Sketching to relax, and sketching in my personal time

This would otherwise not be a big achievement, for regular people. All I did was did a sketch. One sketch of my living room, as I sat down. A couple of hours. That's it.

But it's a big deal because traditional sketching hasn't been my forte, that wasn't something that was interesting for me and definitely not my strengths. It was one of the more-feared artistic or technical skills of mine. But I have taken the opportunity to let lose, unwind, learn. And this time it'll be drawing. Obviously doing just a single sketch outside work hours is no big deal, people out there been doin' hundreds probably, but it's a start. One gatta start somewhere and that was my start. It isn't even complete yet, half-done, I'll catch up with it tomorrow and hopefully do something else. One small step at a time.

The one thing sketching is teaching me is: Rome was not built in a day. Artists work on their pieces over and over and over again until they perfect it, their creation is not one of my blog posts here where it's write once, never read again. They go back, adjust a line there, a shade there, and so forth until it comes to their satisfaction. It's a complicated process that one needs to be okay investing time in.

Second, one must be patient while doing art. While writing and running off like I do with this blog may be an acceptable strategy in the task of creating words, the same cannot be said of art like pencil drawings. No, one must sit down, observe their environment, and patiently, one stroke at a time, one line carefully drawn and perfected, complete the scene. GO back in, adjust the lines and shades, erase the old ones, and evaluate it once more. Over and over, until it gets perfect. One needs lots of patience.

Third, the task of learning a new craft is painful and frustrating one, but one can improve and master certain techniques if one keeps at it. Art is a lifelong love and passion, and the longer one keeps at it, the one better gets. To say 'I am no good at it', without ever trying, or putting any effort to understanding it is quite silly.

Fourth, there's always the importance of a good teacher who's there to provide feedback and review of one's work so one can improve.