A good habit I'm trying to build at the moment is to draw in my sketchbook at least once a day. Not only is finding the will to stop procrastinating and sit down quite a challenge, but so is thinking of something to draw.
The other day I was babysitting my neighbours' two dogs, which after they calmed down, consisted of them snoozing either next to me or on top of me. Since I couldn't really move without disturbing them I decided to sketch them.
Drawing animals from life can be tricky, as they don't care too much about staying still so that you can draw them. Drawing them when they're asleep is obviously a lot easier, but you still have to be relatively quick as they'll often change positions.
My own dog has recently taken a liking to a small beanbag I use as a footstool when playing videogames in the evening. He gets into such a deep state of relaxation that he very rarely moves and so he's perfect as drawing subject.
In these first couple of drawings I just used a normal graphite pencil, and I think I started to loosen up a bit by the second drawing. I learned to just start by blocking in the general shapes before getting too sucked in by details, as he could still move his head and change the whole drawing.
For the next drawing I used an erasable coloured pencil, something I love using to sketch for a painting. It doesn't smudge as graphite does, and adds a cool or warm tone to a drawing, depending on the colour of the pencil. I'd definitely relaxed more by this drawing, and it feels a bit more stylised.
Again I used a coloured pencil, but tried red this time. I think this time I tried to focus more on tone and shape rather than style, and tried drawing his paws too which are always quite challenging.
Although I lost interest in drawing him over and over again I did learn to loosen up and enjoy the process of drawing from life, and to not be obsessed with tiny details over the bigger picture.