It's the beginning of the year and of course, I've wanted to make some kind of resolution but I never really seem to keep them. This year I've decided to give myself a reasonable challenge that I believe I can do and that I am hoping to get a few students to follow. This will be good for all of us that really want to achieve becoming a good
artist.
Every great master I have ever admired, oil painter, watercolorist, pastel or whatever kind of artist they were they all had one thing in common and that was they all sketched in sketchbooks. Check out a few of those sketches by my favorite masters below.
The challenge is this... 66 days of sketching in a sketchbook. Sketch once a day for 66 days and it doesn't matter how long it takes you to do the sketch. You can do it for 1
minute or one hour, it doesn't matter for this challenge. It also doesn't matter the medium or surface you want to use. I just want you to sit down and do what an artist needs to do to get creative and that would be sketching.
Why do I call it the 22/66 Day Sketchbook Challenge? Someone once told me it takes 21 days to make something become a habit, then I
read this article and they say that is a myth and it really takes 66 days.
So I decided on the 22nd day, I want to see how you are doing the day after the 21st day. Has it become a habit? Do you want to continue after the first 21 days? If you do that will be great. If you want to stop then we know it was a myth, but if you keep it up for 66 days then I have a feeling you
will not want to stop and hopefully sketching will be a part of your artistic future.
I would suggest having more than one sketchbook lying around and if you want to use an electronic tablet, I'm okay with that, however, if you use a tablet. I would like you to also use a tradition surface once in a while.
Please don't use social media to show what you are sketching each day, the time it would take to put it on social media would
be better spent sketching.
Doing a sketchbook for an artist is helpful in so many ways:
- It creates ideas
- it solves problems
- it is great practice
- it is relaxing
- it records a time and place
- it reminds you
- it helps you understand
- it has no expectations
- it doesn't have to be finished
- it is fun
- it is meant for you and nobody else, kind of like a journal
On your 22nd day
please send me some of your favorite sketches to this
Facebook Page.
On day 67 I also would like to see what you have done and by then I will have a little something for you, for your efforts.
Start anytime you like, but start soon.... ready, set, sketch!
