I try to draw every day. Most days it happens, others not so much, because I get busy, blink, and I’m getting ready for bed. One of my goals for 2017 is to get better about drawing each day.
I got a book for Christmas which has helped get me drawing in the morning: Art Before Breakfast.
Art Before Breakfast: My New Routine
As the title suggests, Art Before Breakfast gets you drawing first thing in the morning. The book features simple drawing prompts, none of which (at least so far) take very long. This doesn’t mean you can’t take your time with the prompts. Go at your own pace, but know these prompts won’t take a long time to finish.
Day one of Art Before Breakfast in my sketchbook.
Making “Art” vs. Making “art”
There’s a part in Art Before Breakfast which explains about making Art (with a capital A) versus making art (with a lowercase a). The book wants you to focus on making art, meaning art made for fun or practice, not something to go on a gallery wall or to try to sell (Art). I agree it’s important to step back from trying to make Art and simply have fun and goof around (this is why I like keeping a sketchbook).
I’ll go one step further and say it is also OK to keep art private. We live in a very public, over-sharing world now because of social media. It’s totally fine to share whatever you made online, but, I think it’s also OK to keep some stuff to yourself. You don’t have to share everything. Maybe pump the brakes on immediately sharing that freshly drawn sketch on Instagram once in a while.
Art Before Breakfast doesn’t have you create a grand composition or a perfectly correct portrait. Nope. The first day, I drew my breakfast. Later on, I drew what was inside my medicine cabinet in the bathroom. Yesterday, I drew what was outside my window. A few days later, I drew the fine details of a piece of toast.
Learn Something
What I like about Art Before Breakfast, is it isn’t just “draw this” prompts: the book teaches techniques. I’ve learned about contour drawing, negative space, using a pen to measure objects I’m drawing, and more.
If you want to jump-start your drawing in the morning, I suggest checking out Art Before Breakfast. Go make some art!
