It’s time for Art Summer

Summer is almost here and that means it’s time for a new Art Summer challenge. I started this challenge in 2022, after reading the book “12 Week Year” by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. I’ve been setting annual resolutions for the longest time and the most recurring one is to “improve my drawing skills”. So after reading the book, I was intrigued to try out this method myself for 12 weeks and see how much progress I could make with my art skills in such a short amount of time.

And guess what? You can actually make a lot of progress in only 12 weeks (that’s literally less than 3 months!).

The end result that year was actually this website and my initial portfolio. I intended on starting a new 12 week challenge (this time focused on video creation) right after finishing the first one, but took a small break before starting… Eight months later, it was almost Summer again and I did not make as much progress on my art skills or video content as I’d like: between training for a half marathon and prioritizing friends and family, I left very little time for personal growth. But as they say, better late than never and I’m now ready to start a new challenge!

There are 3 simple steps for an Art Summer: establish your goal, list our your actions/tactics/behaviors, and map it all out throughout 12 weeks.

Establishing Your Goal

Establishing your goal is the first step in this process and is the most important. I’ve failed to complete projects like this multiple times in the past because my goals were not aligned with my values or long-term vision for myself. Although 12 weeks seem like a short time (and it really is!) it can feel daunting to take on an ambitious challenge. So unless you are really committed to your goal and understand why this is important to you, you probably won’t stick to it.

In my case, the reason I want to improve my drawing skills is because I want to become the best artist that I can be. I love to draw and want to keep growing as an artist because personal growth is something I really value.

This year, my main goal is to experiment with my art. I’ve been having so many good ideas lately, but I hardly put any of them in practice because I’d rather complete a pretty piece than to spend time being uncomfortable with something that might turn up ugly. I want to experiment with new rendering styles, new sketching styles, new subject matters, new color palettes (I’m looking at you greens and yellows 🤨) and new processes.

So now, following the SMART (specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound) approach, I’ll clearly state my goal and have it very visible in my office while I’m taking this challenge:

In the next 12 weeks, I will create at least 1 experimental illustration per week focused on narrative, lighting, and composition to improve my drawing skills and continue to evolve as an artist.

Brainstorming Tactics

After establishing my goal, I’ll write down all the actions or tactics that I think will help me achieve it. You can write this down or create a mood board if you prefer, anything to help you visualize the actions you need to take. It helps to organize these tactics into categories, such as actions or resources to learn depending on what your tactics look like. Another thing that I like to keep in mind is whether these tactics are recurring or not, and how long they are likely to take me. Having a clear picture of what each tactic looks like in action will be helpful later on when planning it out throughout the 12 weeks.

• Support Sam Does Art on Patreon and follow his tutorials: ~2 hours per week

• Join Loish’s Patreon’s monthly art challenges: ~2 hours per week

• Study Ben Eblen’s sketch notes (emulating some sketches from the same reference picture): 1hr per sketch note

• Take Izzy Burton’s class on Domestika as well as Magdalina Dianova’s: several hours

• Read Framed Ink 2: ~2 hours + put some of the learnings in practice through drawings

• Read Loish’s latest art book: ~2 hours + put some of the learnings in practice through drawings

• Watch the videos by Proko that I’ve saved for later on YouTube: ~1 hour

• Create several photo studies (+ organize my Pinterest boards): ~2 hours per sketch

• Try a new process for rendering: fully 3D vs. minimalist/graphic design vs. sketchy vs. gouache/traditional… What do I prefer? ~ 5 hours per drawing

• Go to the zoo for some live animal sketching (maybe use traditional materials? Watercolor pens?): ~4 hours total

• Go to a cafe for some people sketching: ~2 hours total

• Go to a park in SF for more people sketching: ~3 hours total

• Take pictures while on walks to reference later

• Make some movie studies: ~7 hours per study

• Draw Twiggy (finish creating his illustrated book?): ~3 hours for some sketches and quick finished pieces

• 100 drawing challenge (plants, animals, cars, landscapes): ~2 hours per session

• Anything else?!

Mapping It All Out

Now, it’s time to put all of this into a rough plan for the next 12 weeks. As you plan your weeks, keep in mind what your work schedule is like and how much time you actually have to dedicate to your Art Summer. Don’t set yourself up for failure by overcommitting; instead look for a balance where you’re still able to prioritize your Art Summer over (almost) everything else. Remember: this is important for yourself, and the reason you’re doing this is to achieve your goals faster.

I suggest planning your week with a planner, calendar or list of activities to do per week. You don’t need to fully plan out every week, but have a vision in mind of what activities you’d like to prioritize and always think back on your goal to assess whether what you’re doing is aligned with your goal.

Here’s my tentative plan for the next 12 weeks:

As you can see, this is a rough outline of what my weeks will look like but the detailed view will be worked on as time goes by. This general view allows me to see in a glance everything that I want to work on, as well as the various resources I’d like to study.

For Week One, for example, I want to work on sketches focused on clean shapes and stylization. Every week, I’ll prepare my calendar for Art Summer and actually block off time to dedicate myself to drawing at least 2 hours per day. Usually, I do this in the morning as soon as I wake up to ensure I actually get my drawings done. In this weekly prep, I’ll also organize any reference pictures and try to visualize what I actually want to accomplish. Going back to Week One, I want to create at least 3 sketches from the same reference picture every day exaggerating different aspects of the people I’m drawing. I’ll be using Pinterest for photo references, and the art of Ben Eblen, Aveline Stokart and Sam Does Art as my artistic references. The weekends will be the time dedicated to my learning resources so that I can apply what I learn in the following week.

After the week is over, not only I’ll move on to plan out the following week, but I’ll also take a few minutes to journal and reflect on what I did the previous week:

• What have I accomplished this week?

• How many hours did I spend drawing?

• What have I learned?

• What worked well?

• What could’ve been done better or differently?

• How can I improve next week?

And then a new week starts! By reiterating this process (plan the week, do the work, review the work), I’ll move through the art challenge. I’ll keep you updated on my progress on my YouTube Channel and hope this was a helpful breakdown of the challenge in case you decide to do it yourself! Of course, the Art Summer can be done at any point in the year, but always have a deadline or finish date to avoid burnout and reset your brain.

Good luck!