My two are:
Making sourdough. I personally always heard like this weird almost mysticism around making it. But I bought a $7 starter from a bakery store, and using just stuff in my kitchen and cheap bread flour I’ve been eating fresh sourdough every day and been super happy with it. Some loafs aren’t super consistent because I don’t have like temperature controlled box or anything. But they’ve all been tasty.
Drawing. I’m by no means an artist, but I always felt like people who were good at drawing were like on a different level. But I buckled down and every day for a month I tried drawing my favorite anime character following an online guide. So just 30 minutes every day. The first one was so bad I almost gave up, but I was in love with the last one and made me realize that like… yeah it really is just practice. Years and years of it to be good at drawing things consistently, quickly, and a variety of things. But I had fun and got something I enjoyed much faster than I expected. So if you want to learn to draw, I would recommend just trying to draw something you really like following a guide and just try it once a day until you are happy with the result.
Any specific drawing advice? I’ve always wanted to draw and to paint and have had such difficulty getting off the ground
I mean I’m not great in any way, but the way I did that I found very satisfying was find a tutorial where the end product is something you like and will take under an hour, or heck 10 minutes, idc.
Then follow it. The first time it’ll probably come out garbage. That’s okay! Think about which parts you did wrong.
Then the next day, follow the tutorial again. Then the next day, again. Each day try things differently to get closer to what the tutorial wants you to do.
After about a month I was super happy with what I drew and realized that if you just draw, you’ll get better.
I love this advice. I found someone on YouTube and poorly copied them on a MTG card (just altering it). It was fantastic, and I really am looking forward to the next one already
This is great advice btw. I know amateurs and pros who swear by the “paint/draw one small piece every day” approach.
Oh happy to hear that it’s valid advice! I got it from a speaker at a video game making thing I went to years ago that stuck with me.
Talking about it I suddenly have the urge to do it again xD It was very satisfying to compare last weeks drawing to this weeks, and the first drawing in the book to the last one. I can only imagine how satisfying it would be if I stuck with it for a year XD
This is why I joined a track-a-week music challenge this year! I’ve been dabbling for 5 years and still have no idea what I’m doing musically (no theory or anything) but I figured cranking out a finished song every week throughout 2024 would force me to get better and it’s really working!
I mean, I’m still cranking out garbage, but now it’s higher quality garbage and I can make decisions faster, let go of ideas that aren’t working without a second thought, and learn from other people taking the challenge.
As far as art goes, I’ve been drawing live caricatures for 15 years and I’m WAY better than even a few years ago. Definitely stick with it. Be too stubborn to give up. Keep doing the thing. Skill will develop the more you persevere.
If you’re wanting to take on a larger course and you’re interested in drawing realistic human figure then i suggest Riven Pheonix’s Invention of Man.
Each video is 15-25min. I do 1-2 daily. I watch animes for motivation.
It uses formulas for drawing the body(in too much detail) and slowly moves away from them. Probably overkill for anime figures or whatever but proportion and consistency are what i struggle with so a structured highly detail oriented cours is what works for me.
It’s hyper-detailed(many will say too detailed) but also i would otherwise know where to put things like the rib cage, shoulder blades or pelvis bones, random muscles in a dynamic pose. This are the little details that i see in shows that motivate me.
It costs $45 but the first several are on yt.
Just do it every day, and i a couple of months you’ll get an itch if you are not doing it :-)
Great for listening in on boring meetings too if you have to.
I appreciate it! I actually painted a little today, while I probably should’ve been working. It was delightful
The most important part is starting. The second is not quitting at the first failure.
Consistency is the most important aspect for learning to draw (and any other skill, really)
Don’t bother with spending lots of money early on. Buy some printer paper (cheap&plentiful), pencils, eraser and cheap hydrographic fineliner pens.
Draw something you want, something you’d like to do, then train a bit, or vice-versa. When starting, use references. Most kids start by drawing characters from shows they enjoy, you can do that, too. Have a reference close by so you’re constantly eyeing it and put it to paper.
Draw for fun first. If you still have some energy afterwards, do some exercises to better your line consistency, straight lines, perspective, etc. It’s important to have drawing as an activity that makes you feel good first before you start “taking it seriously”, training before doing the fun part.
I just wanna say that your comment (and the few others here) got me to whip out my mini paints for the first time in a while and paint a MTG card. I’m stoked with how it came out, even though it’s not “good” and I think I might invest in a few colors/a pallet (using cardboard now)