To sketch or not to sketch. I am re-inventing my art career or at least ramping it up – part of the master plan is to start blogging weekly and to stick with it. I have a master plan of blog posts and hope to write most in advance of post date. While coming up with content ideas the idea of daily sketching came up immediately. It is something I mentally chastise myself about constantly and something I preach about when teaching. I don’t sketch enough, period. It is time for me to practice what I preach and sketch more. So clichéd, but so true! I challenged myself to create one sketch for every day of August. I am struggling a little, remembering at the end of the day “oh, I need to sketch…’ However, I am finding that once I sit down to it, I am enjoying it. I have had to remind myself that I don’t have to ‘nature journal’ sketch every day, just draw. I wrapped up my first week with a thumbnail idea that popped into my head; one of my other challenges is how to create more artwork within the context of my very time-consuming technique. I included my note on the Bald Eagle sketch.
The first week of sketches:
I have a small selection of blogs that I have started following, including www.copyblogger.com. This morning I read a post with an interview with Maria Popova, the author of the blog Brain Pickings. I didn’t know of her before but I think I will be reading her blog from now on. One of the questions the author Kelton Reid asked was about ‘writer’s block’ and how to avoid it. Here is part of her answer:
It’s different for everyone, of course, but I find that you break through that alleged “block” simply by writing. As Tchaikovsky elegantly put it, “A self-respecting artist must not fold his hands on the pretext that he is not in the mood.”
I believe that all things are timely and happen when they should. I was meant to read the quote by Tchaikovsky and to read the accompanying blog post by Maria Popova about Tchaikovsky. I love music, I learned classical piano as a child, I played oboe in school, and I play guitar and sing. I also love Tchaikovsky and wrote a paper about him in my high school Music Theory class. My take-away from Tchaikovsky this morning is to just draw and paint. Period. And just sketch.