Some amazing wisdom by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is habit number 7, “Sharpen your saw”.
This is the first few paragraphs of the Habit 7 chapter in Stephen Covey’s book.
Suppose you were to come upon someone in the woods working feverishly to saw down a tree.
“What are you doing?” you ask.
“Can’t you see?” comes the impatient reply. “I’m sawing down this tree.”
“You look exhausted!” you exclaim. “How long have you been at it?”
“Over five hours,” he returns, “and I’m beat! This is hard work.”
“Well, why don’t you take a break for a few minutes and sharpen that saw?” you inquire. “I’m sure it would go a lot faster.”
“I don’t have time to sharpen the saw,” the man says empathically. “I’m too busy sawing!”
Are you working with a dull blade? Are you tired, cranky or burned out?
Maybe it’s time to take a break. Get your energy right by dialing in you sleep, getting a bit of exercise every day and eating right so you can show up to what you love most at your best.
We must sharpen our physiology and mental capacity to tackle the infinitely complex world of art. If we don’t have our minds and bodies running at our best how can we possible expect to perform at our best.
Creating is not just about picking up some paint and a pencil and expressing yourself. Creating is also, eating right, moving regularly, sleeping well and honing our psychology through meditation.
These are the true foundations of being a master artist.
I re-drew Buffy’s arms again and I’m super close to what I want now. I’m still not 100% sold on her arms looking right but I’m going to put in a lot of shading work first before I re-draw them for the fifth time.
The normal 15 minute warm-up in graphite.
This is the extended gesture study exercise from the The Natural Way to Draw book. He has it programmed for 1 hour but I’ve only been doing half hour sessions for them.
Amazing art morning of super focus. And I’m putting into practice the seven habits of highly effective people by getting my energy right and showing up at my best.
I’m not perfect, I also need to watch my energy closely and sharpen my saw when it’s needed.
Make sure I oscillate throughout the day and use my Oura scores as an indicator of when to take it easy in my daily workouts.
