75 Day Sketch Challenge - No. 21-30

Another 10 sketches in my 75 Day Sketch Challenge done, 30 altogether now, a whole month, basically. And so far, I've kept up the one-a-day, which really makes me happy. I can't remember how long they say it takes to make something a habit, but this is certainly starting to become a habit. Doing my daily sketching has become a part of my daily planning. If I know that I won't have time to draw in the evening, I do it in my lunch break. On those days, when I go to Yoga or Pilates in my lunch break, I try to keep the evening free, and schedule my social life around my daily sketching. Which isn't very difficult, I don't go out very often. On a day like last Tuesday, when both lunchtime and evening were taken up, I sneak in a little 5 minute sketch whenever I find the time. So far, it worked fine.

Actually, last Tuesday, my portrait drawing class started again, so technically, I spent two hours drawing anyway. But since I dedicated this little sketchbook to the challenge, I have to do my daily challenge sketch in it, no matter how much I draw elsewhere on that day. That is one thing I'm really looking forward to when the challenge is over. Not to be restricted to a certain sketchbook, but to sketch in and on whatever I feel like. And because I'm sharing all my challenge sketches, I'm more careful with my drawings, making sure that they're halfway presentable, and not being quite so adventurous and experimental as I might like to be. So when I want to try out something that I'm not sure is going to work out, I do that in a different journal, which I know I don't feel i have to share if I don't want to.

But of course I'm also learning a lot about how I sketch, what works for me. Even though I miss working with pencil, I've stuck to the no pencil-rule so far and always used some kind of pen for the initial drawing. Except with No. 26, which was done entirely with coloured pencils (the scanner didn't really pick up the grey one). I know that I don't need a pencil to do an initial sketch, but sometimes, at least some help lines would be useful, to get the proportions and perspective right. The pencil will definitely be a part of my daily sketching after the challenge.

The main thing, though, has been to get into the habit of daily sketches. And so far, that's been a great success.