I'm trying to draw but I just can't relax and turn my mind off. How do I do it?

Question

I'm trying to learn drawing and I'm simply too critical. As soon as I put the pencil on the paper, I tell myself I'm making mistakes. I know being critical is a useful thing for an artist, but the extent I'm doing it is hindering me. My heart actually started beating faster when I tried. I just need to relax and try to work harder at it, but I just can't relax. What can I do?

Answer 1

I know exactly how you feel. It is good to criticism your artwork in some ways but not to the point where you cannot let yourself draw. When I first started painting I was too overwhelmed by the emptiness of the canvas to start painting. I was afraid of messing up and I was afraid being dissapointed in my work. My art teacher told me that he wanted to see me relax and just paint. He told me not to be afraid to make mistakes and instead to focus on finding ways to fix them. Mistakes are an artists best teacher. The same goes for drawing as well. I took a drawing class and I found that listening to soft music really helps calm and focus your mind while you work. Do not let yourself be overly critical of your work because that is going to hold you back more than anything. Just let yourself go and just draw and have fun with what you are doing. In time you will get better and better. If you were unsatisfied with everything you tried to draw and only looked at the mistakes then you would not increase your skills. Just reassure yourself by realizing that it is okay to make mistakes and that you will only get better the more you work at it. As for relaxing what worked for me is just not thinking at all. If you just clear your head off all the criticism it leaves you relaxed and focused so you can work without inhibiting yourself. I wish you the best of luck in your artistic goals and I hope this helped in some way!

Answer 2

I am a big time drawer and the hardest judge of my own work.

If you are right handed you will have a harder time focusing cause you use your left side of the brain.

Try looking at something you want to draw and draw it upsidedown.

I'm not crazy it works.

It helps you to get into the zone with the left side of your brain.

Relax and take your time.

This technique should help you focus!

Answer 3

Approach your drawing in a completely different manner.  For instance, what do you usually draw?  Do you try to make it super realistic?  Do you expect every drawing to be a masterpiece?

Think of drawing as practice . . . call it study, or sketching, and do it like you would practice a new instrument, new move on the basketball court, new dance move, or new language!  In fact, if you can let go of the notion that you should be able to draw without any difficulty, you will have mastered half of your problem.  

I am a somewhat accomplished (though not materially successful) artist, planning a painting right now that I am not prepared to paint the way I want it.  I have some difficult subject matter (there will be a motorcycle in it. . . I posted a question for help with my initial drawing of it), and i want to do it in a watercolor style I have not had a lot of success with, but know I can do. . . if I put my mind to it.  It is pretty intimidating.  So what am I going to do?

I am going to draw motorcycles.  I am going to practice the technique I want to master in watercolor.  And I am not going to set a limit on how long I expect it to take.  But you know in the meantime I DO expect I will be creating some amazing artwork while "training" myself for the big one!

So look at yourself as an apprentice sketcher/drawer/artist.  This means back way down and pick some simple objects that you can study, master and then learn from.  Draw three eggs in light that makes great highlights and shadows.  Draw an apple.  Draw your hand  or foot.  If you usually try to draw characters, draw a paper bag, or a chair or a stack of books.  In the mean time, draw limited parts of your characters: eyes one day, legs the next, hair the next, and so on.  It is not going to happen overnight . . . but that does not mean it won't ever happen.  You, in essence, ARE learning a new, foreign language, a visual one.  and guess what, with this language there are many dialects. . . abstract, impressionist, cubist, realist, surrealist, etc. Cut yourself some slakc, expect some mistakes (guess what. . . you really DO learn more from your mistakes than from things you do right. . . honest!)

Don't give up.  

Oh . . .and one more thing I forget to tell everyone struggling with their drawing. . . . put down the graphite pencils and pick up the charcoal.  Draw in value shapes (use the flat side of the charcoal and make broad, solid strokes), don't use lines, and see if you can block out the different values of a subject without drawing one single line.  It will be a revelation to you that there is more to drawing than lines. . . . .

Answer 4

smoke some pot, just kiding i think that you should take a long hot shower.

Answer 5

You are probably concentrating too much on trying to get what you are drawing to be flawless or proportionally correct. Try this.

Start with some classical music in the background. Nothing that really catches your attention, just something that offers some background music. As you start drawing, you will eventually tune it out anyway, but it is still important to be there for your mind.

Then start by doing some free spirited drawing exercises to get your mind in the groove of drawing. You can do a couple exercises where you try to draw something in about one minute. (Or 5 or 10 minutes, no more) It will be very messy, and usually have alot of mistakes. As you are drawing, don't worry about the mistakes, and you shouldn't be erasing anything. In reality, these sketches should be done on a big pad with charcoal. As you are doing these exercises, your mind will free up and learn not to think so much. Art is from the heart.

Answer 6

turn on some smooth music listen to some waterfall sounds just chill man they did it in the 70s and u can do it to =p