Unpopular opinion: skipping the sketch phase was ruining my drawings for years

I used to just grab a pen and go straight into inking, thinking sketches were a waste of time. Last month, I spent 20 minutes just sketching rough shapes for a dog portrait and it came out ten times better than any of my 'freehand' attempts. What tipped me off was watching a speedpaint from an artist I admire, they spent 40 minutes on planning lines alone. Now I do a quick 5-minute sketch even for doodles, and my proportions actually look right. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized the 'boring' step was the most important one?

3 comments

3 Comments

xena_rivera6327d ago

@margaret_singh1 nailed it, measuring stuff out feels silly til you see how much better everything lines up.

margaret_singh127d ago

You ever see your friend spend three hours on something that looks like a complete mess at first? My buddy Dave used to draw these weird humans with enormous heads and tiny legs. He'd just jump straight in with a pen every time. Last summer he finally tried sketching a stick figure skeleton first then building on it. His next drawing actually looked like a real person. Now he even measures out the ears and eyes with a ruler before he starts. The boring step is 100% the game changer.

harper_murphy27d ago

Wait, hold on... I actually think going straight in with pen forces you to make decisions and commit, which builds confidence way faster than sketching. Sketching can turn into this endless loop of erasing and second-guessing, I've seen people spend an hour on a sketch that still looks stiff because they never pushed past the planning stage. There's something to be said for just doing the thing poorly and learning from the mistakes in ink, you know? Like my old art teacher used to say, "you can't edit a blank page" and sketches sometimes become that blank page if you overthink them... a finished bad drawing teaches you more than an unfinished perfect sketch.