Early-morning daily practice

Preparation is key

Drawing board, paper, pencil and pens all set up ready to go for my drawing practice this morning.

I often struggle with overwhelm with the result being that nothing gets done and I go to bed frustrated. Like the majority of us, prioritising ourselves, or what we want to do ,often gets swallowed by the things we have to do.

Since mid-June this year I have consciously made the effort that drawing and painting takes priority over all else but to make sure that happens, I sit at my desk as soon as I get up - well 90% of the time. I prep my water, pencil, pens and brushes the night before, have a drink set up and paper organised and a photograph in mind to work from. Having this preparation in place makes the sitting down and getting started so much easier. Easier means it is more likely to be achieved.

I spend 30 minutes on a quick sketch or painting, the majority to date have been for my Westgate series, and often by 6.30 - 7 am I have one finished. Whatever happens now for the rest of the day, I have achieved something and I think that is having a positive mental benefit. By being consistent, even at just one drawing a day, I will rack up close to 400 drawings in a year. Little actions have a massive impact. But as important, that consistency of practice means that my work has improved and my confidence in it has grown equally.

What I have found is that getting started first thing, before my head wakes up properly and the self-talk takes over, is a mentally much quieter time to work. Sometimes I’ll have an audiobook playing, sometimes some music but mostly I’ll work in silence whilst the house and the world outside is quiet.

I’ve had many attempts at Julia Camerons morning pages but always chose to give up over time as just became a self-flagellation exercise. Think part of this for me is there is no tangible result for the same 30 minutes of effort. Drawing, sketching, painting or even just playing with colour mixing for the same duration literally leaves a mark. I found that much more rewarding so drawing rather than writing is how I complete my morning pages.

I have found that the hardest part is mostly overcoming inertia. Getting started first thing before all else has helped me overcome this with moderate ease. Once overcome, I am sometimes able to do more than one drawing. Sometimes straight afterwards and sometimes much later in the day. I am so happy with the consistency and the reward possible for one drawing a day but if I can get to 3 or 4, thats over a 1000 drawings a year. But herein lies the problem - I start setting goals or targets and that can spiral way too quickly and drop me back down again and I aim to avoid that at all costs.

So rather than a quantity target or goal, I will just be grateful for hitting my process goal of just sitting down each morning to draw and paint. One is great, more is amazing, progress is the true reward though not numbers.