Resistance to thinking has been the problem.
About a year and a half ago, there was a rude person running a Wednesday night model drawing session that excluded me from some advanced drawing classes she had arranged because she thought I wouldn't benefit from them. She also excluded one other person, who (to put it frankly) couldn't draw a dot with a well sharpened crayon. So I was lumped into the "feeble skill" category by this woman.
It offended me greatly, and it pushed me away from going to all life drawing sessions at the time. Plus, my weekly "quick sketch" short pose session ended abruptly. So I was left without any weekly figure drawing practice.
All of that negative activity took me away from drawing; but that's not what I want to talk about.
I've been trying to get back. And you know what I do? Maybe you do it too. My confused method of getting back to drawing:
- Review all my old work.
- Look at art that I've always admired.
- Comment in sketchbook threads on CA.org.
- Look at all my art instruction materials (vids, books, etc).
- Contact my old art teacher.
None of it has gotten my butt moving. I feel the pin prick of motivation in my butt because there are still awesome ideas that I want to draw. But, I haven't gotten moving.
Why?
It's not what the book Art & Fear talks about. The answer struck me last night; my mind simply doesn't want to think.
Now, thinking is critical when building the skills necessary to draw well. Once those skills are in hand, it may seem like no thinking is required because the trained artist works very quickly. This is why several dimmer bulbs out there (the blind leading the blind) will advise a person to "stop thinking and just draw."
WRONG.
...(as my art teacher would say in his deep voice, with a wry grin)
I've got to remember to love thinking about this stuff. After all, Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, and some of the greatest minds in history were fascinated by the problems that good drawing presented. They diagrammed things. They took things apart. Then they tested their theories by actually doing paintings and drawings. They had to think to solve drawing problems. This is how they got to be masters.
Point is, thinking connects desire with actual creation. It is the bridge that all artists constantly cross. And crossing a bridge literally requires you to get off your ass.
When it's time to draw, as easy as it is to sit on my ass and look at another instructional video by Proko, I must force myself away from that passive act and go to my studio and THINK. Until I start to work out the drawing problems on my own, I will not progress.
Think, dammit. And either learn to love the thinking, or learn to suffer through it.
