Some time ago I came across a ridiculous post on Twitter that prompted me to recreate the cartoon above. I can not take credit for the initial idea. I searched in vain through my hard drive for the original image but could not find it. So I had to create the above from scratch.
It was also an exercise in to practice drawing with my drawing tablet. As you can see, I have a long way to go. But just like the idea expressed in the above cartoon, try, try, try again... and again, and again, and...
Compare the message of the the cartoon below.
There appears to be an expectation these days, of instant attainment, that everything should come naturally, instinctively, without effort. Wrong. None of us could walk on the first day we were born. In fact, without help from somebody else, we weren't going anywhere. Eventually we made it to crawling, then eventually we made our first tentative steps which of course include many falls and mishaps. Eventually we can confidently walk where ever we desire to go. Some of us might even find that we can beat the other kids in the school sprints. But, then we discover there's some one else who's faster. The solution? Again, practice and train.
Artwork is no different. Those artists who we admire, also put in many many years of practice to reach their apparent effortless of skill. It might appear that they are working without a thought, but truly, there are years of thought, frustration, failure and small successes which inform their actions.
I has been only in recent years that I came to realise the keys of the as of then illusive achievement in my artwork lay in just doing it, again and again and again and... ad infinitum.
An artist friend of mine Mateo Dineen outlined his journey from slacker to disciplined slacker in an article for WowXWow.com. His story is inspiring and hits the nail on the head, describing how many of us start off with our artwork, wondering where the illusive success is to the aha! moment to just getting down to the work of improvement and never stopping.
So there are no rainbow pooping unicorns, just a hard working mule, and you're it!
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More of my artwork can be found on my website. LeoPlaw.com
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