Being an amateur
I'm not sure where I heard or read it, but it's about when we get to a certain level of expertise, we tend to stick to what we are good at. And we might be afraid to try new things because we don't want to look like an amateur again. Perhaps we want to maintain that expert image.
After years sketching small and drawing in a certain way, I feel like I have little problem making things look good in that small comics-like format. I'm pretty confident in that area. But like I've been saying on this blog, sketching big is something I've not done very often and it's an area I feel I've still got room to improve in. With so much more room to fill, I've to remember to compose it like I compose a smaller drawing. There is more space to fill in the details but I've to remember to simplify or I will get lost in the small details and forget about defining those bigger shapes that hold everything together. It's easy to get lost in small details when drawing bigger.
Gouache and colour pencils. Was rather unsure of the process to nail this image.
Watercolours and colour pencils. At a food centre. A little muddy.
Watercolours and colour pencils. Outside a Temple. I could have shown a clearer subject in this picture.
Anyways, the above are some bigger sketches (a little bigger than A4) I've been doing on location. I didn't do thumbnails for these. (I was skipping that though it does help). There are things I like about them. But they aren't great. I could point out things that can work better. I was fumbling around while working on these. But I'm putting aside my wanting people to see me as "a great artist" and just be a amateur and keep learning. I think that's a great place to be.
I think I picked thoughts like that from this book I borrowed from my wife. I don't read many of these books. But I liked this one. Here is two of the quotes:
“Perhaps we'll never know how far the path can go, how much a human being can truly achieve, until we realize that the ultimate reward is not a gold medal but the path itself.”
“To be a learner, you've got to be willing to be a fool.”
Comments