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Let mastery happen on its own schedule, In the meantime just strive for
being above average.
To get to above average you’ll need a lot less time than 10,000 hours. How
about we see what you can learn in 10,000 minutes?
10,000 minutes as about 167 hours. If you attack this full time, and spend 8
hours a day, for 5 days a week, you’ll get your 10,000 minutes in a MONTH. I
don’t think that’s healthy. Do not try it.
Let’s look at something a little more doable: 2 hours every week day
(weekends off) gets you your 10,000 minutes in just 3 months.
That’s way more manageable. You can still have a life while doing this. Which
is important for having a well stocked creative bank account.
But not all hours drawing are created equal. Just drawing for fun 2 hours a
day isn’t going to get you to above average. You need to make those hours
really count.
In order to make this the most effective use of your hours here’s FOUR things
you need to do.
Being a great artist means mastering 40+ different micro-skills. These small
skills are stacked on top of each other and make it look like the master artist
doing magic, when really she is just doing 40+ small things all at the same
time.
Line weight
Tone
Proportion
Silhouette
Light
Shadow
Design
Concept
Form
Composition
Color
Value
That’s a good list to start with. If you want to know more, study up on some
of your favorite artists. Perhaps ask them what skills they think are most
important, then add those to your list of micro skills.
2) Deliberate Practice
Now that you’ve got the list of micro-skills you need to learn set out to learn
each one individually. You do this through deliberate practice.
For example, line weight is the first on the list there. What you might do is
print out a line drawing that someone has already done, then you’ll trace
over that drawing trying to copy the line weight exactly. Repeat this as many
times as it takes so that you learn when to do thick heavy lines and when to
do thin light lines.
Once you’ve gotten good at that, do the same with tone. Copy drawings that
are excellent examples of tonal structure. And try to match that with your
drawing.
Note: this is hard. Professionals who practice this way state that they can
only concentrate for, at most, 4 hours every day on learning one specific
micro-skill.
So don’t get frustrated if you can only do this for 30 minutes at a time at
first.
One of the best ways to spot your problem areas and identify ways to
improve is by creating a feedback loop for yourself. For some skills you’ll be
able to track your performance by yourself. Just by comparing your line
weight to the line weight of the drawing your learning from you should be
able to see where you nailed it and where you need improvement.
But some skills are a little more subjective, or you haven’t learned enough
yet to know what’s working and what isn’t in your studies. For that you’ll
need to either find a mentor or find a community to show your work to. A
place like the SVSlearn.com forums is a great place to share your progress
and get feedback.
4) The 1% Rule
Just try to be one percent better today than you were yesterday. I learned
about this from James Altucher who writes about this here.
Do this and you’ll see your expertise compound. Don’t worry about making
giant strides every day. Just look at yesterday’s work and try to make it one
percent better than it was yesterday.
Do this for 167 days and that 1% becomes… 167% better? I don’t know
exactly. I’m not very good at percentages, but you get the point.
Get Started!
So that’s it, forget the 10,000 hour rule and see what you can accomplish in
10,000 minutes.
I’ve seen massive gains in my abilities by doing these four things. Check
your own learning regiment and see if introducing micro-skill tracking,
deliberate practice, feedback loops, and the 1% rule make any difference in
the next 3 months.
Also, let me know what other learning techniques you do that have proven
super effective. I’d love to try and apply those to my learning as well.
Thanks,
Jake