Drawing and sketching. Apparently, these aren't the same things. I've always used the two terms interchangeably, but then I've never had much reason to use these terms in the past. A quick sketch and a quick drawing, to me, are the same thing; a final sketch and a final drawing should look the same. 'Sketch' perhaps has a slightly rougher connotation, almost akin to a rough draft. However, and perhaps this is the writer in my talking, 90% of my first drafts are still there in the final drafts. It's rare when you have to completely gut an essay. I equally assumed it's rare to completely gut a drawing.
As it turns out, sketches are, well, more akin to jot notes, a visual set of shorthand from which you can later craft a full work. To continue the essay analogy, sketching is the research and the plan, drawing is actually putting it all together. Or so I now think.
I don't sketch. I may have said I sketched in the past, but that's not sketch as it is used here. I've always drawn. I suppose this is a carry-over from my writing personality: I don't do rough-drafts. Well, I do and I don't. I approach everything, every word, with the intention of making it the best possible. Calling something a rough-draft is an excuse to make mistakes, to not try your hardest. No. I labour over every word. I make good copies. Then I inevitably go back and make better copies, and finally a best copy.
Such is my view of art. To call something just a sketch is to say, "I know it sucks and has errors everywhere, but it's just a rough sketch and that's okay." I'm not doing this challenge to make rough sketches, to make errors and just shrug them off: I want to get good. There's no room for rough drafts.
Unfortunately, I now realize this is a mistake. I've been writing for many, many years, and I've made numerous mistakes. Thousands of mistakes. Ten-thousand, and I've learned from them all. I now have the luxury of using this knowledge to avoid these mistakes. I have no such knowledge with art. I don't know which mistakes to avoid because I haven't made enough mistakes yet.
I guess I need to give myself permission to make a bad drawing. It's okay as long as I learn from it.
So I'll be changing my drawing challenge slightly. I still intend to draw at least 20min everyday, and I mean draw: work on something I (hopefully) would like to hang on the fridge, something I'd be proud to call my own work. But I also need to sketch. Every day, I'll try to set a few minutes aside to sketch. Well, most days. Some days. At least once a week.
I suppose this blog won't really change: I'll still upload my drawings every week. I have no intention of cluttering these pages with rough sketches. I'm a novice artist as is; do we really want to see my rough work? If a sketch inspires something that I draw later, sure, I'll upload that, but this is more of a me-change than a blog-change.
It's okay to make mistakes. It really is. If I tell myself this enough times, maybe I'll believe it, and maybe I can benefit as well.
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