Creative Training Routine #1

Today, I want to share a bit about my daily creative routine.

For me, creating the kind of illustrations I want — freely and with the quality I’m happy with — feels like a performance. Kind of like an athlete performing at their best. And just like athletes do strength training and basic exercises to maintain their peak performance, I also have my own "illustration training routine" that I practice every day.

Today, I’ll introduce one part of that routine — pencil drawing practice.

With just a pencil and paper, I practice capturing the essence of what I see and translating it onto the page. My illustrations are usually simple and colorful, but the way I capture shapes and the balance of my drawings is what gives them their unique character. That’s why I make time for pencil drawings — to sharpen my ability to capture the core of my subjects.

The truth is, I’ve always struggled with pencil drawings! Honestly, I used to think I was just bad at it.

But after consistently moving my pencil for 30 minutes to an hour every day, I gradually started to understand the tricks of the trade. At first, I could only draw awkward, unbalanced faces. But bit by bit, I got a better sense of the shape of eyes and the placement of facial features — until I could finally draw faces I was satisfied with. That’s when pencil drawings became fun, and I wanted to keep practicing even more.

Even now, I still sometimes feel lazy about sitting down to draw.
But once I pick up my pencil and sit in front of my blank sketchbook, something clicks. My hands start moving, my mind clears, and before I know it, I’m completely focused — just moving my pencil up, down, left, and right.

I think I’m slowly falling under the spell of pencil drawings and their quiet charm!