How do YOU practice?

[migxmeg]

Every day (no exceptions): low key sketch at the breakfast table. We're planning for our next project, so it's a good time to work out ideas for that, but as long as I do something with the pencil for 15-45 minutes, it's whatever I feel like!

Twice per week (most weeks): panel study from someone else's comic. Great way to try new things and engage with other work.

Then there's comic work, which itself is practice.

[elyss]

Currently stuck in the writing stages again, but when I did draw, my warm up was either requests from my spouse of her OCs or doodles of my characters. I'd also do some monotonous wrist warm ups like drawing circles and lines.

[Rhonder]

If there's a specific area that I want to target, then I try to find time to sit down and just draw a bunch of the thing and do some studies. I recently did this with both arms and legs, for example. Trace several, sketch several, trace over some muscle diagrams, etc.

I don't do much general practice, although I probably should. I'm in the camp of people that looks at the projects I'm doing at this stage in my creator journey as "practice projects" so I try to just look at the whole process of making my comic as practice of sorts.

That said I've recently tried to get back into doing some gesture drawing warm ups and have been thinking about trying some of those wrist warm ups that an earlier reply mentioned as well (lines, circles, line weight control/variation, etc. )

[MeltingCORE]

I also do gesture drawings but other than that, I kinda just go with the flow. And my flow usually ends up with me drawing almost every day anyways lol! With writing, I do write every day around noon for a bit. More rigid with that.

[arxianfall]

2 comics, 1 book, keeping up with actually being an extreme sports athlete and filming that, Social media work so I become relevant enough to get a tip one day,
I literally don't have time to practice!

[Black_Conscious]

tbh I just do whatever and if it looks good than I go with it

[ble]

Mostly it happens when i see a great art someone else made, and i try my absurd intent to copy it, to maybe learn some of their techniques or something, then what i made always results 10x times worse than what i was trying to copy, but i guess i learn some stuff from doing it.

[rajillustration]

My practice routine is making my comic, actually. The other things I do tend to be a lot more detailed and particular. The comic is more streamlined, I can kinda go into autopilot, and just...focus on bits at a time.

[nathanKmcwilliams]

I draw something every day. Even if it's only a quick sketch.
I'm the kind of person who only gets better by grinding day in and day out. When I take a day off it's really rare and I always feel ashamed for being lazy xD

[Jophiel]

Not as much as I'd like to tbh I am dealing with mostly other creative/art-related stuff often so I don't have much energy to draw for myself at times. Idk i just found for myself that the last thing i'd think after doing something art-related is "Man, i wanna draw again". I just draw and go.

[Eiranyx]

Since I'm doing comics, I'm drawing everyday so I guess that's practice itself? however, I sketch it all digitally to save time so I guess not really(?)... but when I draw in between breaks from doing my comic, I usually practice by drawing on paper to catch up on my traditional drawing skills using different mediums like watercolor, ink painting(like those sumi and gongbi painting) -- I recently got hooked on it btw, its so relaxing~ ^^ , acrylic painting ,markers, and of course the usual pencil sketches.

[Rhonder]

however, I sketch it all digitally to save time so I guess not really(?)

Nah, definitely really Digital drawing still counts as practice for sure!

[BrambleberrySquirrel]

Right now I get a lot of practice in by drawing my fursona in different scenarios. Right now I’m practicing facial expressions by drawing a big ref sheet with lots of different emotes. Having a dedicated character that represents me is a great motivator for practicing different poses etc.

[Kiweevil]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[Puck]

I don´t want to open a new topic in the forum but maybe someone reads my question here.
How do you guys practice writing? Is there any good practice for that besides "just write"?

[Kiweevil]

(post withdrawn by author, will be automatically deleted in 24 hours unless flagged)

[Puck]

I have ideas all the time, especially when I wake up in the morning, in the shower like you mentioned and so on.
I have hundreds of comic ideas but I have a huge problem with sticking to one story and finishing it, I think one reason
is that I don´t really start to write them down

[zelaaa]

Hmmmm...well it depends on what I'm practicing for haha
but in general, I usually use my favorite characters as models for what I'm practicing. If I feel like practicing shading, I use a particular character whose face might be more angular and more fun to shade. If I want to practice gesture, I use the more cartoon shaped characters that I've created. If I want to practice expression, I use the characters that I feel have more flexible faces and designs.
Which brings me to my next point: just be in the moment of what you want to practice. If you want to do shading, do shading. If you want to do lighting, do lighting, etc. Do it when you feel the most enthusiastic about learning new things about your own style.
Also, it's good to look at tutorials and practice what you've learned from them, but it's also just as important to practice your style in itself to learn what you're most comfortable with and what you feel is the most compatible with your style. My older style did really call for traditional shading, I would just airbrush some light on one side and touch it up and et voila! I was done.
It's okay if you feel your style is a bit inconsistent because your style is always evolving and it's good to keep things changing!
Make sure that when you practice, you're actively trying to get better and you're not just doodling. SOME STRUGGLE IS GOOD
And I mean...practice...practice a LOT...like...10,000 (not exaggerating) hours of practice will make you good at anything

[simplykit]

im like...

then 5 mins later...

[carreonaiwille]

I used to follow an advice where you have to choose a random theme, emotion, object and character then turn it into a scene. Sometimes, I write short scenes that just pop into mind. Maybe because it isn't as structured as my current WIP, the results sometimes surprise me. The scenes are sometimes vaguely related to the WIP, so kind of better than jumping in to writing without warming-up first because my mind buffers more with writing than drawing.