Tip #5: Warm up rituals

Written By Georgia Webber

Warming up is key. We each have different ways of doing it, and we know each person’s warm up or ritual is going to be different.

Here are some simple suggestions for things you might experiment with for Zero Draft July (and beyond!):

  • Put on your favourite song to dance to, and get that heart rate — and that big joy — UP. Even without music, shake your body out. A warm body is far less prone to injury or strain :)
     

  • We both love yoga, and we both use Yoga with Adriene for our home practices. Try this video for warming up the neck, shoulders, and upper back to begin your drawing/writing time.

  • Prepare a beverage to bring to the drawing table. Hydration is everything! Use it as inspiration: make your storytelling flow like water.

  • Warm up drawings. Try holding the pencil in different ways, with different hand tension, and different pressure (drawing really light is fantastic!) just to get yourself out of habits and into drawing.

  • Do a few yawns. Really exaggerate them. Yawns rebalance our brain chemistry, stretch and flex things in a totally nervous-system-driven way, and require absolutely no thought to perform. If you need to get started yawning, look up videos of baby animals yawning. If that’s not the most joyful and relaxing thing ever, I don’t know what is.

Do you have any other ideas for loosening up before you draw? The information we’re looking for is whatever feels good, and loosens you up.

Tomorrow’s our last tip before we begin. Can you feel the energy building?

Sam & Georgia

P.s. if you’ve missed any of these tips because you signed up for these emails recently, they can all be found HERE.

BONUS CONTENT: If you want to build a practice of taking care of your body to prevent drawing injuries, check out Kriota Willberg’s book, DRAW STRONGER. It’s an essential studio book for everyone who uses their body to draw (ahem, everyone).

Georgia Webber
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Tip #4: Minimum baseline