sketchbook practice

Art is a muscle and you have to exercise it. wonder | wander | women have gone through a lot of sketchbooks over the years. 

from our Techo Kaigi post

Drawing is also an exercise - you don't have to do it every day, but keep it up at least three times a week or it will get harder to do. A week will go by, then two or three, then a month or two, and before you know it you've forgotten how to start again.

drawing from vacations and saved screenshots

Social media fools you into thinking sketchbooks are art in themselves: vivid scenes from animation, brightly-coloured botanical paintings, technical drawings of robots and spaceships that look ready to fly off the page. You don't see the work it takes to get to that level of skill because the work is time-consuming and often ugly.

Quick paintings, a live street drawing, and a funny Instagram photo

An Instagram reel is too short to capture the mistakes and false steps on the road to a finished project. Behind that perfect painting are a lot of bad drawings and even more mediocre ones. 

Drawing K-pop idols from photos and videos

Reference is essential! The great Bill Cunningham said "Use your camera like a notebook." We took him at his word and have been using photos to help us in our practice ever since. Some beginner artists think that drawing from reference is "cheating", that every illustration should be from pure imagination. But imagination needs a rich library of references to create a truly immersive world.

Gel pen tests and drawings from magazines and catalogues

Free catalogues from clothing stores like Uniqlo are a great reference for seeing how a body moves in casual clothes, especially jeans, t-shirts and officewear. Instead of buying magazines, try looking at online coverage of international Fashion Weeks, but focus on the street style of the attendees as well as the outlandish looks on the runway.

Fashion Weeks and museum exhibits

It's about your eyes as much as your hands. What do you find beautiful, interesting, or otherwise worth drawing? What catches your eye as you go about your day? Lately I've been drawing my favourite musicians and flowers around the neighbourhood: faces and living plants are complicated but so rewarding to draw.

Drawing a face is pretty simple, but getting that face to look like your reference is deceptively hard. Controlling proportions is a delicate skill learned over years of practice. There are good tutorials all over the Internet that teach the basics, but practice is really the best way to get there.

Drawing from video screenshots

Practice drawing as you watch a video and take screenshots for reference. You'll learn about figures in movement and different positions even faster than taking a course. Draw people dancing, playing, laughing or making faces. 

Sketch in Kuretake brush pen and ink wash

Soon you'll gain more confidence and will be drawing more complete and satisfying work. Don't be discouraged if you still have lots of bad drawings; as you go you'll get better, and your sketchbook will fill up with more developed work and lead to more projects and illustrations. Don't stop too long to admire a good work either! Keep going and you'll have lots of good work to show and look back on.

flowers from local parks and gardens

We love to draw for its own sake, but we also love learning. Like meditation and exercise, drawing is a practice that gives rewards moment by moment, but also shows growth and progress. We hope this artistic journey will happen for many more people. Happy drawing!