Draw Every Day

Several months ago I attended a presentation at my church where a professional artist spoke about recent illustrations he made on commission for fantasy card games Magic: The Gathering and World of Warcraft. His imaginative depictions included a wide spectrum of stout, bearded dwarves, white-eyed, tangle-haired witches, and delicate green water pixies, just to name a few. Each drawing was breathtaking and carried an impressive degree of “epicness.” Appropriate to the church setting, though, the artist went on to showcase the most recent work he had been involved with: Christian artwork that depicted biblical scenes from the life of Jesus Christ. These images were equally impressive, but of course were for a different purpose and a different message. This was certainly a talented, diverse artist.

I am not an illustrator, so I surprised myself a bit when I raised my hand in the Q&A portion of the presentation to ask: “What advice would you have to aspiring illustrators wishing to make a profession of their talent like you have?” I suppose in asking I felt that it was a question someone in the audience might benefit from, but I also hoped to harvest a bit of advice that I could apply to my own ambitions. Assuming I was the “aspiring illustrator” I referred to in my question, he gave me a simple answer:

“Draw every day.”

It was so simple and so applicable. So what does this have to do with writing or being a writing tutor? If you want to improve on something, do it every day. It doesn’t have to take a huge chunk out of your daily schedule. It just has to be regular. If you want to draw well, draw every day. If you want to sing well, sing every day. If you want to write well, write (and read good writing) every day. The “what” may not always be so cut and dry, but the “when” is crystal clear:

Every day.