Having fun is one of the biggest factors that will help you stay consistent and be motivated to study art.
When we are having fun, dopamine hits our brains. And dopamine is the hormone that drives motivation. People who naturally lack dopamine have low motivation to do anything. That’s one of the reasons people with ADHD have such a hard time doing stuff. They have so-called executive dysfunction.
So, by having fun, we automatically make ourselves more motivated.
When doing my month of daily color studies, I added a new thing in there. I added small storytelling elements (or just cute faces) to my studies. This is the video that inspired me.
I was blown away by how this little change made me look forward to doing my studies. Adding little speech bubbles, tiny hands, and even telling mini-stories was the highlight of my day. Some days, studying was a chore, and coming up with funny elements was another hard thing to do. But on those days, I just drew a cute face, which made me smile.
That’s why I could do the whole month of studies without forcing myself too much and never miss a day.
There are many ways how you can make your studying fun. You can either add fun to it, or you can ride the wave of your passion.
When doing this kind of color, value, or perspective studies, you can turn your objects into characters as I did or add little characters doing something in there. Don’t overthink it, just draw whatever comes to your mind and brings smile on your face.
Another approach is to try and catch your current passion.
For example, you watched a movie and were blown away by it. Then go and do some frame studies from it.
Got into a specific historical period? Then go ahead and do costume, prop, or architectural studies while your passion and motivation are high.
Or you recently got super into plants. Then do plant studies. Bonus points if you go to your local botanical garden and study there.
Got into working out? Do anatomy studies of the muscle groups you are training.
If you are a gamer, you can even come up with a bunch of studies around your favorite game. It can be landscape, architecture, or composition studies (depending on the game). In addition, you can do character design breakdown, costume design studies, or art style studies. The possibilities are endless!
Bonus points if you can identify inspiration sources and do studies from that. For example, if it is a classical fantasy setting, you can study whatever historical period they grabbed inspiration from.
Now you have no excuses to skip your art studying 😀 Write some examples of what you can start doing, and most importantly, have FUN!