I'm really bad about sketching paper--I think I have a couple Field Notes that are dot grid or blank that I could be using, but I don't because I don't want to deal with the page transition. I don't like the durability of spiral bound notebooks. Instead, I often have a stack of crudely quartered heavyish weight printer paper at work to doodle on. It works in the moment, but it makes bringing it home or elsewhere a chore (I don't wanna crease the end product!). I'm out right now, and keep forgetting to replenish the stack and I want to draw some ideas and make something physical instead of code!
Instead, I'm relegated to the sketchpad in my head. This is, imo, an Extremely Good practice, and one I picked up in orchestra as a highschooler. I don't remember where I read it or who told me or whatever, but my director was Big on the technique of practice itself so it was always an undercurrent in that group (and is still an undercurrent of my regular thought--knowing how to practice is huge and it seems to me few interrogate the concept outside of musical circles), which lead me to the idea: if you can't practice the thing in reality, practice the thing in your head. Go through the motions; feel how your body would move and do the thing and how it would look and feel and sound and be. Do not move your body (or do, if that helps); the action is in the realm inside you. It's not as good as actual physical practice in the long run (e.g. you can't improve if it's the only thing you do for a year) but it does bring improvement, especially over Simply Languishing. There have been studies on it[1]. Do the thing in your head, then go back when you can to do it outside your head and do it again with your fingers and toes and other muscles. it'll improve the outcome and is good practice.
Today I am sketching:
- a header image for this site (I like my idea so far, and it feels like a good candidate for working as a 88x31 too)
- a 3D printed stand for my little gachapon gundams
- doing this in my head first is honestly super mega important; I need to have a really good idea of the shapes so I can plan my order of operations in F360 and ensure orientation is going to work
hmmmm, this indicates I might've read this. I do recall reading part of or of the study, at least. ↩︎