You don’t have to draw for hours every day in order to improve your skills. Of course the more time you can spare the better, but the fact is that most of us struggle to fit in drawing time around the grind of everyday life.
But believe it or not, drawing for as little as five minutes a day can greatly improve your drawing skills over time. Not only that but it significantly increases the likelihood of you keeping it up!
How can only 5 minutes a day help me improve?
Well, first of all by having such a limited time, you will be less likely to focus on detail. One important fundamental of drawing is learning to see the bigger shapes. By drawing something for five minutes every day, in time you are more likely to recognise and record the most important information and not get too distracted by detail.
Ultimately you are looking for shapes, angles, comparisons and gesture and whether you choose to draw a complex still life over several hours, or a figure sketch in five minutes, the lessons you will learn are really no different.
A quick sketch can have character
Sometimes a sketch made in five minutes can have more character than a detailed drawing. You have no time to erase gesture lines or initial markings and because of this, your resulting sketch tends to have more energy and interest than one that has been perfected.
I’ve actually been taking part in ‘5 Minute March’ myself. The dancers you see above where just two of several I drew for the challenge. Ordinarily I would have gone on to add detail such as the hands and faces. I would also have added the shadows and erased the gesture lines too. But what this challenge has taught me is that actually less is more! I think doing anything further with these might have actually taken away the ‘movement’ in the drawings.
So if your time is limited, don’t think for a moment that this means you don’t have time to draw. You do. Everyone, no matter how busy they are can find five minutes a day. And you’ll be amazed at the improvement that you will make and the lessons you will learn over just a few weeks.
So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to sharpen that pencil!
Sandra x
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