My Creative Journey 19 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 02

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 gotta say that last nights drawing session got really interesting. There were a lot of lessons I learned and more than a few insights. Even after 7 hours of staring at a computer screen tagging pictures for a company, and about 2 hours of commuting, I was still ready and eager to get to my art. It really helped that as I was walking home from parking my car my neighbors invited me up for a little bit of a toke. That definitely is a great way to start the night. Even if I don't smoke as much as I used to, I find the tension it relieves in my shoulders immeasurable.

After eating dinner and relaxing for a minute, I got down to play.

I wanted to challenge myself but I also wanted to check my progress...in a way. I got started with drawing something like 3 months ago doing some really gnarly sketches from my photographic self portraits. And, when I say rough, I really mean it. I was curious...what would one look like now if I did it in pen?

My answer to that question...and try not laugh too hard. I know I look like a fool :)

It looks pretty legit, right? At least to me it does. Far from perfect, it's another step in the right direction. Honestly, not too much to say about it. The lines are coming together, spacing, proportion, even shadowing. But, it really doesn't feel alive to me, and that's because I was just trying to sketch true to model. I wasn't trying to make anything, 'mine.' No flourishes, no dramatic diverting paths, hehe. Which is ok because that's what I was planning to do. You need to be able to draw correctly before you try and go too far off the rails. And by correctly I mean being able to reproduce things you see accurately.

Another cool thing about this drawing...I did a time lapse video of me doing it :) And, this time I had enough memory to record the whole thing. So, if you want to see the process, here it is! Watch me Draw! Ep. 02

Music: fwimmygoat

What did you think of that? Pretty cool? Lame as hell? LOL

When I was done I wanted to try something different.

I've had this speedball ink lying around for a week or two now. A gift from a friend who wanted to see what I'd do with it, I finally decided to take it out and give it a try.

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Now, I know they're nothing pretty, but that's cool because I've never used it before. I need to use it and use it to figure out what's up with it. I don't just want to paint with ink, I want to learn how to really make it sing for me and create stuff y'all will actually care about. That's what experimenting and doing come into play. You need to do in order to learn. And not to be shy of the shit you're gonna put out for a while.

This is where a lot of the lessons and revelations came into play.

Moving between all these mediums and formats has been interesting, allowing me to see a bit of a lot of stuff...and there's still so much for me to sample and even more to figure out. I don't even want to think how far I am from any sort of real understanding...but, that's not my focus anyways. I wish I was a genius and could paint like a master by 16 like some famous artists...but I couldn't, didn't, and won't. I just have to be me and be comfortable with that. My pace will be the pace I take.

So this is where I went next. It started with two brushes, one in each hand. The right had a wet brush, to lay down a track the ink would fill, the left, the ink. But, after a few drippings I realized this paper was shit for that, and continued to paint the regular way. The only thing is, I didn't switch the paint brush to my right hand. I mean, why should I have to? I'm not left-handed, but that doesn't and shouldn't mean that I can't paint with it. I mean, it probably has something to say as well, right? lol. Not that this painting is anything really, but what it did teach me is that, a. I can paint with my other hand if I want to, and, b. ink has so many potentials I can't even begin to fathom. Tonight I might try ink again, but with some different paper I have. Basically, don't limit yourself. Anything can be done with enough practice and persistence. Even something as crazy as potentially become ambidextrous :)

This was the second one I did, still with my left hand. Nothing crazy awesome, or revelatory when it comes to technique, but it did show me something else. Something kinda important... I'm obsessed with faces...I can't stop drawing them, painting them, thinking about them... something deep inside me wants to be expressed, and I really should stop resisting it...not that I have been, but I should embrace it, because I sure as hell won't be able to get past it until my unconscious is ready to.

I said to myself at the beginning of this, well, not exactly at the beginning, more at the point when I realized I was going to become what I wanted to become, but that's besides the point.

What I said to myself was that I was going to trust my gut, and trust it completely. I was going to get in touch with myself and let the beast out, no matter where it took me. Right now, this is it. My world. I still plan to draw other stuff, but I won't stand in the way of myself in an attempt to be something different. I'm sure you could draw that out into some deep life metaphor, but, I'm still sitting at work, after hours waiting for LA traffic to die down, and don't have the energy to get too philosophical. Perhaps tomorrow at the coffee shop.

Oh, I also realized I really love to paint big...this small shit is small shit. Good for fine motor control, but nowhere near the impact I love to give with my work. Bigger, bigger, bigger. Hopefully in the next several weeks I'll be painting one of the exterior walls of the coffee shop...if I can afford the paint, hehe. Sucks, but I had to ask for donations so that I could get paint and paper for this weekend, but a number of people stepped up in my Facebook friends group and gave. I had to promise a painting for them in exchange, but, that's cool with me. I want them to have one anyways :) If you want to donate, feel free to. I'm willing to send a painting :) $50 for some paints and paper and I'll send you something when I have the cash to. My pitch to y'all ;) I have a feeling this art thing for me is gonna have a trajectory, so think of it more as an investment vs a donation.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and looking. Love to hear what you think, good or bad. If you have any questions, as always, feel free to ask :)

Wessel

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