Sketch Processes and Studio Thoughts: Improvisational drawing, staying loose and keeping interest in a drawing. (Patreon)

Hello! I wanted to share a bit about my sketching process and what keeps me excited while drawing, because sometimes It’s really daunting and difficult to keep motivated when things are obviously not working, and I find myself in this situation a lot.

Staying excited about a drawing can be exhausting, especially when nothing is going as planned. What I have in mind for a piece and what I actually vomit out onto the paper/cintiq are sometimes worlds apart and it’s discouraging. So to help quell some of this frustration I’ve been doing a lot of improvisational work to keep my sketches loose so I can ‘find the drawing’ instead of planning every pose and feeling like I’m losing steam.

Drawing digitally has always been a challenge for me, especially trying to keep lines loose and energetic the way I enjoy with traditional media. The process of layering, endless undo's and zooming in to every pixel can be a curse for me. But I do love being able to build up and erase out of drawings endlessly, which I wouldn’t be able to do on paper. Doing sketches that are VERY messy and very loose at first, then erasing and building them into something legible, is the only way I’ve found that keeps the flow like my traditional art and keeps me interested in a drawing.

I’ve noticed I tense up while drawing on a cintiq and I think it's changed my style a bit, so I'm focusing this month on making sure I loosen up my line art. I’m trying to layer it better and keep in some of those 'found lines', which are the more sketchy lines I make while figuring out a shape. I also try to mimick and learn from some of the sketchy lines I draw first. I feel like my subconscious brain is a better drawer than my critical brain is, so finding that loose expression of reality is where I like to start first, then I let my internal critic rip it to shreds haha.

I also build more interesting concepts out of those found lines, which I feel has been vital to my work lately. I think this improvisational route helps me find narratives and concepts in my work I wouldn’t be able to conjure up in the planning stages- where i’m usually just writing in my sketchbook or drawing small elements of a piece I want to add to an image.

Sometime I think I’m a better editor than planner. Just getting that chicken scratch down on the paper and then editing it into a full piece brings out so much more of my spirit than if I plan the image to death and know every route (color, composition, values, etc.) before I start.

Funny enough, drawing quickly is a big part of improvisational drawing for me as well. I’ve changed my ‘shortcut keys’ around on my keyboard to make drawing and sketching faster. This helps me erase and build that line art as soon as i find it, rather than getting hung up on bad hand eye coordination problems haha. ‘H’ is now my eraser, right on top of ‘B’, my brush. I’d never thought to do this before, hope this helps anyone out there too! I’m still debating whether or not I should change space bar to undo. I wish I could use my cintiq pen buttons but I have a large grip on my pen for ergonomic use and I just don’t use the buttons on the side of my cintiq.

Improvisational sketching also leaves room for more of my narrative side to flourish. I add in interactions that change the image completely and it usually makes the image more energetic and fluid. If I spontaneously add in two characters chatting in a tree then I’m inspired to add that style of interaction as a pattern throughout the image to keep the flow of background characters consistent around my main character. I almost never plan what the characters in the background will look like or do, they usually spring up out of the improvisational sketching too. It helps me find characters I wouldn’t usually come up with, and makes everything more interesting to me. This phase also creates better framing and foliage when I need to find an interesting way to carve out my composition so it matches (or contrasts with!) the energy of the image.

This is something I’m feeling really empowered and excited about, I hope this helps you with any of your creative practices as well!

- Natalie