Mael.strom
November 27th, 2008, 05:29 PM
Hi, my name is Matt, I am eighteen and hail from Canada. I used to draw a lot. I would start by seeing what was flying around in my head and go from there, bringing imaginary worlds and creatures to life. Words came after and I soon would be creating illustrating books I would write.
Slowly, gradually this creative vivacity diminished. Once drawing every day, it became every few days. Then it became maybe two little projects a week, then one a month. Then barely anything.
When I was very young I remember saying to myself that my mind was a better artist that I was. My approach to art became that I had to not only match what my mind imagined, but out-do it. Over time as I would battle myself - never really winning, often quitting from frustration - I pretty much became to scared to draw anything.
I really noticed this problem when I realized that I would never bring pencil to paper unless I had an audience. If it was a graphic design commission, I could do that. If it was to be given as a gift, I could do that. Sure, I was being creative, but I was being creative for someone else.
So. What I'm doing here is to start back to basics. Draw not for the sake of some big project to be perfect, but for myself. I'm not really sure what the exact process will be like, but I'm not really worrying too much about that. I want to focus on the present instead of ten years into the future. A lot of it is going to be crap and some part of me is going to feel really bad about wasting server space, but it's crap that improves future crap, so I'm okay with that. I'm looking to improve and refine the way I do things.
Thanks for looking, feel free to comment or maybe come back a while later to see where this is all going. Until then.
Slowly, gradually this creative vivacity diminished. Once drawing every day, it became every few days. Then it became maybe two little projects a week, then one a month. Then barely anything.
When I was very young I remember saying to myself that my mind was a better artist that I was. My approach to art became that I had to not only match what my mind imagined, but out-do it. Over time as I would battle myself - never really winning, often quitting from frustration - I pretty much became to scared to draw anything.
I really noticed this problem when I realized that I would never bring pencil to paper unless I had an audience. If it was a graphic design commission, I could do that. If it was to be given as a gift, I could do that. Sure, I was being creative, but I was being creative for someone else.
So. What I'm doing here is to start back to basics. Draw not for the sake of some big project to be perfect, but for myself. I'm not really sure what the exact process will be like, but I'm not really worrying too much about that. I want to focus on the present instead of ten years into the future. A lot of it is going to be crap and some part of me is going to feel really bad about wasting server space, but it's crap that improves future crap, so I'm okay with that. I'm looking to improve and refine the way I do things.
Thanks for looking, feel free to comment or maybe come back a while later to see where this is all going. Until then.