I am curious. I for one, get home from work and dont have the energy to draw. I am just drained from the daily grind of life! How much do you draw each day, and when do you find the time to draw? I am just curious.

Jon

About an hour each day, depending on when the 300lb hammer of inspiration hits.

Mostly during church or before I go to sleep.

Sometimes when watching a movie or show.

Hi,
I am a working mom. I get off at 5, fix dinner, make sure homework is done and baths are taken. If I'm lucky I get an hour a day. I try to do something art related, drawing, reading, studying or art related work on the computer and create something at least once a week. I too wish I had more time to draw!

I know how you feel!

I never feel like drawing right after I get home from school. For some reason I get the energy at about 9 at night. I usually get in about an hour. No matter what I do, how much homework I have, that is how much I can do. I think how I get the time is motivation. I force myself to get everything done before drawing. I usually get something done once every 1 or 2 weeks.

The thing I am working on currently, I just finished the wooden bridge which is about a fourth of the space but it took me almost 5 hours! Ridiculous!

Well I am a stay home mom .. but my kids are now 15 and 13 ...but my husband is disabled and well I like to be around .. I only draw when i am in the mood or i hate what I draw .
when my kids are at school or at night when all is quiet .

I draw all the time, everyday. Mostly because that is my job as an art student. I haven't drawn or painted for myself in awhile. It's all homework or research for class or a project I'm thinking about doing. I'm usually so worn out from that I don't even pop open my sketchbook when I have the chance.

I feel like such a bad artist, not drawing for fun anymore! I've started cross stitching and quilting to sort of help me unwind. I find when I do that I draw and paint on my off time more!

I hope I don't do that when I go to college. In my classes I atleast liked what I was drawing but then I haven't really been worked hard yet.

I know exactly how you feel. I too come home from work and just don't have the energy and that unfortunately is when I actually have the free time to draw.

Time? What is time? What is "free" time? I was actually just whining about this in this weeks challenge thread. I work for a man who is quadriplegic, 3 days per week, 12 hr shifts and then 4 nights a week I go to his home at 11pm to put him to bed. When I am at home I have 3 kids and usually the house is a write off and I seem to spend all of my "free" time cleaning, entertaining, running errands, cooking meals, etc, etc. By night fall and kids bedtime I either don't have the energy or I just am not in the mood. I like to draw during the day as the light in my house is not the greatest (I really need to invest in a lamp). But I guess to finally answer your question, I try to draw a bit each day, even if just for an hour. I always look at all the cahllenges here on the site and see all the wonderful things that members are drawing from them and it gives me so much inspiration but I can never seem to find the time to try them. I guess we just have to push some things aside and force ourselves to take some time each day to do the things that we love to do.

Lucky me! I am semi-retired. That means I still take commisioned portrait sketches and fix a few computers but mainly I only do what I want to do.

Seriously, I have more time to draw than most people.

We all have twenty-four hours in each day. We do what we choose to do, or we do what we feel people expect us to do, which is about the same thing. People who say, "I wish I had more time to draw" are just not honest with them selves. Unless we are physically or mentally handicapped, in jail or prison, we have a choice in what we do. We need to learn to say "no" to something, or just say, "I don't want to draw bad enough to take time out to do it."

I work full time, have a hobby farm, all the usual demands that go with life, but I make time for art. Yes, I get home tired and sometimes not in the mood, but I make myself go to my studio or take out my sketchpad and soon my tiredness leaves and my mood lightens.

Its is true. You can make a thousand excuses not to do something then say 'poor me, I don't have time' or you can simply make time. Don't sit in front of the tv all night, draw. Sketch at lunch time or while you have coffee. Visit art museums or 'travel' to them online for inspiration. Immerse yourself in art and stop making excuses for not drawing. In the end, only you lose out.

If you want something badly enough, you make time to do it. It all depends on your level of need.

It is true about time! I have always said, "you always seem to have the time to do the things you want to do". Its not so much I dont have the time, its just the energy level. My wife travels a lot, so I do spend a lot of time alone. I also play the banjo, so have to balance practicing that with my drawing. I have to admit, that I do spend too much time watching tv. Me bad! I have enough time to get at least one drawing, or part of one done each day! That is my goal!

Jon,
i think that the old adage is true, you have to make time.

Carry a sketchbook with you wherever you go, even work and when you have five minutes do a sketch, it actually works best the less time you have. It can train your brain to pick out the important bits of a drawing and discard the irrelevant bits.

After a while it will become easier and you wont have to think about it, then when you do have some time you can elaborate on a previous quick sketch. This will also help when you can't think what to draw, use it as a reference for something you have been thinking of drawing.

That's what i try to do, hope this helps.

RJS

I recently moved to my own place. I deliberately skipped getting cable or satellite tv. Now I have one less thing competing for my attention.

Yeah, pulling several all nighters for one piece really sucks up one's time . I guess most people don't do that, at least the artists I know. From hearing them talk they prefer their own way and work and just do the class to get a passing grade. I sometimes will blow off a paper or test to get an art project done but not if it will give me a C, and I won't put my classes aside for my own art. I guess I have kinda a strange hierarchy. It's hard to say what will happen until you're actually there!

I guess I do have the same 24 hours everyone else has. Giving up sleep during school is great! For me though, I'm putting all my work into school because I'll only have these teachers so long and there is so much they can teach me... and I already lost one. I get one more year at most with these people and that's it. Then I'll get to structure my day around art and making enough money with it to get an MFA. Or enough money to go painting around the world. That would be fun!

I have alot of time as I stay home and do not work ....but i cant draw if the mood is not there .. if I do my art looks nothing like mine lol

Violinagain - Do you know what you are going to be doing after college career wise? I don't know what I will do. Maybe a teacher. Probably something productive because I don't see myself making a living off of a gallery. I think I would need a bigger ego for that.

Oh, I don't know. I have this sorta vague idea of teaching and an MFA and having a gallery or coffee shop thingy of my own. In highschool I told my principal I could see myself with a coffee shop selling art and books and she told me "You'd better sell a whole lot of coffee." Needless to say she wasn't very supportive and I didn't really tell anyone else anything for awhile. I want to get some money and travel, and I see myself doing that with teaching and commissions.

I think owning a gallery would be cool. I couldn't see myself catering to one.

Violinagin I think your principal was wrong to do that ... your art is very good and if its a coffee shop that you want to open with a art gallery and books ...then you need to hold onto that dream and make it happen ..I think its a great idea what goes better with coffee then reading and looking at art .

Books, art and coffee, I might be in heaven. I like my coffee to be of a good quality and strong.
Paulette

Oh, dear.....
It has to be tea, not coffee!!
Far more civilized, and far more relaxing.

The faint hint of jasmine mingled with old books and fresh tea, large leather seats that sink when you sit, watercolours covering every bit of available wall space that does not have a bookshelf on it. A large open fire cackling behind it's grate, and sunlight cascading through a louvered window shutter, striping across the furniture.

Now that's heaven.

RJS

I couldn't think of anything else I'd rather be around. Coffee, Tea, Art and Books seems like a winning combination to me! Of course, we already have the frothy monkey here and it's doing well. =P But they don't have books. Come to think of it, we don't have a bookstore in this town. Hmm. >: D I think I'm going to start one.. uh... someday!

I do have to say I like coffee better. Unless it's iced sweet tea on a hot Louisiana afternoon. Mmm. Hot coffee in the morning, Cold tea in the afternoon, and books and art all the time!

I draw as and when I can. I also do watercolour painting, so try to divide my time between the two. Occasionally I do some encaustic art, but that's quite rare! My drawing etc is governed by my health, I have osteoarthritis and often go through periods where I can't sit or stand for very long, so get nothing done. But when I do I find that the early hours of the morning are the best for me! Sylvia

RJS,
It sounds to me like you just found your next painting project!
Paulette

RJS not sure if its heaven but it sure sounds like a nice place to be

I completely understand this. I worked 12 hour days on a cardiac unit for a few years. Which really means twelve hours on the clock, plus lunch, plus driving to and from. So really it's more like 13-14 hours a day, three days a week. By the time you get home, eat dinner, make sure kids have done homework, and do dishes and laundry, you're already getting less than seven hours of sleep - if you're lucky - before you have to get up and do it all over again. There was no free time on that unit. I don't think I drew a single thing in all the time I worked there. Sleep was a much bigger and much needed priority. It was a very fast paced demanding job. I usually got all the cardiac cath patients plus a few total dependents. When they came back, every 15 minutes I had to check the cath site, check vital signs, pulses, warmth and color. Multiply that by 8-17 patients in varying degrees of recovery, answering call lights, plus the emergencies and codes, diaper changes, the patient who hits the call light every two minutes, chasing down the patient with dementia who's trying to walk out after boring of trying to assault you.... Ugh. Exhausting. I finally cut back to part time so I could do 8 hour days, but lost benefits. Much better, but rotating weekends were still required and my turn I was the only NA2 with up to 26 patients, many total care, and little help from the nurses who I did notice had plenty of free time on the weekends - example - one finished Pride and Predjudice over a weekend on the clock I finally said forget it after several monthes of that with no resolve.
I deeply regret abadoning my drawing for so long. Try to draw for even 15 minutes a day in a sketch book. Is there time to draw while your client sleeps, maybe while you're waiting in between tasks? I have discovered if I can't find the time to draw, I'm not happy. So now I make the time, even if it's only one or two finished drawings a week.