Listening to music while drawing?

[F11]

Someone told me that Listening to music while drawing was bad, Is this true?

I kindof like to have my headohines on while drawing cause' its the only way to tune out my brothers god awful guitar playing and the rest of the noise of my house.

[Seer]

You have a good reason to listen to music right there. Rules mostly suck, except for when they don't suck.

[F11]

You have a good reason to listen to music right there. Rules mostly suck, except for when they don't suck.

I thought they always sucked :P

[Ampersand]

I don't think there's anything wrong with listening to music while working. No reason why you shouldn't, if you do. It helps me work better, though I can only have it on when I'm drawing and not when I'm writing. It distracts my mind (in a good way) and stops me getting worked up if things aren't going well; on the other hand it also makes me hyperactive and I start doodling everywhere. :tihi:

[ChaoticKnight]

My animation teacher told me that we should never listen to music while drawing the animation frames, because if we get distracted enough, our mind wont focus on the detail between frames and things will become skewed and incorrect. Drawing and painting, however, is different. Another mentor of mine told me that ambient, or instrumental music that has patterns or repetition is excellent for getting your brain to work on the good side for creativity.
Good examples of this are the "Drone Zone" ambient radio on itunes, classical music, new age artists such as Patrick O'Hearn and Amethystium have always helped me, and I might suggest tool's Lateralus if your looking for something a bit heavier, but still have pattern and repetition.
Hope this helps. :)

[Malphorix]

I listen to music when I'm drawing quite frequently. I just make sure there aren't any lyrics to distract me. Depends on what your drawing too IMO. Heavy metal won't go well if you're drawing a landscape.

[Ios]

I have some experimental, instrumental Jazz music my guitar-teacher gave me. It's really nice and really not distracting. It's pretty convenient to work/draw with that music on your head.
I do seen to notice that drawing goes a little bit easier with that kind of music (instrumental) or no music on my head. But I think it's just a matter of concentration.

[tomwaits4noman]

My animation teacher told me that we should never listen to music while drawing the animation frames, because if we get distracted enough, our mind wont focus on the detail between frames and things will become skewed and incorrect. Drawing and painting, however, is different. Another mentor of mine told me that ambient, or instrumental music that has patterns or repetition is excellent for getting your brain to work on the good side for creativity.
Good examples of this are the "Drone Zone" ambient radio on itunes, classical music, new age artists such as Patrick O'Hearn and Amethystium have always helped me, and I might suggest tool's Lateralus if your looking for something a bit heavier, but still have pattern and repetition.
Hope this helps. :)


I had animation teachers say the same thing and a life drawing teacher that had to have music playing in her class

you only hear the music if your focus is not fully on something, personally i find that it can help you capture a certain mood when you are creating an image.

so if it is a sad image or depressing radiohead is always good lol
or if its angry pantera or ratm is good.

[Shantih]

If it is, I'm buggered.

I always listen to music, mainly because I have no where in the house that's anywhere near quiet, and music helps me focus more, rather than wondering what on earth my little sister's doing to her CD player.

[subversive-imaginati]

I think it entirely depends on the situation.

It can help you set the mood or get in the right frame of mind for piece when you have control of the music, but when you end up stuck in a class with a bunch of people who insist on having their crappy remix tapes on all the time it can be a major distraction.

I had the latter happen to me and the music if it could be called that kept knocking me out of my concentration zone because it would be awfully mixed and the teacher wondered why I was hardly doing any work.

[F11]

I think it entirely depends on the situation.

It can help you set the mood or get in the right frame of mind for piece when you have control of the music, but when you end up stuck in a class with a bunch of people who insist on having their crappy remix tapes on all the time it can be a major distraction.

I had the latter happen to me and the music if it could be called that kept knocking me out of my concentration zone because it would be awfully mixed and the teacher wondered why I was hardly doing any work.

Have those people heard of headphones?!

[Shantih]

^ Indeed. When I was in year 12, the year 13's insisted on having the crappy radio on full blast all the time, until I imposed a ban.

And by ban I mean taking the fuse out of the plug.

[subversive-imaginati]

These people consisted of 95% of the class unfortunately, they all wanted to show off their "mad music skillz" to each other and there was only one tape player in the class room so the rest of us got subjected to their attempts to show off.

[DavePalumbo]

nothing wrong with music while working, but listening to headphones while in a class is bad form in my opinion

[F11]

nothing wrong with music while working, but listening to headphones while in a class is bad form in my opinion

cant be worse than blairing awful music to the whole class.

[sweetoblivion314]

nothing wrong with music while working, but listening to headphones while in a class is bad form in my opinion

I've only had one teacher who was against headphones in class. And thats cause she didnt want anyone distracted incase she wanted to talk about something.

Most of my teachers have had music playing or are ok with headphones as long as you remove them if they start talking. Though I allways make sure to ask if its alright with them before i go and do it.

But i have trouble working without music. Music is like my ritalin, my mind races without it. Movies and TV distract me though because of the visuals. Though a friend of mine is the opposite. He likes to have the TV going but cant have music on.

[DavePalumbo]

cant be worse than blairing awful music to the whole class

that is also bad form, but you could always speak up about it

[HunterKiller_]

My animation teacher told me that we should never listen to music while drawing the animation frames, because if we get distracted enough, our mind wont focus on the detail between frames and things will become skewed and incorrect. Drawing and painting, however, is different. Another mentor of mine told me that ambient, or instrumental music that has patterns or repetition is excellent for getting your brain to work on the good side for creativity.

I agree with this.
Drawing animation borders on technical drawing. It must be thought about a lot, all the time. Not just something you can doodle out.

[subversive-imaginati]

that is also bad form, but you could always speak up about it

That requires the rest of the class to be adults. Sometimes there are times when it's actually possibly dangerous to speak up even if people are being asses and when the teacher is quite oblivious it doesn't help matters.

[JJ McKool]

Your brain can only focus at 100%. If you listen to music, you take a certain percent off of what you can use on something else. At least, that's what I learned from a seminar in school that was focused on memory and learning. Basically, you end up passively doing that other thing.

I have noticed that sometimes it's counterproductive, and at other times, I end up drawing WAY faster, or better, when I'm drawing in tune with some music. It's gotta be good stuff though. I used to do really well with classical music when I was really young, now I can barely stand it, save for a few Beethoven and Mozart ones. A good steady beat, or bagpipes for some reason help now. Don't ask me why :\ .

[C.G.]

As some of you confirmed, listening music while drawing animation frames, apparently, won't work. I read the same thing in the book "The Animator's Survival Kit", from Roger Rabbit's creator.

But we are used to have a lot of music while drawing something else. In drawing classes, we either had our own MP3 players, or teacher would let us listen to jazz music. Same thing when working in groups, one of us sets the radio in a laptop, and we work with soft music.

Music also inspires my mood, and allows me to perform quick sketches inspired by the song. For something calm and simple, I have loads of trance, soft techno, and easy listening. For something more wicked, I get to listen to enough rock and hard metal. When I'm working in university projects, -always- calm music, if I get metal bumping my ears, I can't concentrate.

A good example was the song "The Ark Awakes from the Sea of Chaos" (from Hiroyuki Oshima), which inspired me to create one of my characters, who I ended up naming "Ark".

When drawing characters, each one has his own set of soundtracks, and listening to only those helps me getting inspired, and get into the character's personality while drawing.

... I need more simphonies in my winamp.

*EDIT* And yes, it's better to be listening to music with your earphones rather than be listening to an anoying brother | noisy car sounds | noisy dorm mates | etc...

[sgtplunder]

Noise cancelling/attunating ear phones are good in my opinion. I can have them in at work, someone could be talking to me and I would not know :)

[kingshaj]

i had a painting instructor that forbid us to listen to music ...and advised that we didn’t when painting in general..

his logic was that the music would influence your art.
and on some level appear in the art.

although the man was a genius in my mind,
and i think he had a point, i think all his philosophy does is point out the importance of choosing the right music for a given project.

[Micaiah Nelson]

Kingshaj makes a lot of sence to me cause I use it music to move an idea in my head and also use the chillout music to get it down on paper. Personaly for me rock is good for ideas but not good for your process of drawing cause of the lyrics and music keeps my ideas constant making it hard to chose one idea. So I go back and forth between chillout and rock for my process.

[TheDonut]

I can't write with music - it distracts me, but I don't like to draw or paint without it. In class, especially when doing more technical drawings (plans n elevations etc), I like to have it in. It means my classmates don't distract me and I get into the rhythm of working far faster.

I have a wide range of music on my playlist, from heavy metal to classial to chillout kind of things, and i have it on shuffle. When painting, a strong song can influence me a little, which isn't always a bad thing. I can see why it's frowned upon though - it can distract me from my initial ideas for the piece.

[Konstruktion]

I always listen to music when I draw. All kinds of stuff that I like, from death to black basicly;)

I find myself as most relaxed when I listen to something beautiful I have heard hundreds of times before. Usually I start hum the melodies whitout really thinking about it, or shaking my feet. Anyways it makes me more relaxed. Sometimes really ambient stuff helps too.

[The Whistler]

his logic was that the music would influence your art.
and on some level appear in the art.



For me that is the best part of it. I really love music and if there is a song that I particulary like I sometimes see it in a form of a picture that I just have to draw. Music inspires. :)

[Inkjexion]

i like listening to music while drawing, gives you energy and inspiration. I think music helps the flow of your drawing like if your listening to trance or house you tend to draw faster than usual. Listening to music while writing though is really distracting to me. Sometimes I would accidentally write what the singer is singing.

[Jushra]

i was always told that music is alright, but if it has a beat faster than the standard human heart rate, it'll become more of a distraction after you get into 'right-brain' mode.

[Arthe Xavier]

I listen to Ambient or Jazz when I draw - it helps me focus, and relaxes my mind. Nothing wrong with that as far as I am concerned. :)

I also listen to soft music whenever I write; it usually inspires me. Lyrics, however, are distracting.

[NoSeRider]

I saw a documentary of Cuban cigar workers needing entertainment while performing their cigar rapping, they would listen to a commentator on the latest gossip, news and narrations of short stories....apparently they became so efficient they needed other forms of distractions to keep their mind active.....while doing the mundane task of rapping cigars.

Might be the same principle for drawing/art. If you're proficient in your craft, you need something to keep your mind active and explore other avenues....it's the chew bubble gum and walk at the same time syndrome. You can do both at the same time.

It might be a necessity to listen to music in order to keep the subconscious going and not become distracted by needless obsessive thoughts.....like how am I gonna get this done on time, why did me girlfriend dump me...blah blah blah.

[JonZ_]

I think it different to anyone. I am myself a very easy person who get his concentration broken if there's a chatter or noise nearby. Music included. At work I will cringe if someone put music while Photoshoping, especially if it not the kind I like (ie rap). I rarely listen to music, but sometime I bring up my Shuffle and put on music but sometime it have more an effect to exhaust more quickly than motivate.

[ChrisHale]

I think as mentioned earlier I have to listen to music when sketching and doodling. When animating though I get so much more done when I take off the headphones and just listen to the office ambience.

[Noukah]

Yeah I've heard and read that listening to music when animating something can be very disturbing.
But I don't consider listening to music while painting is bad for you. I guess it kinda depends on who you are as a person.
Me, as an example, get all the inspiration from music, and playing music in the background while creating only increases the rush I sometimes get when I'm extremely inspired.


Oh.. I got a strange feeling of deja vú while ranting...