Learn better by better enjoying the present

A TIP I recommend especially for beginners who have difficulties to start – who try to draw, but can’t find any satisfaction at the moment.

Instead of focusing on getting “ambitious” result, and get frustrated, I recommend to focus on getting pleasure at drawing.

That’s how you will gain motivation and progress making your first baby steps. You may fall down often, but stand up as many times as needed till you can walk.

One way to enjoy and motivate oneself at drawing is to find a friend with whom you can draw with and having fun.  You will associate drawing with happy moment, and procrastinate lesser.

You will naturally draw more often and more spontaneously. Why?  Because your brain has created a direct link between drawing and pleasure! That’s how you will be later more prepared to learn and practice drawing fundamentals and “boring theories”. Eheh.

My friend wanted to play with watercolours today. She’s a true beginner. But she has good memories playing with watercolour when she was a teenager – and was enthusiastic about that drawing afternoon.

Draw what you like

I asked my friend Cherry what she wanted to draw. She says: I don’t know.
So, I suggested about fashion accessories because she loves fashion and fashion often gives great results with watercolour. But she was not that keen. So, I asked her to show me her keys. As I know her,  I bet she might have something cute that she might cherish a lot.

Bingo, we got a Teddy bear !

She spontaneously accepted to draw the bear. You can see the result below. Pretty cool 🙂

Harrod’s bear, sketched by Cherry

Harrod’s bear sketched by Chou-Tac

Go out and chit chat with your friends while drawing

When we become adult, we forget that learning with happiness gives results. Who said working, studying have to be boring. Try to make it fun!

The 7 tons baby is well balanced on his right hand.  We went to Garden by the Bay, and met that huge floating baby.

In Urban sketching, we often draw with a loose hand, with no much precision. We purposely skip a lot of details to focus the attention to the main subject: the baby.

I add the first layers of colours. Contrasting the cold colours of the buildings and babies to the warmer one from the trees.

I add some contrasting colours to make the sketch more vibrant.

Cherry and I knew that our sketches have plenty of mistakes. But we keep going and remain positive !

The last Time Cherry did watercolours was a long time ago. I quite like her choice of colours.

Cherry was drawing on a wide canvas: 240x680mm from Daler & Rowney paper for watercolour. 300g/m2

Let us know your comments !
See you guys for the next Tip of the day. 🙂