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Welcome to the Drawing Board: #3!

Good morning All!

This week we have some really cool things to share: a fun selection of blog posts (my curatorial voice is really starting to become evident! Just look at those images below!), more thoughts on productivity and being mindful of how we set up our space for small ways into our creative habits, a quick glimpse into the status of our new podcast, and a note about the upcoming online Sketchbook Development course!

Blog Post Round-up!

We've got some super inspiring work up on the blog this week!
Does the blog need a name? What would you name it? Reply and let me know!

• Sketchbook Saturday: da Vinci's Drapery Studies
• Van Gogh's Boots
• Thérèse Schwartze's Insightful Portraits
• Our first "What's On Your Easel Wednesday" (WOYEW) Feature
• Rose O'Neill's Sweet Monsters
• and today: Antonio López García's Transitory Figures

The images below are links to each post:

No "Material Monday" post this week- the semester is getting going, and my attention needed to be focused on my classes. However, I had a great exchange on Instagram though my "stories", where sometimes I'll answer people's questions, and I mentioned that shellac can be used to tone/ground paper and a lot of people asked for more details. So please be on the look out for that soon!

Productivity: Removing Friction

Continuing our discussion from last week, sometimes the key to creative productivity lies in removing obstacles surrounding "getting started". James Clear discusses this in his book Atomic Habits* via the concept of "chaining". He recommends not focusing only on the habit you're trying to engage with more, but the tasks leading into that habit. If you want to draw outside more, you might focus on the task of putting together your plein air drawing kit, or gathering the clothing you'll need to wear. We can set ourselves up for success by removing fiction from these smaller lead-in tasks, so once they're accomplished we might as well do the creative habit itself.

An example might be to have an art "go-bag" packed and ready at your door, near your boots and jacket. I know this feels like common knowledge, but I found it so helpful. I tend to always dwell on the habit I'm trying to create or improve, and it can feel really weighted, or antagonistic, but I never thought of focusing on the various ways into it. Once I paid attention to how I lead into tasks and habits, I found that I was having a much easier time prioritizing what I wanted to accomplish. And for those wondering if I'm still going on my morning walks: yes, and my sneakers are right by the door along with my winter jacket, hat, gloves, and headphones.

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Removing Friction From Your Common Spaces

Setting up your common spaces for habit success is a pretty big deal, if you're able to do it. As artists we can't always just slap an easel in a common space like a living room, but we can be mindful of how we set up our most-used spaces for creative engagement. That'll look different for each of us, but I found that having a few things available to me almost at all times is key for getting in more sketching, note taking, and keeping track of my smaller to-do lists that might fall through the cracks.

I spend a lot of time at my computer desk these days, and always have a number of things available within reach: red and black pens*, notecards*, my favorite planner*, and my spare-pencil cup filled with various graphite grades to keep the experience fun.

The used notecards aren't keepers- I use them for quick notes, doodles, mindless sketching, and warmups while watching TV or in a meeting, and I almost never save them from the trashcan. If the notes or drawings are important enough, I'll rewrite or redraw their contents in a sketchbook later. That lets me do a second pass, and if I'm not willing to do that, the notecard contents probably aren't worth saving after they've served their usefulness. The freedom of quick materials like this is found in the lack of care I'm comfortable bringing to them- which isn't always the case for my sketchbooks, and definitely not the case for my studio works. This gets my hands moving, my mind thinking visually, and once those things are happening, why not pull out the sketchbook and draw for a bit?

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Coming up next week: Breaking up your time into purposeful chunks!

*Please note- these are affiliate links. If you decide to make a purchase through that link, I’ll make a small commission at no additional cost to you. I only recommend things I actually use and like, so if you have any questions, please give me a shout!

Stay Engaged with Your Sketchbook:

My online Sketchbook Development course is starting up again soon- Monday the 27th! For our 9th round of the live Zoom course, we're going back to an old favorite: Dichotomies! Access to the course content and recordings never expires, so feel free to revisit the material afterwards as long as you'd like. Join us Monday evenings, connect with creative peers, and work towards filling up a sketchbook with me!

If I'm being honest, one of the biggest productivity tips that's worked for me is to commit to a creative activity during my day, and the only way I don't back out of that is if I sign up for it externally. Teaching has really helped me stay deep in my creative practice- if you're like me, a course can function in the same manner. Are you that way as well?

Just a note: we will be making the move to video course production this Spring, so if you want to connect with others live over Zoom, this course will be one of the few options to do so through our platform in the course format for a while!

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The Podcast:

I hosted my first podcast guest yesterday afternoon - I can't wait to share the episode with you soon! We don't launch for a while yet- lots to do, but it's happening, and I know you'll dig it as much as I am!

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This is such an interesting statement from Vincent. I wonder if that's why so many of Antonio López García's works are considered to be unfinished?

Thanks so much for reading and being a part of our community! If you're looking to build a sketchbook practice and further refine your own imagery, please check out my upcoming online Sketchbook Development course- we start on Monday the 27th! Don't forget to keep the conversation going and join our Discord server: Thanks for the recent art shares Kenzie, Harry, Kenneth, Marla, and Jackson! What'd you think of the productivity tips I shared this week? They've really helped me out. Any tips you'd like to share?

Have a wonderful week everybody!

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Happy drawing,
Evan