A Charles Addams-style cartoon of a weary space traveler who unknowingly arrives at…The Wrong Planet! Wrong Planet was a single-page comic I did for a graphic novel class I took while attending VCU. I came across my rough pencils for this when I was organizing my art drawer a few weeks ago and thought it would be worth finishing up. I’m so glad I did! Not only was it a lot of fun, but I’m really happy with how it came out. Since most of the panels are more or less square, I went ahead and broke them up into individual images so I can post them as my first-ever Instagram comic. Below are images of the original pencils I did way back when, along with a recent progress shot of the inking done with a combination of brush and crow quill pen.
Illustrator Scott DuBar’s five tips for how to successfully complete a daily drawing challenge.
A 365 Drawing Challenge, also known as a Daily Drawing Challenge, is one of the best ways to improve yourself as an artist. If you are not familiar with 365 Challenges, they are based on the simple idea that if you want to get really proficient at something, spend a little time each day for one year doing it. You will be amazed by the results! (This technique, by the way, can be applied to anything you want to improve at; from writing to cooking, photography to exercise.) Posting your progress regularly online helps give additional motivation, since friends, family (THE WORLD!) will be able to track your progress and follow you to ultimate victory, or uncompleted defeat.
I first learned about 365 Drawing Challenges when I came across an article on Pixar animator Everett Downing, who was challenging himself to create a unique superhero or supervillain every day for one year. This seemed like a great opportunity for me to further develop my own superhero character I had been working on, Kid Hercules. I was so excited by the idea, I didn’t plan out a single thing beyond “draw Kid Hercules doing something heroic every day.” I quickly ran into many roadblocks and found myself scrambling to improvise a way to keep up the challenge.
Here, then, are five tips to help you get your own 365 Drawing Challenge started off without a hitch, and to make sure you keep going every day.[separator type=”default”]
1. Have a clear plan ahead of time.
My 365 Drawing Challenge plan was to do daily drawings of my superhero character, Kid Hercules, the star of a graphic novel I am developing. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize how quickly I would run out of ideas for what to have him doing. Since my main objective was to simply work out being able to draw my characters consistently from every angle, I got the idea to put my characters in the place of iconic comic book covers. I found it so helpful and rewarding (not to mention much faster), that I started creating boards on Pinterest to collect a variety of comic book art, children’s illustration, and photography that I felt my characters would fit well into. Not only did I learn a lot from copying other artists, I was able to work out a variety of design issues with my characters, and to gradually learn more about their personalities and how they might interact with each other.
Another thing I did, based on a friend’s suggestion, was to devote a few days’ worth of drawings to create each frame of a walk cycle. I did this in a Moleskine, so I had to use a ruler to try to keep my ground on the same level, and had to take a little extra care to keep Kid Hercules from growing or shrinking too much from frame to frame. In the end, I had everything I needed to put together a simple animated walk cycle. Even if you’ve never done animation before, it’s very easy to find a walk cycle reference to follow, and really gratifying once you’ve pulled it off!
Lastly, I made a point to keep up with the latest drawing prompts from IllustrationFriday.com. It wasn’t so helpful in my case because pretty much none of their prompts were suitable for my particular project. However, each time I did an illustration based on their word prompt, I did a finished, full-color piece.
2. Pinterest is your friend. If you are not already using Pinterest, I highly recommend it. Pinterest lets you collect images from anywhere on the web and organize them into “boards.” You can visit my Pinterest page to see how I utilized it. Start collecting references and inspiration for your daily drawings. In the process, you will learn so much just by making a habit of looking at art on a regular basis, particularly art you want to emulate. Just make sure you start collecting plenty of reference images well before you begin your Drawing Challenge. I got so much out of the experience, I still use Pinterest to this day, even long after I finished my 365 Drawing Challenge. Download the app for your phone or tablet and have your references with you wherever you go!
3. Make sure you always have backup supplies.
Whether it’s extra pencils, pens, or sketchbooks, make sure you never have an excuse for not drawing. If you are using pencils, make sure you have a couple of pencil sharpeners. If you are using a mechanical pencil, make sure you have plenty of extra leads. If you are inking, Pentel makes really awesome brush pens to help you avoid the hassle of carrying around messy brushes and bottles of ink.
4. Be portable.
Make sure you can easily carry your supplies with you wherever you go. I use a laptop bag for my art supplies. I don’t even own a laptop (never liked them), but I like that people just assume that’s what I’m carrying- makes sketching suddenly seem much more professional! It also has nice storage for spare pens, pencils, etc.
5. Don’t worry about making or posting a fully finished drawing every day.
When I started my 365 Drawing Challenge, I made a point of penciling, inking, and shading my drawings every day. Since I was also thinking up my idea for the drawing on the spot, this approach took up way too much of my time. (See: Have a clear plan ahead of time.) To be honest, I was worried that the Internet would judge me for not really completing the full drawing in one day. Initially, I switched to penciling the drawings during the week and getting caught up on inking over the weekend. Even this started to become impractical, so I just dropped the inking altogether. This freed me up to focus on what I considered the most important part- drawing every day. However, this turned out to be a real boon because it meant that once I completed my 365 Challenge, I was able to go back and essentially do it all again. So not only did my drawing improve, but my inking as well.
In regard to posting my work online, my decision to only post fully inked images meant that I quickly fell behind following even a weekly schedule. I also chose to scan my drawings rather than simply taking cell phone pictures which can be fairly tedious and time-consuming, and made daily posting far too impractical. The bottom line is: this is your project. Use it to improve your skills and to have fun while doing it. Don’t get bogged down trying to do things that aren’t essential to your primary goal.
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Benefits Of Completing A 365 Drawing Challenge:
1. Became a much better and faster illustrator.
2. Improved my thinking process when doing client work.
3. Learned more about illustrators whose work I admire, and discovered artists I was previously unaware of.
4. Gained a sense of real accomplishment.
Even now, anytime I look at my online collection for all 365 drawings I did, I can’t help but be a little impressed with myself that I did nearly 400 drawings! It also helps to keep me motivated, having something like that to remind me of what I can accomplish when I put my mind to it.[separator type=”default”]
Bonus tip: If you miss a day- own it. Mark it down in your sketchbook and move on. I put a big X mark on the page for each of the two days I missed. Initially, I felt so bad I thought I would have to quit or start over from the beginning. After a little reflection, I came to the conclusion that I had come too far (I was roughly halfway done at the time) to do anything but soldier on ahead. I’m glad I did!
You can see all the illustrations I did for my 365 Drawing Challenge over at KidHercules.com.
[separator type=”default”]Looking for more helpful tips to complete your own 365 Drawing Challenge? Try out some of the links below!
Illustration proposal I did for Mike’s HARDER for a limited edition drink called Passion Fruit. I really like how this one came out but for some reason, they decided to go in another direction. Happily, the good folks at Mike’s did use my work for another drink of theirs called Tiger’s Blood, which you can check out here if you like.
I was recently invited to participate in a contest for Mike’s HARDER, to come up with an illustration for a new, limited-edition drink called Tiger’s Blood. While I don’t normally go for contests, I really liked the brief and felt this was a nice opportunity to work outside my usual style. The result is an illustration that is very different from what I typically showcase in my portfolio, which was a lot of fun for me to do.
Latest work for Utah Adventure Journal for an article called “Curse of the Beercation.” According to the article, microbrewery tours and early morning kayaking don’t really mesh well together. Who knew?
Below is the sketch that got approved along with an alternate idea for a zombie-themed illustration featuring drunken hipsters on a microbrewery tour.
Here’s a piece I did for an article in FORE Magazine, put out by the Southern California Golf Association. The story is about efforts being made to encourage golfers to speed up their game a bit. Below are some of the sketches I did that didn’t make it.
As much as I like each of these ideas, I think FORE made the right choice for their magazine. And here’s a digital tear-sheet:
Here’s a quick sketchbook portrait I did of my wife’s cousin when he came to visit us over the summer. It turned out to be a pretty good likeness, so I colored it in Photoshop. You can see the original below.
I’m proud to announce a new project I’m undertaking called Kid Hercules 365. It’s basically just another 365 challenge where I draw a new Kid Hercules illustration every day for one year. I’m doing this as a way to help me develop my characters for a graphic novel that’s been brewing in my brain for awhile now.
Latest work for Utah Adventure Journal on whether or not the Norse god Ullr (stepson to Thor) is truly the god of snow. Below are some of my initial sketches for the assignment.
Latest work for Utah Adventure Journal. Had fun with the 50’s retro approach and limited color palette. Below are a few of my initial sketches before hitting on the final idea.
