Drawing at your own pace

http://i.imgur.com/NmTaxmU.png

"How long does it take you to draw _________ "

I just wanted to address this.
Even i'm guilty of asking this or having asked this to other artists whose work I enjoy.

But before you ask this question you need to take into account:

-experience
-quality
-other variables. (Such as:Details, size, character count, your personality)

Because while time is an issue. It is not the -only- determining factor.


Experience.

How long have you been drawing? How long have they been drawing?

When you ask these two questions make sure it is understood that I don't take that B.S. answer of 'Q_Q ALL MY LIFE AND I STILL SUCK' Because i'm sorry as a kid you didn't give two shits if your bunny looked like a dog. There is a point in your life as an aspiring artist that you go "I want this to really get good at this. I want to study this. I want to LEARN this." A point where you get SERIOUS about art.

So let's rephrase.

When did you get serious about art? When did THEY get serious about art.

Because that matters. And I don't mean years. I mean hours a week. Because I know people who got 'serious' about art in 2011 and their art still looks like how they drew -then- even today in 2013. Why? Because they only put in 4 hours a week towards art. And even then that 4 hours wasn't focused.

So it isn't fair to you to compare yourself to someone who put 40-50 hours a week in towards their art when you only put in 10.



Quality

"If I tried to do what you did in 30 mins...it'd look like shit" -anon

If you're AWARE of this then DON'T RUSH IT just because you can't YET work at that speed. Take the time YOU need to take to make it good quality. Because it circles back around to experience. The more you draw the faster you WILL GET. So just keep at it. Your time will lessen.

And there are many exercises you can do to speed that up. DON'T ASK ME. I'm not google. This is 2013 and you're on a computer.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/17665b40.....jio10_1280.jpg <--Also I DIDN'T make that. surprise surprise to all of you who think i'm a bitch. there are MANY ARTISTS that think this way. it has 17k reblogs. So...any-the-fuck-way



Other variables

The obvious: Do you try to do more details? Are you comparing your 2 person sketch to someone doing a one person sketch?

Your personality: (I will tell you right now, I think this is a dumbass excuse if you want to eventually do commissions...you'd get fired/not hired anywhere else for it....but I -will- cover it)

Maybe you can't focus on something for a long period of time.
Maybe you're just a slow worker on everything you do (supposedly) no matter what you do

Mind you the above is DIFFERENT from art block. Art block happens to all artists at some point. but they push through it and keep on working. Art block once every few months? Understandable. Once every 2 weeks? That's a problem.

But whatever....that's something you have to deal with and account for. Maybe you just "can't" work at decent speed.



So what is a good speed to strive for?

I can't tell you for colored work but I can tell you 30mins to an hour for a one figure sketch is good to shoot for. everything else after that is sheerly dependent upon detail factor.