This December I tried out the Drawcember challenge where I drew something every day in December(I didn’t do the last 3 days). It was a very interesting experience and in this post, I will be talking about my experiences from this challenge, what I’ve learnt, some good and bad points and some tips for those who are new to this kind of monthly challenge.
Benefits
Improved Drawing Speed
At the end of the challenge, I felt like my drawing speed has increased. This may be due to the daily practices forcing me to draw quickly and more effectively. This will help me to quickly get the foundation of a drawing down quickly so I can have more time for details in my future drawings. The improve in drawing speed may also due to me taking more advantage of the features and functions in the Procreate drawing app which I have used for the drawings during this challenge. I will talk about this in the next point.
More Effective Use of Medium
I have learnt more about the Procreate during this month as I’ve used Procreate to draw all the drawings. I experimented with the different functions on Procreate to aid my drawing process and it has helped me in drawing faster. One of the new features in Procreate that I’ve learnt to use is the Curves function. It helped me quickly edit the contrast in my drawings and changes in hue as well, which saved me a lot of time. Another useful feature is the clipping mask. It’s only recently added to the app. It allows me to paint only on areas that are painted in the previous layer. This reduces the time taken to erase paint. Some other useful features are transform, liquify, sharpen, blur etc. I will be writing a post explaining the different features on Procreate soon.
Challenging Parts
Incomplete Drawings
Due to the lack of time, most of the drawings aren’t as detailed as I’d like. I wanted to just keep working on them till I’m satisfied but I can’t be spending 5-6 hours every day on it as I have other commitments to do. I also felt uneasy posting incomplete drawings on my social media. I got used to posting them after a while as I tried to remind myself that the purpose of this drawing is to get used to drawing something every day, it doesn’t have to be good or complete.
Stress
During the first 2 weeks, I tried to think of creative things to draw, it got stressful sometimes as I had trouble deciding what to draw. Sometimes I’d abandon a drawing halfway and move on to a new one as I realised that it wouldn’t work out or would take me too much time. During the last 2 weeks, I just ended up drawing things I’m more familiar with – portraits. They are faster for me to draw and also I enjoy drawing them. However, I wasn’t able to be very creative with them. There were days where I didn’t have the time to draw at all and had to produce 2 drawings the next day, which made it even more stressful.
Tips
Here are some tips for those of you who wish to try out a monthly challenge like this one for the first time.
- Don’t draw too complicated things if you don’t have the time. It’s better to draw something simpler that you can complete.
- Explore your drawing medium to help you draw faster and more effectively.
- It’s okay if some drawings turned out not as good as you want it to be. Remember the main objective to get used to drawing every day, it doesn’t have to be good.
- Drawing something you’re interested in.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post. .
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27 Responses
This is a lovely post abd i must commend you for putting this lovely post together to share with your readers. I love the challenging part of the story and i am pretty happy you overcame. I think i will have to implement your strategies now and do the needful by using march as a case study probably mine will be drawmarch
Thankyou! Good luck with that!
This is the most interesting article I’ve come across on Wealthy affiliate because I’m an artist and I own websites to promote my artworks including other artists (popular or not). Will definitely want to have your username on WA so I can follow up. It’s really nice to finally have someone from the same niche over there.
I think you are doing a great job on being visible on the blogging space, keep up the good work.
Thankyou! Glad to hear some positive feedback from another artist 😀 Nice to find someone with the same niche too! My username is MaryLi on WA.
Great, I’ve been waiting for your reply. Am following you immediately.
Gosh, this sounds like an interesting focus to practice a 30 day challenge to draw something every day! I can honestly say I have never heard of that before, but I find it very interesting. I get the sense that you found some days stressful. I’m wondering if I was to do this, what my goal at the end of it would be. What was your goal? I am not a very good drawer, so I think it would be very challenging for me, but as I read your post, I also wondered if I could also practice mindfulness as part of the process of drawing without having any actual artistic talent. This would allow me to let go of the actual pictorial outcome, but notice my internal goings on and be able to sit with feelings that popped up. Hmm, this is something I would love to try with this in mind. Thanks for sharing your experience with this challenge. I’m intrigued and might give it a go 🙂
Thankyou! I did find some days stressful trying to find time to draw or just not feeling up to it. My goal was to get used to drawing every day and also learn more on how to use the new Procreate drawing app I got. Good luck if you are going to try it out 😀
Wow, I like your style of doing the monthly challenge. I think I should also set up some monthly challenge to spice up my life. I love this idea a lot. Since I also love to draw, so I think I will also start by setting up my monthly challenge to draw something everything. Since February is already going to be finished, so I will start my challenge from March. I think coming March will be Drawch for me 🙂
Thankyou! Goodluck and have fun!
Thanks for sharing this interesting article on how to draw using procreate as a guide to make drawing more attractive and faster. I love drawings especially freehand drawings, Although I haven’t perfected my drawing skills. I hope this app enables me to perfect my drawing skills more effective and efficiently. Thanks once more for sharing this interesting write up on drawings. It’s great. I know procreate looks promising. Cheer’s
Thankyou! Procreate is really a powerful drawing app in my opinion. I’m still learning how to use it more efficiently and speed up my drawing process.
This is impressive. It takes a lot of courage, zeal, consistency and determination to be able to complete a challenge like the one you did. And the pictures I ‘very seen are not bad at all….. Some incomplete drawings can surprise you with the way it’d look like that is the design the artist had in mind. I will find a challenge like yours for the month of March, hopefully I can write a victory article by April. Thanks for the motivation.
Thankyou! Good luck with your challenge 😀
Practicing on something always make you better so it was natural to become faster and easier to draw the last days of the challenge. I have seen also in myself when I do something frequently it becomes much easier as the time passes. Nice challenge you found there and an interesting one as you can look at the end all at once and see the differences between each day as our mood and mental condition definitely will show on the paper.
Thankyou! I agree that our mood and mental condition will show on our work. I can definitely see that drawings I made when I’m feeling down or unmotivated are full of mistakes and not as good as the ones I made when I’m feeling happy and motivated.
Hi, Mary Li! Thank you for sharing! Although I don’t know anything about drawing, I understand how you feel. I am a freelance translator. Like drawing, I need to practice every day. I agree with you: draw something you’re interested in. And my other advice is: Don’t think too much. Don’t always think I want to be a drawing master or something, but every day you need to fix a small issue or get improvement in a field. For me, like today I will understand the use of a word. Keep at it and you’ll make great progress!
Thankyou for the advice! I agree that just fixing something small or improve a little bit every day will be beneficial in the long run!
I really love these articles it has more reasons not only about drawing but in anything you put your self into .drawcember has enough lessons. I have always trying to draw. But I don’t have any completed work to shoes by I think my problems are what you have said drawing to complicated things and not getting the best drawing materials so drawcember has very useful lessons to me.
Thankyou! Yes I agree that somethinigs I’ve learnt from this challenge can be applied to other things in life!
You seriously did an awesome job by disciplining yourself to draw each day for full 30days. That is a higher level of commitment. Although I’m not a drawing person. But I do encourage my students never to get tired of any talent they have. And your tips to taking drawing very simple is very handy. I can also relate with you because its not easy to be spending b5-6 hours on one painting or so. Stress will weigh on you and it will lead to lack of innovation. Yes I’m going to keep this link and give it to my friends who are artist. They will tap a lot if motivation from you.
Thankyou! I hope your artist friends will enjoy reading it too.
Dear Mary,
Thanks a lot for the helpful and insightful article. Thanks a lot for sharing from your experience and I learned helpful insights from your post.
I love to draw and to be honest just few weeks before I have conducted a drawing competition in my Sunday class. And I am amazed at some of the children drawing skills. Indeed, doing things daily will open to a lot of possibilities and will yield great results.
I am planning to share your tips with my Sunday class students. I am sure they are going to find great value.
“Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation.” Henri Cartier-Bresson
Much Success!
Paul
Thankyou! Glad you’ve found my post helpful.
Hi! I greatly appreciate you have written about your experience after going through this challenge. I feel attracted to initiate a challenge like this myself. After reading about the benefits, I know this is the way I should go. Drawing faster and having more time for details is one of my goals.
I also know that I get stressed when trying to find ideas and when my drawing doesn’t come out as I expected. But, I’m glad I read your post, because I know I’ll also go through this and it will be easier to handle if I know it before it happens. Thank you very much!
Thankyou! Glad my post helped you prepare. Hope you’ll improve from the challenge if you decide to try it out
I have taken up a couple of writing challenges over the years and as a bit of a perfectionist, I have also found it difficult leaving things unfinished or trying to rush through. However, I do see the merit in it as it gets you writing (or drawing in your case) every day and can get you into a really productive mode.
I think your tips are very helpful to someone like me, especially the one about it being ok with less than perfect. That’s something I have to constantly overcome. Thanks for writing this article!
Thankyou! Glad my tips were helpful to you.