Want To Learn A New Skill Faster? Try This Simple Shift…

If you want to learn a new skill faster, try this.

I love to learn, but sometimes it can be a slog, especially at the start. Here’s how I made learning to draw cartoons easy last year.

In 2021, I came across a course that teaches cartoon drawing. I’m no artist, but enjoy a challenge. I soon fell behind and looked at other people’s cartoons with envy. While I intended to catch up, when the course finished, I was further behind.

When a follow-on course was announced, I needed a new approach…

How a pottery class helped me to become a cartoonist

I read a story online that comes from David Bayes & Ted Orland’s book, Art & Fear.

It describes a pottery class split into two as an experiment by the teacher. Half will be judged by weighing all of their work together, no matter how good or bad they were. The other half only have to make a single pot, but it’s got to be great.

By the end, the first group — judged on weight alone — were making the best pots.

Practice makes perfect put into stark relief.

Throwing clay is fun, easy and keeps your learning fresh…

For the second cartooning course, I decided the best way to keep up was to draw every single day, no matter what.

Some days I drew for literally a minute or two, when I didn’t feel like drawing. Because I was working on volume, not quality, I wasn’t trying to create works of art. Drawing was free of expectations and became fun.

I was just seeing what happens when you throw enough clay.

By the end of the second course, I had a very different result…

The result was a resilient cartoon badger called Roadkill, along with his own troublesome business, Box. You can see him on the homepage of my website.

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