My Creative Journey 16

Every journey begins with a step...and continues with countless more. There is no end to the creative path. Only progress. To get better you have to do. Your skills, your mind, your art will not get better unless you try. And trying means you will fail a lot. But, if you keep at it, eventually you will triumph, break through, and be where you want to be. Here is another step on my journey.

Yesterday was a bit different for me. I decided to alter my course for a minute. I've been hitting painting pretty hard lately but things, like I've been saying in my posts, seem to have gotten a bit stale. There's growth and forward movement in some of my technique but overall I feel I need to take a different path to let the energy for paint recharge. I also want to build up some of my more basic skills so that when I pick up more paint and paper everything looks better. Raw energy is great, but without refined technique and a deeper understanding of how I'm doing what I'm doing I feel the work could be even stronger.

You need to be comfortable with that, changing, shifting, moving from thing to thing.

While I say it's always good to push hard and not let barriers stop you, there are times you need to you need to flow like water. Actually, you always need to flow like water with your art. Water will always get where it wants to go...eventually. But, the question you have to ask yourself at certain points is do you want to spend the time wearing a rock down to get to the next place, or flow around it and get to where you wanted to be anyways. That was one of the hardest lessons I think I'm taking from being a photographer.

Seven years beating my head against that rock, wearing it down bit by bit. When I could have just flowed around and gotten to where I am so much sooner had I just realized that there were other ways than just straight through.

So, getting to the art! :)

First, I wanted to apologize for not having a video for y'all today. Last night I was focused on drawing, between pen and marker. I had just finished my second marker drawing when I realized I had forgotten to shoot something. I told myself I would do a third, but, it was like 1a.m. and I was wrecked from a crazy day. The weed I had smoked had sent me into a hella deep depression/paranoia so even getting done what I got done seems like a monumental achievement. But, my drive to get better at what I do overcame that negative energy. Forward, forward, forward :)

Mouths...

These have frustrated me for a while. So, I decided to focus exactly on how lips fit together. I randomly came across a great image on Pinterest that pointed out the basic planes of the mouth and so, that's what I drew for a page. Nothing too crazy, nothing intense. Building blocks for something bigger. Got lots more pages like this to draw before I really have an idea of how things work but it's a start.

I ran across this image searching for a variation for the last mouth I drew. There was something about the image that caught my attention. I think it was how it reminded me of all the yelling pictures I've been doing lately. How exactly does the mouth work in the grander scheme of the head? It was kinda like a brick to the head when the realization of the skull underlying everything hit me. Duh! Right!? There's a skull underneath it all, and that's how everything works together. Seems simple, basic, but, you'd be surprised how 'little' details like that can slip by you in the heat of creation. Or, just in general. There's gonna be pages on pages of skulls coming up, hehe. Be prepared. :)

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Remember how I keep saying that there will be pages and pages and pages of shit you will create that you would never want to show anyone and how most artists keep all that secret...

Well, here are some of mine from last night. How do I get good at drawing? How do you get good at drawing? By doing stuff like this. Draw a piece of crap. Look at it. See what you did right, what you did wrong. Learn from it. Move on to the next. Rinse, repeat for the rest of your life. Trust me, it's fun to go back once in a while and look at your old stuff. Wading through miles of shit to get to somewhere...it's well worth it. It's also very humbling to realize what the people who are better than you have gone through to get there. Some may be able to do these amazing pieces of art without trying, but most of us, well, we gotta put in the work.

It was getting late by the time I got to the last page of those sketches. But, I wanted to do some marker. It had been a while and I missed those lovely blank 11x18 pages and how marker looked on them. So, I picked up that book and some markers and...

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Every day is a journey with art, if you're trying.

Nothing will happen if you don't do anything. This is something that frustrates me about a great many people who look at my work. They're look, 'oh my!' You're so talented. Yeah, I have a talent...determination. It was a fundamental principal hammered into me by my martial arts instructor way back in college. And, you know what...anyone can develop it, if they try. The problem is that too many people give up so quickly because they don't get the results they want right away. If you want to draw like this, paint like this, trust me, deep inside you really have something to say and will be able to say it, if you try. We all have these deep pent up emotions that want to be heard...and not enough people try and get them out.

There are a myriad of reasons for that...namely that society is set up to try and commercialize anything and everything which usually leads to the destruction of what makes the creative stuff creative. The dumbing down for the lowest common denominator to get the most number of eyes. But, the irony, or rather, tragedy, is that as much as people value the wonder of art and creativity, no one is willing to fucking pay out the money it's worth to do it or be it. So, people who want to be artists can't be artists because of rent. There's this rare stratified air where people make a good living at it, but, once again, it's a bastardization of true art because in the back of their heads the idea of who's gonna like this, and potentially hire them to do it for them, is always whispering to them. We need to value people for the things they want to say, not what we want to hear them say...but, that's a while paper in itself. And this is about my creative journey :)

Thanks for dropping by! Tonight's going to be interesting, not sure what I'm going to create. I'm actually starting a part time job today...a short term thing...but, need the money and some reconnection to society. So, 10am to 5pm kinda stuff. Not gonna stop, but also not sure how it's going to affect me. Evolution, adaptation...just another day in life.

Wessel

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