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That Thing....

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That Thing....

Go ahead...free yourself up to do this thing. It's going to give you some insight into "THAT THING".

That thing that you couldn't seem to get a good handle on until now. That thing that brought you most of your creative strife because you couldn't seem to overcome it...until you did this thing, or that other thing...hell, anything that wasn't THAT THING.

For me, this thing is my pen sketches - I had someone ask what I'm doing with them....told him "Nuffin'. They are just a means to honor my vow to myself (to create every day) even when I'm not particularly inspired to work on bigger projects. Now, my THAT THING has always been my "heavy handedness"....I will bear down and go to work THINKING that I've captured a likeness, only to draw in areas so dark, and press so hard that once I realize I am wrong - I didn't capture the subject's likeness like I thought - now I've done too much "dark damage" to repair. I usually have to scrap the drawing and start all over again. My fatal flaw - my thing...THAT thing.

This thing has been working with pen and becoming more than a little comfortable with this UNFORGIVING MEDIUM. Drawing with pen taught me two things 1) To tread more lightly than I ever imagined I could, and 2) Learn to make something out of those mistakes - 'cause blotters gon' blot *leans widdit*. What I mean is that, pen ink will suddenly pool and clump, and you will have to find a way to navigate around those "oops" moments. But there is nothing that will save you if you go hard with pen on every line like you're Kanye (a.k.a. The most overly confident mofo on this planet). Sketching with pen forces me to lay down strokes lightly (go ahead, I'll wait...you pervs) and then build layer upon layer, growing into the detail I desire. Remember, this has always been a battle for me, HOLDING BACK...it was "THAT THING".

Just sketched out a likeness drawing in pencil, for the first time in a few weeks now actually. It was like THAT THING was never a thing at all....this thing (me rocking with pen) had trained me in the art of "easing up"! Now I'm going about the process of slowly building, and building lightly so that if I step away, come back, and realized something is off - I will be able to erase and correct. I couldn't do that before, because THAT THING always got in the way. Sometimes you have to do the thing, the "this thing", that may appear like a waste of time to others simply because that's what you feel like doing. Then, like me, you'll realize down the road 'THIS THING" has impacted you beautifully in another area - an area where you may not have even recognized the parallels....making you better at THAT THING, that thing...that thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing.

Lauryn knew. ;)

DISCLAIMER: My blog writings are bursts of inspiration, it's important for me to get the thoughts down while they are running around in my mind. Please forgive typos and grammatical errors (not the obvious slang, which I fuxwit HEAVILY) and rest assured that I'll be back to "clean up".