My Creative Journey 20 + Watch me Draw! Ep. 03

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.

Dang, yesterday just flew by and I didn't have a chance to get my blog up. The night before I decided to really get into that ink my buddy had given me. From when I first tried that ink I knew that the pages of the sketchbooks I normally used really didn't take the ink how I liked, but luckily I had another kind of pad that a different buddy had given me. Yeah, love that my friends keep on giving me stuff to create with :)

So, I sat down on my bed, pulled out a joint, and before I knew it it was 2am...not too bad, right? But I only had like 4 pages left in the sketchbook, so I figured I'd finish it off...and before I knew it, 3am... So, when I got up later than normal, like 11am, which is super rare for me, time just flashed by. So much to do, so little time. And, last night was capped off by a gig that kept me out in bars until after closed shooting and drinking...so, another late start today. But, I'm gonna do all my posts because I got the time. Sunday is great...just hope I have a chance to just relax for a minute before I have to go to my new part time job tomorrow.

Enough blabbering on about non-art stuff... Simply put, I went nuts that night. Apparently I had lots of pent up energy from not painting for a while, and working a job that requires zero creativity, hehe. I was also super curious to see how the ink worked with the paper, how to do the strokes, how to play with the mode and medium a bit, and basically I just really wanted to create and I knew I didn't have to get up early.

Looking at that leader image, there's a lot of stuff there.

Good, and bad. Let's start with where I started...and, as always, try not to giggle too hard. Not that my ego is fragile or anything, hehe.

How does one use ink? Is there a right way, a wrong way? I've never really worked with it before so these were basically my first steps into it. From what I learned the previous night, the possibilities are endless...like most things in art. As always, obsessed with faces, though, I really need to get more realistic with things. My artist friends keep on telling me, 'get those faces right!' I guess in many ways I'm just eager to put ink to paper. Law of averages as I walk along this road is that even if I screw up a lot, eventually something good will come out, and along the way I learn a lot about both me and my art.

I am always going to advocate trying, even if it means failing, because it's all a process. This first one really sucks, but there's also good in it, and it's part of a philosophy I'm creating within myself...never be scared of anything.

Am I scared of showing my screw-ups?

Yes, it hits on the image of artists being always awesome.

Am I scared of creating something that sucks?

Always...even when I do prep and have everything set beforehand, any stroke could destroy the entire piece.

Am I scared that no one will ever like what I do and that I'm following the wrong path?

Every minute of every day. But I balance that with the belief that others have in me, and the fact that I like a lot of what I do. And if I like it, someone else will too :)

Am I going to let any of those fears stop me?

No.

And you shouldn't let fear stop you either. If you want to do art. Or, well, anything :) Anything that's socially beneficial, hehe.

I'm gonna lump the drawings together in no particular order as there are a bunch, and I can't remember what it was.

Lots of stuff...right? lol. Fruits of a maddened mind...or something :)

There's cool, there's horrible, there's a lot of meh. Most important, there's a lot of experimentation. As I keep on saying, don't be afraid. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? You make something that sucks and find out something doesn't work. And, you don't have to show anyone. That's the coolest part. I only show everything because I want you to be inspired to try :) Not everything is gonna be awesome. You just gotta learn to live with it.

You might not see your own growth, but others will.

That's what I've learned. It takes effort for an artist to look back at their own work and really like it. At least in my opinion. Everyone's different. You might enjoy it, but you'll always see that flaw that no one else does...a stray brush stroke, an off color, just, something about it.

In the end these were my favorites. I was showing them to a buddy of mine, thank goodness these are easy to move around at 8.5x11, and he gave me an idea...wheat paste them up around town. Get my work out there so people can see it. Now, that sounds like a great idea to me. First I was thinking stickers, but that costs a lot more than wheat paste and a bunch of photo copies. Thoughts?

Oh, and almost forgot...Ep. 03 of Watch me Draw!!

Music: Andrew Codeman