Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Starting off a new sketchbook

I've filled my old sketchbook completely now, so I bought a new one and filled up the first page nicely.  I had a lot of fun doing it and I think I'm actually improving.  It's really nice to feel encouraged when I've worked on this for so long.  When I started drawing again back in 2007 it was something I did only because it's fun for me to create.  I just wanted that feeling of putting a pencil to a page and having the freedom to make any kinds of shapes.

I think back on grade school now and I can recall that I used to draw all over my class notes.  It wasn't anything good; I would just make whatever things I could dream up, and it never seemed to me that there was anything remarkable about drawing being so fun.  I thought it was the same for everyone, but I'm not so sure now.  I can remember that I used to feel guilty about drawing and a little embarrassed because I was never very talented at it.  I could draw for hours and never produce anything that would impress anyone except myself.  I think I had the impression that if I wasn't good at something it wasn't worth doing.  I suppose that's a fairly normal thing for a kid to think, but it ended up turning me off drawing for many years.  It didn't help that the art teachers I had were often less than encouraging.  I suppose that's understandable too though, my work was always a little light on the "fidelity" (to say the least).  Teachers need something to guide their work too, so they tend to concentrate on the students who can look at a photograph and reproduce it exactly in pencil and paint.  That kind of thing was never my strength and it still isn't.

This isn't to say that I think I'm any good at drawing now, I just have a good feeling about where I'm at right now.  I'm still full of weaknesses and have a long road ahead, but fortunately it's been a very fun trip so far and I look forward to creating many more pages.  So...how about some uplifting jazz fusion to go with my post today?  It is VERY lame.  You have been warned.  Yes?  Okay!







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