The order of things. Turn your art world upside down!

I'm always seeing artists doing warm-up sketches as a way to start the day. I've tried that. And it never works. Why? Because if I'm already working on a particular project, I'll only spend the whole time thinking about the project - I just want to get on with it! 

The idea of doing quick practice pieces is a sound one though, so what I do instead is to use them as a way to wind down after a day of hard concentration.

These two pieces I'm posting today, are examples of such sketches. I set my timer to five minutes, pick a background colour and then just draw until the bell chimes. I usually do two or three in one go and pieces that follow a theme, that way I don't have to think too much about what I'm doing, I can just let my hand and instinct work.

There are as many ways to approach one's work as there are artists, so don't be discouraged if the advice you're getting isn't working for you; a lot of times it's about trying something out for yourself and then either adjust or reject.