One of my new year’s resolutions last year was seemingly fun and straightforward but I never did it. So I’m making a thread instead!
The resolution was to do step one of Naoki Saito’s ‘The fastest method to improve your drawing skills’. The book is a fascinating read even if you don’t intend to get better at drawing. I used to draw a lot and was seriously trying to get better at pencil drawing for several years after a somewhat traditional art school education. I then got out of practice and after my hands got injured I just gave up on that kind of drawing altogether. I’d like to get back into it in theory, but I still get a lot of pain and tension from holding a pen[cil] even handwriting for a couple of minutes. However, the aesthetic hunger never left and I wish I had come across Saito’s book when I was healthier and more foolish.
Saito’s method promises the reader that they can improve their drawing skills in three months, from amateur to ‘pro’ level thanks to a very particular method. So what’s the first step?
[the unofficial English translation is not perfect]
The first thing to do is to find your ideal picture, in other words your “role model”. This is the most important part of the 3 month improvement method. The criterion for selecting a role model is to be “fascinated” by it. Even if a picture looks “popular” or “the basics seem solid,”
if it is “unattractive design,” it is not a good example of how to improve. You are going to be working with that style for 3 months. Don’t lie to yourself and choose a role model. Incidentally, the illustration I used as a “model” for this project is the one on the right page. Mr. Ushi is the main illustrator for many entertainment contents. At the time, when I saw his illustrations, I was so fascinated by them, I went beyond “I like him” and thought, “This is my picture!”.
Beyond just choosing an artist, you also have to pick one specific piece by them you’d want to emulate and could practice drawing over and over. In Saito’s words:
I think some people get confused when they are suddenly asked to find a role model. So from here on, I’d like to delve deeper into what an “ideal picture” looks like. Have you ever seen a picture and been so drawn to it that you took a picture of it, saved it, or, if it was on a social networking site, liked it or retweeted it? But “What was it that fascinated me so much?” Have you ever thought about it? I think it can be that you just liked the characters portrayed, or
because the content is interesting. But why were you so strongly attracted to ‘that’ illustration in
preference to others, with the same characters and content? It is because you were attracted to the overwhelming power of the painting.
All my resolution required was to find the image I would use if I was to embark on this exercise (not that I’d ever follow through). What do you do with the image?
Using the model you have chosen as a role model, draw a picture imitating his/her pattern. As if you were that person, try to draw a new, original work that is neither a tracing nor a copy.
You compare your output to that of the original role model. Then…
Now, it’s time for hell.
During these three months, I was really determined to improve, so I turned down almost all of my work and spent almost all of my time practicing, except for the time I slept, from around 5 in the morning until I went to bed at night. Specifically, I would say about 13 hours a day for two days, or about 26 hours in total for one assignment.
So you have to draw and mass produce original images in the style of the role model for 13 hours a day for 3 months.
… up to about four or five hours, you will be filled with a feeling of helplessness and many will stop practicing here, saying “Why can’t I draw like this…”
You continue to draw more, and after 10 hours, strange things start to happen…
Then, after 13 hours, the invincibility state is triggered
The method itself is ridiculously hard in terms of labour and is not really recommended. Saito himself warns against it and argues that the improvement will make you lopsided in terms of improving in comparison to a single target style, but the idea is that it is a fast track to loving drawing and getting a hunger for it while seriously studying it. 30 * 3 * 13 is about 1170 hours of practice which if done deliberately is very valuable but would run most people ragged. My hands are in no state to do 13 hours a fortnight, let alone per day.
So the fun part that remains for me is the dreaming. What do I wish I could draw and what would I study if I had to choose a single image that sums it all up?
The actual image Saito eventually settled on for his own journey was this:
I think it’d be fun to try and find ‘my’ image but I’d also be curious about others’ picks. We can name artists and share whatever, but I think the number 1 image you’d want to be able to draw, that is ‘your’ image would be the fun kinda homework. Even a shortlist of nominees over time would be interesting. Most of the examples Saito gives are just moegirl illustrations but it could be anything! Who do you want to paint, colour, letter, or print like? Would you like to focus on characters, objects, environments, scenes, pure geometry, patterns, or composition? Let’s take the first step together.
