Got an email today from an editor of Pangaia magazine, saying that they like my portfolio but would need to see more in black and white. Which, unfortunately, I don't really have yet, since I tend to color my best drawings and work more with gouache and watercolor than with shading.I did manage to do a little sketching today, and dig up some old stuff to scan in, like this thing (pardon the sloppy cropping and coloring, it's just a sketch of the edits I'm considering).
I was also thinking about my post from yesterday, and I was thinking about creative risk. I think that managing risk appropriately is one of the hardest things about having limited resources, such as time. I think, upon further consideration, that it would be easy to spend my day off drawing if I knew I'd come out with a masterpiece, but you never know that. Getting good at art takes lots of practice, lots of experiments, and lots of starting out with not-so-great ideas. It has to be okay to spend a day messing around creatively, knowing you might end up with nothing worth keeping and still have to go back to work the next day. This is a lesson that's hard enough for me even when I've got tons of time, since I want to be good at everything and not ever have to be a beginner. Sometimes it's near impossible when I know I can't get up the next day and try again.
Anyway, this is one of those things that I know, in some part of my brain, but I have to keep reminding myself of all the time, since that's the only way I've found to get around it. If I ever want to get anything done, I just have to get off the computer and do, well, pretty much anything.
I have this exact same problem. I keep the following taped above the computer. It helps me out:
ReplyDelete"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” - Aristotle
:) Good luck!
I know exactly what you mean. It's HARD to be a beginner at anything. Kids are used to it, since they're starting from scratch. They even expect to be bad at something. It's just the things they love, they do. I remember when I was a child being SO EXCITED to finally get to take piano lessons. I worked so hard... and then about six years ago, as a ...ahem...mature adult, I started playing cello. It was a truly humbling experience, because playing a stringed instrument is nothing like anything I'd ever done before. It was good for me, though, because I'm a teacher. It really reminded me about how kids feel--not being able to do something, and how important each of the little baby steps are in moving towards compentence and (even) excellence.
ReplyDeleteBut you're so right; we just gotta do it.
And Steph--I really like that quote. I've seen it before, but I think I'm going to print it out too. Maybe even make a poster to put up in my classroom for my students to see every day.
ReplyDelete