Artist insight
Henry Wong presents a range of tips to help you stay consistent and motivated when it comes to studying and drawing every day
Doing art studies and sketches while trying to explore and learn new techniques on a daily basis can be extremely daunting for some people.
You can so often find yourself frozen in front of a blank canvas, not knowing where to start, or you find yourself unable to finish a painting forever while attempting to achieve your perceived idea of perfection. It could also be a simpler problem, where you’re just having difficulty finding time to do personal art, or to improve yourself.
I’m here to help troubleshoot your brain with helpful ideas I’ve picked up along the way, so you can overcome these barriers. I’ve found these tips incredibly useful all these years later, and they have helped me out in other facets in life, including my professional work.
1 SET ASIDE TIME DEDICATED TO PRACTICE
It’s important to identify when you can start and how long you can dedicate to learning each day or week. You don’t particularly require a lot of time, just anywhere between 30 to 90 minutes a day is all you really need, which could go before or after work or school. Another aspect is that you should time your studies and sketches and not go over the limit you set for yourself. You can always come back to the image if you feel there is something worth exploring, or if you’re close to a breakthrough in ideas.
2 CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Making sure you clock in your daily and weekly hours is most important. What you’re trying to do is create a positive habit in your daily schedule that you dedicate to self-learning. If you miss too many days in a row, it often breaks your learning momentum and makes it exponentially harder to return to the schedule you set for yourself. Find that time of day and stick to that allocated amount of time.
