I have been very busy lately. That isn't an apology, I prefer being busy (but you knew that anyway). I can tell when I am busy, I get little chance or motivation to draw. I do sometimes feel guilt that I am not keeping up the drawing regime that I could sustain so consistently over the summer. I have been keeping up with my favourite comics and sequential artists; in many ways I feel like this is just as important as drawing, but I know I am kidding myself.
I try not to punish myself for becoming a lazy artist, but recently I have really been trying to draw and not getting anywhere. This is due to circumstance as I am terribly punctual but leave little time either side of classes and cheer and the gym to drop some sketches into my pad. I drew on the train today, it isn't such a long journey but I can fill about twenty minutes with some sketches. Warm-up sketches really, and then I have no time to continue on to a piece which I could really be proud of. I am proud of the sketches I do, but they are hardly portfolio ready.
I recently had the epiphany that, even if I can't get the old sketchbook out as often as I'd like to, I can still practice on the tablet (which is the method I am using to produce
Steven). It is rather difficult, but perhaps I am looking too closely at the artists I admire. I need to consider that artists such as
Tyson Hesse (
Boxer Hockey),
Kelly Turnbull (
Manly Guys...),
Tracy Butler (
Lackadaisy),
Der-Shing Helmer (
The Meek)
Emmy Cicierega and more recently
Faith Erin Hicks (
Friends With Boys) have much more experience than I and work in many different formats. I've been reading quite a few art based 'how to do it' articles which suggest that if you don't feel like drawing every single day then you should simply give up any pretence of being an artist. This is obviously an extreme opinion, but I can't help but think that it is hitting home at times when my life seems to be going well without drawing everyday, when drawing every single day becomes a chore.
Perhaps I am being a little pessimistic. In the past week I have been drawing in my pad and on the computer, and I haven't hated it. I have enjoyed it every time and taken something from each sketch. I may not be organising my day around drawing and sketching, but I am certainly enjoying the opportunities I get to draw more. I particularly enjoy when my time to draw and sketch is integrated in the downtime of my everyday life, for example when I am on a fairly empty train heading home, or I have a spare half-hour between classes.
But the goosebumps, I still get them when I see some great art in the making. It is the reason I do what I do, I am working towards... well , this:
