Overcoming Procrastination: Embracing Your Passion for Drawing

• Recognizing Procrastination: Acknowledge the tendency to avoid drawing despite a strong desire to create.
• Overcoming the Blank Canvas: Embrace the challenge of starting with a blank page.
• Breaking Down the Process: Divide drawing into smaller steps to make the task feel less overwhelming.
• Finding Inspiration: Utilize research and references to spark creativity and guide your work.
• Establishing a Routine: Emphasize the importance of making progress daily, even in small increments.

I know how it feels. You love to draw and you want to draw. But every time you feel like you should be drawing, you just find excuses so you don't do it.

You start cleaning up your room, doing your dishes, dim scrolling, anything to avoid sitting down and drawing. You tell yourself, oh, no, I should do these things first. It is a lot more urgent.

But deep down, you know that you are avoiding the most important task. This is called procrastination. To delay something intentionally. But if you're delaying something, why are we delaying that thing that makes us the happiest?

See, I used to think that I was delaying sitting down to draw because I told myself that if I did everything I needed to do first, then I could sit down and draw without any distractions. But now I know that that is simply just not true.

Because I would always find new things to do so I could avoid drawing. And if I had done this forever, I would have failed my dream and never become an artist. But now I know that I was wrong.

And I also know that the thing that I must do first thing in the morning is the thing that I love the most. Drawing. And I do it every day. How did I manage to do this?

Well, against every instinct in my body, I needed to leave some work unfinished the day before.

And I know living work unfinished doesn't sound like a good advice, does it? And you probably think I'm either crazy or an idiot or both. But hear me out.

One of the problems that you have when you want to sit down and draw is that every time you do, you face this blank canvas, which is a hideous, paralyzing monster.

One that tells you, leave me as I am, pure, unsullied. What if you ruin me? What if you fail? Okay, I'm going to stop doing that right now.

So yes, you must beat it at least once. And I have a tip for that coming up later. But then once you started, you are set.

Because if you leave a little bit of work unfinished when you wake up, instead of this, you get to see this. And you will know exactly how to keep going.

Because the only thing that you need to do is just keep doing what you were doing when you left. And when you're done with that piece, you will feel accomplished, you will be warmed up, and you will be ready to start on your next piece because you've done it before so you can do it again.

I know that it feels weird, and I'm starting the video with a tip that only works once you started drawing something. But once I tried it and once I realized that it was true,

once I realized that I only needed to beat the blank canvas once, then I could just keep going on forever. But you still need to beat the blank canvas, don't you? And yes, I still feel it.

Sometimes I open Photoshop, I try to visualize the image that I want to create. Sometimes it is clear, sometimes not so much. And even when I try to make the smallest mark on the canvas, I feel paralyzed.

I don't want to do anything that isn't perfect. But as Casey Neistat once said, never let perfect be the enemy of good enough. If you have an idea that you want to draw, that idea is good enough to be drawn.

But what if you don't have any idea? And every time that you feel like drawing, you end up drawing the same face in the same angle, over, over, over and over, until you feel that that's the only good thing that you can do.

Well, ideas can come from any place. And if you're watching this video, that means that you are a creative person. You have ideas.

So the first thing that we need to do is to split every part of the drawing process into small steps. This will help us be the overwhelming feeling that we have to turn nothing into something, because I don't know if you noticed, but that's our job.

So here are a few actionable steps that you can use. So when you finally sit down, you have the tools ready to help you every step of the way. And once you know them, you will never be stopped by a blank canvas again.

First, write down every idea that you have, no matter how dumb, write it down. Because writing down ideas actually help you turn your brain on and get all your creative mood going.

It has been proved. This helps me a lot. Sometimes I have a simple idea. When I try to write it down and describe it, I realized that trying to find the words to do so is a lot more complicated than I thought.

And this process actually helps me to polish my idea. In fact, you can also do an exercise and just find the images that you like and try to write down what the idea for that image was. Sometimes from that exercise, you might get a new idea.

So no matter where you are, if you're on the bus, you're in the bed, you're in the shower, when an idea comes up, take a second and write it down. This will help you overcome the paralyzing fear that you might have once you sit down to draw because now you have a list of things that you want to draw.

But if you feel like that might not be enough. Here's my actionable step number two. Do some research on your idea. Think about it.

Does this idea remind you of an artist? Of a song? Of a movie? Well, look them up. Find some reference of the ideas that you want to work on. Analyze their color palette, analyze their composition, analyze the character design.

Take what you like from each image, mark it down, and use it. But, because I know you, and I know that you're like me, I'm giving you a little limit on how much research you can make.

No more than 10 minutes, and you can choose no more than five images. That's it. Because I want you to use your research as an excuse to not draw. Okay?

I know that you can do that. So now you have an idea, you have some inspiration, you have some reference. It's time to draw. Oh, wait, you're still paralyzed.

Okay. Here's the final thing that you can do to get you drawing. And this is the part of a drawing process that I enjoy the most. So listen up.

The first thing that you're going to do, you're going to grab a pencil on paper and you're going to thumbnail first. Why, you ask?

Well, because creating a process where you take small steps towards creating your final image will help you get small wins. But also, if you make a mistake in some part of the process, instead of starting over, you can just go back to your previous step.

So now you don't have to start over every time. So on your canvas, draw four squares and, yes, only four. I'm looking at you, and you're going to try four different compositions for the illustration that you want to make.

Once you're done, you're going to choose your favorite, and you're going to blow it up to fill the canvas. And now you have a very, very, very rough sketch that you can start working on.

You can work on a more refined sketch, or if you're feeling very courageous, good for you. You can just jump on and work on the final image.

But remember, don't finish it today. You have to be part of it for tomorrow. This way, when you wake up, you will know exactly where you left, and you'll be able to start working right away.

Not only will this get you going and make you stop procrastinating immediately, but it will also give you the chance to look at your illustration with fresh eyes after a good night's sleep, giving you the chance, if you want to, to make some corrections.

And before you do it, you will have finished a piece with time to spare to start a new one. Do this, and you will start a working cycle that will keep you drawing every day.

This works great for personal work, but it works even better for professional work. If you get into this rhythm with client work, you will never miss a deadline.

But if you don't feel like working on a finished piece and you still procrastinate, what? You just want to doodle and sketch some random stuff?

Well, I have a video for you that you should watch and it is right here.