Will This Really Help Me?

Oh, what a beautiful sphere! This “featured image” was created by AI, and it is, indeed, quite lovely. Spheres are lovely, don’t you think? They’re round and smooth, and for me, a sphere represents a sort of perfection, I think.

For today’s “geometric shape” practice — another day of my “100 Days of Shapes and Forms” — I reached into the box and pulled out a wooden ball. Yes, another sphere.

One part of me was somewhat relieved. After all, how hard is it really to draw and shade a sphere? Or more to the point, how many hundreds of times have I done this over the last nine years? I could get out my very first sketchbook, and one of the very first pages has, yep, sure enough, a sphere.

Oh, gee, why not? My sketchbooks are sitting right here, so let’s take a look — and have a good laugh.

This is, in fact, the very first page of my very first sketchbook. If you look closely, you’ll see the date. June 9, 2015. This was the first day of my “drawing lessons” and what was I doing? Drawing and shading a sphere. Well, trying to draw and shade a sphere. I guess I have made a little progress over the years!

For what it’s worth, here are today’s spheres.

Better, yes. My circles are rounder and my shading has improved. Still, I look at these two spheres and feel a bit disappointed. I know we should never compare ourselves and our art to anyone else and their work, but it’s only natural, I think. As I browse the web, watch art tutorials, and visit art sites, it’s inevitable that I’ll see spheres. Well-drawn spheres. Carefully shaded spheres. Like this one from a Muus Art tutorial: Step by Step Guide to Drawing a Volumetric Sphere

Will my spheres ever look like this? Probably not. If, after nine years (give or take some time off) of drawing lessons and shading practices, my spheres still don’t come close to looking like this, is there any reason to think something will change? Is there any reason to believe I’ll improve?

Maybe. I’m an “art optimist” in some ways. I am enjoying this process of learning to draw again, and I want to believe that I’ll see more and more progress as I regain my familiarity with pencils and other drawing tools.

So, for the sake of discussion, let’s agree that there is room for improvement and that improvement is possible. That leads us to the real question, the real thought in my mind as I started this post: Will any of this really help me become a better artist?

To answer this, I have to think about what sort of “artist” I am. I do have an answer for that. At heart, what I most love is landscape painting in oils. That’s who I am as an artist. Yes, of course, I understand that drawing is a foundational skill in art, and that the better I become at drawing, the better my landscape painting will be, even though I don’t necessarily begin a painting with a detailed drawing.

But, here’s the question, really. Will drawing and shading spheres — over and over and over again — actually lead to improvement in my overall drawing abilities? When I sit down tomorrow and attempt, once again, to draw our little cat, Hopie, will my sphere-making exercises contribute to a successful result? When I download another pear reference photo will my drawing of that pear be better because of the time I’ve spent drawing and shading spheres and other geometric forms? Maybe this sounds like a silly question, but I’m serious here.

Will drawing these various “volumetric forms” truly help me improve my drawing abilities? Or would my “practice time” be better spent on other aspects of art? Exercises and skill-building drills are a necessary part of any learning experience, but at some point we have to do more. I’m thinking here of my musical training. We can play scales and arpeggios all day, and indeed, that will help us develop our musical abilities, but at some point we have to make music. We have to play Tschaikovsky’s songs from the Children’s Album, the lovely Winter Song, The Doll’s Funeral, and the Morning Prayer. You can hear the complete album here:

In the same way, with art, at some point we have to spend less time “exercising” and more time creating actual drawings and paintings.

Those are my thoughts this morning. As a child studying piano, I drilled each day with “A Dozen a Day” and Hanon’s well-known exercises for “The Virtuoso Pianist”. Now, with art, today I’ve done my “daily shapes and form” exercise. I need to move on. Maybe the spheres I drew this morning are helpful. The only way to know is to just keep drawing every day and looking for improvement.

What are your thoughts? How much “exercise” do we need — and is it really helpful?