While practicing life drawing, it became clear that I needed help to improve. Can’t do everything myself, y’know?
Copying the masters is something people have done, well…since the masters, to improve their own skills. Who better than the maestro himself? I decided I would teach myself to draw like Michelangelo. Without thinking about how audacious this goal was, I borrowed every book the Toronto Public Library had, grabbed a pen and a pencil and got to work. Want to see how it went?
It Always Starts Off Shaky
It started off shaky and wobbly, as such things do.
Starting with ink ensured I took no shortcuts, did no erasing. It is ok for things to look shaky and wobbly. It is good to see your progress.
I took notes as I worked, recording what I was learning about Michelangelo on the same pages as the drawings.
Eventually I built up enough confidence to switch to pencils. I can be much more refined and detailed with them, and do a little bit of erasing if needed.
Note to artists: if you learn in ink, you’ll do a lot less erasing in pencils.
After a few weeks, I didn’t need the notes anymore. I’d absorbed the information and instead concentrated on capturing the paintings and sculptures.
Getting In My Own Way
Sometimes when I think about the magnitude or audaciousness of an idea, I can get in my own way. If someone else had said, “Hey Alisa, why don’t you teach yourself to draw like Michelangelo?” I would have been intimidated.
Have you seen some of his drawings??? They’re mind-bogglingly complex. How the hell am I supposed to do that?
But when I skip the rational thinking (aka worrying) and go straight to the thing I want to do, sometimes I have great success. And you know what? I either skipped those mind-bogglingly complex drawings, or chose just one figure from them. You don’t have to do more than you need to.
I’m not advocating for skipping rational thinking. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love plans and planning. I even run PACT, a quarterly group for creatives to help them succeed at their plans.
But every now and then, a spontaneous idea is good medicine. The key is to keep going, even when things look shitty.
Perseverance and consistency will get you results.
Check out my other posts on life drawing and see if you can identify where I started learning to draw like Michelangelo: Pt 1 – Practice Makes Better, Pt 2 – How to Make Practice Easier, How To Not Give Up.
True to form, partway through teaching myself to draw like Michelangelo, I decided I wanted to learn Procreate. So I did.
