find a farm and sketch the livestock. Just be sure to park in a safe place and you may want to introduce yourself to the owners of the property so they don’t become suspicious.
• Go to a local mall and sketch people or interiors. You may draw attention or even suspicion, but I’ve found that once people know what you are doing and why, they rarely mind and even become friendly and interested.
• Find a quiet room and work through a drawing program like the Bargue Drawing Course.

For busy parents and grandparents:

• If the baby likes to sleep on you, and you can move him or her slightly to your side, try setting up a little still life of baby toys, then lay the sketchbook partly on your lap and the armrest, and sketch the toys, or even your baby’s foot with your one free arm. Challenging I know, but I’ve done it.
• Take your sketchbook to your child’s baseball practice or game and sketch a tree, car, building or even the players when your child is not on the field.
• While you’re waiting for the casserole to bake, sketch a cup with interesting lighting on it, or try some silverware.
• Shut off the TV and sketch something instead.
• Do a 20-minute sketch of anything in the house or your spouse once the kids are in bed.
• Sketch your children sleeping.

Other ideas:

• Sketch shoes, silverware, chairs, interior rooms, trees, the scene out your window, sleeping pets, cars, the folds in clothing, plants etc.
• Do a series of sketches of the same object with different types of lighting. For example, take a pear and sketch it with mostly front lighting on day 1, mostly backlit on day 2, mostly top lighting day 3, etc.
• Sketch your left hand, (or right hand if you are left-handed).
• Sketch yourself in the mirror.
• Buy a small statue of ancient Greek sculpture and do numerous studies from different angles with different lighting.

Get Started

So get a sketchbook or sketchpad and some pencils and make a commitment to sketch for at least 10-20 minutes a day. The longer the better, but don’t get discouraged if you cannot do it more than 10 minutes, or if you have to skip a day or two. And don’t get discouraged by the results. The goal is NOT to produce masterpieces, but to stay in the game and exercise your powers of observation. The results will come. I did several years of atrocious sketches in pencil and watercolor before I started to see anything even half-way good. The victory is not in producing a great sketch, but in keeping up the discipline. If you do this, I promise that when you are able to give your art a more serious go, you will be miles ahead.

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