I know. Enough with the ears already! Agreed. I will next present you with the coolest automobile of the twentieth century. Stay tuned. Better yet, subscribe and receive each new post in your inbox! Free entertainment! No more than one a day. See the sidebar or down in the footer. If you’re reading this on Instagram, the link is in my bio. By the way, my blog posts go automatically to Instagram and suffer limits as a result. You get the entire post, links, often more images and usually more interesting written content when you subscribe. I’m just sayin’.😉

In an effort to improve, I chose an ear from the last post and sketched the wax out of it. Never seen wax used as an expletive have you? I’m starting a trend. Destined to become the W-word or the W-bomb no doubt. It’ll be bleeped on television, you wait and see. Why I bet no self respecting actor will even dare use it! And we know all actors are self respecting don’t we?

But I digress. France Van Stone passed along a valuable tip in a comment a few days ago. “I would draw it five more times on the same page.” As we all know, sketching daily is the best way to improve every aspect of one’s creativity. Add to that, sketching the same subject several times on the same page, particularly if you are learning a new technique or skill.

In this case, I’m learning the ballpoint pen crosshatching technique, but with the added twist of doing each sketch in 15-20 minutes, depending on complexity. That aspect truly improves the observational skills, which is a good thing. You just have to accept your mistakes until you don’t make so many of them. If you’re using a pencil, you have the luxury of correcting the mistakes but, that adds time and the clock is ticking after all. Really, over the long haul, setting a time for completion of a sketch really improves every skill required to sketch or draw. As long as you contemplate the outcome.😉

I highly recommend doing so. I just start the stopwatch on my phone and see how much time elapsed when I’m satisfied with the sketch. If it took longer than the time I mentally set, I study the whys about the method or technique I used. Did I waste time on details? Line quality? Did I attempt to draw the subject rather than sketch it? Did I lose my focus on the goal in general? Was there something about the subject that was difficult for me? What can I do to make it less difficult next time? It really gets you to your skill destination faster if you think about these things after you sketch.

Don’t go getting stressed out though! No self-slapping or name calling! Just see your analytical self as the teacher and educate yourself by answering the questions. Your next sketch will be better for it and gradually, mind you, these thoughts will begin to gently float through your mind as you sketch. They won’t be a disturbance to the peace of sketching, but rather, just a somewhat conscious thought overseeing your process.