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[Music]
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it is actually much harder to unlearn a
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bad practice than to learn it in the
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first place and you might think that
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just sounds like something that you read
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un rded but this is actually a well
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documented part of learning new skills
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taking the time to master the basics
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goes a long way that's the case for
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learning an instrument of sport how to
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drive or how to draw which is my case I
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am a self teing artist in the process of
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learning how to draw by making my own
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DIY art school with all the free drawing
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advice that I can find online and today
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I want to tell you exactly how I took
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this Back to Basics approach quite
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seriously and Drew only lines and basic
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shapes every single day for a full month
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I'll tell you why I did it how I did it
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everything that I've learned and how
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much of an amazing experience this was
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for me just not really for the reasons I
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was expecting it to
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be the thought process behind drawing
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lines and shapes a bunch of times makes
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a lot of sense drawings are composed of
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those so if you can make good shapes and
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make good lines lines that's just going
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to give your drawings a solid foundation
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and that is what many teachers out there
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recommend that you focus on when
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starting out on your drawing Journey
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sounds simple enough sign me up I am
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doing it for a full month and the
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results of that show
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that I've improved I made a lot of
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progress by practicing something every
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day which tends to be a thing that
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happens which in itself is pretty
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amazing but personally I don't think the
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improving is the most impressive part of
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the story and I am much more interested
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in diving into the how the hell did I
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possibly manage to do that for 30 days
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that sh looks
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[Music]
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boring telling a creative person that is
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just starting out in that state of
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excitement and butterflies to just sit
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around and draw
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lines like that's that's evil why would
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you do that who hurt you sounds boring
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and it looks boring so it's one of those
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things that are just really hard to
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recommend to someone like weightlifting
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or season one of Doctor Who but also
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when you get it you get it so I am here
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today to make a case for this experiment
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because being on the other side now I
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can see how much value this had for me
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from the very start because along with
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making better lines I was actually
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learning five big I would argue life
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lessons that I had no idea that I would
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be signing up for and that made the
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whole experience very much worth
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it I know that it looks like it'll be a
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drag to fill up these pages but really
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the time that I spent practicing became
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like my favorite part of each day making
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these shapes just feels good you don't
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have to think about anything you just
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have to move your arm over and over in
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this specific way and it's nice and it's
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relaxing and I think drawing can in
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general have this effect on people but
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as a beginner who's just constantly
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trying to draw things that are pretty
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above my league that can also bring a
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lot of stress and frustration to the
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experience a lot of times but
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lines
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circles like that's a no-brainer I can
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do that it was a break from everything
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else when I could get into this
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meditative space and I was usually just
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looking forward to it the next
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day have you ever had a moment when
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you're like I feel like drawing
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something now what should I draw and
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then you spend 40 minutes looking for
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the perfect reference until you get so
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overwhelmed that you end up not drawing
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anything at
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all well that is the beauty of exercises
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they have this power of I am just going
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to focus on improving my skills for a
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little bit without all
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the baggage and that can be liberating
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it's fun you make a lot of progress and
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then when you do go to actually draw a
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subject you see how they actually did
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really help maybe at this point I'm just
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ere explaining how EX exercises work but
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also maybe it's that thing that it's
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worth being reminded of from time to
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time it is okay to just do exercises for
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a little
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while and not only it's okay and it
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feels good it actually looks pretty good
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like it's not a put it up on your wall
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kind of good but it's also not bad in
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the beginning when I was thinking about
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making this video I thought that they
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might look a little too bland and ugly
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for it but I actually quite liked how
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they turn out with time I started to see
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that I was like still being creative
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with the spreads with like the
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arrangement of things and the different
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sizes and contrasts and trying to find
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clever ways to fill up the page with
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each page I was making creative
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decisions and once they started to like
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come together and pile up I saw that
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they were actually looking pretty nice
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they started to work well with each
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other it's like a visual trace of my
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growth and I think that they make like a
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really nice
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set around like day 10 I started to feel
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like something magical was happening in
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my brain I was drawing these simple
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basic shapes every day and essentially
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that became like the only thing that I
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could confidently say that I knew how to
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draw So then whenever I went and triy to
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draw something else my brain would just
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immediately jump to try and find those
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shapes that I was comfortable with and
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apparently that's like a master skill to
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have to be able to draw well being able
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to look at things and break them down
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into their most simple basic shapes just
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demystifies and simplifies the subject
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and just makes it so much easier to draw
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it that's like drawing one onone so if
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you can like only draw that for now like
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you see how that's a life
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hack and when I say that I got good at
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drawing these shapes don't think that
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like by day 15 I could make the perfect
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circle with my eyes closed because that
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is not the case I wasn't nailing every
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single line or getting closer to
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Perfection that would probably take many
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years and also completely miss the point
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because even the teachers during these
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lessons weren't getting it right every
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single time cuz it's not about that
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these are exercises to warm up and
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loosen up and get better not to be
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perfect I would argue there isn't even
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like an end result to achieve some days
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you're doing better than others you're
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slowly seeing your improvement but it's
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all about the practice the action of
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showing up and making something so for
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all of you perfectionists out
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there seems like it's a valuable lesson
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to learn very conveniently all the
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lessons that I took and all the
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exercises that I made are compiled in
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this notion page with links and notes
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and whatnot and anyone is welcome to
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access that so I will just quickly rapid
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fire what I feel like are the most
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important things that I learned during
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this month and that I would highly
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recommend to people who want to give
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this a try learn the different ways that
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you can grip the pencil and the kinds of
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marks that each grip makes practice
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drawing from your shoulder and your
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elbow to go beyond just drawing from
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your wrists get comfortable with the
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range of marks that the pencil makes
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when you alter its angle and its
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pressure practice Mak making a bunch of
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straight lines varying Direction and
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size and angles same thing for curved
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lines just go crazy short long left
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right up down every possible way learn
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about the ghosting method and how to
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build up your drawing by starting with
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very light and faint marks I especially
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use this to practice making circles I do
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not even know how many circles and ovals
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I made just like just just make a lot of
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them and really practice making all the
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basic shapes squares triangles
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rectangles because these are the
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building blocks of drawing of course
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start training your eye to see those
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shapes all around and practice breaking
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down some reference pictures into those
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and along with all of that I always try
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to squeeze in making the same exercises
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with a pen so I could get better with
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inking and also as someone with deep
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commitment issues to just try and
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overall be less afraid of drawing with a
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pen and in case you are actually
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considering doing this I I think it's
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important to note that while this
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studying this thing for 30 days was a
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very good and successful experiment for
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me me it is also literally just a random
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idea that I had because like that's what
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people do on YouTube I guess like there
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isn't much of a base for this amount of
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days as far as I know and I do think
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that if I were to do this again 30 days
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is just a long ass time the same thing
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can be learned in a much shorter amount
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of time and then the practice I think
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can maybe be incorporated as warm-up
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exercises or some pages from time to
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time but not
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necessarily days of intense practice
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like I did because remember drawing it's
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just scribbling things on paper it's
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supposed to be fun okay it is not about
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complicating it it is literally Child's
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Play so let's just collectively try to
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not adult the fun out of drawing just
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have a good time do your best and
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remember to be patient and be kind to
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yourself and thank you so much for
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making this far into the video I will
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see you next time
