Chaotic Drawing Drills

I’d paused posting in here for the later half of January 2024, as some very serious health issues have been happening to a close family member. That’s as much detail as I want to give here on my blog for now. How does one stay creative in times of extreme stress? Drawing drills have always been my go to, but even those have felt like a challenge. There are so many variations on drills, and they’re all meant to be very simple: draw ovals, practice line confidence, etc. Recently, I stumbled on a practice of outlining looping marks. The approach is very chaotic looking, but overall I’ve found it’s a calming way to relax while drawing.

Below is an example of the first type of drills I learned, way back around 2017. Which… let me pause and say it’s a little regretful that it took me that long to stumble upon regular drawing drills and line confidence exercises. All my art courses before that treated line work as something where you were either born with (i.e. you were “talented”), or that you sadly lacked. Sure, it was said drawing skill in general would refine over time with practice, but with no specific exercises were offered like those I later found via Draw a Box, Scott Robertson, Peter Han, Ctrl+Paint Unplugged, and Proko.com.

For this recent page from January 7th, 2024, I was following along to the video CGMA | Dynamic Sketching 1 with Peter Han. However, the first place I stumbled upon this specific practice was at the Draw a Box website, by Irshad Karim (aka Uncomfortable), who took a Peter Han Dynamic sketching course.

Below is a very chaotic line stroke practice variation. First I used highlighters and markers to make looping scribbles, then I used a fine liner to follow the edges of the marks. I was thinking of how to pull the line confidently and break the curves up when necessary, rather than trying to draw too complex of a “C” or “S” curve in one stroke. The “considering how to break up the curves” came from watching the Proko Drawing Basics course demos on CSI lines.

The next page was a combination of ellipse practice (Taken from Draw a Box drills), and more simple swirling marks.

And finally, a variation of doodles and drills created in Procreate on my iPad. This drawing was also a chance to play wit some brush sets from True Grit Texture Supply, and specifically Distress, KraftTone, and KolorMarc sets. Some of those came in the larger Comic Creator’s Bundle they offer. This was one of the slightly pricier brush suppliers I’ve found, but so far I think it’s worth it.

My energy has been extremely low lately, so we shall see what sketches I’m able to make this week. I’m trying to take it easy while also not giving up on my creative practice or putting it entirely on pause.

‘Til next time.