How you can discover the Artist Within Yourself.

There is an artist in every single one of us. Let’s try to find it.

Today I will share with you the process through which I attained my current level in sketching/drawing and how you can attain the same too. With no talent or experience, my journey through the entire process, expressed in one word, was “Enchanting.”

From the moment of struggle to the point of self-exploration, I was able to find a new artist in me that I never thought existed in me in the first place, and by the end of this article, I hope you find the artist in you too.

Some of my works.

I am no expert in the matter of sketching, but somehow, I managed to express my thought and emotions in a sketch, and through this medium, I might be able to help you find yours.

The Process.

I started this journey just like anybody else; I saw a couple of youtube videos of people sketching mesmerizing portraits of celebrities and was entirely captivated by it. After self-evaluation of current capabilities, two things were clear to me at that instant.

• I was not trying hard enough.
• I lacked patience.

Trust me, these two virtues, hard work, and patience are all you need to discover the artist in you. I know its universally true for attaining any skill, but for sketching, you need not have anything else except, of course, the pencil and the paper.

In the beginning, try to find out your reason for which you are searching an artist in you look for inspiration and meaning towards your approach.

Beginner dos

1. Set up your inventory- Find a good quality sketchbook and a graphite pencil at the start and try to buy pencils of a few different shades like (HB, 3B, 4B,6B); don’t rush towards charcoal pencil. If possible, buy a blender; also, it looks like a white pencil, you use it to smudge or spread your shade.
2. Seek guidance- If you have someone in your family or your friend who has any experience of sketching, go seek out support, and ask for guidance.
3. Appoint a professional- If you are serious in pursuing and honing your artistic skills, I can’t emphasize enough on how much you need to look for professional guidance. You can avoid a lot of pitfalls and attain a steady growth in your journey.
4. Most importantly, start sketching.

Beginner don’ts-

1. Don’t buy art supplies that you don’t need like overly expensive canvas, pencils, or supporting instruments.
2. Don’t force yourself to start. Try to find a suitable place with a little time in your hand.
3. Don’t rush into the completion of the task; try to enjoy the process itself.

Once all of the above is considered, try to continue what you have started and gain consistency. Research shows that consistency is the most crucial key to attain any new skill; hence try being consistent. It doesn’t matter if you are not able to invest more time; keep on trying.

In my case, at the very beginning, I was swinging my blunt pencil to form a figure of some sort, and after continues effort of redrawing the same section, again and again, I was finally able to figure out the curves and edges of my sketch, Its usually after the first day of trying many people drop the idea of continuing it further, and this is the day that you need to focus on-

Follow the following steps-

1. Get rid of all thoughts that might force you to believe that only naturally talented people can be an artist.
2. Relax your mind and be patient.
3. Ease up your body and focus only on the pencil and paper.
4. Find a reference for something that’s easy to draw like a cartoon character.
5. Finally, let your hand and mind coordinate while looking for irregularities in your sketch.

Basic sketch.

This first step is crucial as it will let you get the hang of it and will make you realize that it’s not that difficult.

I completed my first sketch after a bit of struggle. The result of it is shown below. These sketches were consecutively drawn for about three days, I was free at the time, so that became possible, but you can try to draw at least three random sketches in a week.

From here on all, you need to do is to step back and slowly start your approach step by step, learning about different shades of pencil and other shading techniques from all sorts of places take video reference, the guidance of a friend, or just glare at some sketches,

once you start looking for it, the opportunity to learn will automatically appear in front of you.

Slowly but steadily keep on understanding the essence of it.

Practice Sheet

Once the flow of shade and the habit of pencil flow is infused into your brain, the tedious process will steadily become comfortable, and you will start to venture into the artistic world. One thing that you will notice along the way is that the more calm and composed you are, the easier it will be to bend your pencil in the way you want, soon you will start to realize a sense of calm in yourself whenever you will hold a pencil to draw something.

Shading

After understanding the basics of sketching, when you can draw a rough sketch, the next step is to focus on the shading aspect of it.

To learn how to shade, you must understand the effect of light on an object and its orientation. Try looking at some sketches of famous artists on Instagram or refer to fig 2. and fig 3. of the above practice sheet.

Once you get the idea of where to shade now, it’s time to understand how to shade. For textures, try using hatching, as shown in fig.1. This style of shading is used in surfaces like the top of a hut or dimensional figures.

Now for shading hair, think of hair as a volumetric space and put a few layers of different shade by slowly sketching from the sides of the pencil and using a blender to smudge it in the defined space; keep on doing it until you get few different tones in the hair.

Don’t forget to leave some white spaces with the help of a pointed eraser; this will add different dimensions to it. Now follow the natural path of hair, and let your pencil follow that path; use the tip of your pencil, for finishing draw a few stray hairs from the side to make it look realistic.

My first portrait attempt

For the face and other body parts, I will suggest you go for a lighter tone and only shade shadows and the eye with a darker tone. The overall difference in the tone of shade from the skin to shadow must be maintained to make your sketch more lively.

Remember to blend the soft tone on the skin from time to time to get an edge-free shadow of skin. The use of a blender is essential to make your sketch look realistic try using blenders on spaces where you see high contrast in tone to make the transition between tone realistic.

Follow the steps and take your time to get the hang of it.

Cultivating the habits of an artist.

Research has shown that cultivating a habit is only possible if continuous dedication for the task is met with a constant supply of reward. For a new artist, commitment is the part which you control but to maintain motivation in the long run, you are entitled to a certain sense of reward, or else your motivation to pursue the same will drop.

For a budding artist, the initial reward is psychological. It includes praise from your loved ones, recognition of your effort, and an overall sense of satisfaction of trying something new.

So how to attain a constant sense of reward? In my case, I opted for seeking mental comfort and a medium to channel my negative emotions; hence the reward of satisfaction after completing a piece was terrific, and it drove me further.

If you are searching for something similar, the reward is inevitable in the pursuit of becoming an artist. Within a few weeks, you will get your drive to improve further; you just need a push to begin.

For the people who are in pursuit of creating a career out of it, I will strongly recommend you to seek professional help. A college degree in arts will help a lot, as it will open your ways to a bigger audience and give you a better platform to learn.

Follow the following steps to cultivate the habit of an artist-

1. Think of sketching as a medium of relaxation instead of a chore.
2. When you are bored, just observe your surrounding to get ideas and inspiration.
3. Give fuel to your creative side of the brain by leading a healthy lifestyle by channeling your anxiety through your sketches.

It takes time and patience to attain the lifestyle of an artist, but it’s worth it, with the monotonous lifestyle created by the corporate world that keeps on struggling to get from one point to another. It’s necessary to enjoy the most precious gift that was given to us by the almighty and adore it.

Once you attain the habit of an artist, you will feel benevolence and respect for your existence in this world. As an artist, you can appreciate the beauty of nature when you realize the beauty in yourself and your surrounding, this act of loving yourself will bring you close to what you desire and will also help you to enjoy the journey, that’s life.

Easing into the process

The most important aspect of learning a new skill is to learn how to ease into the process. If you force yourself to go out of your way to sketch, you will lose motivation, and your daily schedule will start to fall apart.

In such a scenario, what you should do is try to find spare time that you might waste on unproductive activities for your practice and try to cultivate a habit of keeping a small journal and a pencil with you to sketch on the go.

For me, after the first process, my examination started, so after about a month, I thought about beginning the process. It was not long before I began to opt for Rangoli (Traditional Indian art) and portrait sketches. Soon, I felt that all the negative emotions dwelling inside me due to boredom or anxiety created by the pressure of society and expectations started fading away, and I was enjoying my work, my studies, and my life.

some of my most refined sketches

With my first sketch in which I devoted my time and patience, I attained what every individual craves for, which was the applause and support for what I was doing, my effort turned into gratitude, and my gratitude turned into my will to go further.

It will be at this moment when you start to feel gratitude towards your effort, you will start liking the process and would have finally eased into the process of cultivating an artist in you.

If you keep on continuing along the journey, you will soon be rewarded with praise and a flow of positive energy through your mind and soul.

Through the entire process, one thing was eminent that learning something isn’t that easy, it’s a continuous process of dedication and reward, and many times hard work reaches a tipping point with no reward whatsoever. But the moment you cross that threshold of exhaustion and continuous effort is the moment you start building your new limit. This limit may surpass all your expectations from yourself and help you to attain something that you might have desired your entire life.

Conclusion

Sketching is simply your time invested on a piece of paper. It depends upon you how you think of that time; for me, it was a state of calmness, like meditation, that enabled me to maximize my productivity daily.

If you are still unable to find the right motivation to begin, consider this journey as a medium of relaxation and as an outlet of your stress and let the mind do its magic on a piece of paper.