My Creative Journey 27

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.

I almost took a break yesterday...almost. But, sitting on my couch on a Friday night by myself watching Netflix seemed like kind of a waste...and I really wanted to sketch. I said in my last post that I ended up crashing in the back seat of my car for an hour before the drive home, so I definitely didn't have the energy to do anything big...or the creativity swirling around in my head. Because, it does take a certain mood to want to put out work like that, and my mood was on a smaller scale. Which means I didn't do a video, for which I apologize, but I'm pretty sure y'all won't hate me too much for that omission.

So, I said I was going to do a lot more skulls, in preparation for the post cards I plan to send out in the coming week.

But, after those gas masks I painted on a whim I had a sudden craving to draw more. The iconic nature of the last one I painted, the brilliant color one, had piqued my gut and so, I practiced what I always preach...follow your gut.

I started with a photo I found on Pinterest because I like to get a feel for things before trying to figure them out. I go through and draw what I see, watching the shadows, the lines, etc.. That's why I ended up doing 2 of the same image. I also wanted to see how it would change on the second go. (Top is first, bottom is second).

I've gotten pretty good at capturing things from images, probably a skill picked up from my earlier permanent marker drawings, and lots of practice. I was intrigued, am intrigued, by the simplicity of the gas mask, and how completely you can make it so quickly. I would have continued drawing this image a couple more times, but another caught my eye.

It was one of those corny, 'how to draw a gas mask' images. A 10 or 12 step process to get them to look a particular way. So, I took to it, trying it in different ways, feeling out how things got put together. One thing I realized was that my canisters were wear. They just didn't have that right feel to them...something about the perspective. But, I was having fun working on the eyes, so I didn't pay too much attention. How do lenses sit on a head, how to they look at slightly different angles, stuff like that.

You have to do stuff like this...

Pages on pages on pages of the same thing over and over. Sure, down the road you need less and less pages to figure something out, but at the beginning, damn you gotta put ink on paper like you wouldn't believe.

So, that's what I did...more ink on paper. A little more free-form this time though.

These were me stretching a bit, when it comes to the lines and forms, kind of taking what I did on the previous page and trying to make it mine. I think I need a couple more pages of practice, but, whatever, right :) Those will come, maybe tonight...not quite sure. I'm patient, so drawing the same thing over and over isn't frustrating. Yes I'm eager to move onwards and upwards, but thanks to the lessons I learned in photography I get that there are peaks and plateaus. At the pace I'm currently moving at their gonna come in some pretty massive waves, hehe. Exciting and depressing :)

Yes, these probably all look like things you'd sketch in your high school notebook...

But, baby steps :) For painting right now I don't need to be too detailed about stuff, and that's what this practice is for...in part.

It was at this point that I started to get really frustrated with those canisters. Why the hell didn't they look right?

So I decided to practice some, try drawing them in different ways, to see if I could figure out what was up. It was like 1am by this point, so my focus was a bit off, even if my motivation was solid. I feel it was progress. Not a giant leap forward, but, like I keep on saying, baby steps. In this case, another baby step in the direction of understanding at a basic level what perspective is. Without it, you can't make things feel 3D, feel real...basically a lot of the stuff I want to do :) Perspective also affects coloring...I mean when it comes to shadow and highlight and how surfaces react to a light source...this shit gets deep fast, lol. But, I love it. And in a way I can't even begin to put into words. If I could do this and this alone 12 hours a day, I would...and do when I have the time and aren't bogged down in the day-to-day.

One benefit of being single with few friends...

Time to do the things I need to do. Want to do :) Though if the right woman came along, hehe, I'd definitely have to figure out how to balance my time even better so that I could keep up at this pace. Anyone who dates me is gonna realize the relationship is always going to be a threesome between me, them, and whatever I'm focused on. And, don't get me wrong, I still make time for my friends, even if it means I need to stay up later to create.

So, that was my creative journey for last night. It's already 7:15pm here and I still have to edit photos for a client, smoke with my neighbors, then get to creating while chilling with a friend. Oh, and just remembered, I also need to document all the work I've done for the last couple weeks so I can put it up on my website...

I've been up and at it since 930am

...running around on errands... mailing out a painting to someone, the first for me...getting art supplies...buying some gear I need to for my camera...then a lunch break that turned into a 2 hour nap...followed by the three blogs I've put out today...damn. But, that's a normal day when you're pursuing a dream...good days, bad days, 7 days a week so that someday I can live on what I love. I'm tired AF, but filled with energy :)

That's my piece of advice to you. Find something that makes you burn like this. You'll find the time and energy to do whatever you need to make it happen. Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my work and words :) Y'all help provide the gas to keep this engine going...your words, your votes, your views. And I hope you get something from this too. Never be scared to ask me questions. Feel free to call my work crap. It's all fuel for me :) Be well and have a great weekend!

Wessel