Month: November 2021

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Improving Drawing Skills

I have improved my drawing skills for the last couple of months because I wanted to draw illustration art for my blog postings. I did more painting when I was in school. After graduating high school, I paint or draw whenever I feel like it. I probably draw/paint more than most people. Since I have never taken time to practice painting or drawing seriously, I’ve never become good at painting.

 

I decided to copy drawings from manga Comics for my first project because I could not draw a picture without looking at anything. I wanted to know how much I could draw. My first drawing was not good. My first project helped me identify some problems that I could improve. For example, I ended up with too many lines. If I were to start drawing with a pen, I would not find the correct lines as there were too many. I also had difficulty with deciding the location for the eyes and the nose. There are so many things I need to improve. I could improve many, but I decided to work on my lines.

 

To draw a picture, you have enough resources in your head and technique to express the image. If you try to paint a person drinking coffee on the chair, you need to visualize the picture to create your original art. Even you have an image in your head, and you need to have minimum techniques to express the image on the paper. You will need to gain such resources or techniques from drawing a lot.

 

Painting and drawing require a lot of practice. You will need to draw a lot if you want to get better, just like practicing an instrument. Fortunately, we can learn basic drawing techniques online. Some YouTube videos even present you with how to practice drawing. If you’re going to be good at painting or drawing, you need to practice basic techniques. It would be best if you strived to learn as many patterns or pictures as possible to have many images you can pull from your brain.

Line Stroke Exercise

I decided to work on basic techniques – line strokes. Line strokes are essential for drawing. My line strokes were so bad that the character’s hair from my first drawing project looked unnatural. Line strokes also can affect the facial expressions of the characters. The exercise reminded me of my practice of learning calligraphy when I was 4 or 5 years old. When I started taking a Japanese calligraphy course, we learned how to create a beautiful line stroke. To make a beautiful line stroke, you need to control your hand and pen movement. I do this exercise on letter-sized standard paper.

 

Ever since I started line stroke exercises, I began to pay more attention to lines from a picture I am studying. I was surprised by how many techniques you can steal from great art. Thickness or the strength of the lines can impact the picture. For example, if you were to draw hair, you can make the hair more realistic by using solid and thick lines on the shaded area to create depth in the picture.

 

Contour lines

After a few weeks, I started to practice drawing contour lines. Contour lines are lines that define the outline of the image. I noticed from my first painting that the body’s position was slightly off proportion because I started from smaller parts. Drawing the contour lines first reduces this problem since the outlines form the objects. So, I concentrated on creating draft lines that captured a silhouette of the picture I was copying. Initially, I started using a black pencil to do this exercise. Then, I realized it would be easier for me to do this exercise with a light brown color pencil since I would not get too distracted with the details of the picture.

 

Draw Heads

When I drew the face of people, I found it was challenging to draw precise positions for facial features. I checked YouTube, and I found an exercise for drawing heads. I started by drawing a combination of Contour lines and central lines to draw faces. I do not do more than 15 minutes of practice. Drawing faces in different angles is challenging because of the shape or shading of the facial features changes. This exercise helps me to visualize how the dimensions should be expressed in lines with different angles. When I started, it took me much longer to draw one head without any details.

 

 

I am focusing on a few technical skills now. I spend no more than 30 minutes on these drawing exercises with a pencil on standard letter-size paper. There are two things I keep in mind. First, I have a purpose for the exercise per session. For example, I may practice “different angles of faces.” I practice only the angle of faces. I also put that label on the paper. I just practiced drawing. Second, I identify anything that I can improve from the drawing and write the findings on the paper for future practice. My husband suggested that I put the date when I did the exercise on the paper to see the improvement.

 

Ever since I started practicing line strokes, I have gotten much better at drawing than a few months ago. My drawing skills are improving slower than I would like. For example, the hair does not look like a piece of seaweed. I pay a lot of attention to the lines of my drawing than before. I found that improving drawing and painting pictures is like learning an instrument. This type of exercise resembles Hanon fingering practicing (finger dexterity exercise for piano players).

 

I have been practicing my drawing skills for the last couple of months. I draw a more complicated picture on the weekend, which helps me identify what techniques I still lack. I still need to learn other techniques in painting. In a few months, I am planning to add shading, body parts, and movement. I will continue to work on basic drawing skills because I want to have my pictures on my blog.

 

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Prioritization Part II

When we think about prioritizing, we usually think of prioritizing your to-do list for a short period. I have made several mistakes during my youth, resulting in me instinctively sensing the scarcity of my time. So, I always created a to-do list, and focusing on critical tasks was important.

Over time, I realized that this was not enough because I was not happy with what I was doing. With prioritizing my short-term to-do list, I got an illusion of being productive. Packing my daily to-do list without reengineering my vision, I soon noticed an unsettling feeling. When the uneasy feeling accumulated, I started to feel unhappy.

When you create your goals, you want to contemplate more on your mission and values. I went to university to get a degree which landed me in my job. I barely thought of “what I want to do.” After I landed a job as an accountant, I set a mission of advancing along my career path as an accountant. I grew unhappy with myself. Initially, I tried to ignore my feelings by making myself busy. Eventually, an event made me realize the importance of contemplating my actual values. (Please read my previous blog posting for details).

Once you have created your vision, you will need to see what you need to do in more detail – this is the process of creating your goals. Any goal should have the following five elements: specificity, measurability, attainability, and relevance with a time set for completion. Many people fail to achieve their goals because they are not detailed enough.

 

For example,

“I want to lose weight this year” is a bad example of the goal.

Firstly, you cannot tell how much weight you want to lose. A measurable element allows you to monitor how well you are achieving your goals to adjust your tactics to achieve the goal. Second, no specific time is determined when you want to start or end working toward a goal. Since the goal is too generic, we cannot see whether this goal is attainable or relevant.

Instead, you want to make a goal like this.

“I want to lose 8 lbs. within two months”.

Now, the goal contains enough information to be able to develop tactics to achieve the goal. Since you want to lose eight lbs. in two months, you will need to lose one lb. each week. To lose one lb., you will need to create a 3,500 calorie deficit by eating less or exercising more. Now you can create your daily tasks. In this case, you can complete a task of aerobic exercise 5 times a week. You want to make your goal with these five elements because it will be easier to identify the tactics to accomplish the goals and measure your progress.

 

Three Categories of Tasks

I classify the tasks necessary to achieve your vision and goal as A-type tasks. These are relevant to your vision and the purpose of living. You want to pay attention and treat these tasks very carefully as they can impact your life significantly.

Now, we talk about things you want to do, but they may not be a part of your vision. For example, I love reading, playing the piano, painting, etc. They are mostly things I enjoy doing. My goals will be all over the place if I include my hobbies as part of my goals. I classify these tasks as B-Type. Some of those tasks, such as playing the piano, required you to practice regularly. So, I have them as part of my to-do list.

Some tasks must be done by a specific date, although they may not be strictly part of your goal. An excellent example of such a task is renewing your car’s registration. I call these c-type tasks. These tasks often take much more time and energy if you leave them until the last minute. Since the task itself does not have value, I do not want to spend more energy than is necessary. I list these types of tasks separately. These tasks tend to distract me from completing other tasks to finish them as soon as possible.

 

“Need” vs. “Want”

Once you have the lists of A, B, and C type tasks, you need to divide the tasks into tasks that “need” and tasks that “want” to be done.” Pay attention to the due date for any tasks that need to be done by a specific date. The closer the due date is, the higher the priority for the tasks.

My B-tasks barely contain things which “need to be done.” By nature of the tasks, they are wishful tasks. My days will be occupied by mostly A and C tasks. They may not have high priorities, but completing these tasks gives me more energy. I treat these tasks like “a date.” I schedule to do them regularly.

I have a running list of tasks, which I use computer software to monitor the status. I prioritize the tasks for the week from the list, and I create a “to-do list.” As time is limited, we must carefully plan what we do each day. There are a few tricks I learned over the year:

  • Prioritize type A type C tasks. Complete as many C-tasks as possible.
  • I always keep 20% of flexible time in my schedule.
  • I have at least one essential task for the day.
  • I make sure to include tasks from your want-to-do list from Type A and Type B.

 

PrioritizingPrioritizationI wrote about an overview of prioritizing tasks in these two-blog postings. It is crucial to prioritize your tasks since our time is limited. I have so many interests, and I struggled a lot juggling my time. Many of us tend to fill our daily life with c-tasks. Don’t randomly fill up your tasks and prioritize them. It is also essential to spend some time contemplating your visions, values, and interests before generating and prioritizing your tasks to gain more control in your life. Finally, it will take a long time to become good at prioritizing your tasks. I still make mistakes. You will also make mistakes. You are always in the process of learning better at prioritizing your tasks.

 

 

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Prioritization – Part 1

What I found most difficult in my life was prioritizing what I needed to do because I wanted to do too many things. When I was young, I was pretty bad at prioritizing my tasks. As a result, I ended up quitting many projects I started. For example, I began to draw a picture and started learning a piano music piece. With full-time work or school, I could not take time for both at a time. Sometimes I had to quit one project. At the worst time, I had another urgent project which I needed to do, and I had to stop all other projects. My biggest problem in prioritization was that I often ended up picking a few of among many things. I have so many things I want to do most of the time. Every failed project made me uneasy; however, I ignored the feeling.

 

There was an event that made me conscious about my priorities when I was at a high school. My friend, whom I had known from elementary school, asked to accompany saxophone music for an event.  I knew I was busy, but I agreed to do it. After a few weeks, I resigned due to a time conflict. My friend looked disappointed, although he never blamed me for it. It made me feel awful because he had to search for another piano player. Since the event, I have become very conscious about prioritization. I realized some tasks could potentially impact other people. I decided to work on my problem so that I did not repeat the same mistake.

 

Despite my efforts, prioritization was more Prioritizationdifficult than I thought. I made a lot of mistakes in how to prioritize my tasks. I am still learning to juggle my schedule. Through trial and error, I got much better at prioritizing my tasks. Over time, I found out there are some tricks in prioritizing what you need to do. Today, I want to write about how I prioritize my tasks.

 

Prioritizing Tasks

I can categorize my tasks into two types. The first type of task includes things I must do. The rest are tasks I want to do. I could not pack my schedule with only tasks I must do to keep my life more satisfied.

 

Satisfying basic needs is critical for prioritization. Maslow’s developed a Hierarchy of needs to articulate the five levels: physiological needs, safety and security, love and belonging, and Esteem and self-actualization. The lower on the hierarchy the need lies, the more critical it is to satisfy it. For example, Physiological needs are necessities for us to survive, such as eating, sleeping, etc. Even though I love reading books, I cannot sustain reading books without sleeping or eating.

 

 

I must satisfy the tasks to fulfill the following needs:

Absolute Requirements: Eat, Sleep, Exercise

High Priority Tasks: Work so that my family can live safely.

Although, I noticed that I could sacrifice physiological needs for my husband when he was ill.

 

Satisfying our basic needs is essential; however, that is not good enough. We must fulfill some things that we want to do. We must find the balance between what needs to be done and what we want to do. When we consider tasks that we want to do, we need to consider visions and values closely.

 

 

Visions & Values

I think visualizing what do you want to do in the future is like drawing or writing. When I draw a picture, I make multiple drafts even before I start drawing. After the numerous drafts, you can finally begin to remove the image. Envisioning is just like creating a draft. Without the draft, it is harder to draw a correct picture line – the lines are like our goals. The clearer they are, the easier it is to focus and prioritize things to do.

 

Our vision must be aligned with our values. Values are something we cannot compromise. So, a misaligned vision will make you uneasy and unsatisfying.

 

I have a friend who went to a veterinary school in Japan. She loves animals. Being a vet does not solely involve playing with animals. Sometimes she may need to put a puppy or a kitty to sleep. She loves animals; however, this is something she could not compromise. So, she became a dog trainer. She makes much less money; however, she is much happier with her life.

 

When I was younger, I set my vision on climbing the corporate ladder. Therefore, I took on a lot of projects, and I worked a lot of hours. I started realizing that my vision did not align with my values. There are a lot of competitions and political games involved in climbing up the corporate ladder. The higher you go up on a corporate ladder, the more impact you have on others. One day, I created a system that ended up terminating several people’s jobs. Despite my promotion, I felt guilty and unhappy. That was the moment I realized that my vision and values were misaligned. So, I started contemplating what my values were.

 

Learning

Challenge

Creating

Freedom

Effectiveness

 

Competition is not my value; therefore, my vision was completely misaligned. After I realized this problem, I felt more relaxed with my life. I specialized in creating better processes at work. My curiosity is not limited to artistic fields such as playing the piano, drawing, reading, or learning something new. I will be satisfied if I can have enough free time to do them.

 

Our time is scarce. So, we must choose which requirement we want to satisfy– this involves prioritizing your tasks. If I am not careful, I can still overload myself with too many tasks. I feel discomfort from losing control of my time. So, I try to limit the number of tasks so that I have some wiggle time. And therefore, I must prioritize what I need to do.

 

Prioritizing is essential since our time is limited. It is necessary to distinguish what you need to do and what you want to prioritize tasks. Then it would be best if you considered your vision values. Without vision, you will be unfocused. If your vision is misaligned with your values, you will be dissatisfied with your life.

 

The better I become at prioritizing my tasks, the more control I gain. Over time, I found out there are some tricks in prioritizing my tasks. I still make many mistakes in prioritizing; although, I try to improve my experience. I hope my experience can help you to prioritize your tasks.