Something I talk to my students about a lot, whether it’s in a drawing class like “Drawing Practice” or now on my Patreon site is the importance of setting goals and projects that support those goals.
It all begins with an honest evaluation of where your skills and your goals are right now.
I was reminded recently that I discussed all this at length in a Patreon video I published in 2022. (A year ago—that’s why the video title mentions gearing up for a good 2023!)
I also spent time in the video (which appears below) talking about the internal critic. I think it’s one of the most thorough explanations I’ve given. And I included explanations of what your Editing Eye and Fresh Eye are as well, and how to use them.
These are essential distinctions that I believe you need to understand to grow your drawing practice and skills.
I also discuss talking about your art. Words matter. You need to cultivate a healthy and helpful way of talking about your art.
When I started Patreon I told subscribers I wouldn’t share material from Patreon widely for at least 6 months after posting something on Patreon. In the 4 years I’ve been teaching on Patreon I’ve only shared a couple videos.
Today I want to share this video publicly in the hopes the information will allow you to go forward with intention in 2024.
It’s funny because originally the video was released on 12.2.22 and the New Year was almost a month away. I was talking about the way January first was no more important or special than any other day for starting a project—and then I told people to start “tomorrow.” So if you watch this video today and do start tomorrow it will be starting a project on January 1st—and that’s OK too.
Do what is sane and healthy for your drawing practice.
If the following video doesn’t play here you can find it at this link on Vimeo.
Note that around 8 mins. and 30 seconds I misspeak and say non-representational art and compare it to abstract art, and of course what I meant was simply representational art as opposed to abstract art—you’ll understand when you get there. There was a time in the 20th century when art schools focused on abstract and non-representational art. Traditional representational art techniques weren’t taught in many US art schools at that time. That was the point I was making there.
Additionally if you want to look at my Official International Fake Journal Blog to find the posts on prepping for a project you can use this link to get there. (I used to have hundreds of posts on RozWoundUp about projects and process but when you use those keywords you’ll find a lot of that material is now in the non-public archive because of technical issues. But you’ll find lots to digest on OIFJB, and you can also join me on Patreon to discuss projects, and the other topics mentioned in the video. (And to save yourself some time, because I was dealing with lung issues in 2022 and speaking much more slowly than I normally do, you could view the video at 1.5 or even 1.75 and get back to drawing quickly. In the play bar at the base of the video select the “gear” settings icon, and in the pop-up select “speed” and in that pop-up select 1.5 or 1.75.)
