Three Practices for Growing in Drawing: Loving the Art, Copying with Precision, and Perseverance

Summary

Three things matter most in growing as an artist: loving drawing, raising the precision of one's copying practice, and continuing for five years or more. When the Church's creator first began to draw, lines would not go where intended, and for a long time there was the frustration of shapes in the mind refusing to appear on paper. At that time there was little that could be called drawing skill. Yet through continued drawing, the hand gradually began to respond. This article presents, in turn, the three practices that have actually sustained the creator, for those who wish to draw manga and anime-style pictures beautifully.

Background

The first is to love drawing. Before technique, the shortest path to improvement lies in protecting a state in which one can go on loving to draw. A pencil held while one is beginning to dislike drawing does not easily grow. To love does not mean sustaining some special passion; it means, even on days when nothing goes well, noticing that one line was a little better today, and, rather than feeling discouraged by the work of others, simply admiring its beauty. Such small attitudes, accumulated over a long time, become the foundation that supports one's skill.

• Make a habit of looking first at the parts that went well
• Set aside time to look at favorite works in order to enjoy them, not to critique them
• On tired days, do not force a piece to completion; simply draw some lines and stop

The second is to raise the precision of copying. Copying is a practice many people take up, but what matters is precision rather than the number of pages, and the turning point is learning to measure with the eye where, and by how much, the drawing has drifted. First observe the subject closely, and before drawing a line, confirm the relative positions of the eyes and shoulders, the angle of the outline and the shape of the empty space. Then draw, and finally, always place the drawing beside the original and compare them. If this comparison is skipped, copying becomes mere routine and progress slows.

There is no need to reproach oneself on finding a discrepancy. Being able to find it is evidence that one's powers of observation have grown. The ability to draw beautifully grows first not from the hand but from the eye. Copying is not imitation; it is the work of understanding the structure of the subject anew.

The third is to continue for five years or more. This is the most demanding element, and the most certain. In the creator's experience, about five years were needed before visible change took hold. The first year may be a time of impatience at the lack of progress, but by the third year one can notice the difference from earlier drawings, and somewhere past the fifth year comes the sense that the hand is catching up with one's intentions. Only when all three elements come together does drawing skill take shape.

Effort, even when it seems that no one is watching, is never wasted. The time accumulated will surely appear in one's lines somewhere. That is why we hope readers will not give up. The Church believes that those who persevere can surely improve.

Additional notes

Exhortations such as "just push through" or "you lack willpower" are of little use. If anything, they wear people out and drive them away from drawing. What seems a detour but is in fact a shortcut is engaging with philosophy, that is, cultivating one's thinking about why one draws, what one finds beautiful and how one handles failure. When this thinking is in order, the quality of practice changes; discouragement becomes lighter, recovery comes sooner, and as a result one is able to continue.

Not only for manga and anime-style art, the path of growth is a quiet cultivation of both skill and heart. Even if today's drawing does not turn out as hoped, it has surely been added to what has gone before. Trust your own progress, and keep drawing.