Doodling Brings Motivation to Draw Anime

By Rick Feathers

Getting motivated to draw anime begins by taking some form of action. But most of the time we catch ourselves staring out of the window, watch hours of TV, daydream of other things to do or we find something else that distracts us and occupies our time which keeps us from drawing our favorite anime.

Does that sound familiar? Do you suffer from this lack of motivation to draw your anime? If so, then enjoy this simple tip that will get you past “artist block” and begin drawing again.

Let’s begin, start by getting in your favorite place you enjoy working on your sketches and have some of your anime art displayed around you. Then select a few anime characters you would like to draw and have them in eyes view. This is what I call setting the proper mood or atmosphere in moving to the next step and later the creative feeling that you really wanted all along.

Be careful, this is usually the place where artist block creeps in because our intentions are good and we want to draw but doing it is totally another step to climb.

Now you want to get some plain loose leaf or notebook paper, a pencil or pen if you prefer and start doodling. Start by writing your name and other words if you can’t think of anything to do. Just scribble a bunch of lines back and forth like your trying to get the ink flowing in a pen that went dry because you are actually doing the same by getting your mind to flow in the direction of drawing.

Then change by organizing what you are scribbling. Making straight lines, vertical and horizontal, striking arc across the page and making circles of different sizes.

Work on geometric shapes and shading them. This is the beginning of taking action and it also helps you with hand movements.

While you are in this mood of constructive doodle, move into the transition phase by roughly sketching anime characters from what you remember. Don’t be concern about getting it right just go through the motions of drawing eyes, body parts and some scenery perhaps. At this point you will begin thinking about manga and the anime character you wish to draw from what you previously selected.

As your mind begins to shift gears with creative thoughts, your interest level begins to rise, you become focused and drawing is now something you want to do. You have now taken that next step and you have everything around you to draw anime because of prior preparation. It’s now the perfect time to create and draw anime.