Thank you for a good turn out on the first week of class. I was very impressed with everyone's work.
As I mentioned in class, working with decent tools will always enable pleasing results with a piece of work but it is not as important as the act of drawing it's self. The mark you leave on the paper.
Anyone can draw. Pick up a pen, pencil or crayone, and drag it along a piece of paper and you will have drawn a line or a swirl, or a mark of some kind. Drawing is all about the line you leave on paper. What the brain sees and how it is transfered to paper, or any surface. It is a form of communication. When you first learn to write, your hand writing may look scruffy, possibly wabbly, maybe some of the characters are the wrong way around. As you practice, you learn how to communicated better through writing and your writing will look more confident, with strighter lines and possibly bold sweeps, or it may look elegant and pretty. Learning to communicate through drawing is very similar. Your first drawings may display a lack of confidence, which is natural for most beginners, and may also look child like.It's ok, these are your first steps into a journey of discovery. For you, this is uncharted territory. But don't be afraid. Step boldly forward.
One of the main things I witness holding an individual back in their development is fear. The fear of making a mistake. The fear of producing a bad drawing. Well, NEWS FLASH! We all produce bad drawings. I still do for sure. Many professionals produce bad drawings during there daily output of work. They just don't post them online, they probably go in the bin. There is nothing wrong with producing a bad drawing. Learn from it if you can. I suggest that you keep your bad drawings while you are learning to draw. You can look back on them and be able to chart your progress. Being able to see your development is important. It will give you confidence to see the improvements you make and help you push forward and create even better work.
Practice, practice, practice. This is what every pro will tell you if you ask them how to be a better artist. And basically, that's all it comes down to. Well, that and a love of drawing. If you are not enjoying drawing , it may hinder your progress and development. Maybe drawing isn't for you. It doesn't meant you can't draw, it may be that it simply doesn't float you boat. If you are enjoying the process of creating a drawing and getting something from it, whatever that may be, then the chances are you will make good progress.
The important thing with creating a piece of art is to have fun doing so. If you enjoy doing something, you are more likely to repeat the process.
Of course , there will be times when you feel frustrated at not progreesing as fast as you hoped, or that you feel stuck in a rut, but that's ok too. everyone goes through this. Even professionals. Just work through it . You will come out the otherside a better artist.
