Making Space to Form a New Habit
It’s my nature to be curious and want to dive deeper into learning something that has caught my attention. I am constantly reading, taking classes, and am genuinely curious about everything from art, to business, to food and nutrition, to self-improvement and especially spirituality to satisfy the woo-woo side of me!
About 5 years ago, I realized something about myself. When I was looking to make improvements in my habits to help my overall lifestyle and even health, instead of breaking a bad habit, I switched my thinking! I started making space for new habit and made it more of a positive experience. As soon as I flipped the switch, I noticed a big different in so many areas of my life that needed a little TLC or attention.
This has translated to my art and my personal art practice too. When we see posts on social media of people suddenly sharing something that they are becoming quite proficient at, sometimes our immediate reaction is that they have a natural talent. Sometimes, we think that we could never be able to do what they are doing.
What we don’t see are the hours and practice that they put into the act of learning and doing that new thing that they are suddenly getting really good at! If you’ve taken a class with me, you’ll know that I repeatedly share that practice is key and putting down the book, or turning off the lesson so you can put brush to paper is the only way you’ll learn watercolor painting.
Here is how to form that new habit of practice!
I’ve been collecting lots of sketchbooks and practicing how to draw faces, and portraits, and express these drawings using different mediums and will soon be adding watercolors to them - but I’m not quite ready for that yet!
You see, I’ve taken multiple classes, from different instructors, have learned all the technical steps I need to draw and successfully draw, but what I am lacking right now is more…. yup, practice! So I want to create a new habit! I want to sit at the end of the day and instead of flipping on Netflix or Amazon Prime and watch and hour or two of a show before bed, I want to spend half of that time sketching and practice my drawings in my many sketchbooks.
I want to share with you how I am making small changes, to effect big positive movement in my personal drawing practice! I’ll use my personal goal as an example and hopefully this will help inspire some ideas for your own personal new habit too!
I gathered a few simple supplies and a sketchbook and put them in the room where I normally sit and watch tv. What I also did differently, is instead of putting the sketchbook closed on my bookshelf, I left it open! Seeing my last drawing inspires me to pick up my pencil and draw again!
2. I told my husband (who is my tv viewing partner at the end of the night) that I have a new goal of sketching more and explained why it’s important to me and what I am hoping to get out of the practice. Now he can be more supportive and even encouraging by even offering a little nudge when I haven’t picked up my pencils for a few days.
3. Which takes me to my last point and very important one at that! I’m not setting a goal to draw everyday. That’s not the goal, my goal is to make the transition to practice more be a positive one. So if I had set a goal to draw everyday and missed a day, I would feel like I am failing and would probably stop all together. Instead, I set a goal to make more room in the evening to draw and work on my portraits and enjoy filling my sketchbook with all my practice so I can start adding some watercolor paint and see what happens!!
I’ve been on the hunt for some new sketchbooks and found this one that caught my eye. Do you have a favorite style or brand of sketchbooks that you love?!
To wrap-up it up, instead of making a new habit something that is challenging to do, find the time in your schedule where you can make adjustments. Then, make it easy by having everything out and ready to go so set-up or getting ready takes literally no time at all. Communicate to those who you live with what you are doing and why so they can understand your new habit better and support you! Then, practice and do the new thing!
I hope that sharing my personal journey and process of learning how to draw and sketch faces and portraits help to inspire you too dive into your personal art practice and enjoy the journey!! Let me know if you are making space for a new habit and what it is!
