Week 47 // Making Art Everyday • Bardot Brush

Week Forty-Seven

There are just over six weeks left in this year. Can you believe it? I’m in the process of planning Making Art Everyday for 2020 (!!!), and I think you’re going to love it. That being said, now is the perfect time to start establishing (or reestablishing!) your habit, so keeping up with daily drawing feels easier come the new year.

A habit is something you do so often that doing it is no longer a question for you. It takes some effort to establish a habit, but once you do, it literally serves you. Here are some tips for how to stay motivated in your art-making habit.

Set a fixed time to do it every day
Its a lot harder to keep up with a habit if you are only squeezing it in when you have the time. Instead, make an appointment with yourself at the same time each day.

Set a timer
Set out to draw for just 10 minutes. Knowing that you’ll only be spending a small amount of time drawing might help you feel less intimidated and starting is most often the hardest part. More often than not, you’ll find yourself reaching the end of that time and want to keep going — that’s great! It means you are feeling motivated.

Join a community
Being able to connect with others that share the same goal and are experiencing the same struggles as you can be a huge help. Your efforts to support others will also motivate yourself! Join our new Making Art Everyday facebook group for additional support from fellow MAE artists.

Don’t let your misses get you down
Life happens, and you will miss days. Don’t dwell on it. Remember that drawing 305 or 278 days of a year is still a huge accomplishment, and every minute you spend drawing is valuable.

Think of it as a discipline
Discipline is a commitment to yourself. You are training yourself to behave in a certain way — in this case, drawing every day. You may not feel like drawing some days, but you CAN do it. Always remember the reason you started doing this in the first place.

What to Do

Try to implement some of the above tips and techniques to get you back on track with your art-making habit.

November Prompts

Environments

All three of these prompts are a little sparse in the plant department, so there’s going to be less to work with in terms of variety of shapes. Don’t let that worry you! start with a little research as usual. Pick out a plant or (or even animal!) that does exist in this environment and use it as your foreground, maybe coming into the frame. This foreground element will have the most detail. You can even make the sky a dominant part of your illustration like I did in my grasslands illustration. See the tutorial below for even more tips!

Week 47 | Nov 18-24

Climates

Mon: desert – sketch
Tue: desert – final art
Wed: grassland/prairie – sketch
Thu: grassland/prairie – final art
Fri: acrtic – sketch
Sat: arctic – final art
Sun: further develop your favorite piece from the week.

You can access each week’s prompts at makingarteveryday.com

TUTORIAL: How to Make a Value Study

Learn how to reduce your drawing to shades of grey to study value — the lightness and darkness of colors. I’ll walk you through the process of creating my grasslands illustration and show you a few great tips for how to analyze value in Procreate to plan your composition and make improvements as you work.

Week 47 progress Tracker

Track your Making Art Everyday progress! See at-a-glance all you’ve accomplished, and reflect on the work you’ve done at the end of the week. Visit bardotbrush.com/progress to download the monthly tracker and weekly reflection sheet. There are also instructions about how to use them.

Did you hear the news? We have a new Facebook Group!

Making Art Everyday // Bardot Brush

I created a new Facebook group just for participants of Making Art Everyday and all things Bardot Brush! Come join our group of supportive artists of all skill levels, share your work, ask questions, and be a part of the community!