How To Screw Up A Drawing

The easiest and most certain way to screw up a drawing, or painting or sculpture is to never create it at all.

What happens when we let our doubts and insecurities take over? Art cannot live or thrive.

What if I never created it to begin with or if we throw it away or crumple it up and toss it in the corner?

What prevents you from creating the work you are meant to make?

One of the big things that stopped me cold in my tracks and caused the death of so many sculptures and was a rigid set of rules and expectations. I had some ideas about art that were really intense.

What is your rule for art?

What does art have to be or do for you to consider it artwork? <!--more-->

I believed that in order for something to be considered art, it had to be created by the highest-level craftsman at the highest state of joy.

If that was my rule for art it was also very likely the standard I set for myself as an artist. That’s a pretty high bar. How often do you think I realize that state of pure joy with a business to run and a crazy fun family to love? Never. I had impossible expectations and was constantly disappointed in myself.

When was I creating artwork? Never.

I could never live up to my own expectations.

Consider what your own rules are so that you can change them.

What about my idea that art had to be created by the highest-level craftsman? Was that serving me? Was that allowing me to make great art? Absolutely not.

Skill is just a trap. I believe you have to have skill. It’s important to learn anatomy and how to draw and perspective and to become skilled manipulating your medium. Learning and growing is important to artists. But it can also be very tempting to spend all of your time and energy accumulating skills. We need to be in the arena making art.

My rules about art were so strict that for a period of time, I lost the ability to create. I was stuck and couldn’t go any further. I had to learn to let myself connect with the work.

When we connect we start to develop a bond between the artist and the work. This is how we get through the struggles. In order to connect, I need to develop a fascination. I need my art to have something to say.

Once I have developed this love, even when things become difficult, I can work because I have the tools and strategies to take the next steps. It’s essential to find that trigger that connects us with our art.

How do you screw up a drawing?

You lose interest.

You become indifferent.

The opposite of love is indifference.

Once you have lost that interest and its no longer compelling to you, you’re not going to complete it.

Question your definition of art and of artists and allow yourself to connect deeply enough with your art to see it through. Nurture your relationship to your work and allow it to grow and thrive and become more than you imagined it could