One thing I often hear from artists is that you should be drawing all the time. I think this is a great and true advice, but I also think there lies a danger in it. Some - especially young - artist tend to take this as a gospel truth, and believe if the just wont put the pencil out of their hand, they are already doing everything right. Actually they are doing almost everything right. Drawing constantly will definitely give you great control over your tools, which is crucial for anything you do. But if you draw mindlessly there is the danger of ingraining mistakes or just drawing variations of the same thing over and over without really improving. Of course it would be ideal, if every time you want to start sketching you would actually be really inspired by something cool, or at least you find something challenging.
I have no general recipe for that but one thing that works for me is sketching from street style blogs. They are full of photos of so many different and interesting people, which really inspires me. To keep myself challenged I try to pick the photos where I think: "This looks really cool, I have no idea how i would draw that" Like with the leopard scarf in that one sketch.
Do I draw all the time in my free time? It depends. I have noticed that I have phases. There are those phases where I draw almost all the time, and nothing could make me happier then. And there are those times where I just cant bring myself to it, and only play video games, I know drawing would only suck at that time, so I dont force it. I think that keeps me sane. ;)
references for the sketches above:
http://glamcanyon.blogspot.com/2009/03/sokrates-on-broadway-market.htmlhttp://trendycrew.com/street-fashion/fairy-paris-fashion-week/
