How long do you take?

[Luckytime]

When I draw something and I intend on making it actually look good (as good as I can anyway) I always end up leaving it and coming back lots of times, sometimes making a lot of progress and sometimes very little.

I have lots of "unfinished" work that I drew a long time ago which I can see clear mistakes in now, but I realize that you sometimes need to call shitty work complete in order to move on and learn from it.

When you sit down and start to draw something, do you normally finish it in one go or do it over a long period? For me I love starting stuff but going the distance and seeing it through is a little tough.

[Kinsei]

At 1/14/14 05:59 AM, luckylime wrote: When I draw something and I intend on making it actually look good (as good as I can anyway) I always end up leaving it and coming back lots of times, sometimes making a lot of progress and sometimes very little.

I have lots of "unfinished" work that I drew a long time ago which I can see clear mistakes in now, but I realize that you sometimes need to call shitty work complete in order to move on and learn from it.

When you sit down and start to draw something, do you normally finish it in one go or do it over a long period? For me I love starting stuff but going the distance and seeing it through is a little tough.

In the past year, I have not really drawn much of anything. Which makes me very disappointed with myself. But I like this topic right here and would to see some discussion over it.

So Here we go, right?
Their is this quote that comes to mind when I see your second line about unfinished work, althought I don't remember who said it,

a quick google search could probably bring it up, but meh, lazy/too early

"artwork is never finished, you just simply stop working on it" its paraphrased, and their are a ton of similar quotes that pretty much say the same thing.

So Back to topic at hand, I used to always try and finish my pieces in one shot. I was and still am very impatient. Trust me its killing me waiting three days on this resin I'm working with to fully cure.
But that brings me to the idea that on many of my works, both drawing and otherwise, I need to spend much longer on, days even. Not necessarily devoting all that time to just one thing, but working on something for a few hours and then leaving it alone for a few hours.
My Job, and my multitude of hobbies have served me very well in teaching me this, especially painting miniatures. I can doing the same thing, painting, but by having 2 or 3 minis I'm painting allows me to, stretch out my work time on each one to do a better job.
Same thing about my job. I work as a graphic designer for a sign and decal shop. Sure I have to complete my poofs quickly and usually in one shot, but much of the time, the customer comes back requesting changes, and that might be hours or days later, allowing me to take a fresh look at some of my work and type setting.

So....Enough rambling. I Work a short amount of time, but I know I need to work on my things longer in the future.

[kmau]

At 1/14/14 05:59 AM, luckylime wrote: When I draw something and I intend on making it actually look good (as good as I can anyway) I always end up leaving it and coming back lots of times, sometimes making a lot of progress and sometimes very little.

There's nothing wrong with that and depending on the content an illustration just isn't doable in one day, especially on a work/school/college day. If you work on your stuff every day you'll eventually become faster and more efficient, just don't be impatient. It's done when it's done.

When you sit down and start to draw something, do you normally finish it in one go or do it over a long period? For me I love starting stuff but going the distance and seeing it through is a little tough.

I'm able to finish 1-2 characters with only a basic background in one go, but then again I don't paint very detailed shading. I need alot of time for complex backgrounds since I usually use clean outlines for everything and also need to plan out the composition.

[Zhon]

I like to finish things in one shot, but I know as someone with academic training that the best pieces are not done this way. I know that personally I need 10 minimum for a "good" piece of art. I've spent upwards of 50 on some of my more ambitious projects. That's more than an entire full-time work week. This changes for everybody of course.

[Nacco]

If there's something I've learned from watching some professional artists working, it's that spending a lot of time trying to fix something that looks like crap isn't always as beneficial as starting all over.
I see these amazing artists sketching some technically and anatomically wonderful things in a couple of minutes and yet delete/throw it away moments later without as much as a second thought. They know they can easily draw it again when they want to.
The time they put into a drawing is freakishly short for the output they have and being the amateur artist I am, I sometimes get a little discouraged watching them. But then I think about an old story I heard in primary school that really stuck witch me, even if it wasn't that much of an exiting story:
There was a young farmer who wanted a painting of a rooster because for some reason he didn't hate his alarm clock like normal people do. And for this painting he went to a local artist friend in town to whom he often sold eggs and and other produce, thinking he might get a decent discount if he traded some of his finest pumpkins and squashes.
He asked this artist to paint him a rooster in all it's glory and feathers for it was to be hung above his fireplace where he sought warmth during cold winters.
The artist agreed and started working on it right away. "This gon be gud" - said the farmer. But the artist said to the the farmer that he might want to go home and come back when it's finished. I could take a while.
And boy he wasn't kidding.
The next day the farmer went back expecting to see his his new living room decoration piece in it's full glory.
But the artist needed more time. And when went back the next week he got same message.
When he asked again a month later there still wasn't a painting ready waiting for him. But being just a simple farmer, not having the time to go to the big city looking for other painters and trusting his old fiend, he patiently kept waiting.
For months and years. Wrinkles started to form around his eyes and his back started to curl.
The rooster that used to wake him up was losing most of it's feathers and barely produced a squeak when the farmer visited his friend for the last time wanting to play some cards. "I've got something so show you", said the artist.
And before the old grower of food and milker of cows could respond, the artist set up an easel, took some brushes, a couple of tubes of paint and started painting furiously.
An hour long the farmer stood there in aw as his friend painted the most beautiful painting of a rooster that had ever been in just an hour time. It was so glorious that his eyes almost melted and when it was finished he sat on his knees worshiping the artist for bringing this miracle of a painting to life like some sort of god.
The artist got paid with a brick of gold, a truckload of artichokes and a thousand praises.
But the farmer did have a good question for his friend: "If you made this marvel in just an hour, then why the hell did you make me wait all those years?".
And this is where the artist led his friend to a room in the back. There were thousand of sketches and paintings of roosters and feathers from every possible angle in every possible position. There were paintings of roosters with color patterns ranging from every possible color between #000000 to #FFFFFF. The artist had dissected the anatomy of a rooster by such a degree that he could probably build one atom by atom if he wanted to. There was an entire life's work of study stored in that room.
"This is why", the painter said.
TL;DR: skill takes time to learn.

I do still 'sin' on this, trying to fix my crappy drawings until they look good, not doing those anatomy studies and such.
I often spend about 20 min on a drawing that ends up looking like shit, leave it for a while and then fix it later until it looks sort of okay. Digital paintings can take a lot of hours usually spread over a couple of days, but if the original sketch underneath doesn't look good enough, it will often end up looking like shit anyway. Which would basically be a huge waste of time if I didn't like doing it so much.

[Kkylimos]

You shouldnt worry mate , its all very natural. Each piece has different demands. You cannot expect to finish a full blown battle scene in the same time period you would finish a pikachu. Also , i drop a lot of projects aswell , my WIP folder is at least 6 times the size of my finished works' folder. This is not bad because everything you draw helps you become better and exploring ideas is great. You will catch yourself visiting older wips to take inspiration for new projects often. And honestly , its better to take your time to do something good over rushing something and making it shitty just to feel like you are quick. The more experienced you get , the faster you will become. And its perfectly fine to not have an even amount of progress everytime you work. Sometimes you are tired , sad etc. It affects your creativity.

However , there are two things that you really need if you want to progress. The first is patience. You will need a lot of it , both to learn and to create. Art aint an easy thing and you need to be determined. Its good to know when a project has hit a dead-end but dropping everything you do simply because you lose interest too soon is wrong. I know its hard because i am impatient aswell but you need to push yourself on that matter. The second thing you need to note is that you must not stop. Even when you dont feel like doing much , just sit there and doodle to relax. Grab all the chances you have to excercise and draw. If you just wait for the inspiration to hit your door , it wont happen. You will get numb , disapointed and you will be drawing less and less. Ofcourse you dont have to force yourself beyond your limits cause you might hate it. The best thing is to make a schedule , like 1-4 hours of drawings every day or something. Its not too much but it will help you to keep a consistent progress. Cheers!

[Rhunyc]

My typical pieces of art take anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours to complete. The last few I've done, however, have taken longer. I'm guessing anywhere between 4-6 hours total on each, just because I didn't do them all in a single sitting. Normally I do, but I found taking breaks on things helps a lot, even if I don't want to.

That being said, as someone previously stated, starting from scrap is usually a lot easier than trying to fix a broken part of your work, especially if you can't put your finger on what's off about it.