Concentration

[mtw]

I have a problem of thinking too much. It keeps from getting concentrated with different tasks, such as drawing. If I'm trying to picture in my mind something I want to draw, my thoughts will start to ramble on, and before I know it I'm thinking about something totally different. When I'm in my figure drawing class, I'll be thinking about unrelated things while trying to draw what I see.

Any tips on how to get over this?

[Jason Manley]

yep...i had the same problem...

ya just make yourself stop...bite down...

it used bother me when I got like that....try listening for when your concentration period is coming on...like for a favorite song on the radio....recognize it...and take advantage of it.

van gogh said something about it...saying that basically his creative times were something he would always use for art...because he never knew when the next one would come.

you will find ways to occupy your less concentrative times...like research on the web for what you are working on...or reading a book..or seeing a movie...or doing martial arts...who knows...anything...if you use your time wisely you can learn to give to your art in different ways at the appropriate times for you.

an important part about being a concept artist or illustrator is learning how to work even at your worst times though...deadlines never care how your mind is feeling...they just call for what you can do and what you are obligated to do.


jason

[nova]

jason pretty much summed it up, but i'll add in my few.

this is going to sound kind of weird and dumb but here goes.

my situation sounds a little different than yours, i just had a lot of stuff i could think about it. but i made up this 'switch' idea, where i've trained myself to switch on thinking about school, work, life, etc at different times, basically it lets me switch off things when i need to concentrate at different times [work, homework, etc]. it took a while to learn how to, the idea came from when i realized i was too stressed and couldn't stop all these thoughts running around through my brain, when i had to concentrate on a single thing. the good thing about it all is that when a single switch is on, it frees up your brain to go crazy about other things, gives you more room to be creative and fill up the sketchbook.

another thing, just sitting there with headphones on and sinking into some music always helps. but you might've tried that already.

like jason said, just make yourself bite down. that inherently has concentration powers :)

ok well good luck,

[mtw]

Thanks for the tips. I'll try those out.

[adien]

how did you teach yourself to switch from one to the other? is there a technique you use like anchoring/triggering (pavlov's dogs)? i would love to be able to hone my concentration like that. :)

[nova]

adien,

nice name btw..

nah, nothing so fancy. it's a matter of awareness at first, like when you're at once place and start thinking about the other, catching yourself and like weeding, removing the thoughts that don't matter. thinking 'i'm not going to think about this, it doesn't matter right now' and removing it from your brain. this in itself was a challenge and took concentration but after a couple weeks or so, it became easier and eventually, became a habit. the removal part was a little scary and felt like conscious forgetting..

however if there were things i really had to remember i wrote them down or something. this is one thing i had to watch out for.. for a little while becoming kind of detached and too carefree so things weren't getting done. but luckily it didn't last for long and things soon became balanced.

in reality, i wasn't even conscious i was 'brain-weeding', it came out of the situation of having so much to do i desperately had to stop thinking of unrelated things.

people seem to write books on these kind of things *gets an idea* :)

- l