Why live sketching is an important skill

I put off just taking a pencil and sketching for way too long. I kept hearing how good sketching is for developing your art skill, but for some reason the simple act of taking a paper and a pencil was too easy to just avoid: “I’m not ready for that, I need to learn a bit more of anatomy and perspective”, “It’ll turn out shit anyway”. And to both I can say “Yes!”, yes, I need to learn more about the human body and other art basics, yes, my scetches will inevitably be ugly for a long period. But it’s just something that I need to do if I want to progress. .

Here is what I learned from sketching from live regularly:

1. Patience: I just stopped expecting progress to happen quickly. Accepting the fact that it’s a long process helped me relax and focus on the effort instead of stressing about when I can finally see “beautiful” results.

2. Flexibility: Even if you study your anatomy diligently, you’ll notice how real humans are not what you see in the textbooks and schemes. Bodies are extremely diverse, and learning to see it is very important.

3. Working through my limitations: I can’t keep stressing about my mistakes when the time is limited and sometimes the only choice is to accept the line the way it turned out and move on. Even when the result is not perfect, it’s something that can tell a story in it’s own unique way.

What’s the best way to sketch?

It can be challenging to find a place where you can sketch from life, so you can start by sketching in public places.