The Benefits of Daily Practicing, Introduction:

Each year I set a goal to draw more, and each year I get better and better at meeting this goal. Part of this goal is to spend at least fifteen minutes, six days a week, in free drawing. I also take my sketch book almost everywhere I go. I tend to fill one page in my sketch book in these 15 minutes. During this time, I practice drawing things I feel I need to improve, like spend 15 minutes drawing hands or whatever, doodling, playing with ideas that have been dancing around my head, or draw whatever comes to mind. The sketches above were drawn while I was waiting to board an airplane. To date, I have found the following benefits. 

• Helps you discover your personal style

• Improves drawing ability

• Increases creativity

• Improves quality of jobs or assignments I have taken on

• Generates ideas for personal projects

• Increases enjoyment of drawing and life

• Decreases stress

This is by no means an exhaustive list of the benefits to daily practice in any creative career. I am sure there are more. If you have any, send them my way. I would love to get other’s thoughts on this subject.

I will spend more time in future weeks going over each of these benefits in more detail.

Town Meeting Day

Every first Tuesday f the year we have Town Meeting day, where the residents of the Township of Lyndon Vermont can come to vote on budgets and other issues. I have come to love this day. I love seeing people involved in the government. I love hearing the discussions and the arguments. I love the sense of community. I love drawing the people present.

More from my sketch book

A few more sketches of people. This was while I was at Positive Pie in Montpelier, Vermont. It is a great Pizza Place.

My go to pencil it a 3H. The latest leads that I got are harder than they have been in the past. It feels more like a 4H. I am wondering if I got a mixed batch.

Meeting Sketches

I find great joy in sketching people in meetings. It is particularly rewarding when I get the lioness done well. Over the next year I am sure there will be more as I already have many meetings scheduled.

Vermont Sketches: More from Church Street

Here are more sketches of people from Church Street in Burlington.

Vermont Sketches: Church Street Burlington

Yesterday, I took my sketching class to Church Street in Burlington. This is an excellent place to sketch people. It was a beautiful day and I was so happy just sketching and watching people.

People Watching

This is a collections of quick sketches of people while on My trip to Italy and Greece this last February. I love drawing people and trying to capture them unaware. There is something so telling about who they are and what they are thinking. I also think this is one of the best exercises an illustrator or animator can do to get an understanding of how to draw the figure and bring it to life.