When I was a kid, no plain piece of paper or cardboard was safe. Give me a ball-point pen, pencil, crayon, paint, you name it, and I’d be making some kind of mark with it.
I just loved drawing. I seemed to prefer various modes of transport as my subject, but I just drew loads of stuff all the time. This continued, sometimes well, mostly not, into my 20s.
Then it just sort of stopped.
I don’t know why, but life probably just got in the way. Free time became full of all the grown-up crap that blights most adult lives.
That’s why, when I find something I drew years ago, I’m always surprised by it. It’s often really quite good, and that makes me wonder why I don’t do it any more.
I think for me the problem is the perfect being the enemy of the good. I always want my creations to be perfect, but they always fall short. In the end, I simply didn’t want to draw anything because I knew I would be disappointed well before my artwork would be finished.
Computers didn’t help. Being able to draw as freely on a screen as I can on a bit of paper is always just out of reach. I’ve been through numerous bits of software to try and capture that feeling. Some were better than others, but usually suffered either because the hardware was struggling, or some update broke something critical. The odd thing is that now I have hardware capable enough, I don’t really have any drawing software to play with!
Anyway, I occasionally attempt to reignite my drawing skills. I buy sketch books, artists’ materials, get all enthused, make some rubbish drawings or slapdash paintings and end up all disappointed and frustrated again. It’s never perfect, dammit!
I am trying again. This time, I’m going to try to just let myself draw or scribble anything that pops into my head. I might try things from life (always the hardest for me). I will attempt to do something every day, let the making of some kind of mark begin to free up that passion again.
Besides, it should be fun and relaxing. I may share some results with you, even if they’re imperfect.