Drawing with Alacrity

Over the weekend I attended ValleyCon in Fargo, North Dakota and fully expected to just sit but ended up being so busy I ran out of supplies. This would not have been possible without the effort I had taken in drawing with my students because speed is what made this work.

For almost the entirety of my artistic career I have perseverated over my art and as a result was slow. But when I began teaching I felt it necessary to be able to draw when I was working with my students and held myself to that expectation. Yes I did it poorly at first, but when I saw my students see what I was thinking and reciprocating it in their own art I found a new confidence.

So I began practicing for the con, looking for good enough for now. This is a difficult place to find but is essential for ones journey. All art in the end can be improved but it has to get out there to be as it is intended. Yes there is anxiety, especially when money and time on the line, but it only wins if you don’t try and to have faith that you can handle what’s infront of you. To let things flow.

I find it interesting I worked as I did in high school - with one major difference.

The best decision I made for this experience was using a Bic pen for the sketch. Yes it made these works messier, although I do like this aspect personally, thus less professional but it forced me to commit and problem solve and the work got done. Its nature truly reflects the greatest lesson of Bob Ross, that art comes from problem solving and the joy of its resolution. Ones relationship with their art is inherently different than its observer, because they only see its completion and you know its frustrations. But if the results give joy that is good enough and I take care to remember this.

All these works were completed in fifteen minutes or under an hour, which I would have scoffed at a couple months ago, and I am quite proud of them. Do I see them as finalized works not yet, but as I write this I am coming around to this nature. But the people they were for loved them and that is beautiful and the greatest thing I could hope for.