Creative Freedom
I found a new freedom in drawing.
In the end, all I did was apply the thing I've been hammering on about for months:
I stopped focusing on technique and created the conditions to be freer.
Because that's what an artist's value is: their freedom.
Freedom drives technique. Not the other way around.
You sharpen one part of your practice because that's where the urge takes you.
And not: I learn some technique ad nauseam because "it's the basics" and we'll figure out how to use it later.
There's nothing to learn. Or rather: it comes by doing.
I no longer have a goal when I draw.
I no longer tell myself "I'm going to do this" – and then get stuck because I can't pull it off.
I make a first stroke. Without thinking too much.
Then it gives me an idea. I make another.
And it keeps going like that, all the way through.
With every stroke, I'm thrilled to find out which direction it's going to take.
And sometimes, because I feel like it, I do the same thing fifty times.
That's what we should call "practicing."
But I never force myself.
Except when I'm afraid.
Afraid of not being good enough. Of not doing well enough.
And there's another kind of fear I face regularly:
The fear of ruining the drawing. Of ruining the paper.
Sometimes I've spent time on something and I tell myself "whoa, I need to be careful not to ruin it all."
Then I remember: yes, I have to ruin it all.
The next stroke has to be free, strong, brave.
Otherwise, why am I doing any of this?
If you know exactly what you're going to do, what's the point of doing it?
Pablo Picasso
I've started a new sketchbook thread for my drawings where I'll try to post once a day.
I'll also soon put the "drawing of the day" below the "note of the day" on the homepage.