I spent time today sketching with a group of artists in Fort Myers. I joined this group back in November to surround myself with like-minded individuals and get myself re-acclimated to drawing on a more regular basis. Today while engaged in one of our sketch sessions I was reminded of a lesson from grade school that I was able to put to use.
I began sketching a hut peaking out from a large cluster of saw palmetto plants. I did not realize how ambitious of a task it was to get this all on paper with in 2 hours. By this time it was a bit too late, I was 1/3 into the sketch and had yet barely made headway with the daunting foliage. I considered making a few quick scribbles and moving somewhere else. Mid-swiggle I thought back to a statement made by a teacher, “Every confident artist should draw lines that are strong and committed to the page. Your lines should not be wispy and choppy. You need to learn to trust what you and putting down and make every line and stroke count.”
With this sudden artistic conviction I stayed put, and made note to draw each tediously burst of leaves compassing the hut. I did not haphazardly throw lines to the page in hopes they would look like some sort of vegetation. As I sat back to look at the final product of my two-hour session I can say the lines laid to that page were committed to it confidently.
That being said this lesson can honestly but put to use by any creative. Commit to the lines that you draw. Commit to the limits you set for your timelines. Commit to the goals you set for your growth. Commit to anything you put your name on. Confidence in the work you do will always be evidence if you do things with proper intention and discipline instead of aiming to simply get the task “done”. There needs to be purpose behind the practice. This goes for all creatives alike, and can be utilized for young professionals across the board.
You can check out the final sketch here: