For reasons I simply don't understand - maybe the headline wasn't good or inbox algorithms interpreted "suck" as a salacious swearword - this post has done worse than literally anything else I've written, even when my subscriber list was half the size. Which is a shame, because when it comes to self-improvement, this is the topic I know and care the most about. I put weeks of work into this post. I carefully read a bunch of scientific papers about why adults struggle with drawing (which takes a long time!) and spent ages trying to synthesise some complicated neuropsychology into something approachable and even entertaining for laypeople. Result: lead balloon. I should have learned to expect this sort of thing by now, it always seems to happen to the pieces you're most passionate about or have invested the most time in, but I've never quite learned to handle the crush of disappointment.
That said I'm stoked with everyone who's commented so far. It's hugely appreciated, as always. But there’s another way you can help out. I’ve set this Substack up to be freely accessible forever (at what is currently a considerable financial disadvantage) so the best way you can pay me - if you’ve found my writing in any way helpful - is to share it. Copy the link and put it somewhere you are on social media or the internet. It’s easily the best thing you can do for this newsletter, and it keeps me going.
Oh totally! People have busy lives - we are in the throes of a toilet training day at this very moment, I have grabbed my laptop to smash out a comment while a toddler is badgering me with a remote control and a request to watch "diggers and trucks" which could describe any one of dozens of kids shows - so I completely get it. We are all awash in content and demands for our time, some much more important than others, and I'm still incredibly grateful for anyone who does apply a bit of their highly limited attention to the stuff I write. This is just me shouting into the wind about the effort:reward ratio: it really does seem that the stuff I just smash out does the best whereas the things I labour over have a much harder time getting traction.
This is really fascinating! I started learning to draw a few years ago, having spent most of a lifetime completely disinterested in art. I came across an artist who goes by Peter Draws on YouTube and used his videos as a kicking off point - his art style is very fun and whimsical, and he has a few videos on how to doodle, which isn't something I'd ever understood before. Following his art style allowed me to do away with the concept of mistakes, because everything was just a feature of the drawing. Highly recommend for shaking the inner critic. I also drew solely in pen, for the same reason - you can't be a perfectionist if you can't erase and redraw everything a million times!
I haven't done much drawing for the past couple of years - I'm a real hobby-jumper and I got more into other things. But your article's captured my interest again so maybe I'll give it another go!
I think this is exactly what I needed today. Like most I used to LOVE art, mum sometimes digs up old school projects and I’m like “damn where did that spark go?”
I’m very guilty of the “if I’m not immediately perfect at something I’m not doing it” but I think this can be my self improvement starting point.
I have no idea if it’s related to my ‘spark’ going away, but having gone to uni for graphic design I was aware the whole time that I was losing ~something~ but had no idea what. Here’s to art!
One of the nice things about drawing practice - especially the kind of very intentional drawing practice I'm advocating here - is that it can be really good for getting more perfect at being less perfectionistic. You're doing something that you can't fail at, that's good for it's own sake, but that also massively helps your drawing skills. Perfect exercise for perfectionists IMO.
Bloody loved this! As an advertising art director, a lot of my job involves sketching out ideas to explain to clients and my inner critic had an absolute field day every single time. Time to go back to some of these old exercises I guess 😉
The more art I do the more I appreciate exercises like this. I'm very much not good at doing regular intentional practice, whether it's art or meditation or anything in between, but when I do manage to get a bit of blind contour drawing or something similar done I see the benefits immediately.
I’m late in answering as life chaotic at the moment and keeping me out of my studio. Blind drawing is great at training the brain to relax and reduce or stop the noise of the inner critic. The other great lesson that I’ve learned is to keep going with a drawing/painting when the critic states this sucks. For me I now know when I get to a point in a painting where I’m thinking this bloody thing is getting thrown off the deck I’m about to make a break through. I have a number of unfinished works but never felt the anger of wanting to destroy them. It’s that feeling that drives me forward. I am my own worst critic like most artists. People say that they really love something that is moulding in a corner and for the life of me I can’t see what they see but the critic doesn’t tell me that I can’t draw. It wasn’t always my critic, but a critic learned by teachers when I was young telling me things like ‘ a river can’t run down a mountain’. I must have been six or seven.
Ha, you always find the lines that made me think "hm, wonder if that's too much" but I decided to leave in anyway. Let me know how the attempt goes! I find kids can be really binary with this one: they either get fully into it or nope out entirely. And let us know how you go at the optometrist, I suppose?
I constantly see this in students I teach, they find drawing so frustrating and many will refuse to do it. I have taught them tips and adjustments but I don’t have the skill to teach them to draw properly, because I also can’t draw! And it sucks!
I hate seeing children gradually becoming reluctant to do art because it doesn’t look exactly like the one they’re supposed to copy. That ain’t art.
I would LOVE to make a course or some other resources for teachers that both teaches them the basics of how to draw and enables them to pass the skill on to their kids - in a way that fits in to their local curriculum. I'll write a bit more about this next week. Luckily I think I know enough teachers to make it happen 😉
Especially the part about tracing being the real magic. As someone who teaches storytelling and sales copy, I see the same neuro-mismatch: people see emotion, feel tension… but try to recreate it with logic instead of lines.
I loved all of this. The 12-year old inner critic is real, I’ve often wondered how to shut her up - or get her onside - so I can enjoy making art! Instead I either sit glumly staring at a blank piece of paper worrying about wasting resources while everyone else gets on with making something, anything at all! Or I start with enthusiasm and gradually realise as you expressed it so well: “Oh my goshhhhhhh.... this suuuuucks....” Sigh.
I have tried a few “trace what you see” exercises with pencils over the years though and been pleasantly surprised at the results, so perhaps that’s what I need to do more of.
For reasons I simply don't understand - maybe the headline wasn't good or inbox algorithms interpreted "suck" as a salacious swearword - this post has done worse than literally anything else I've written, even when my subscriber list was half the size. Which is a shame, because when it comes to self-improvement, this is the topic I know and care the most about. I put weeks of work into this post. I carefully read a bunch of scientific papers about why adults struggle with drawing (which takes a long time!) and spent ages trying to synthesise some complicated neuropsychology into something approachable and even entertaining for laypeople. Result: lead balloon. I should have learned to expect this sort of thing by now, it always seems to happen to the pieces you're most passionate about or have invested the most time in, but I've never quite learned to handle the crush of disappointment.
That said I'm stoked with everyone who's commented so far. It's hugely appreciated, as always. But there’s another way you can help out. I’ve set this Substack up to be freely accessible forever (at what is currently a considerable financial disadvantage) so the best way you can pay me - if you’ve found my writing in any way helpful - is to share it. Copy the link and put it somewhere you are on social media or the internet. It’s easily the best thing you can do for this newsletter, and it keeps me going.
Oh totally! People have busy lives - we are in the throes of a toilet training day at this very moment, I have grabbed my laptop to smash out a comment while a toddler is badgering me with a remote control and a request to watch "diggers and trucks" which could describe any one of dozens of kids shows - so I completely get it. We are all awash in content and demands for our time, some much more important than others, and I'm still incredibly grateful for anyone who does apply a bit of their highly limited attention to the stuff I write. This is just me shouting into the wind about the effort:reward ratio: it really does seem that the stuff I just smash out does the best whereas the things I labour over have a much harder time getting traction.
Also I changed the post title :)
This is really fascinating! I started learning to draw a few years ago, having spent most of a lifetime completely disinterested in art. I came across an artist who goes by Peter Draws on YouTube and used his videos as a kicking off point - his art style is very fun and whimsical, and he has a few videos on how to doodle, which isn't something I'd ever understood before. Following his art style allowed me to do away with the concept of mistakes, because everything was just a feature of the drawing. Highly recommend for shaking the inner critic. I also drew solely in pen, for the same reason - you can't be a perfectionist if you can't erase and redraw everything a million times!
I haven't done much drawing for the past couple of years - I'm a real hobby-jumper and I got more into other things. But your article's captured my interest again so maybe I'll give it another go!
This so cool. Your substack makes me feel like we're all in a club together. ☺️
Thanks! That's exactly the vibe I'm going for, I'm really glad you like it.
I think this is exactly what I needed today. Like most I used to LOVE art, mum sometimes digs up old school projects and I’m like “damn where did that spark go?”
I’m very guilty of the “if I’m not immediately perfect at something I’m not doing it” but I think this can be my self improvement starting point.
I have no idea if it’s related to my ‘spark’ going away, but having gone to uni for graphic design I was aware the whole time that I was losing ~something~ but had no idea what. Here’s to art!
One of the nice things about drawing practice - especially the kind of very intentional drawing practice I'm advocating here - is that it can be really good for getting more perfect at being less perfectionistic. You're doing something that you can't fail at, that's good for it's own sake, but that also massively helps your drawing skills. Perfect exercise for perfectionists IMO.
Bloody loved this! As an advertising art director, a lot of my job involves sketching out ideas to explain to clients and my inner critic had an absolute field day every single time. Time to go back to some of these old exercises I guess 😉
The more art I do the more I appreciate exercises like this. I'm very much not good at doing regular intentional practice, whether it's art or meditation or anything in between, but when I do manage to get a bit of blind contour drawing or something similar done I see the benefits immediately.
I’m late in answering as life chaotic at the moment and keeping me out of my studio. Blind drawing is great at training the brain to relax and reduce or stop the noise of the inner critic. The other great lesson that I’ve learned is to keep going with a drawing/painting when the critic states this sucks. For me I now know when I get to a point in a painting where I’m thinking this bloody thing is getting thrown off the deck I’m about to make a break through. I have a number of unfinished works but never felt the anger of wanting to destroy them. It’s that feeling that drives me forward. I am my own worst critic like most artists. People say that they really love something that is moulding in a corner and for the life of me I can’t see what they see but the critic doesn’t tell me that I can’t draw. It wasn’t always my critic, but a critic learned by teachers when I was young telling me things like ‘ a river can’t run down a mountain’. I must have been six or seven.
I loved this piece Josh. Keep them coming
The window to the soul, perhaps, but only in the most Lovecraftian sense. - there’s always a line that makes me laugh!
I’m going to sit with the 6 year old & try the hand drawing exercise tomorrow, then we can both compare our attempts to yours :)
Also your tracing in the air trick has revealed I’m very likely short sighted in my left eye :0
Ha, you always find the lines that made me think "hm, wonder if that's too much" but I decided to leave in anyway. Let me know how the attempt goes! I find kids can be really binary with this one: they either get fully into it or nope out entirely. And let us know how you go at the optometrist, I suppose?
I constantly see this in students I teach, they find drawing so frustrating and many will refuse to do it. I have taught them tips and adjustments but I don’t have the skill to teach them to draw properly, because I also can’t draw! And it sucks!
I hate seeing children gradually becoming reluctant to do art because it doesn’t look exactly like the one they’re supposed to copy. That ain’t art.
I would LOVE to make a course or some other resources for teachers that both teaches them the basics of how to draw and enables them to pass the skill on to their kids - in a way that fits in to their local curriculum. I'll write a bit more about this next week. Luckily I think I know enough teachers to make it happen 😉
🔥 This hit.
Especially the part about tracing being the real magic. As someone who teaches storytelling and sales copy, I see the same neuro-mismatch: people see emotion, feel tension… but try to recreate it with logic instead of lines.
I think the 10-20 mins of spare time is the biggest barrier for me..
I loved all of this. The 12-year old inner critic is real, I’ve often wondered how to shut her up - or get her onside - so I can enjoy making art! Instead I either sit glumly staring at a blank piece of paper worrying about wasting resources while everyone else gets on with making something, anything at all! Or I start with enthusiasm and gradually realise as you expressed it so well: “Oh my goshhhhhhh.... this suuuuucks....” Sigh.
I have tried a few “trace what you see” exercises with pencils over the years though and been pleasantly surprised at the results, so perhaps that’s what I need to do more of.