Trying to learn any new skill that you've never had much contact with can be challenging and frustrating. This semester I'm taking an introductory drawing class at my university. I was most excited for this course as summer came closer and closer to an end. When we received a list of supplies on the first day, I immediately went out and bought everything needed. We began drawing on the next meeting period and I was instantly overwhelmed. Our professor had us starting out with gesture drawings. They were really boring still life arrangements of boxes and vases, but we had to draw everything so quickly. "Don't worry if it's not perfect, just get all the items onto your paper!" she would say to us as she gave us less than a minute to draw. I'm a perfectionist and telling me not to worry about making things as perfect as possible is like telling me to go jump off a building. It's not gonna happen.There was a day in class where I became so agitated that I couldn't draw this stupid set of boxes just right. I wanted to walk out and cry. None of it was making any sense to me. The fact that we had begun to use Mondrian lines wasn't helping at all and confused me even more. I know I needed listen to the advice my professor was giving despite the fact that she wears platform flip flops and a toe ring, which makes me really uncomfortable, but I felt like something just wasn't clicking in my brain. Yesterday was when I finally had that "I got it!" moment. We were presented with how to use triangulation in terms of an object's spatial relation to another. I found it much simpler to shift my drawing and make changes as needed that way.
Here's what I ended up with yesterday (that funny thing in the bottom left is the table). Some of the angle lines didn't get onto paper because I was using a measuring stick, but some of them are there. This certainly isn't the greatest drawing but it's such an improvement from last week. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm glad that I was able to overcome feeling lost every time I'd stand at an easel. Now I cannot wait to get back to class to see what we'll be doing next!
This is why it pisses me off so much when people who haven't taken an art class since Jr High try to say that art is easy. Serious art isn't easy! I try not to stress too much about this class though because the more I suck at the beginning the more impressive my improvement will be at the end.
ReplyDeleteThat is true! I can become really agitated whenever I'm not good at something, but I just need to remember that it'll get better with time. Baby steps!
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ReplyDeleteArt is one of those things that, despite being terrible at it, I still love and enjoy. Generally it consists of colouring/ drawing with my son but I find it so calming.I'm following. Rx
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A friend of mine went to art school in San Francisco, and he often had troubles with this as well. He, too, was an extreme perfectionist. Eventually, though, he got used to having to draw images in a quick amount of time. His classes eventually had live models come in, and they would have two minutes to sketch the person before they switched poses. It was insane. He posted all of his images, though, and it was interesting to see the progression. As the semester went on, he got better, learned more techniques, different ways of seeing and thinking. And, when they returned to timed sketches, they were, well, good. I think you'll definitely be fine, and you'll be more than happy with your progress in the end.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear to that someone who was in the same situation was able to turn out successfully. Thank you! This was really reassuring :)
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