Try, Try Again
Surprisingly, especially to me, I have been quite consistent with TWO sketchbook challenges this month. I have only had to play catch-up a couple of times. I made up my mind before I started to keep all of my sketches simple, and that has helped. I know I can sit down and knock out a couple of sketches in no more than a half hour, although I have spent a little more time on some of them.
These regular creative sessions are having the desired effect—my brain and mood are pulling out of a slump they have been in. For one of the challenges I have been trying out all of the various art supplies I have collected— paints, markers, pencils, pens, various inks, papers, and some willow sticks burnt into charcoal. This has been especially fun and uplifting. Playing with all of the colors and textures has been brightening up the gloomy days and long nights.
I have been, once again, thinking about why this art practice is so good for a person’s brain. I think part of it is that you really have to get analytical in order to draw a three dimensional shape or scene onto a two dimensional piece of paper. One of the prompts the other day was to draw a box. I first thought I would draw the single-point perspective lines and draw a simple box. Then I realized my page was really too small to get carried away with perspective lines. So I chose a cube-shaped tin that had rounded corners and lettering on the lid. I think I did a fairly good job, but it took lots of thinking and sketching and erasing to get it to look even close to right. It took tons of analysis to get everything on their correct planes. I just looked at it again, and I still think something looks a little off. That was one I took a little more time with, by the way.
If we wanted to be more physically fit, we would have to challenge our muscles, right? We could challenge our respiratory and circulatory systems with aerobic exercise, or we could challenge our muscles with strength training. In order to become more mentally and intellectually fit, it logically follows that we have to challenge our minds. Just like it can be really, really hard to make up our minds to get up out of a comfortable chair and go for a walk, it can be really hard to get started learning something new. I have someone in my life who greets everything I tell them I am going to do with “isn’t that hard?” Yes, some things are really, really hard, but is that a reason to not even try? The feeling of accomplishment from overcoming challenges is addictive, even if it is a small accomplishment like sticking to a commitment to draw something every day for a month, or finally learning how to draw your coffee cup so that it looks right…I still have not surmounted that one, but I keep trying. Perhaps I should spend the entirety of February on daily coffee cup sketches!