Here are a couple of sketchbook drawings I did during my recent trip to Bali, Indonesia. I was there on a meditation retreat at a beautiful center near the island’s biggest volcano, Mt. Agung. The watercolor sketch is of the stairs leading up to the center’s dining hall. From this side, you can see three Ganeshas, two at the base of the stairs, and one at the top.
It’s actually quite difficult for me to sketch in Bali because of how intricately ornate everything is. There is so much beautiful detail on almost every surface that it can be a real challenge finding something simple enough to sketch in a short time.
The only other sketch from my visit is of a Balinese man reading the morning paper, Nusa Bali. This one was done with my trusty Pentel brushpen.
Sketchbook drawing while a Ashram Ratu Bagus, Bali 2018
Did this fun little sketch awhile back of local donut shop, Spudnuts, with a few friends from the Charlottesville Urban Sketchers group. Little did I know that this local icon had been sold and was soon to shut its doors forever. For years, Spudnuts was a favorite among the locals and students at UVA. Happily, someone saw my sketch online and ordered a signed print. The original is part of my travel sketchbook and too small for framing, so I scanned it into Photoshop. I was able to enlarge it to 9×13 and give it a nice vignette. Thanks to T&N Printing for doing such a great job!
Featured prints of my illustration work are available in my shop. Prints of anything in my portfolio available upon request.
I was flipping through my sketchbook the other day, when I came across these watercolor sketches I did during my visit to Bali, Indonesia last year which I totally forgot to post. From temples to restaurants, from sculptures to coconut-waste piles, Bali has something beautiful or eye-catching everywhere you look. The coconut pile (which was from the discarded husks of tender drinking coconuts just outside my favorite restaurant) was not something I would have considered a worthy subject until a good friend of mine told me he was planning on sketching them himself. As soon as he mentioned it, it was as if I saw that pile for the first time with all its visual interest and artistic potential. It was a valuable lesson for me, not just for what it reminded me about seeing, but it also brought home the value of getting out and interacting with other artists- something that can be surprisingly difficult when you are a freelancer working from home.
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!
Last weekend, I attended a local SCBWI event (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) in Richmond, Va. Among the three excellent panelists was YA author, and 2015 Edgar Award Nominee, Lamar Giles.
Lamar did a super-fun Mad-Lib-style exercise with us called Story Starters, where he and the audience create a unique opening line by committee. Once the line’s created, the writers/illustrators in the audience have 15 minutes to write or sketch whatever that line inspires.
The sentence we came up with was “Alice never wants to hurt anyone again, but the robots won’t end the experiment.” Here’s what I came up with in 15 minutes:
I liked the sketch so much, that I went ahead and did a more finished version at home:
The cool part was that Lamar was pretty excited to share what everyone did on his blog, so I happily sent him both the sketch and the finished piece. Much to my surprise, not only did he post my images, but wrote up a pretty great review of my work as well. You check it out here: http://www.lrgiles.com/story-starters-scott-dubar-illustrator/ And for everyone interested YA fiction, definately check out Lamar’s books Fake ID, and Endangered.
I got to participate in a local Urban Sketchers gallery showing at the Virginia Center for Architecture in Richmond, which marked my first galley showing in a pretty long time. The event was organized by Jessie Chapman, who is a long-time board member of UrbanSketchers.org, an international organization that promotes sketchbook drawing.
The exhibit features our Urban Sketchers group, along with work from Andrew Moore, Don Gore, and Washington Post news illustrator Richard Johnson.
Above: Me standing next to my profound thoughts on the value of sketchbook drawing.
Oddly, none of the sketches pictured are mine. Below: A few of the panels that feature some of my work, along with Stephen Haske, Jessie Chapman, and others.
The show will be up through July 5, so anyone in the RVA area can drop by. Check out www.architectureva.org for more details.
Went to the downtown library today with some of the Urban Sketchers. Had a nice view of the street from a cozy window seat in the children’s book section. #urbansketchers #sketchbook
Met with the Urban Sketchers this Super Bowl Sunday at Buffalo Wild Wings. We got there well before the big crowds came, which was good since that gave us plenty of time to sketch, eat and talk without feeling pressured to give up our table. First image was colored digitally at home.
I attended my first-ever conference for the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) this past weekend, and all-in-all had a great time! My favorite talk was by illustrator/author Pat Cummings who was every bit as funny as she was informative. But the highlight for me was meeting illustrator Henry Cole for a critique of a children’s book I’m currently working on. His enthusiasm for my book along with his insights on improving it were worth the trip alone.
Joined the Urban Sketchers for the plein air event at the Miller School of Albermarle. It was a gorgeous day of sitting in the sun and the grass! Here’s hoping we get a few more days like this one before winter sets in. You can see photos of other artists at the event here.
