In the last year, I’ve been struggling a lot with getting sketches down on paper. Often the sketches didn’t match what I wanted to express, or I found them lacking technique-wise.
The latter problem, the technique, can be improved with a lot of deliberate practice. Draw (or paint) a lot of the things you want to get better at. Which I didn’t have enough energy for last year, and I was painfully aware of that. But ideally, this is kind of straightforward to fix. This year is different, I’ve started bringing my sketching kit with me again when I go out. Summer is here, and that’s a good combination to get in more of those pencil miles. So that’s a work in progress.
But the first one.., not capturing what I wanted to express? That’s so tough. It can be so hard to grasp what we want to convey with our art, or how to bring it across with a bunch of art supplies.
For me it’s often about capturing that moment of looking closer at something, or a sense of place. The way the trees bend across the river, or the way a flower grows and unfolds, or the way clouds form across the sky. I’ve always felt like I’ve found refuge in these kind of nature observations, but showing them in a sketch in the way you see them (or feel about them) can be quite hard. Particularly for more complex scenes or subjects.
I realized I needed to step away from this complexity (even though I love seeing it in art) and make sketching easier for myself again, to get back into a positive feedback loop and enjoy the process again. Meeting myself where I am so to speak. A huge part of this was simplifying my subject matter into something manageable, and also being ok with current limitations. That’s a big challenge in many parts of life.
As an example, I know how disappointed I was about this little sketch, drawn from a photo that I snapped on the train. I loved the sunset colors, and the clear contrasts and shapes that framed the scene. Unfortunately, in recent months I’ve had fine motor issues in my hand from a medication I’m taking. I noticed while I was painting how much I was struggling on that day with painting those fine lines of the electricity poles. I hated how the sketch turned out. Except for the clouds. I painted a lot of skyscapes afterwards, because that felt less demotivating.
A few weeks ago, and on a better day motor-skill-wise, I returned to the same subject. I’m much happier with my linework, not sure about the clouds and sunset though?
Overall, something I enjoyed exploring were smaller, looser landscapes, and learning more about how I can convey light and atmospheric effects, rather than render details. I covered this in my recent mini class Loose & Luminous Watercolor as well, it’s a great way to explore mixing and light in landscapes. If you pair this with practicing your drawing skills, you can definitely create some decent looking landscape sketches.
Making it easier
Here are a few things I’ve used over the last year or so to make sketching easier for myself. (You can try out all of these below if you’re struggling with your own art.)
- Less materials, more familiar tools: this reduces decision fatigue and makes the sketching process more straight-forward.
- Simplifying the subject matter: yeah, those majestic landscapes with challenging light, or even better cityscapes with their endless details. They’re so complex, and that can add pressure and overwhelm. I’ve tried to look for simpler scenes.
- Small sketches instead of big: smaller sketches helped me with everything, they’re finished more quickly, with less effort, you can work through ideas, there’s a feeling of completion – a huge help.
- Using tape for the edges of my sketches instead of defining them as I paint: this is a small measure, but a fixed frame can help to bring focus, and removes more decision fatigue
- Giving myself the permission to rip stuff out or paint over it or stick a fresh piece of paper on top: I got so demotivated a few times over a bunch of pages that this helped me to keep my sketchbook a place I wanted to return to. Yes, a “bad” sketch is always a good learning example, and I keep stressing that whenever one of my students is dissatisfied with their practice, but sometimes you can spot what went wrong, learn from it, and still not want it in your sketchbook as a permanent reminder. That’s fine. Just rip it out or paint it over.
- A small sketch is still a sketch: On some days, just getting out paints and playing with them (creating fields of color, or mixing stripes) was all I had in me. And that’s fine too. Another technique I used to do a few years ago was adding stuff to a page bit by bit, like building a small sketch collection on a page. I think I explore this in detail in my Creative Habits course.
- Not sketching on location: For a while this was the only way I could keep sketching, and even now I’m doing it quite often – painting at home. It reduces a lot of pressure and fatigue. I love painting outdoors, but often don’t have the energy for it. So I take photos and sketch at home. As I said in the introduction, I’m slowly getting back into it, but within my own limitations.
- Surrounding myself with nice things + taking breaks: A cup of tea, a piece of chocolate, pretty plants, a warming blanket, soft clothes, taking a deep breath: make yourself comfortable when you sketch. I became ok with approaching a sketch in several steps: one day for the line art, another day for the color. A slower pace for a slower season. Meeting yourself where you are.
- Allowing experiments and being okay with them failing: this is another one that you consciously decide on, so very hard to achieve sometimes. But it can take the pressure out of the creative process immediately. I always try to teach this to students, but when applying it myself…well let’s say I see the struggle.
One of my “ugly” bare sketchbook pages. I pasted this sketch over something that didn’t turn out like anything I wanted to see again at that point, and failed to add even a little bit of text or notes around the goose sketch. I just ran out of steam, but it’s okay. The sketch itself is nice. Adding notes and observations is a great technique for art journaling, and when I sit outside for a bit I often add notes about what I see and what’s happening.
Did anything change?
I feel more comfortable with making art again, and with letting sketches be unfinished, and raw, and something ugly. It’s all a process. I’ve learned how to be more content with what I can do right now, instead of pushing through and trying to tackle more challenging subjects, or topics. It’s just not the right season for it. I’m exhausted, and I know that, and I don’t want to (and can’t) push myself a lot. So I’m trying to meet myself where I am. It still feels challenging to get started sometimes, or to muster up the energy to follow through with ideas for sketches, but I guess this will take a while.
Making art can be a messy process, it can mean working through awkward and failed drawings and paintings. In my years as a working artist I’ve learned to see it as iterating through ideas until the one that works best sticks. But if you just want to unwind in your sketchbook and try to rekindle your creativity instead of working towards a deadline? I’ve learned to stop pushing a bit. Now I’m trying to approach this iterative process more open-ended, with a relaxed approach that allow for experimentation and imperfection.
And bit by bit I’m learning how to get closer to that feeling I wanted to express in the next sketch. That’s the technique part again, the iteration through ideas, but in a slower, more relaxed pace. Allowing myself to make mistakes, to lower the stakes, and take it one step at a time. See that sunset sketch above.
Anyway, I just wanted to put this out there, I think I’ve written this one for myself really. But I’d like to encourage you to treat your sketchbook as an inviting place open for possibilities and observations and self-expression, and make it as low-pressure as it can get. And whatever you need to make it that way, do it.
hi Julia ,
Thank you for your mail and your writing about your progress.!
I am not a professional artist and I learn from everything you draw and share your thoughts.
I am wishing you lots of inspiration and understand it is not always “easy times” and then somehow it turns out for the good…and perfect is not the point…
Take good care and the best for you!!!!
Thank you Tess! Exactly I find it so helpful to get away from the pressure of perfect results.
Your bad sketches are better than anything i will ever achieve!
Just keep practicing Glauber, you can absolutely do this.
Great post. We all struggle sometimes, and this was very encouraging. Stick with it!
Thank you Jacque!
Thank you. This is encouraging.
Thank you Lora!
I always feel privileged to travel your inner journey with you, and I encourage you to continue sharing through all your cycles, ups and often moreso, downs! We raise ourselves by lifting others, in art and in all our ordinary challenges of life. You have rekindled and fueled the art journey I’d dropped over seven decades ago, and the Light of this new pastime has been brightend by discovering YOU! thank you immensely, Julia
Beautifully said, Joan, and very true. Thank you so much!
Your thoughts really resonate with me – having just retired after 40 years working full on, it’s hard not to chase productivity and perfect outcomes all the time – I don’t want to “mess up” my sketchbook – but this stops me experimenting & ultimately evolving my skills and style !
I recently read a quote ” A slow life is not a lesser life” – it gave me pause for thought and I’m trying to explore that idea in my learning art skills !
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and wishing you slow and happy progress !
That’s a beautiful quote, and very valuable. I’m trying to incorporate something like this in many aspects of my life right now.
This was so encouraging thank you! x
Thank you Catherine!
Hi Julia, I’m sorry to hear that your health has put limitations on your artistic goals. However, this blog above all others you have posted is really inspiring to those of us whose good art matches what you call your failed or bad art. I now understand that my art isn’t necessarily bad, but simply doesn’t reach my expectations of what I wanted it to convey. I don’t think it’s about lowering your expectations, but simply accepting that this will happen, understand why and using the learning for the next piece.
Thank you so much for your insight. Take care and continue with your inspirations thoughts and sketches.
Mike Billinghay
Hi Mike, thank you so much. I’m getting better steadily, so it’s okay. And yes it’s always expectation management, you’ve said that beautifully.
Oh, Julia, as others have said, I so appreciate your generosity in sharing your thoughts, perhaps written down mostly for yourself. I admit I was startled to read that you struggle when your drawings don’t match the image — or visual experience — you’re trying to convey.
Having tried to learn from your “loose but precise” style, I think I’d always assumed that when you use sketch in this style yourself that the results are what you expect. My results achieve this infrequently, and then often through the kind of happy accident that watercolors make possible!
Oddly, perhaps, the electric poles and wires you disliked in your first sketch are actually my favorite part of the drawing; I love the way they suggest without being too definite, and especially the little skips in the top wire. These convey to me the fleeting nature of a landscape seen from a moving train.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you Rebecca. Yes it happens to all of us, maybe more the higher the expectations are. Thank you for your appreciation of my little sketch – I can see what you mean and from this perspective I somehow like it more.
Dear Julia
Your blog is really thought provoking. I am sorry to hear that your current health is challenging your creative ambition and appreciate your generosity in sharing this.
Making art should fundamentally be a joyful pursuit – which I often find difficult when striving to get something right or “perfect”.
Very best wishes to you as your health improves and you become stronger.
Sally Mitchell
Dear Sally, thank you so much for your kind wishes! It has been challenging at times, but I’m getting better slowly and that gives me hope. I can absolutely relate to these mixed feelings when my art doesn’t turn out as expected. But it’s a good practice moment.
Liebe Julia
vielen dank für alles was du hier teilst. Ich bin auch Künstler und Lehrer und habe oft gleiche schwierigkeiten in bezug auf Gesundheit und Energie. Ich finde dich und deine Kunst wunderbar,! Deine ehrlichkeit in bezug auf selbst kritik und gesundheit macht mich sehr stolz auf dich. Alles liebe aus Kalifornien. Ju-Lia
Vielen Dank liebe Lia!
querida Julia tu blog supera cualquier expectativa. Que tu salud pueda mermar calidad según tus apreciaciones, para muchos de nosotros y para mí en particular que siempre estoy dudosa de lo que hago, tus bocetos imperfectos, vuelvo a decirte según tus apreciaciones junto con lo que expresas en tus escritos me recuerdan mucho al diario de Edith Holden, en el que además de transmitir sus pensamientos nos deleitaba con sus dibujos.
como te dije el mes pasado muchas veces ojeo ese diario y vuelvo a ojear tu blog desde el principio y parece que algo se enciende dentro y te da ganas de salir al exterior a pintar o de pintar en casa o de llevar el cuaderno y aprovechar cualquier momento para dibujar algo.
te deseo de todo corazón que mejores y te sientas aliviada, un abrazo muy fuerte.
Dear Marta, thank you as always so much for your kind words and support! I wish you many beautiful sketching adventures, keep that spark alive inside of you!
Thankyou Julia
This is such a helpful and encouraging letter .You are an inspiration and I remain astonished watching you create such perfect wild life with a few quick strokes
I was glad to read that it’s alright to copy sketches from photographs as I’m about to start on water colours and it’s winter here and being 90 next week I do like to be warm and as comfortable as the aches and pains if old age allow
Your tutorials have opened a whole new word for me and I feel so sad to think you are battling ill health
May the joy you bring into our lives strengthen you and heal you
Thank you so much Janet. Yes of course it’s okay to draw from photos. You should absolutely find a way to make art that suits you and your needs. Make yourself as comfortable as you can. I’m getting a lot of strength and joy from all of your comments!
sketchbooks used to be the place where we quickly documented inspirations or worked out ideas or experimented with materials, but in the days of social media and a million on-line art instructors they became show cases for the world to see and critique. returning to your sketchbook as playground/idea factory rather than “art” itself helps a lot with movitvation over intimidation. may your expressions be free and fun!
wilma
Very true Wilma. At some point sketchbooks became less of a workbook for ideas and more like portfolios. I’m guilty of this myself. It’s a challenge between showing ideas and a process, and keeping everything neat and presentable (or shareable).
Excellent advice. I had always been one to push push push myself, even when tired or sick or sick and tired. ;-) Even after I was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune syndrome, I continued to push each day to work in my studio. It took a couple of other physical issues that eventually were resolved to get me to stop the pushing and be more realistic about what I could do and to be content with that. All days are not the same so your advice of meeting yourself where you are is pertinent to my situation, because I still sometimes find myself pushing when I should be happy with less. May you continue to heal and regain your strength. <3
Thank you Sheila. Yes I know that push very well myself, until at some point my body couldn’t keep up anymore. A very grounding and slightly frustrating process for sure. ;-) And it’s never easy with those chronic conditions, I send you all my best wishes and continued strength and rest.
I have a worsening physical issue (essential tremor) that makes steady strokes and intentional brushes of color a real challenge (e.g. upward grass strokes just want to keep putting grass everywhere on the paper!).
As I watch my abilities grow more unsteady (it almost seems with each new page!), I’ve really had to refocus not on what I had *planned* for that page or image but instead what I’ve been able to accomplish, regardless of the tremor. Of course, I have it easy because, unlike you, I’m not expected to sell my art or teach so I’m totally free (except in my own, previously “gotta do this right” mind) to look at my work and just smile.
I’m not “accepting” it (because that implies in itself a bit of an unhappiness with the result) but simply noting that there’s that new page all finished, and wasn’t that a joy to be able to do?
Thank you for sharing this Tonya, I can relate all to well to this. I think yours is a valuable and beautiful approach, each new page counts, and the process of achieving this.
Thank you for an inspiring post, and sharing your challenges. That’s very generous. I’m just coming back to art after a 45 year break and find as an adult learner that it is essential for me to give myself permission to be bad at something so that I can do it freely and experiment as I learn. It’s a constant challenge!! So I’m consciously trying to make my sketchbook a place that is just a record of my journey, not full of nice pictures. It’s got all the doodling and mark making practice and ugly experimentation- and some sketching that surprises me by being ok! Maybe someday when I’ve gained a few more skills I’ll start a book with less of the messy learning, but right now this approach helps me keep my focus on just sketching. Expecting a certain result would discourage me from doing anything!
That is a wonderful approach Meg, and exactly how I like sketchbooks to be.
Oh, Julia, I can’t thank you enough for this insightful letter. As someone dealing with chronic autoimmune diseases, your advice and learnings regarding self-compassion really resonate with me. Perhaps learning to be kind to oneself is so difficult because it is counter cultural. We are all taught from an early age to keep on keeping on, to exhibit grit and always to be trying harder. Then, at some point, that no longer works at all.
Each point of your advice makes so much sense to me. In fact, I think I will use your letter to gather a set of questions to explore in the coming weeks: What time of day gives me the best odds of finding no interruption, but with energy to try things out and the willingness to enter the process? Could having a daily/weekly timeframe ease decision fatigue and perhaps help me to leave off being distracted by chores or endless tweaking of art supplies? Also, on that subject of “less materials, more familiar tools”, maybe gathering a small handful of materials from my desk and taking them out on the terrace would help me learn to just use whatever I have. Thinking about smaller sketches, maybe I can experiment with size and layout? Which size fits my energy level at any given time? What photos are inspiring without being too complex? Can I learn to gather those kinds of photos on my walks to bring home to sketch?
Thank you for inspiring this questioning and especially for your honesty. Judging by the many wonderful responses from your beautiful community, you have given us all a lovely gift.
Here’s a favorite quote from Arthur Ashe which seems apropos: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.”
That is such a thoughtful way to take my post and transform it into something that feels helpful and valuable for you, Laura. Thank you for adding this. And yes I find it’s very difficult to extend this kindness to ourselves again and again. Also I often notice I overcomplicate things in my thoughts when I’m not read to make a simple decision (thus the fixation on what tools to use, what palette, etc). That quote is wonderfully on point, one can start with this thought each day.
Dear Julia,
Your advice to meet ourselves where we are is inspiring and hopeful. Thank you for continuing to share your art and your wisdom. You bring us all with you on your healing journey. I hope that gives you some comfort.
Best always,
Evelyn
Thank you Evelyn, yes it absolutely does.
Thank you so much Julia
That’s what I need too, lower pressure for perfection. I have sketched every day for years and store all my sketchbook, some with «ugly» drawings. Now I want to change, be pleased with more simple drawings, make marks and explore colours. It help me much use homemade sketchbooks and cheap equipment for lower pressure.
I love self-made sketchbooks too because of that!
Thank you so much for sharing. That was just the encouragement I needed to read today. I especially like the suggestion to do smaller sketches. I plan to do that today!
Glad you found my post helpful Susie, and happy (small) sketching!
As Leonard Cohen sang in Anthem:
Ring the bells that can still ring
Forget your perfect offering
There’s a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in ….
What a poetic way to express what took me so many words to say. Thank you Caro!
Just yesterday I saw a gray tree frog on my window screen and grabbed my nature journal to capture it. I quickly sketched indoors and then went outside to sketch it. I was fascinated with its feet and then my tendency was to make them too big. On one sketch I began with a foot and leg and it was atrocious! So I added a quick sketch of a surprised face with an exclamation point above its head. Yikes! That was an awful attempt at a frog’s leg! But I will keep it there along with my expression of laughing with myself and being okay with not getting it gorgeous every time. Isn’t that what art is about? Learning, being free to mess it up, trying again. Thanks, Julia, for your friendly posts!
I love these tips and the reminder to meet yourself where you’re at. I’m left feeling encouraged. Thanks for sharing!