Critiquing My Sketching Style and Why I Need to Change It

Hi everyone! Last month, I looked through my old sketches. Some of them I really like while others I really despise. I know if I sketch for a job, I can make it look good. Yet, when I sketch in my personal time, they look bad. Not every piece artists create will look good, especially if it is meant for fun and not for public consumption or work. Still, the art I looked at looked especially bad.

This is not the first time I had problems with my sketch style. When I was a teenager, I had problems with my health. Those problems caused my art and sketching abilities to struggle. Since then, my art has improved. The sketches I looked at last month were made within the past few years, which is why I became worried. After studying the sketches, I realized I disliked the sketches because have lousy perspective and scaling.

I like to using perspective and scaling when I sketch. It is easier for me to do on paper than on computer due to the program I favor isn’t on every computer I use. At that time, I didn’t want to put more effort into sketching more realistically. Instead, I kind of just doodled what I saw and didn’t bother with the formality of art.

The thing is I want to use more recent art for a portfolio. Since the sketches aren’t that good, I couldn’t use them unless I redraw them. This is why I want to change my sketching style from lazy doodles to more formal sketches. Even though it is important for me to practice this style of art, I also need to remember lazy doodles are my way of releasing the tension from the formal, scaled art I’m used to doing. Still, I need to practice it more. I want to become more familiar with scale and perspective than I currently am.

I need to find a happy balance between the two. I don’t know how I will balance the two, but I need to. I’m getting too frustrated creating art I know I can do a better job doing!

Well, that’s all for now! Thank you for reading!