As I struggle to find a purpose for my artwork I spent thirty minutes today just thinking about the future of my work and asked a very simple question of myself. What do I want to do most? The answer, “Get better”. Which led me directly to facing my artistic fears head-on.
After some reflection today I realized that what I want to do most with my art right now is get better at doing my art. And as I write this I’m thinking that I’m an idiot because that’s the reason for this whole blog and daily art thing… We all get lost I guess but I think this is equivalent to getting lost in my own backyard.
Anyway, I want to get better. How do I get better? The fastest way to get better at anything is to do it, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes and try like hell not to repeat them. Also, like any athlete would do, you focus on your weaknesses. Which brings me to my artistic fears.
Facing My Artistic Fears Head-on
One of the biggest fears for artists and myself is doing terrible work. But all artists do it, everybody does it while we’re learning anything. Now, imagine that all of your terrible work was exposed to the public and anyone could see it at anytime. This is what I face weekly. It’s great when I’m posting work that is going well, but it’s hard when all I have to post is bad art.
Too many times I run from the difficult part in art. Most of the time I don’t know that I’m doing it. It’s a natural state for all of us to seek out comfort and familiarity, but the road to mastery is full of rough terrain and I’m not giving up or turning back. So let’s look at some of the rough terrain ahead of me (basically what I suck at and need to work on).
What I need to work on
- Still Life
- Geometric objects; bowls, cups, plates, the elegant curve of a teapot.
- Portrait
- From life or photos, doesn’t matter I’m terrible at these.
- Figure
- Initial figure placement on page
- Proportion
- Landscape
- I need to do them
I could have made this list much longer but this is the general idea. The good new is that it looks like I can do just about any kind of art and I will be working on a weakness and moving toward my goals.
I choose to draw this statue today because I don’t think I have every drawn these fairy statues well. I have attempted it many times but I have never been successful. Tonight is no different.
