15/09/2026

TL;DR - data from 227 responses to the same question uncovered a systematic problem we all face

I answer emails once a day (stick with me, this is Art related I swear)

Usually I go for a walk and dictate the email replies to my phone.

I'm not a fast writer, so dictating works well for me, and I managed to enjoy the few sunny days that London has to offer.

But recently, I haven't been able to keep up with my inbox.

That's because when someone joins my email list, I greet them with a question:

I ask this for a reason (more about it later),

But I thought very few people would actually answer.

I was wrong!

I've received over 200 replies to his question so far.

Definitely, a lot of people want to learn to draw the human figure from imagination, but there are also a lot of environments, a lot of animals and creatures, as well as faces and portraits.

Very diverse.

But my reply was very often the same.

I noticed that I was always repeating similar advice, here's some examples:

☝️ see how it’s always the same advice, regardless of their answer?

That’s because there is always the same underlying problem:

• We say “characters” instead of choosing one specific character.
• We say “figures” instead of choosing one specific pose.
• We say “faces” instead of focusing on one specific expression of one specific person.

👉 We are too generic in what we want to learn to draw.

That’s normal!

We want to draw from imagination because we want to be FREE.

We want to be free to draw everything and anything that we can imagine.

But that’s not helping us when we’re still learning!!

That's why I'm a big fan of narrowing down the scope.

At least for 2 weeks.

In my previous world of software engineering, that is called a sprint.

It's a 2-week period where we only focus on one specific (narrow) goal.

I do that by creating very narrow Pinterest boards that specialise in a specific subject.

For example, instead of “faces,” I created:

• faces of children
• faces of elderly people
• faces with open-mouth expressions
• faces with Maori-type face tattoos
• ...

You see where I’m going with this

And ideally, you would practise only that one board for 2 weeks.

I use drawingtimer, of course, I created it for that reason.

Doing this has the benefits of still teaching you the visual language of that wider category that the board pertains to,

But it makes you understand it more.

Because there is less variance, you’re able to pick up on patterns much better.

You’re able to adjust your errors and effectively progress at a much faster pace while still building skills that are transferable to other subjects.

here's some of my timed sketches this week ( 90s - 3min - 5min )

iIf you do this,

You will feel you improved once you move on to the next focus for the next sprint.

Every single person that has tried it has been happy and happily surprised by the progress.

:)

Have a strong week
🫶

Massa

P.s.

Access to /upgrade for DrawingTimer memberships is still closed while I build the community space..

But I am starting to feel more comfortable in our private discord server (it was my first time doing a server) so I think in one or two weeks we can open the doors to new members.

But make sure you're on the waitlist, there's already 155 people waiting for it!!