# How much time do you spend on art per week?



## Samara (Sep 22, 2011)

Ever since I asked one of my favorite artists this question, it's been interesting to me, so I'm curious to see how many hours you guys spend on drawing per day/week. Has it become a habit, or do you still have to remind yourself draw/study?  

Also related to this question, how often do you do "personal" art (non-studies), even if you don't have a grasp on the basics yet?


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## Smelge (Sep 22, 2011)

Have to remind myself, because I have a short attention span and procrastinate a lot.

So nowhere near enough.


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## Centradragon (Sep 22, 2011)

Anywhere from 20-40 hours a week, sometimes more if schoolwork gets a little crazy. X'D Definitely a habit I can't seem to break.

I rarely work on personal stuff anymore, but way back when I used to do that all the time. Fanart was especially fun~ It can be good practice, especially if you somehow weave an exercise into drawing what you want. (Like, "I need to draw more feet, so I'm going to draw my OC showing her feet"... or whatever. XD)


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## Arshes Nei (Sep 22, 2011)

Spend at least 30 minutes a day on a sketch to improve. Min recommended for hobbyists.

To really improve spend about 40 hours a week. (To be professional level).


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## Smelge (Sep 22, 2011)

Actualy, that said, I've recently started moving away from proper drawing, and started going into a lot of 3d stuff, mainly Sculptris and Sketchup for buildings. I can easily spend 8 hours in a day just building stuff in them.


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## Zydala (Sep 23, 2011)

Not including school, a few hours a week on personal things. A lot of the time my 'personal stuff' is studies and sketches 

Even though I don't finish a lot of pieces, being consistent and working at least a little bit a day really does help. Since going to school for art I think I've gotten tons better :]


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## Charrio (Sep 23, 2011)

While I am able to be creative and depression isn't holding me back, like 8-10 hours a day. I get a bit compulsive about using my inspiration while i have the momentum


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## RustChic (Sep 23, 2011)

At least 15-20 hours a week that I know of, but definitely more besides that, I don't keep good track of time spent on personal work and studies. 
Per day varies pretty wildly.


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## sunandshadow (Sep 23, 2011)

Charrio said:


> While I am able to be creative and depression isn't holding me back, like 8-10 hours a day.


  I've been doing 3 hours a day this past two weeks, it's an extra-high amount for me and stressing me out a bit.  I'd prefer to do less but I stupidly managed to commit myself to three projects at the same time, can't reduce the amount per day until I manage to finish off one of the projects. -_-


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## dinosaurdammit (Sep 23, 2011)

About 8 hours a day and I never improve. FML


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## CAThulu (Sep 23, 2011)

I'm too embarrassed to say, but it's definitely less then 20 hours a week.  I'm working on that though.  My problem is lack of motivation and lack of self confidence in my work.   If I think my stuff is crap, I'm not going to be motivated to do it.  And I'm not using this as an excuse, but I'm pretty sure the medication I'm on to control the depression and PTSD (which is why I'm off work) is also playing a role if not a big part of why I'm afraid to do art. :/

Arshes or anyone out there, what is it that makes you work on art?  Is it personal drive?  Discipline?  Do you block in time?  What can you suggest?


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## Arshes Nei (Sep 23, 2011)

It *has* to be personal drive. Unless you're already in the industry working on a paycheck with looming of being fired, or you're at school and are going to flunk...you have to work on it yourself, then again it still takes your own motivation to do so.

For all the people who keep asking "how do you cure art block" or "How do you keep motivated" I find it funny, how someone can get motivated to sit on their ass and be on  the internet all the time, or play video games, sit and watch netflix.

I do drawing because I enjoy doing it despite its frustrations. That's what keeps me motivated. Just like a person does exercise because they like the benefits of doing so despite the "pain" or other things that may bother others.


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## CAThulu (Sep 23, 2011)

Arshes Nei said:


> It *has* to be personal drive. Unless you're already in the industry working on a paycheck with looming of being fired, or you're at school and are going to flunk...you have to work on it yourself, then again it still takes your own motivation to do so.
> 
> For all the people who keep asking "how do you cure art block" or "How do you keep motivated" I find it funny, how someone can get motivated to sit on their ass and be on  the internet all the time, or play video games, sit and watch netflix.
> 
> I do drawing because I enjoy doing it despite its frustrations. That's what keeps me motivated. *Just like a person does exercise because they like the benefits of doing so despite the "pain" or other things that may bother others*.



As someone that does go to the gym on a regular basis, that's a great analogy and one I'll keep in mind.  But I was just curious about your creative process; what have you found works best for you to keep motivated?  Do you set aside a certain time of day or do it whenever the mood suits you and you have the time?


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## Arshes Nei (Sep 23, 2011)

Keep a sketchbook around you always. You never know when you get the itch to draw when something inspires you.

If this happens at 3am in the morning however, please go back and look at your idea when you're more sober


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## dinosaurdammit (Sep 23, 2011)

CAThulu said:


> Arshes or anyone out there, what is it that makes you work on art?  Is it personal drive?  Discipline?  Do you block in time?  What can you suggest?



I do it because I want to draw life. I like to watch cryptid stuff and draw it.


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## Deo (Sep 23, 2011)

M,W,F,Sun I spend roughly 12 hours drawing daily.
T, TH I spend around 6.
Saturdays are relegated to focus on my other studies like O-chem, biology, and stat, but I will spend at least 30 minutes sketching to break up the study blocks.
So roughly 60ish hours a week? I'm not very good and I'm not very fast so it takes me a while to finish my design assignments, drawings, and projects. :C 

The week that my master's study is due is going to suck asssssssss (fuck no I do not want to draw two 3ft by 3ft drawings based on Ivan Alifan's "Priest". One drawing being a reproduction the other a self-portrait. Though I do get to draw myself as a priest so that's a fun plus.)



CAThulu said:


> But I was just curious about your creative  process; what have you found works best for you to keep motivated?  Do  you set aside a certain time of day or do it whenever the mood suits you  and you have the time?


Motivation: _OH FUCK! SCHOLARSHIP, I LOVE YOU! NEVER LEAVE ME BABY I SWEAR I'LL BE GOOD, HONEY, JUST STAY WITH ME _
That and _"oh ho ho ho this is fun." _and _"I am so messy look I have charcoal fingers! I will go wipe them on Steph next door because I am so smarts."_ and _"I  wonder if Prof. Beakler will tell me to 'hide this drawing under my bed  and not even show it to my mother because it's not even worthy of being  fridge-art' like he told me last time."_

I also block time in. It helps for me that the place I work on art is  across campus, so once I'm there I just spend the day or night there and  never go home to my dorm room. The isolation from my things and friends  helps focus. Also the change in location gets me going. "Okay, now I am  here and now I work!" Environment does a great deal for anyone. Like  walking into your bedroom may make you more mellow or tired, or going to  the beach more excited, going to the COD building makes me in the  mindset of "let's get crackin'!" When I have time? I honestly schedule  the rest of my life around the art parts. Heck, I even asked my parents  if we could postpone my birthday because I have drawings due lol. 

And when the mood suits you... This is a hard one for hobbyists and new  artists. You have to learn to make yourself sit down and do it even if  you don't feel like it. I hear it a lot, "I don't feel like it". Well  tough cookies because if you want to be serious about art there's a lot  of freelance work that you'll take on and not like, but it has deadlines  and you can't just not do it because you don't _feel _like it. Though when you do feel in that mood you are so much more productive. It's all about getting into that rhythm.


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## Arroyo Milori (Sep 23, 2011)

Not enough apparently for my case. Not really the most easily motivated person but very easy to demotivate. And yet I end up drawing the most at say 1 at night and such. Probably because its the only time of the whole day I really don't care how good it looks.


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## Fay V (Sep 23, 2011)

Depends on my week. sometimes I'll just do a doodle or two, which is only about 20 minutes a day. There are some weeks where the muse takes me and I'll just draw 6-8 hours a day.

Whenever I have commissions due I try to go at least an hour a day, then usually I get wrapped up in the art and go longer. The exception is when all hell breaks loose for me.


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## Sax (Sep 24, 2011)

Usually 2/3 hours a day 5 days a week. If I draw it'll never be shorter than an hour, and in the zone it can be till I'm way too tired to keep my eyes open.
I usually only ever do personal art (I'm not an art student and only beginning to take commissions) but I do try to weave in studies-like-things inside. (let's draw this using only graytones/let's draw this varying my lines/let's draw this using this particular shading technique/let's draw this building a deliberate perspective etc)

I motivate myself by striving to be regular in how much I draw, I had to force myself a few months ago, now it has become an habit and I get itchy if I can't draw for any reason.
If I don't "feel like it", I told myself I have to do it anyway and so far it has worked. It might not be doing a full on drawing, it might be experimenting with some paint or collage or a different ink pen and doing something loose, trying carving a stone, trying cut and paste etc, but doing *something*.

One of my motivation is seeing myself getting better and better, meaning I can hope to put on paper what I see/feel in my brain.


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## blackat (Sep 24, 2011)

Almost all day long XD
I work coloring comics, so IÂ´m defining shading and shapes all day, and after that I usually tend to draw for myself (now IÂ´m doing 100 anatomy studies, so I can draw the body better). ThereÂ´s sometimes though, I have too many workload that when I finish doing that I usually canÂ´t draw. I tend to search for a livestream then, and watch them draw. ItÂ´s great, I tend to learn a lot of tips from them, mostly from tsampikos, heÂ´s kind enough to answer any question about the process. Then I go to sleep and at the morning I feel renovated and with a lot of will to draw.


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## Taralack (Sep 27, 2011)

Depends on how the day goes, but on a good day it can be up to 10 hours and on a bad day just under an hour. Honestly I don't keep track. 

Though most of the time recently all my stuff have been fandom related.. oh well


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## featherfox2 (Sep 28, 2011)

Depends on how busy I am, but probably at least 2 hours a day


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## Thorn (Sep 29, 2011)

any where from 20 to 40 hours a week; I've only been drawing since Feb. needed to improve some how x3


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## Amixeduppuppy (Sep 29, 2011)

It comes and goes, but I usually lose myself for about 2-4 hours a day in art alone. I try to spend more time, but usually have other pressing matters to attend to.


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## FireFeathers (Sep 30, 2011)

I try to do 6 hours a day, 6 days a week, so 36 hours to start on commissions alone. But I often find myself drawing and sketching the other times, so i'd roughly say about 45 hours a week. 

I'm lucky to have good genes , and that no one in my family has carpal tunnel. I might be the first, lol.


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## serbus (Oct 4, 2011)

My life revolves around art, so I'd say about 30 hours a week actually doing art and 10+ hours either planning, learning, or networking about art.


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## davimink (Oct 5, 2011)

Not sure, I spend time whenever I can.


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## RTDragon (Oct 5, 2011)

Most of the time i doodle but i do spend a few hours on sunday practicing artwork digitally on livestream.


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## VoidBat (Oct 6, 2011)

Somewhere around 13hrs/per week.


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## Paladaen (Oct 6, 2011)

It depends... Mostly like 2-4 hours per day. I work most of the days though. When I have free I might end up painting even 16 hours... But I don't have many free days. I paint mostly at afternoons til night, like mostly til 2-4am.


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## CAThulu (Oct 6, 2011)

Well, I'm up to about 20-30 hours now. ^_^   I've really embraced the concept of 'just sit down, do it, and stop being a p***y about 'inspiration', and 'waiting until I'm 'in the mood'.  Screw that.  If I want to be considered a serious artist, I have to take it seriously.  So anywhere between 5 to 8 hours/ day now is not unusual (sometimes even 10-12).  Of course real life does come in the way - mom having emergency shoulder surgery for example and me doing thanksgiving this weekend because of that (Canadian).

But anything, whether just hammering out a sketch in the Dr's waiting room, doing a full painting, or making up business cards as pro-bono work, is art and good practice.  It's all to better myself as a traditional and graphic artist.  

Edit: Thanks to Arshes and Deo for their replies.  Arshes, you really kicked my ass and I needed that.  Deo, you just rock.


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## GigasDragon (Oct 10, 2011)

Anywhere from 10-20 hours depending on how much work I've set up for myself in advance. Trying to get into the habit of doing more, but considering last year I only did maybe 5 hours a week when working 'hard', I think I'm already making a lot of ground. It does make me somewhat happy that if I spend a lot of time gaming and not a lot of time drawing, I actually start to get kinda anxious about not getting any work done.


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## macs99 (Oct 12, 2011)

lateley.. very recently actually... i started drawing atleast 2-6 hours a day maye more if you count school because drawing has become a habt and also does help me think so when im at school my papers are filled with mini-drawings. I draw alot and hope to always draw alot. i havent had art yet this year but everyone says its boring and im like how could it possibly e boring? because i love art. i am looking forward to going to art class to lol my estimate if you count school would be about 4-12 hours...


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## Seas (Oct 12, 2011)

10-30.
The average is about 14.
I never had the attention span to draw (or do anything) more than 6 hours at a time, but sometimes I get the mood for a 20+ drawing hour week.


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## macs99 (Oct 12, 2011)

Seas: i dont  do it all at a time i usually do something before school something after school and something durinng school


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 12, 2011)

macs99 said:


> Seas: i dont  do it all at a time i usually do something before school something after school and something durinng school



Seas is not talking to you


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## Rex Aeterna (Oct 12, 2011)

i like doing abstract art every once in awhile. i barely draw or paint anymore. last time i ever painted or drawn anything was like couple years ago on my last year of high school in art class.


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## Sunari (Oct 18, 2011)

I spend almost every minute I'm not busy with anything else drawing/sketching.


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## Deo (Oct 18, 2011)

macs99 said:


> lateley.. very recently actually... i started drawing atleast 2-6 hours a day maye more if you count school because drawing has become a habt and also does help me think so when im at school my papers are filled with mini-drawings. I draw alot and hope to always draw alot. i havent had art yet this year but everyone says its boring and im like how could it possibly e boring? because i love art. i am looking forward to going to art class to lol my estimate if you count school would be about 4-12 hours...


Doodling while good does not equal sketching and sketching does not equal drawing.
Honestly to draw you need focus and intent, and that's not something you can do off-hand in some other class that needs at least half your attention. The drawing is a series of decisions and acts developed in the medium, it's something that takes concious effort and not just _"I DREW AN EYE ON THE SIDE OF MY ALGEBRA NOTES  *I R ARTEEST!*"_


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## Bittertooth (Oct 18, 2011)

20 hours a week during the summer... in addition to 20 hours of making music holy fuck.


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