Yes, that’s right. There are no mistakes in art.
If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.
― Pablo Picasso
I know I can’t see your drawing; the one in the back of your sketchbook. You think it doesn’t look like green beans; the green beans are in the pot cooking now. Your sketch is hidden. You didn’t put it on your fridge. Your brain keeps reminding you of your friends drawing, of the negative remarks from your art teacher. Your drawing feels like a mistake, and you feel like a mistake.
“I can’t even make a green bean look like a green bean. I’m not good at drawing, so I might as well quit.”
You are not your art. A green bean is only a green bean. [ Would you like to tweet that? tweet tweet.]
You put all of your art supplies in a cardboard box to take to the local thrift store, and you put your sketchbook in recycling. “All the pages are good for is kindling.”
Please take your supplies out of the box and your sketchbook out of recycling. Go and buy more green beans and draw them again, and again, and again.
Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.
― Edgar Degas
I see your green beans on the table now. The ones you are drawing again. What do you see when you look at them? Show me what you see.
Study the green beans, look at their shape. Where is the shadow? Where is the main light source? Use your erasure to create the lighter parts, the highlights, use your fingers to blend.
Keep drawing until it looks like what you see in your mind, and put it on the fridge. Your drawing is not a mistake. You are not a mistake. Create your own art. Use your eyes, not my eyes.
Find yourself in your art. You decide who you are , not me. [ Would you like to tweet that? tweet tweet ]
An artist’s only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else’s.
―J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey
Do you feel your art work is a mistake? Please tell me in the comments.
