From the mouths of angels

I used to look at peoples art, people who i wanted to be able to draw like, and i used to think it was magic what they did.  I used to think they were born with it.  Sometimes people would tell me I was a great artist, that i was talented, and I always scoffed, I always felt like it wasn't true, because there were the people who were better than me, and that I would never be able to do what they do. I used to think that people were just born with talent, knowing how to draw amazing...

But you know what my big revelation has been? It may not seem huge, but to me it is liberating.  It is that all those people who are amazing had to work their asses off.  They might have been born with some talent, but they worked it.  They sacrificed hours of their time every day drawing and creating.

Why do they do it? Some may do it out of competition, or pride, or jealousy... but I think those are few.  It takes a lot to sustain a long term determination.  I think they did it because they love it.  That is the real secret, the one that you can't read about.  You have to feel it.  You have to love it to do it that much.  They love to draw, and in drawing all the time, they get better.

Not to say that it doesn't suck at times, at times you hate it.  You feel like shit, you just can't create anything good, you beat yourself up, but you keep doing it.  Every day.  Because you love it.

This may seem obvious to some people.  But to me, the idea that if I do it enough, I will get better is astounding. There is no magic formula- or rather there is, but it isn't easy.  It is simple.  Do it every day. Work, work and more work.  Constantly.  If I had only realized this years ago,  I would have saved myself years of searching.  I was always looking outside myself.  but what I really wanted was with me all along, just begging to be exercised.

This can be hard going to realize.  I see people whose art I love, and I want to be able to do it so badly.  then I compare, and I feel like crap.  I can feel hopeless.  I felt so hopeless at one point I gave up all together.  But I just couldn't forget.

So here I am, back again.  i am not going to care about my end result- i am going to draw for the sake of drawing.  Because I love doing it.  Because I don't want to do anything else. If I had to pick one thing to do for the rest of my life, it would be this.

Tomorrow I will post some hands.  I have set myself to drawing lots of hands for the next week.  Really get to know it.  It is a complex form, and is great practice for training the eye to break down into simple shapes.  I'll also post up some links to the books I am working on.  There are some great methods out there.  If you work with them, you will get better.

Man, what a mundane revelation.  From the mouths of angels.