RE: Things I Used To Do: Drawing
I used to draw in my notebooks every day at school, and to this day I can't match the skill that my hand had achieved with those hours of daily practice. I remember taking a job as the cartoonist at college just a few years later, and I noticed that the fluidity of my lines and the surety of my eye was gone-- it was like starting over almost-- very frustrating when I couldn't produce the quality that I'd been able to easily throw on the paper during high school. I didn't have the hours to devote to the craft as I did when I was sitting at the grade-school desk all day long, and I noticed it painfully!
It looks to me like your drawings show potential, and your confidence can be seen in the warrior drawing, for example, and the time and patience can be seen in the work. That digital composition also is well-balanced and interesting to my eye, and I imagine that-- like me-- other interests and less time spent drawing added to the discouragement that you may have felt about your own drawing skills.
Oh and those little flip movies! My brother has a small library of those that we made as kids, drawing on index cards and securing them together with a rubber band at the top, but I haven't seen them in many years.
It all boils down to time devoted to a craft- my drawing skills definitely were neglected when I decided to also learn how to play piano!
Haha! It's funny to be reading this from someone whose skill in art I admire. You're right on the money with your observations, as always. Deliberate practice, grit and time really do make a difference and could easily make up for the lack of sheer talent. You're so on point with the factors that add to the discouragement, man haha!
I appreciate the compliment, brother! Coming from someone whose skill in drawing is exponentially better than mine, that's huge! I got a 4.0 in that subject, so even though it wasn't a fan favorite, at least it helped me land a spot on the dean's list haha!
Index cards? Wow! Those are expensive here, so as much as I wanted to use them, I was prevented from doing so haha! Though I remember some drawing there that I snuck in. It's great that you still kept it! Is piano the arch nemesis of drawing?! It's interesting to read about the similarities of our backstory, so thanks for sharing it :D
The good news is, that the small muscles in our hands that control the movement of the pencil can be redeveloped very quickly, and when I look back at the weekly editorial cartoons that forced me to start drawing again, they did improve a lot within a few weeks, so the skills are never too far away from reclaiming if needed.
As I recall, the index cards did become scarce at some point, but we made quite a few little movies before running out.
Ohh! SO you're saying that it's just like riding a bike? On the bright side, I wouldn't need to catch up too much. The downside is that I don't have that good of a skill in the first place.
You've done your homework.