WHAT MUSIC DO I LISTEN TO WHILE DRAWING?

When I first started drawing I never listened to anything, I used to draw through the night, and could happily sit there in complete silence for hours. In 2014 I started to introduce music into my drawing routine, and now find myself only drawing while listening to music. I find music helps get lost in the moment, plus I love music so much it’s a nice way to multi task, drawing and listening to music at the same time. I thought I’d share my favourite drawing music, as I always enjoy finding out what other Artists listen to while producing their art, so let me know in the comments what you like and I’ll try it out :)

I have two main music set ups, one for when drawing over long periods, and the other for shorter practice sessions.

1. REALISTIC DRAWING SESSION

I have a certain way of starting out all my drawing sessions now, almost like a ritual! Firstly, I’ll get all my pencils ready, than I’ll take a bite from my favourite chocolate bar, the Cadbury Twirl :), before hitting play on a specific YouTube video (the one just below this text). Being an hour long I find it a nice way to get the drawing session started, it’s cool because I now associate the first tune of this mix with symbolising drawing time :)

YouTube player

That’ll play for an hour, than I’ll normally take a work in progress photo and another bite from my Cadbury Twirl lol before randomly selecting an epic music soundtrack from either my YouTube “Music to Draw to” playlist, or a random YouTube search. They range from 2 – 5 hours long and it’s very easy to get lost in the drawing with these blasting in my ears, the odd tune will be so epic though that I’ll either start crying, or find myself playing air guitar instead of drawing lol Here’s the playlist I have on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLheqGL8c6oBkVhnsOMeCf5CjJyLGtwwqXu0026v=lP0D5u3EMfA

I like to end my drawing sessions with the following compilation, after having another few bites from my Cadbury Twirl of course :) It’s such a funky compilation, so good in fact I’ll often repeat it a few times before putting my pencils down :) This is also a really good mix to draw hair to, you can get into a really nice flowing rhythm with some of the tunes.

YouTube player

“DREAMS COME TRUE, WHEN YOU FOLLOW YOUR HEART.”
– Above & Beyond Group Therapy Radio

2. PRACTICE SESSIONS

I adore trance music, it’s so uplifting! During my daily practice sessions, like Gesture Drawing and Segment Drawing, I’ll listen to any of the following 3 podcasts

above-and-beyond-group-therapy-radio-podcastjudge-jules-global-warm-up-podcastfrom-dubai-with-love-podcast

They’re normally 2 hours long and really help me get lost in the practice sessions! Above & Beyond also have a YouTube channel for their 2 hour podcasts. I find trance music and epic music soundtracks to be so beautiful, uplifting and inspiring – perfect for drawing!

ART ENABLES US TO FIND OURSELVES AND LOSE OURSELVES AT THE SAME TIME

– Thomas Merton