Bought a new sketch pad but can’t get started

[Markness]

I bought a new sketch pad recently but I can’t focus and that’s largely because I fear that I will mess up since I didn’t hone in on drawing skills in my developmental years. I worry that I can’t develop new talents at my age (35) despite wishing I could do so.

 

[tree]

Got any junk mail laying around?
You could use the envelopes to sketch on and
you wouldn't have to feel guilty for *messing up*
and wasting the paper.

Rather than wishing,
it's likely to be more useful as far as developing skill,
if you'd apply effort on a regular basis.

Like ten minutes a day.

 

[DaisyRose]

Drawing is for anyone at any age. It’s okay if you mess up because you can start on a new page. If you run out of pages, you can get another book. I sometimes don’t like what I create, so I start on a new page. I keep all the things I don’t like to see how much I improve. You will be surprised how much your art can change over the years. Don’t let your fears consume you. It’s okay to mess up because it’s a process that develops overtime. I hope in the future you can share your creativity with us on this forum.

 

[Rodafina]

Markness, I've had the same problem with sketchbooks. It can be daunting to have a fresh and beautiful sketchbook and not want to sully it with imperfect drawings. What I do in this situation is pick a few pages and just slash them with the marker a few times. Get some marks on there to make it imperfect. Remember it's called a sketchbook. It's for sketches. They don't have to be final works of art.

 

[The Pandector]

I bought a new sketch pad recently but I can’t focus and that’s largely because I fear that I will mess up since I didn’t hone in on drawing skills in my developmental years. I worry that I can’t develop new talents at my age (35) despite wishing I could do so.

For me, an important part is reminding myself regularly that I’m an old guy and I can’t expect to pick up new skills quickly. That helps minimize expectations and frees me up to enjoy the pursuit rather than striving for mastery.

 

[Misty Avich]

Age is irrelevant when it comes to talents and hobbies. Some people twice our age can't draw at all. I can't draw that well, even though I love drawing. I can draw all right if I copy something and colour it in. I can't sketch or do portraits that involve shading. That is something I just don't have the patience or the skills to do.

 

[Masked Man]

I fear that I will mess up

What is the worst thing that will happen if you "mess up" a drawing?

You waste a piece of paper? So what. You can buy another one.

You spend a lot of time worrying. And then you're frozen because you're so worried about making some kind of mistake.

Is someone standing over you judging your drawings? No.

It's a drawing. In the grand scheme of things, it's not important. If you mess up, oh well, just start again.

Just draw.

 

[Masked Man]

So I spent all morning making a pan of homemade buttermilk biscuits for my breakfast. I measured out the flour, cut up the butter into the dough, folded the dough a few times, cut out my biscuits and baked them.

I spent all that time only to have the biscuits turn out flatter than I wanted. It was disappointing.

Was that a failure? No. You know why? Because although they were flat, they tasted fine. So I ate a few with some nice raspberry jam, saved a few, then cut up the rest of them and gave them to the birds and squirrels.

No big deal. I'll just try again next time.

Every failure is an opportunity to learn something.

 

[Judge]

Go digital...work with a graphics program that does layers with a drawing stylus. A few of them are even freeware. Where you can draw multiple elements, but place each of them on their own layer. If you mess a single layer up, you can delete it and start over without disturbing all the other elements you drew that you like.

 

[mysterionz]

Go digital...work with a graphics program that does layers with a drawing stylus. A few of them are even freeware. Where you can draw multiple elements, but place each of them on their own layer. If you mess a single layer up, you can delete it and start over without disturbing all the other elements you drew that you like.

Ibis paint is a great example of this.

 

[mysterionz]

@Markness if you want, I can dm you and share some art resources with you ^^

 

[Ken]

I bought a new sketch pad recently but I can’t focus and that’s largely because I fear that I will mess up since I didn’t hone in on drawing skills in my developmental years. I worry that I can’t develop new talents at my age (35) despite wishing I could do so.

In my profession of electronics design engineering it is customary to start designing with a sketch. The sketches are often just on a paper coffee house napkin. From that, a prototype is built. The prototype is just a small portion of the intended design. It is also intended to fail. The failure is how we learn to perfect the design. What not to do and what to do. We are always very suspicious if a prototype doesn't fail - actually that's quite worrisome.

An artist's sketch pad is an engineers prototype. You have to make mistakes in order to learn how to be perfect. As per the name "sketch pad" implies, the pad is for sketching an art work, not to produce the perfect completed work of art. It is a process.

And rest assured; you are no where even close to being too old to learn new talents!!!! I'm 71 years old and can still learn new talents. Do so every day. And I am even diagnosed with having a learning disability!

Just start sketching. Each sketch will tell you how to do the next - baby steps. And on and on until you finally have a masterpiece. That may take a few days and a few pages or it may take a few years and a huge pile of sketch pads. Generally, the many years and piles of sketch pads will result in the greatest masterpiece. So, don't fret about it. Just sketch.

 

[mysterionz]

I bought a new sketch pad recently but I can’t focus and that’s largely because I fear that I will mess up

I’ve only ever finished one sketch book in my life. I have one that’s almost finished and I have a million others laying around unfinished. Digital drawing is easier for me (albeit can be kind of expensive..). I’d recommend buying an iPad sixth generation and an Apple Pencil.. or the ninth gen iPad + Apple Pencil, or an iPad mini + an Apple Pencil. I swapped over to using an iPad Air 5th generation after the screen of my iPad Pro developed a small crack on it from falling a small distance off a table at work.

 

[mysterionz]

Just start sketching. Each sketch will tell you how to do the next - baby steps. And on and on until you finally have a masterpiece. That may take a few days and a few pages or it may take a few years and a huge pile of sketch pads. Generally, the many years and piles of sketch pads will result in the greatest masterpiece. So, don't fret about it. Just sketch.

This is how many of my original characters (OC’s) developed. I like the design of a character I drew so I draw them again and establish them in my universe of OC’s (fandom and non fandom)

 

[Ken]

Oh, just wanted to add that when I do any sketching, I always use a pencil, because pencil is editable. Final work may be in ink, but the sketches that leads up to the final is in pencil. That may not work for everyone, but that's just me.

 

[Misery]

I know it sounds odd, but you're kinda supposed to mess up at drawing. Or at least that's how it feels to me in my experience.

Remember Bob Ross, the whole "happy little accidents" line he liked to say? He didnt just say that sort of thing just to be calming and whatnot. He said it because it was important to understand.

Like, some of the stuff I've shown on here (that is on paper, not the digital stuff). Most of those have some big mistake on them, I cant get through a drawing session without that. And often these happen with tools that cant be erased, like my markers. So, what to do? Improvise. Change up the drawing so that the "mistake" now blends in as part of it. It's no longer a mistake then.

Seriously, happens to me every darned time.

Though also, art requires a lot of practice. Sketch pads, you're kinda expected to go through some of them creating things that arent exactly meant to show to others. Stuff like line practice and whatnot.

Here, look at this:

I have pages and pages and pages of stuff like this. This is my lettering practice stuff. This specific pad is made FOR that but I have another marker pad that also is probably half of it like this and then the other half is being used for actual finished stuff.

If you're practicing, which you totally should be, you're going to have pages and pages of stuff like this too. I mean okay not EXACTLY like this, but you get the idea. Maybe you'll have lots of pages of character poses or even just shape & shading practice, or whatever.

It's just part of the hobby, sir.

I suggest that if you start on a drawing and you immediately like REALLY screw something up, take that page and make it into a practice page instead. I've done that one, where I like start something and sneeze and there goes the freaking marker across the page, and then... yeah, that becomes a line & curve practice sheet.

Anyway, I had been stuck in the way you're thinking for the longest darned time, and then somewhat recently it's like, you know what... heck with it. Just gonna make stuff. If it comes out good, cool. If it doesnt, hey, maybe it'll atleast be funny. Once I stopped worrying about it so much my output got more consistent and more creative.

Also dagnabit stop with the age thing. Of course you can keep learning and improving.

 

[Markness]

@Markness if you want, I can dm you and share some art resources with you ^^

I saw that you already DM’ed me but you can show me the resources.

 

[Fino]

I think it's common for a person to perceive their failures as themselves being a failure. A failure or even a series of failures is just that. It does not indicate that we ourselves are failures. This lack of identification as a failure, I believe, is one of the keys to continue trying despite any failures that may occur.