One of the main purposes I use this blog for is to review my work, find where my skills are lacking, accept those shortcomings and move forward to fix them. But, one of the harder aspects of constant review of my work is admitting my flaws, and in this case, laziness…
We all do it. We ignore what is right in front of us because we don’t want to deal with it or we are unsure of how to deal with it. Like climate change, it is so complex and huge that most ignore it and hope it gets better. The sad truth is that these things only get better when we face them and deal with them head on.
So, I’m accepting the fact that I’ve been very lazy lately with my drawing. In order to speed up the drawing process, I’ve been using Photoshop to correct my initial drawing before I begin painting. Ok, so it’s not as big an issue as climate change, but if I don’t face it down now I will use Photoshop as a crutch so much that my drawing skills will deteriorate.
Ok, I admitted it, now what? Time to get out the charcoal and drawing board again I guess. I think I’m going to setup a daily regimen of drawing from the figure and maybe from life. I could do a still life drawing a day or an interior drawing a day, that would work on perspective as well as drawing ability. This is inspired by Richard Johnson and his migrant portraits plus his urban sketching.
Daily
- 30 minutes of drawing from life
- 2 hours or other artwork (figure starts, still life, long figure work)
If I can commit to this I think it will improve my drawing tremendously and it will also increase my monthly time 15 hours.
Admitting it is the first step they say. But it’s more than simply admitting it. it does take courage and conviction to admit our faults but after that, we realize we must do something. Good job taking that big step towards progress.