Hey guys, It’s Chou-Tac,
There is a question I receive pretty often:
How long should I practice per day to be Good at sketching ?
I tell my students to draw at least 15 minutes per session to get into it.
Which means it is the minimum needed to absorb the lessons and have a first practice – but also the time frame for your mind to be hooked and desire to draw longer.
I wanna show you how sketching is less a matter of time, than building the right mindset to achieve your goals.
How to artificially create addiction for your sketching routine.
I prefer do not to mention how long is needed, as I would like YOU to feel it when you draw.
Some may want to draw 20 minutes while others 2 hours or even all nighter.
If you wanna progress fast (even if you have a busy shedule, a family…), do not focus on HOW LONG you need. But draw as long as your heart tells you to.
Suddenly, you will realise taht you will be drawing much longer, and much more often! :)
That way, sketching is going to be your lifestyle and be part of your daily routine.
Busy or not, you will create time fro drawing.
Do you see what I mean ?
While most people:
- watch TV (average 3 hours 40 per day)
- or play games
- or browse Facebook, Instagram or Tik Tok…
You sketch.
As an upcoming pro designer, sketching is as important as eating.
As well as you need to eat to survive, you will feel that hunger to sketch.
When I was a product design student,
I remember sketching after class in the subway.
My schoolmate Ambre told me: “Damn you are always sketching !! You never stop!”
Actually, I was impatient. I just couldn’t wait to reach home to sketch, because my brain was still “in ebullition” from the afternoon sketching session we had. I still had so much ideas I wanted to drop on paper. So I had to sketch them now before they escape from my mind!
TIP: Your class time schedule do not dictate how long you should draw per week. These are the strict minimum. You want to excel? Do more than anyone else!
No matter how busy you are, where you are, try to sketch as much as you can.
Even a little session of 5 minutes will make you progress. Why? because you may have observed something cool, and micro study it with a doodle.
The magic to constantly make plenty of these micro progress is to stay alert.
Look around you. And see how you can analyse stuff, and applied techniques you’ve learnt.
You know what ?
You do not even have to draw every single day !
There are days you could draw longer while others not at all. It is totally fine.
A good thing when you take a break is your brain is actually processing datas. And it happenned that after a while you draw even better than before – without much knowing why. :) I love that feel !
However, as a beginner, there is not anything much to process yet. ; ) So I recommend you guys to do not stop practicing for too long. Ok ? At least once a week, with no maximum time frame is best.
Remember that :
What matter the most to improve FAST is not “How long you practice” or even “Sketching everyday”.
It is sketching with: Good Focus, and Good Guidance.
So you maximise every single session you do, even if they are short.
Cheers,
Chou-Tac
PS: If you are a beginner sketcher,
I share with you more about how to build your drawing habit to be succesful.
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