Why You Should Start Sketching Everything; Even If Your Drawing Is Terrible
As you’re reading the title of this article, you’re probably thinking to yourself, “Why would I sketch everything? My drawing is terrible!” Stop right there! You’ve got to think more positive about your artistic abilities. Sure, you may not be great at drawing, but that has nothing to do with your ability to sketch regularly. There are several benefits to sketching, and keeping an open mind is a great way to start discovering those benefits.
Before you completely give up on sketching, just hear me out. Here are the top reasons you should be sketching regularly.
1. Sketching Will Improve Your Drawing Skills
You all had to have seen this one coming. It’s true that some people excel in drawing early on, but drawing is just like any other skill. You have to practice. While practice may not make “perfect” in every case; it sure will make “great” eventually. Repetition is the key to learning any skill. No matter your age or experience level, you can learn to sketch.
How can I be so sure you’ll learn to sketch? Well for one thing, you already know how to sketch. If you can write your name, you can sketch. Now, I didn’t say you could sketch well, but greatness isn’t the point of sketching. Sketching is more of an outlining process than an artistic process. It allows you to get your thoughts out in a more visual way.
2. Sketching Improves Your Creativity
Most designers are visual learners and thinkers. That’s typically why we became designers. We enjoy beautiful imagery, and we’re excellent visualizers with vivid imaginations. Sketching can only increase these positive traits. When you sketch what you see around you, it forces you to really pay attention to your surroundings. You’ll start to notice things that you never noticed before, and the mundane can become very exciting.
Stimulating different areas of the brain can double your creativity and increase your productivity levels. Seeing the world from a different point of view can do wonders for your upcoming design projects. You’ll have the ability to communicate more effectively with other people; leading to vast improvements in not only your design but your overall life.
3. Sketching Makes You A More Effective Designer
We just discussed how sketching improves your designs through bettering your communication, but there are other design related benefits to sketching. For starters, sketching can drastically improve your design time. How many times have you created something, only to realize that it doesn’t quite fit what you were going for? If you start incorporating sketches as a part of your design process, you’ll stop wasting time with design concepts that don’t work for your project. In most cases, the biggest issues that occurred in a failed design concept would have been caught within the sketching phase. If you had sketched out your ideas prior to starting that t-shirt design, you would have realized that dark blue text on a black t-shirt isn’t the best idea.
Sketching also saves you the trouble of having to go through the process of creating several different concepts in a program like Photoshop or Illustrator for a client. It could take you days to finish just one concept piece; only for your client to reject it. It’s much faster and easier to sketch out some design concepts to present to your client, then it is to fire up Photoshop and make something digital from scratch.
4. Sketching Relieves Stress And Tension
Everyone needs a creative outlet. If you’re a graphic designer by trade, designing may not be all that stress relieving for you. I’m sure you enjoy your career, but having some other outlets is important for creating a well-balanced life. Many people have found sketching to be very relaxing because it gives them an opportunity to express themselves without all the pressures of perfection. Like we discussed earlier, sketching isn’t about perfection. It’s about getting your thoughts out. If you’re not very talkative, sketching can be especially helpful. Even though you may not like talking, you still need a way to get out your fears and frustrations. Sketching provides this in a judgment free, no pressure environment.
5. Sketching Can Help You Discover Other Hobbies And Interests You Have
Finally, sketching is a great way to discover other talents, hobbies, and interests you might have. For example, after sketching a particular location, you might find that you really like street photography. You may also find a cafe or organization that you never noticed. You check out the place, and find other people who share your interests. The possibilities really are endless. Sketching opens up so many doors, and paves the way for so many adventures.
