Getting into the habit of drawing on one index card daily. I am happy that I have mostly stuck to the routine. I started on July 7th and today would be the first full month of the endeavor.
The Index Cards
I purchased some really good quality 4 x 6 index cards from Amazon. They are super thick and smooth – which makes it easy to draw with pencil and ink. It’s not for watercolor but it works well with light washes. You just can’t do some of the usual watercolor tricks like wet-on-wet.
Inspiration
I was inspired by Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, who draws on postcards daily and has produced a massive collection of these drawings. I figured I’d give it a shot to see what kind of drawings I can do and hopefully develop a solid, healthy habit of drawing daily.
In doing these drawings for a month now, I was forced to face the challenge of figuring out what to draw. A lot of it have come from references from books and Pinterest. I’ve copied some of them directly from source but have found that it is more enjoyable to modify them a little or even combine a couple of images.
Schedule
Finding the time to produce these index card drawing has been a challenge. For now – I’ve settled on doing these before bedtime – which means getting myself to stop watching TV an hour before my bedtime. I am not sure if this is the right schedule long term as I find myself having to deal with tiredness while drawing. Music has helped to get me in the mood and it’s a required element whenever I sit down to do these.
Going forward – I’m hoping I can do these in the morning. Which means committing to waking up earlier.
Why Index Cards?
I love the feel of holding a stack of these index cards in my hand and shuffling them. I’ve tried this routine using a small sketchbook without much success. I think it’s because of the loose nature of index cards. I feel like whenever I grab a card to draw one – it’s just one card that I can mess up and throw away. With sketchbooks, there’s always the next page(s) at the bottom of the one I am drawing on and I feel there’s pressure there for me to not mess things up.
I’m really digging the idea of building a stack of these index card drawing so I hope I can keep this up.
Sample Drawings
