Just Keep Drawing (People)

Week of July 13 to July 19, 2025

"Sketching is to the artist what shadow boxing is to a boxer; keyboard practice is to a concert pianist; practice is to a tennis player, or a participant in any sport (or endeavour). I have often quoted artists and cartoonists who swear by and recommend sketching as a necessary part of an artist's daily ventures (adventures)."

Walt Stanchfield, Drawn to Life: Twenty Golden Years of Disney Masterclasses, volume two.

In all the animation books I've read so far, the same words are said. In order to be good at animating, you need to draw. A lot.

I am so excited about this. I love creeping in other people's sketchbooks.

I've always wanted to do a job where I have to draw all day. Apparently I've chosen the right career. According to the masters, in order to do this job well, I need to draw all the time. And if the masters say I must do it, I must do it.

(I still haven't figured out how to create the second part of the dream, which is to actually get PAID for drawing all day).

This week's drawings. As you can see, I still haven't managed to find a consistent style. Gee. I guess that means I have to go do some more drawing. 🙄

They're all drawn in the annoying squares because I've never been able to draw small, which means I have this habit of drawing over the entire page-- but drawing for animation requires me to use thumbnails, apparently, and that means having the ability to fit my drawings in tiny squares like this:

I won't lie. The first time I saw those boards, I nearly wept. Even now, they make me want to shrivel up in a ball and become one with the dust bunnies on my studio floor. Anything but having to work that microscopically.

The bigger borders I've designed, four to a letter-sized page, are supposed to teach me to draw within a confined space. That's...not exactly working. As you can tell.

Also, this challenge was supposed to be completed by the end of September. This is how many pages I have left.

That's the equivalent of two whole 240-page sketchbooks (at least). May I remind you that it's the middle of July already?