Make yourself uncomfortable!

Lately, I have decided to make myself uncomfortable while drawing. I haven’t reached this conclusion out of a desire to punish myself but rather to see what I can learn if I change my drawing techniques and step out of my comfort zone.

There is a concept called muscle memory — which applies to many aspects of our lives, including sports and drawing — that inspired me to go down this path. Muscle memory occurs when we repeat a certain action enough times that we instinctively perform it with confidence, without thinking about each and every movement. It’s super important for artists because it allows them to control their movements, achieve precision, and draw quickly with a consistent style.

I have always looked at muscle memory as my ally, but lately, I realized that some of my illustrations looked too polished, too “nice” or “controlled” and I felt the need to break my usual drawing patterns to see what else my hand could produce when cooperating with my brain under different circumstances.

What if I allowed my hand to let loose, to go wild, to draw lines of different kinds, of all kinds? What if I gave myself permission to be loud, energetic, crazy, then quiet, and even silent? 

What if I lost control of the end result and embraced uncertainty?

So, I decided to try out a few different techniques. Some are quite well-known, others are more unusual and a couple of times I’ve added my own personal take. I chose a subject that I am currently exploring a lot across various projects: human characters, and more specifically face portraits.