8 years of drawing progress
Apple Vision Pro digital iPad drawing in Procreate in 2023.
Persistence is a skill and a choice.
Anyone can get better at drawing so long as you persist and think critically.
Don't let anyone ever tell you it's easy. Pinning up bad drawings in front of classmates and teachers never feels good, even when you distance yourself from your ego.
I was terrible at drawing for a long time, particularly before getting into design college. I even worried that I wouldn't be good enough at drawing to be a good designer. It wasn't until my second year in school where I felt like I was improving.
Of course, I'm still not where I want to be. Leaning on digital media makes it easier, but I feel it's cheating compared to pen and paper. I do throw lines instead of relying on line assist which helps to keep me thinking about where each line is going, as if I were drawing on paper. More than anything, the more frequently I draw, the more improvement there is.
Persistence beats motivation in the long run because it takes discipline to persist through repeat adversity. No one likes being bad at something for a long time, but the payoff is worth it.
My drawings from the past 8 years:
Nightstand sketch 2 years before design school.
Spatula/tong head ideation 1 year before design school.
Knife with built-in sharpener design helped get me into design school.
1st year business card ideation for 1st studio project.
Early 2nd year misc. product sketching for visualization class.
Late 2nd year vacuum ideation. This exact page made me feel confident and hopeful in my drawing abilities.
Early 3rd year concept of interior Lunar habitat.
Late 3rd year personal drawing of my dream car at the time, a Subaru WRX. This was a 19 hour attempt at hyperrealism in a digital platform, Procreate.
Early 4th year spray bottle ideation inspired by gorilla power poses.
Late 4th year ideation for finger wearables to translate sign language to speech.
1st year after graduation hand study.
Recent drawing of Nothing Phone 2.